Green Friday?

Demonstration in Johannesburg, South Africa

Yesterday was Black Friday in the United States and in many other countries around the world which are following suit in offering supposed retail bargains. Our Canadian Thanksgiving is at the beginning of October rather than the end of November but no matter, the ads were omnipresent. Certainly the American day of gratitude with religious overtones has been overshadowed with the "buy, buy, buy" message of consumerism. 



There are places which are pushing back for different reasons including environmental concerns. Apparently some lawmakers in France are attempting to have Black Friday banned. Some retailers are choosing a "Green Friday" approach, even shutting down for the day. The outdoor company REI has closed down retail outlets and internet ordering for the past five years. This year it encouraged an Opt to Act initiative, which encourages customers to participate in organized cleanups or create their own.

There were reminders yesterday that for many low-income and racialized people Black Friday is a godsend, so to speak. Fair enough. For the planet it may be godawful. 

Perhaps Christians and other people of faith and goodwill could focus on simplicity and "enough really is enough" for our lives. Neither a good bargain nor an impulse purchase will ultimately satisfy our spiritual hunger. 

Pope Francis and Our Mother Earth

There is a new Vatican publication which appears to only be available in Italian at the moment. It's called Nostra Madre Terra or Our Mother Earth: A Christian Reading of the Environmental Challenge. According to a Crux article

Except for the final chapter, the new book is a compilation of passages from [Pope] Francis’s documents, texts, homilies and speeches focusing on the environment. The book was released in Italian Oct. 24 by the Vatican publishing house.

The book underlines that the pope’s appeal to care for creation is an appeal to care about life - for all people, including the unborn, and the creatures, land and resources that human life depends on. In the concluding chapter, Francis deepens the spiritual aspect of ecology and how a Christian vision can and must help the world “turn course” before it’s too late.

In our current situation, a just and wise attitude, rather than accusations or judgments, is first of all one of awareness,” he wrote. People need to become aware that the world is a gift from God given out of his immense love for humanity, he wrote. Without this understanding of divine gift, one is part of a “chain that trivializes or disfigures the gift of creation.”

I am impressed that Francis continues to uphold Creation Care and environmental justice despite other pressing issues and unjust criticism for taking a pagan stance when it comes to celebrating God's gift of the Earth. 

During a recent address the pontiff mused about adding “ecological sin against the common home” to the catechism. He offered that  “It is a sin against future generations and is manifested in the acts and habits of pollution and destruction of the harmony of the environment.” 

I do think Francis is faithful and biblical and prophetic in addressing how we live God's love for the planet. I hope people will listen to the Green Pope. Now, if the Vatican publications could look less boring!

Beyond the Pinocchios

We were in Toronto yesterday with our two grandsons, who are four and six. We met our younger daughter, Emily, and went to see the Young People's Theatre production of The Adventures of Pinocchio. It was very well done and the boys seemed quite engaged, although the GO Train from Oshawa was probably just as big a hit as the musical. 

Before it began someone from the theatre group came out for the general introduction and to tell us which Indigenous land we were on, a practice which has become de rigeur for earnest, socially conscious groups. I did the same when leading worship in Algonquin Park this summer but I sometimes wonder whether the First Nations would prefer that we settler types would just shut up and give them back their property. 

I was also a bit cynical because on the walk from Union Station to the playhouse there were virtually no signs of traditional lands, few trees, and all the streams from another time were carefully buried. Yet she went on to reflect on the importance of honouring first peoples, of imagining what the city streets were once like as forest, and the ways in which we can all pay attention to the evidence of the natural world around us, even though it can be a challenge to observe it in urban settings. Good for 

There were plenty of grandparent/grandkid combos at the musical, and we are oldsters are the ones who need to make a difference for a generation to come. As our politicians offer up some creative and often blatant Pinocchios about mitigating the climate emergency, and when Creation Care is low on the practical agenda of many Christians we can remind ourselves that our grandchildren are counting on us to act now. They want to be real boys and girls and to have a meaningful future. 

Greening Advent

1 All earth is waiting to see the Promised One,
and open furrows await the seed of God. 
All the world, bound and struggling, seeks true liberty; 
it cries out for justice and searches for the truth.


4 In lowly stable the Promised One appeared.
Yet, feel that presence throughout the earth today, 
for Christ lives in all Christians and is with us now; 
again, on arriving, Christ brings us liberty.

                                              All Earth is Waiting Voices United 5

It's hard to believe that we're just over a week away from the beginning of the Christian New Year and the season of Advent. Liturgically we choose a different rhythm for our year, beginning with the four weeks during which we prepare ourselves for the first coming of God, in the infant, Jesus, as well as anticipating the return of Christ, however we perceive this.

