A March for All Things Bright and Beautiful

 
 
    All things bright and beautiful,
    all creatures great and small,
    all things wise and wonderful:
    in love, God made them all.
   
  Each little flower that opens,
    each little bird that sings,
    God made their glowing colours,
    God made their tiny wings

This past Saturday a crowd numbered at 10,000 souls gathered in London, England's famed Hyde Park to begin a march through the streets in support of "all creatures great and small." It was called The People's Walk for Wildlife and it concluded at Whitehall where a manifesto for wildlife was delivered by march leaders to politicians. The manifesto points out the significant decline in more than half of Britain's species over the past 45 years. Birds and insects are disappearing as encroachment on wild spaces increases and the use of pesticides continues. Sadly, Britain is now considered one of the most nature-depleted countries on the planet. 




I wondered if a similar event could happen in Canada? There are 30 million more people in Britain than this country in a much smaller land mass. We take for granted the diversity of species and we have what seems to be plenty of critters, including an over-abundance of mosquitoes. Yet we know that the birds and bees are declining here as well, for similar reasons. For songbird species the loss of habitat in Central America affects their numbers and Monarch butterflies face a similar challenge in Mexico. Many of our larger mammal species are vying for existence with humans in shrinking wilderness areas.


The beloved hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful is British and very much part of the traditional repertoire of the United Church. It celebrates diversity and is likely based on Psalm 104, a wonderful celebration of all the creatures of the Earth, with hardly a mention of human beings.

Perhaps we need to be on the streets in our thousands and tens of thousands to declare the importance of the web of Creation.