In this issue of Laudato Si’ Dialogues we share an expansive number of activities, reflections, and faith led advocacy campaigns. There are so many, in fact, that we’ll forego a story in favour of sharing the great news of so much going on!
Last month Karen and I shared five stories about the UN Biodiversity Conference, COP15 in our Thinking Nature Positive series, and we are preparing one more. If you missed them, you can find them on the MLSM Canada Latest News page.
As you read through all the options to engage this newsletter presents, please remember, “Who we are and how we live is determined by a long series of small decisions, not a handful of grand gestures. ... The more we do the godly thing, whatever the cost, the more we look like Jesus, Light of the World.” Miranda Harris, A Place at the Table: Faith, hope and hospitality.
Celebrations
Animators of Animators
The following Laudato Si’ Animators in Canada will take the next step and become Animators of Animators.
Br. Bill Carrothers, cfc Sr. Noreen Allossery-Walsh, osu
They will join Marian Langhus and Agnes Richard as Canadian Animators of Animators who support Laudato Si’ Animator trainees as they work towards their capstone projects, and continue their work in community once they are certified. Thank you for your dedication.
Sponsorship Partners
The Sisters of St. Joseph, Toronto, have continued their financial support.
The Sisters of Providence, Edmonton, have continued their financial support.
The Loretto Sisters and Loretto Ladies’ Colleges and Schools in Toronto have continued their financial support.
Several private donors have sent one time or monthly donations through the Faith & the Common Good Canada Helps page for the MLSM Canada fund.
We are deeply grateful for your continued confidence in our work. Thank you!
Events and Training
1. The next English Laudato Si’ Animators on-line training program begins April 19, 2023.
- Join the live interactive webinars on 5 consecutive Wednesdays
- Hear important speakers, learn from our global neighbors, and share prayer and reflection with others around the world
- Be part of small group discussions
- Receive a certificate recognizing the action you take to care for nature!
Invite friends and colleagues to join us. This work is much more rewarding when we can collaborate with friends. Click here to register
and cliques ici pour vous inscrire for the next session.
2. Animator of Animators 2022 saw an exceptional number of individuals from Canada undertake the Laudato Si’ Animator training with the international secretariat. With continued growth in numbers expected the assistance of more Canadian Animators of Animators would be a great help!
The Animator of Animators Program is an innovative leadership development program offered by the Laudato Si’ Movement to those who have completed the LSM Laudato Si’ Animators course. At the end of the program, the participants will become “leader of leaders,” accompanying a group of Laudato Si’ Animators to take collaborative action for creation.
The program blends online learning, coaching and hands-on leadership activities and will equip participants with skills to lead a group of animators.
Training begins March 15, 2023. Anyone interested should email Anna Johnson, North American program coordinator, at [email protected] with the subject line: Animator of Animators Application, by Friday, March 10th.
3. Second Annual Laudato Si’ Retreat: CARE for OUR COMMON HOME
You are invited to register and participate in a Care of Our Common Home Retreat at Jericho House, Wainfleet, Ontario in partnership with MLSM Canada, June 2-4, 2023.
The retreat’s context is “Response to the Cry of the Poor” and offers a time for kindred spirits from multiple faith and non-faith traditions to explore how to befriend the ecological crises and its challenges. The retreat is open to residential, and commuter participation, and includes opportunities for: 
- small and large group discussions
- contemplative practice
- personal and group reflection
- action and advocacy networking
- community building
The grace of this retreat is drawn from the knowledge and expertise of the participants; Laudato Si’ Animators, municipal environmental planners, educators, faith inspired environmentalists, participants at United Nations conferences COP 27 and COP15. Please join us and share this invitation through your networks.
The retreat begins with dinner at 5:30 on Friday, June 2 and ends with lunch on Sunday, June 4. The cost for normal residential participation is $255.00. A Jericho House grant enables the fee to be simply a “free will” offering of your choice and ability.
For further information and to register, please contact either Br. Bill Carrothers, cfc or Sr. Jacquie Keefe, cssf at [email protected]. Please RSVP by May 24, 2023.
4. Preserving Biodiversity - Creation Care from Faith to Action, Citizens for Public Justice and For the Love of Creation invite you to a webinar Mar 23, 2023 3:00 pm Pacific Time, 6:00 pm Eastern. A panel of specialists will engage in a thoughtful conversation on Biodiversity and Creation Care in Canada. Our panelists, Mark Hathaway, Randolph Haluza-DeLay, Tony Snow, Monica Tang and Agnes Richard, will talk about our planetary boundaries, the latest updates from COP15, and Indigenous perspectives on biodiversity. Our gathering will conclude with a theological reflection on creation care.
To register visit: cpj link 1
5. The book Generation Laudato Si’: Catholic Youth on Living Out an Ecological Spirituality will be released in April by Novalis.
Written entirely by youth (aged 17 to 35) from 20 countries, this book comprises the thoughts, wisdom, dreams and aspirations of a generation that wants to change how we run the economy, foster community, lead and govern, facilitate education, use and apply technology, and live among the rest of creation. But it is more than just a book; through multimedia including a website, Instagram, Twitter and videos, it is a call to a global conversation to foster ecological conversion.
