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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Friday, April 22, 2005

Earth Day event focuses on conservation's spiritual side

 •  Earth Day activities

By Mary Kaye Ritz
Advertiser Religion & Ethics Writer

When Les Sponsel finished his diary of dishwashings, showers and flushings on Tuesday, he found he became even more water-conscious.

It was a good lesson for the University of Hawai'i anthropology professor and co-organizer of today's "Water: Sacred and Profaned" event for Earth Day.

Since Earth Day dawned 35 years ago, the ecologically minded have taken the day to turn their faucets down, trim back on their litter and concentrate on preserving the 'aina. But this year, Sponsel and his wife are leading the charge to illuminate another important area of conservation: its spiritual side.

Water has long served a religious purpose, said Poranee Natadecha-Sponsel, a Chaminade religion professor.

For example:

  • There's a cleansing ritual before many Eastern religious ceremonies.
  • Theravada Buddhist priests ceremonially make holy water for their purification rituals.
  • Roman Catholics bless themselves as they walk into church, dipping their fingers in the holy water font and making the sign of the cross.
  • Many indigenous cultures look for the sacred in the bodies of water themselves, for example, revering the stream as a kind of god.

And just last weekend, the Laotian community came together for its annual Songkran festival, celebrating the Laotian new year by dousing one another in water, and receiving water blessings from their monks.

Outside the religious community, the consciousness is growing, too.

'WATER: SACRED AND PROFANED'

Presentation, video and panel discussion with Brother Jim Facette; the Rev. Lama Karma Rinchen of Kagyu Thegchen Ling, Tibetan monastery; anthropology professor Lynette Cruz; and the Rev. Halbert Weidner of Holy Trinity, a Roman Catholic church, as moderator.

• 7-9 p.m. today

• Ching Conference Center (Eiben Hall, second floor) at Chaminade University

• Free

• 735-4822



EARTH DAY NETWORK

Coordinating worldwide events, with calendar, environmental tips, etc: www.earthday.net

Sponsel explained that "spiritual ecology" is a growing field.

"Water doesn't generate the kind of respect (it should)," he said. "We still have a crisis. ... Maybe religion will turn things around for water."

Many people (about 90 percent, by recent statistics) have some spiritual beliefs, he noted.

"Most people are religious to some degree," Sponsel said. "It can be a powerful motivator.

"Religion can touch emotion as well as reason, and it can motivate people and give them guidelines. There are limits to how much science and government can do."

Regina Woodrom Luna, a Ph.D candidate at UH who is studying maritime and fisheries anthropology, agrees. Water not only has spiritual significance in itself, it ripples through to species that reside there.

"I've been doing surveys around the island, and I've probably talked to 1,500 people at different sites where humans and sea turtles interact," said Luna, who has Sponsel as her adviser. "Everywhere, I hear people say they have a connection between them and water."

That carries over to the focus of her studies. She's found that turtles are a flagship species in this regard, popular among many cultures. She's currently looking at the marine turtle here in Hawai'i to see if its prehistorical spiritual significance has carried down to this day.

The 27-minute documentary "Water: Sacred and Profaned" quotes poets as calling water an "animate object," searching for sea level, alive in its properties. Those who attend the presentation will view the show.

Sponsel knows raising consciousness is what it's all about: "We wouldn't need Earth Day if there wasn't a need," he said.

Reach Mary Kaye Ritz at mritz@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8035.