There are songs and symbols for Advent, although even in congregations which acknowledge the church year there are lots of people who are in a rush to get to Christmas. The Christmas tree is far more important than the Jesse tree, which is a sort of sacred genealogical tree inspired by a passage in the book of the prophet Isaiah. I served congregations which compromised between the two trees, adding symbols to both through Advent. 

I see that the Presbyterians for Earth Care in the United States, a fine organization (organism?) have produced an Advent Devotional for this year which is downright arboreal. In the introduction they refer to the work of a forest ecologist at the University of British Columbia, Suzanne Simard. Some snooping reveals that she is involved in what's called the Mother Tree Project. Hey, it's hard to have a genealogical tree without a bunch of moms!

The colour for Advent was once purple, because it was a season akin to Lent. Then it was differentiated by moving to blue. I like the idea of having a green Advent as well, not as a replacement but an augmentation of a season in which "all earth is waiting to see the Promised One."

Here is the link to the devotional:

https://presbyearthcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Advent-2019-layout-10.31.19rev-for-print.pdf

The Forest and Bruce Sweet

Rev. Bruce Sweet. a "green man with a Green Man"

When I work in and around our garage I often turn on the radio and listen to whatever happens to be on the CBC. The other day it was the program Tapestry and I came in part way through an interview with a retired United Church minister. He gently explained that his ministry had moved outside as a companion and guide to those who find solace and spiritual meaning in the natural world. He spoke about the expansion of the congregation to other living beings, a "family reunion" to use his term.

I discovered that this was the Rev. Bruce Sweet, a kind man who visited my curmudgeonly father in the final stage of his earthly life, and eventually presided at Dad's funeral. Later I found the interview online so I could listen to all of it and found this description and transcript of a portion: 

It was only later when he was reading a copy of the United Church Observer that he saw an article with the title 'Forest Bathing.' "And immediately I thought, now I know the United Church is a very progressive denomination, and very open-minded, and liberal and accepting, but FOREST BATHING? I thought this time, oh, they've just gone too far."

That's when Sweet realized that forest bathing is another term for a Japanese practice called shinrin-yoku, which means to 'take in the forest atmosphere.' It was developed in the 1980s and has been linked to benefits such as reduced stress, improved mood, increased ability to focus, increased energy levels and improved sleep. 

"Look at that, they stole my idea before I had a chance to invent it myself," Sweet jokes. "Not only did I not invent anything, there was training available for this." Sweet took the training with Forest Therapy Guide with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy. He says the book, The Hidden Life of Trees helped reshaped his view of trees. "I no longer say I'm going for a walk in the woods. I now say I am in their presence."

"Nature is celebrated throughout scripture… I like to think that we're rejoicing with nature.  I tell people at times that what I'm really doing is organizing family reunions. We're reconnecting with another part of the family of earth - humans and nature together.

I have written about our positive experience of Forest Bathing and I'm impressed that Bruce has undergone the rigour and expense of becoming certified. I hope our paths cross some time because I know I would enjoy talking about being a "bewildered outsider" after decades of insider ministry. 

Margaret Atwood, Outside

The Earth Forgives

The Earth forgives the Miner’s blast That rends her crust and burns her skin;

The centuries bring Trees again, And water, and the Fish therein.

The Deer at length forgives the Wolf That tears his throat and drinks his blood;

His bones return to soil, and feed The trees that flower and fruit and seed.

And underneath those shady trees

The Wolf will spend her restful days; And then the Wolf in turn will pass,

And turn to grass the Deer will graze. All Creatures know that some must die

That all the rest may take and eat; Sooner of later, all transform

Their blood to wine, their flesh to meat.

But Man alone seeks Vengefulness, And writes his abstract Laws on stone;

For this false Justice he has made, He tortures limb and crushes bone.

Is this the image of a god?

My tooth for yours, your eye for mine? Oh if Revenge did move the stars

Instead of Love, they would not shine. We dangle by a flimsy thread,

Our little lives are grains of sand: The Cosmos is a tiny sphere

Held in the hollow of God’s hand.Give up your anger and your spite,

And imitate the Deer, the Tree; In sweet Forgiveness find your joy,

For it alone can set you free.

I wrote about Margaret Atwood in my Lion Lamb blog as she celebrated her 80th birthday and I figured I should do so here, in my "earthy" Groundling blog as well. In her Maddaddam Trilogy of novels there are sermons and hymns bringing together faith and Earth-care in the dystopian world of God's Gardeners. Those hymns have actually been set to music.



Margaret Atwood and her father 1942

Atwood's father was an entomologist -- an insect guy -- so the family spent a lot of time in the wild, including at their cabin on Lake Temagami in Northern Ontario. When asked to share a story about her late partner, Graeme Gibson, in a CBC interview she spoke about a canoe trip on Temagami in their earlier years during which they stopped at an isolated cabin to ask an elderly couple for some bacon. She figures they acquiesced out of fear of the sketchy looking pair at their door.

