Blogs

Catholics will journey together during Laudato Si’ Week May 22 - 29

Catholics around the world will listen and respond together to the cry of creation during Laudato Si’ Week, marking the 7th anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical on care for our common home. The 2022 theme is Listening and Journeying Together.

Soil of God, You and I

It’s harvest time in Toronto after a long and beautiful growing season. At Eglinton St. George’s United Church, we’re reminded of all the growth that has taken place in our community garden with each tomato that we pick and each leaf of lettuce that we pluck.

Vatican and Ecumenical Faith leaders support the Season of Creation

This year for the first time, the Vatican called on Church leaders to participate in the Season of Creation. They included an invitation to communities highlighting the Season of Creation, the Synod on the Amazon and resources available to implement Laudato Si’ and help “protect every creature in God’s beautifully complex web of creation”.

Christian faith leaders have signed a letter in support of the Season of Creation, calling for prayer and action to protect the web of life. This is an excerpt from the letter:

“Every species, indeed every being of every species, is precious because it is made by God. All reflect an aspect of God. “How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.” (Psalm 104:24)

Photo credit:  USFWS Midwest Region from United States [CC BY 2.0]

This summer, Care for our Common Home focuses on the ecumenical Season of Creation and its 2019 theme of protecting God’s web of life. The Season of Creation runs from September 1^st to October 4^th, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, and invites Christians around the world to pray and care for creation. Resources are suggested to help with planning a Season of Creation event. They can be adapted for other times as well.

Growth in Holy Cross Garden

Light shining down from heaven on the garden at Holy Cross.

As I write this, the Holy Cross Eco Ministry nears its first anniversary, and what a blessed year it has been! Deo gratias!

Our eco team has just arrived back from watering our native pollinator garden and our vegetable gardens. Watering these gardens is often a peaceful task: admiring the growing fauna, greeting passersby, and surveying the bees and caterpillars and butterflies who have found a new happy home.

With climate change growing as a moral issue, faith communities are finding their own sustainability profile as an opportunity to lead. A growing number are taking action with the support of Green Economy Hubs, benefiting from a new partnership between Green Economy Canada and Faith & the Common Good.

In Sudbury, York Region, and five other communities, these faith-based organizations are investing time in measuring their environmental footprint and working to reduce it.

Adopted from a keynote address at the Grand River Interfaith Breakfast held in Kitchener, ON on April 25, 2015

By: Dr. Hind Al-Abadleh
Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Wilfrid Laurier University

I had the honour and privilege to stand before 350+ attendees from the Waterloo Region and deliver the keynote on a topic that I’m passionate about at the Grand River Interfaith Breakfast, just three days after the world celebrated Earth Day. I provide below an edited version of my talk.

I started by acknowledging that “we are on the Haldimand Tract, traditional territory of the Neutral, Anishnaabe, and Haudenosaunee peoples.” The indigenous people of this land have so much to teach us on how to care for it as it was their ancestors who were connected to this land, understood its seasons and rhythms, and welcomed settlers into their ever-expanding circle.

I have structured my brief talk with one goal in mind that I wanted to leave the audience with, which is that humans need to rethink and restore their relationship with and dependency on nature, and that people of all faiths are uniquely qualified to lead in this area.

What if you could share with your community your caring actions for creation and become a leader for sustainability in your neighbourhood? What if you could take simple steps to change your outdoor property maintenance or landscape design so as to reflect your place of worship’s desires for stronger social cohesion, resilient city making, or local ecological protection? What if your congregants could create an outdoor space that would delight all ages and provide much needed habitat for butterflies, birds, and other urban wildlife species?