Eco-faith community

The Season of Creation is celebrated in many countries, and challenges us to re-orient our relationship with creation. While the challenge may have been provoked by the current ecological crisis and a growing awareness of our place in the web of creation, the origins of our re-orientation lie deep in our Christian tradition, especially our biblical heritage.  We are challenged to return to our biblical roots to rediscover our intimate connections with creation. We return to see ourselves again as part of the very Earth from which we are made.

Very topical with discussions about climate change, environmental issues, fracking, and 'green' solutions to generating power.

Rev Dr Jason John is a Deacon in the Uniting Church in Australia. Eco-ministry is 0.6 of his placement and he is also a minister at Sawtell Uniting Church. The photo shows a combined outdoor service at Gleniffer. Jason's sermon on the day can be found here:http://unitingearthweb.org.au/ - look under worship>season of creation>forests.
I wonder how many other Deacons/Deaconesses around the world are involved in eco-ministry of some form or other?

Jason did his PhD exploring biocentric thought. The abstract begins:
"Anthropocentrism assumes that human beings alone are created in the image of God, charged with dominion over Earth, and responsible for the fallenness of creation, though not necessarily through the actions of a literal Adam and Eve. Earth began to be talked about not as an inanimate resource for human consumption, but something good and valuable in and of itself. Having listened carefully to the story of life as told by ecological and evolutionary scientists, I conclude that the traditional anthropocentric paradigm is no longer tenable.  Instead I propose that all of life is the image of God, in its evolutionary past, ecological present and unknown future.  All of life is in direct relationship with God, and exercises dominion of Earth.  Evidence traditionally used as evidence of the fallenness of creation is instead affirmed as an essential part of life'. Jason's thesis is online at the link above.

LET THE EARTH BREATHE
by Rev Ellie Stock from St. Louis, Missouri
Let the Earth breathe!
Let its heart beat,
    pulsing and firing the fruit of its seed.
Let four winds tease,
    air bright and clean.
    converging and swirling through life’s mystery.

Let waters wreathe.
Let rivers be,
    pristine and free from deep valleys to seas.
Let singing streams
    stir slumbering leagues,
    awakening the dreamer and changing the dream.

    Let mountains rise!
    Let forests thrive—
        primal communities birthed to survive.
    Let kindred be wise,
        not compromise
        their courage and care for greed’s beckoning lies.

Let oceans race!
Let new waves chase
    ancient tides washing ashore cosmic grace.
Let rhythms of peace,
    still conflict’s pace,
    emerging, connecting in trust’s healing place,
bold creatures revealing hope’s eternal face,
beloving, one dwelling, in Earth’s sacred space.

Season of creation

(adapted from a sermon at Pilgrim Church on 8th September)

On Sundays in September we celebrate 'seasons of creation', and we acknowledge the joy and delight we find in nature. Our Spring Festival next week will see our church filled with beautiful flowers and foliage. The garden bed alongside the driveway will be transformed into productive edible plants, and the vegetable garden in the corner will be given a spring clean ready for a new round of plantings. It is right we enjoy these delights.

But there is something deeper too as we recognize that nature and earth itself reveals God to us. As our spirits are lifted by beauty - and rugged awesomeness, we find God revealed to us. Photographer Ken Duncan loves to spend time in unique landscapes, which offer an invitation to pause and reflect on the beauty of our natural world. It was in such a time, on his own surrounded by nature, that he experienced a revelation of God and came to faith.

God is revealed in creation, as God has been revealed in the life of Jesus Christ, as God is revealed in each of us. God is everywhere, an embodied God always able to be revealed, ‘the ground of our being’ (Paul Tillich). “God is Love‟ rightly reveals love as energy which shapes life‟s relationships rightly, in ways that are more harmonious, empowering, joyous and just, reflecting “the divine‟.

Father Thomas Berry said, ‘We have no inner spiritual life if we don’t have the outer experience of a beautiful world.

He went on to say: 'The more we destroy the world the less a sense of God is possible...’.

It’s sobering to consider that a means to experience God may be diminished when the world itself is diminished through carelessness, and pragmatic decisions that sees earth as something to be used and exploited rather than treasured.

This understanding of God transforms our relationship to nature because the earth itself reveals God.

Jason John, who completed his doctorate in the area of eco-theology, says that ‘this understanding rejects human-centred theology which subtly endorses our destructive dominance of nature through human technology, in favour of a view which takes seriously the intrinsic value of all life. Our nobility as a species is contingent on us relating  rightly from a position of responsible dependence within the biosphere. Then, loving our neighbour includes loving nature. Then, unconditional love, grace or life abundant may begin to fill the Earth, for grace is that which is ultimately life-giving, allowing and enabling us to be who we really are’.

Australia has elected a new government (September 7th). As we go forward together, we need to be mindful about the common good, and policies that affect the poor, the dispossessed, the marginalized, the vulnerable.

But the knowledge of God’s self-revelation in creation also affects how we respond to projects and activities that exploit the earth. It changes how we relate to climate change. It changes our priorities about how we invest our money - whether into projects that are life giving or into those that damage the earth and damage communities.

The church can play a significant role in public discussion, decision making and advocacy on these vital issues, informed by a theology that recognizes God may be revealed in and through earth itself.

'In the season of Creation we celebrate Christ together with creation, we face the ecological crisis with Christ, and we serve Christ in the healing of creation' (Norm Habel). 

(Diaconal ministry has an important role to advocate not only for people on the margins, but for the welfare of earth itself, and for communities whose lives are tied so closely to the land).