As the Season of Creation approaches, I ponder my own responsibility and that of my Congregation to respond to the crisis of climate change and environmental degradation, writes Congregational Leader Sister Catherine McCahill.
It takes me less than a minute, but it is long enough. Most days, after Morning Prayer, I walk from the small convent chapel across to my office. As I step out into the morning and breathe deeply, I am consciously immersed in the beauty of God’s creation. The Psalms I have just sung find new expression.
Most days, it is the same – a concrete path, unremarkable cream walls of the adjacent building, the strong brick edifice of the main chapel, garden beds of rosemary, azaleas, magnolia and frangipani, and along the footpath magnificent Port Jackson fig trees. For a moment, my world is suspended, and I am held in the embrace of this small, precious place.
Some days though, when my senses are fully alert, I am delightfully surprised: a new spider’s web, a kookaburra laughing, a first flower of spring, glistening water drops on fresh leaves. I am privileged and I know it. I thank my God for the sheer moment of delight.
This is my backdrop as I prepare to celebrate the Season of Creation, which will begin on 1 September, World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and end on 4 October, the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology.
However, across this planet, the cries of the Earth are not so uplifting. In too many places, the cry is anguish and despair.
Each year, Christian communities across our common home, Earth, unite in celebrating the Season of Creation. As the opening paragraphs of this year’s resource guide so eloquently claim on behalf of that community:
It is a special season where we celebrate God as Creator and acknowledge Creation as the divine continuing act that summons us as collaborators to love and care for the gift of all that is created. As followers of Christ from around the globe, we share a common call to care for Creation. We are co-creatures and part of all that God has made. Our well-being is interwoven with the well-being of the Earth.
This year’s theme is ’To hope and act with Creation’. The Christian community finds its hope in Christ and the words of St Paul to the people of Rome (8:19-25). Paul knows that the whole of creation, including humanity, “groans” as does a labouring woman, as it awaits redemption. He exhorts the community to wait in hope for the fulness of redemption, to wait with patience for that which has been granted by Christ’s redemptive act of dying and rising.
We wait with patience, but we do not wait passively. Christian belief requires action. The Earth is our neighbour, so the call to love of neighbour requires action on behalf of the Earth itself.
The Earth is “groaning.” The year 2023 was the warmest year on record (that is, since 1850). Deforestation and mining leave large swathes of the Earth’s surface denuded, subject to erosion and landslides. The lungs of the Earth are being ripped up and burnt. The people who once lived in these places are being displaced.
In other places, unprecedented flood events and wildfires leave women, men and children dead or homeless, destroy the natural environment, and wreak havoc on the ecological community. While all such events are not related to climate change, substantial evidence indicates a correlation.
Of particular concern for the Good Samaritan Sisters are rising sea levels, which are already impacting low-lying Pacific islands, including Kiribati. High tides wash over people’s homes, wells and graves with devastating consequences. We cannot remain impassive to the human toll.
As the Season of Creation approaches, I ponder my own responsibility and that of my congregation. Several years ago, we pledged a commitment to the Laudato Si’ Action Goals. These goals, derived from the papal encyclical Laudato Si’, focus our attention on the broad range of commitments required if humanity is to respond to the crisis of climate change and environmental degradation.
Image: Laudato Si’ Action Goals.
- Response to the Cry of the Earth
- Response to the Cry of the Poor
- Ecological Economics
- Adoption of Simple Lifestyles
- Ecological Education
- Ecological Spirituality
- Community Engagement and Participatory Action
We encourage each other, during this ’Season’, to revisit the goals, to ask ourselves and each other whether we might re-focus, whether we can do better, individually or corporately.
This year’s international action proposed by the Season of Creation Advisory Committee is engagement with the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. The purpose of the Treaty is collaboration by governments, organisations (including faith communities) and individuals “to accelerate a transition to renewable energy for everyone, end the expansion of coal, oil, and gas, and equitably phase out existing production in keeping with what science shows is needed to address the climate crisis.”
The issues are critical, the requirements could be overwhelming, but inaction is unacceptable for anyone who considers themselves a worthy global citizen, neighbour to all humanity and all creation.
No one can do this alone, and no organisation alone can achieve these goals. During the coming weeks, we can join other Christians and other people of faith, for example, the Faith Ecology Network (FEN). As His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of the Holy Orthodox Church writes, “… we cannot and should not hope to address climate change without working closely with one another. As we have repeatedly stated, ‘we are all in the same boat.’ Creation care is a collective mandate and responsibility.”
To read Pope Francis’ message ‘Hope and Act with Creation’ for World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation in 2024, click here.
