Transcript It is necessary to stimulate and sustain ecological conversion.

Ecological Conversion
It is necessary to stimulate
and sustain
ecological conversion.
(Pope John Paul II, Jan 2001)
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developmental
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Earth of the last fifty years.
binge
by Paul Collins)
(God’s Earth by Paul Collins)
Can modern humans
sacrifice
some of their
ephemeral pleasures
for the well-being
of the Earth?
The Universe Story
Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry
Ecological Conversion
means applying
“the liberation of the oppressed”
to nature.
Sallie McFague, Super, Natural Christians
The natural world
is vulnerable,
needy, sick and
deteriorating.
The Gospel of inclusive love
must be extended to nature
and not stop
at our own species.
We must do this because
commitment to the God of Jesus Christ
demands it
NOT because we will not survive
if we do not care for nature.
We must move towards the One
who is concerned
with the entire creation.
Ecological Conversion
must be grounded in social ecology
in the ways that human social and economic
systems interact with the natural ecosystem.
Leonardo Boff
Ecological Conversion
means
re-orienting our thinking
in a way that results in
our thinking ‘outward’,
our eyes and our mind open
so that our response is of compassion,
not judgement
towards the Earth.
We need to address
the underlying causes
not just the alleviation
of what are the obvious results
of Global Warming.
There is a great need for us
to heed the call
to turn back to nature
and to the whole of creation.
Fr Bill Stoeger SJ
In our everyday living
we’re getting further from nature.
Our clothing, our homes insulate us from nature
so we are not in tune with her pain.
Gerard Manly Hopkins, in his poem God’s Grandeur,
bewailed how far people, even in his time, had
removed themselves from nature by their lifestyle.
He wrote in 1877,
“the soil is bare now,
nor can foot feel, being shod.”
Within our homes, we isolate
ourselves even more from
nature by the cleaners and
fragrances we use, to get rid
of any natural smells.
All life on earth is
inter-related.
Everything is deeply
interconnected.
There are many
different kinds
of inter-relatedness.
Cosmonauts have been overwhelmed
by the fragility of earth
seen from space.
God’s priorities in the Universe
• Creator - to enable, to empower, to call
into being, into life, NOT to control
• God is transcendent and imaginative
• God freely creates and gives autonomy,
integrity and freedom
• Relationality, love and communion
(these require freedom)
Climate Change is the most important issue
facing our community in the 21st century.
Fr Dennis Edwards
How does our prayer
reflect our commitment
to Earth,
to the whole of creation?
From Western Tradition
Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955)
The Mass on the World
(embraced in recent times by Pope John Paul II
and Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger)
He begins by saying that since he has neither
bread, nor wine, nor altar, he will lift himself to
the ‘majesty of the real’ and ‘make the whole
Earth’ his altar. On this altar he will ‘offer all the
labours and all the sufferings of creation’.
From Eastern Tradition
John Zizioulas (1931- )
Metropolitan of Pergamon
Zizioulas understands human beings to be
called by God to be ‘priests of creation’.
He distinguishes this priestly task that he finds
in the early church from the medieval and
particularly the Roman Catholic notion of the
sacrificial priesthood.
When humans come to eucharist, they offer to
God the fruits of creation.
Jewish prayer and early Christian prayer
begin with a blessing of creation,
the lifting up of creation in the whole of life.
We need to develop
an ethos,
an attitude,
a culture
where our daily prayer begins
with a blessing of creation,
a lifting up of creation,
thanksgiving for all creation.
Anamnesis – memorial prayer
The concept anamnesis
is central to Eucharistic theology.
Best meaning – living memory.
Every Eucharist
is a thanksgiving memorial
for God at work in creation
as well as in redemption.
Eucharist is the living memory
of all God’s creation
When we gather
for Eucharist,
we need to do so in spirit
with the people of
Kiribati
Tuvalu
Bangladesh
………..
Bringing climate change
into the heart of our Christian faith
Sean McDonagh
We have de-sacralised the Earth.
We’ve cut the earth out of the Earth.
We’ve got to think about where we live,
how this is reflected in our prayer each day.
‘Generalised prayer doesn’t work.’
Our prayer must spring from our own culture
and relate to it.
EUCHARIST
The living memory of all God’s creatures
We remember them
and give thanks for them.
EUCHARIST
The living memory
of creation and redemption
We bring to Eucharist
the memory of destroyed species.
EUCHARIST
The risen Christ at work in all creation
transforming Creation
the Cosmic Christ
EUCHARIST
Participation with all Creation
in the communion of the Trinity
Eucharist educates
the imagination, the mind and the heart
to apprehend the universe
as one of communion and connectedness
in Christ.
EUCHARIST
Solidarity
with the victims of climate change
can lead to change in lifestyle
and political action for political change.
To contribute to climate change
is to sin against the weak
and against creation.
Acknowledgements
Ideas for this presentation come from notes taken at the Catholic
Earthcare Conference held in Canberra, Australia, 18-20 November
2005.
The speakers whose talks are ‘quoted’ in the section, “Ecological
Conversion” are:
Fr Bill Stoeger sj, cosmologist and astrophysicist from the Vatican
Observatory and University of Arizona
Fr Sean McDonagh ssc, Christian Ecologist, lecturer, author of many
books in the area of religion and the environment, missionary priest
with the Columban Fathers
Fr Denis Edwards MA, Fordham, lecturer Flinders University,
Adelaide College of divinity, author
Slides 4-8: Sallie McFague, Super, Natural Christians: How We
Should Love Nature, Fortress Press, ISBN D–8006–3076-9