ROAR (Religious Organizations Along the River) is a network of religious congregations and organizations with property in New York State's Hudson Valley. The mission of ROAR, which was established in 1996, is to be mutually supportive, to educate, to motivate and advocate, to learn together and to address the interrelated issues of poverty, justice and ecology in the Hudson Valley bio-region.
ROAR members have developed a land ethic, which was endorsed by Region 11 of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) in April 2002.
ROAR Land Ethic
We believe that Earth is the primary revelation of God and the sustainer of all life.
We believe that Earth's beauty sustains and refreshes the human spirit, calling for our unending gratefulness.
We believe the human and natural world is one single sacred community. Prophetic witness today must embrace that relationship along with advocacy with the disenfranchised (human and non-human) and corporate responsibility.
We believe that we are to be co-creators with the God of Life. Responsibility for the common good dictates the need to do careful research on any land use decision made individually or in community to reflect our deep reverence and strong commitment to a right relationship with the Earth Community.
ROW (Religious on Water) is an organization of religious congregations concerned with environmental issues specifically related to oceans, coastlines, rivers, lakes, wetlands and watersheds. ROW was founded in 1999 as an offshoot of ROAR. ROW's goals include to collectively reflect on the sacred dimensions of water, as well as on issues related to properties owned by congregations along the New Jersey Coast. Another goal is to seek concrete ways to collaborate with others to protect these waters. ROW's members presently collaborate with members of Clean Ocean Action to protect waters along the New York and New Jersey coasts from further pollution and degradation and to declare these waters as a clean ocean zone. For further information about Clean Ocean Zone see www.clean ocean zone.org.