Your pre-order can be placed here.
6. Lent, World Water Day and Earth Day Eco-Spirituality Encounters
Salal + Cedar is a community of support and action to help Christians live out vocations for environmental justice. Rooted in place, tradition and history, Salal + Cedar is a ministry of the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster.
Through outdoor worship, they seek transformative encounters with the species and geography of the Fraser River to Salish Sea basin, and the wider Cascadia bioregion. They explore wilderness, sustainability, and justice themes in Christian scriptures and Anglican social teaching. To find out when and where they are meeting next go to Upcoming Events or reach out via email to [email protected] .
In Concert with Creation is a weekend of climate justice, faith and arts. This event will feature the leadership of renowned theologian and hymn-writer John Bell and the Very Rev. Stan McKay, a leader in indigenous justice and decolonization advocate. The interweaving of faith, justice and arts culminates with the MASS FOR THE ENDANGERED by Sarah Kirkland Snider, a Mass with a 21st century twist on the Catholic mass which has been sung in churches for more than 1300 years. It is a prayer for the animals of our planet and their environs. The weekend will bring together workshops, learning and worship to broaden our awareness and consciousness of the environment and our spirituality.
Registration is via Eventbrite.
The Laudato Si’ Water Action Group invites you to an evening Zoom conversation on World Water Day, March 22.
Water has great significance in many religions and spiritualities. Six speakers will help us appreciate what water means within Indigenous spirituality, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism, and an open discussion will follow. March 22, 2023. 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. (Eastern). Click here to register.
Join A Rocha Manitoba’s Lament for Lost Creeks: A Lenten Journey. Each week of Lent walk with others, pray, and if you’re able, pick up some garbage. More information and to RSVP click here.
CSJ Blue Community World Water Day welcome
Join us, March 27, 2 - 3:30pm Eastern, in celebrating the sacred gift of water. Learn from our two guest speakers working at the local and global levels:
Emma Fern - Leading her high school to become a Blue Community and
Sr. Barbara Bozak, CSJ -Representing the Congregations of St. Joseph at the United Nations.
Deepen your understanding of the Laudato Si’ Action Platform. This Lent, the Ignatian Solidarity Network invites you to explore the seven goals of the Laudato Si’ Action Platform (LSAP), the Vatican framework inviting the global church to journey towards total sustainability during the next seven years.
7. Petitions and Campaigns
Laudato Si’ Movement Divestment letters to Bishops/Institutions/Parishes.
The Laudato Si’ Movement invites us during Lent to send letters to our Bishops, local Catholic institutions and parish finance committees asking them to divest from fossil fuels. “Most Catholic institutions in the global North hold investments, money in the forms of financial assets. Catholic investors should take care not to invest in harmful industries. Laudato Si’ calls all Catholics to help our societies replace without delay the technology based on fossil fuels (LS165), and so the Vatican calls Catholic investors not to support the fossil fuel industry, as it refuses to take climate change seriously and to stop its development plans.” North American LSM program Coordinator, Anna Johnson, has prepared an action kit, sample letters in multiple languages, and invites us to share what we plan to do! This aligns perfectly with the 2023 Earth Day theme, Invest in Our Planet.
Citizens for Public Justice and For the Love of Creation joint campaign Give it up for the Earth! (G4E) is a national faith-in-action campaign that raises awareness about climate change and mobilizes people across Canada to reduce personal and household greenhouse gas emissions, engage in acts of solidarity, and collect signatures as a demonstration of support for increased federal government action. Give it up for the Earth! runs from February 22 to April 6, 2023. Please add your voice to the campaign by signing the open letter to Minister Steven Guilbeault, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Minister Johnathan Wilkinson, Natural Resources Canada, and your own federal member of parliament.
The Fossil Fuels Non-Proliferation Treaty campaign has prepared resources specifically for faith communities. The participation of people of faith is considered vital to the success of this international initiative. The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty continues to expand and invite personal and organizational participation. Faith & the Common Good and MLSM Canada are signatory organizations. Please consider the following actions:
- Endorse the treaty (individual or organizational signatures accepted): https://act.fossilfueltreaty.org/endorse
- Sign the Faith Letter endorsing the treaty (individual and congregational signatures are accepted)https://fossilfueltreaty.org/faith-letter
Nature Canada has a letter writing campaign, Nature on the Hill. Canada promised to help halt and reverse global biodiversity loss by 2030 at COP15 in Montréal. As global biodiversity is collapsing, resulting in the greatest mass extinction since the dinosaurs, species populations have plummeted by nearly 70% in the last 50 years. Canadian wildlife needs our voices like never before.
You can send a letter to the Prime Minister asking for an Action Plan that will:
- Protects 30 percent of land and water by 2030
- Establishes more Marine Protected Areas
- Supports Indigenous-led conservation
- Fights climate change by planting trees and protecting carbon-rich ecosystems
Thank you all for everything you do to bring Laudato Si’ to life!
Coordinator
MOUVEMENT LAUDATO SI' MOVEMENT Canada
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