Atwood has supported A Rocha, a Christian Creation-Care organization and she and Gibson were board members with the Pelee Island Bird Observatory. 

I hope this remarkable Canadian is able to continue her own exploration of God's good Earth for years to come, and to be an eloquent advocate for the causes she loves. And that she'll continue to bring home the bacon. 


Margaret Atwood and Graeme Gibson as quintessential Bird Nerds

Sallie McFague & Super, Natural Christians

I actually found my copy of Sally McFague's book, Super, Natural Christians: How We Should Love Nature  on a shelf and pulled it out to rummage through it. It was written 20+ years ago and I probably purchased it shortly after publication. Eco-feminist theologian McFague was an American teaching at the Vancouver School of Theology, of which the United Church was a part. McFague had hiked in BC years before and was struck by the tourism motto, Super, Natural, British Columbia. She felt that this is the way the word supernatural should be written. 

As I flipped through the pages I found little tags and plenty of highlighted phrases and passages. McFague was convinced beyond question that we should love nature because the Christian God is embodied:

That is what the incarnation claims, God does not despise physical reality but loves it and has become one with it. The Christian tradition is full of body language: the Word made flesh, the bread and the wine that become the body and blood of Christ, the body of the Church.




While this theological perspective has become more prevalent in recent years I found the book enlightening and affirming as a Christian pastor sorting through my love for the natural world. It simply rang true, even though I didn't agree with everything McFague wrote, or at least I didn't at the time.  

I was saddened to see on the weekend that McFague had died at the age of 85, and intrigued that Vancouver remained her home until the end. Thank you, Sallie McFague, for your super, natural witness. 

Catherine McKenna & Care for our Common Home

I did not vote for the Liberals in the recent Canadian election because I feel that they have failed to live up to promises about the environment and the climate emergency which  every creature on the planet now faces. The confounding choice to buy a pipeline in the West sealed the deal for me and I've been hugely frustrated by attempts to make this purchase and promises of another pipeline sound like it will ultimately work in favour of meeting environmental targets. 

I've watched Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna as the point person for some disingenuous nonsense issuing from this government. Still, I appreciate that she agrees with the science on climate change and has developed some measures to mitigate it. And I don't doubt her sincerity that she wants a livable world for her own children. 

I should add that I'm appalled by the vile, gender-based attacks against McKenna and admire her grace in responding to them. 

A few days ago McKenna  posted a brief Twitter reflection on the papal encyclical called Laudato Si: Care for Our Common Home. As she holds the copy given her at the Vatican  she agrees that it is a moral imperative and a matter of justice that we care for our common home, which is planet Earth. I thank her for doing so, and I ask her and the Canadian government to do better -- much better -- during this second term.  I pray that other parties will press them to do so. Who knows whether McKenna will still be in this portfolio once a new cabinet is announced, but perhaps she deserves a second chance to make a difference. 

Catherine McKenna 

@cathmckenna

I wanted to share #LaudatoSi because it's one of the most meaningful things I've ever received and, whether you're religious or not, I think the lessons within these pages are important. It talks about working together and caring for our common home — because it's our only home.

The Undersea Dawn Chorus

This is God's wondrous world,
and to my listening ears
all nature sings, and round me rings
the music of the spheres.
This is God's wondrous world;
I rest me in the thought
of rocks and trees, of skies and seas,

God's hand the wonders wrought.

The name of a book Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson, is synonymous with raising the alarm about human tampering with the balance of nature. In the early 1960's Carson was first vilified, then lauded for outlining the destructive effects of the pesticide DDT which was killing millions of songbirds. She painted a vivid and ominous picture of a "silent Spring" when there would no longer be a "dawn chorus" of birds to greet the day.

I love that dawn chorus image, the heaven-on-earth choir which I will never take for granted. Sadly, I have no real recollection of how that chorus sounded when I was a child in the 60's, although we're told that the number of birds in North America has diminished by about 3 billion since 1970 due to habitat loss and other factors.

As I listened to one of the producers of the BBC series Blue Planet II the other day I was stunned to discover that there is a dawn chorus in our seas and oceans as well, as fish and other creatures vocalize. Of course I started snooping around and found an article about research off the west coast of Australia which has explored the complexity of fish choruses at dawn and dusk: 

We still barely understand fish choruses, or the mysterious underwater worlds that inspire them. But like the dawn chorus on land, we know this is the soundtrack of a normal, healthy and biodiverse ecosystem, even if it sounds a little strange to terrestrial ears like ours. And given the threats facing reef habitats around the world — from pollution and ship traffic to ocean acidification and warming seawater — these choruses could hold vital clues for conservation of ocean life.

Rachel Carson became famous years before Silent Spring writing about the wonders of the oceans and intertidal life. If her own life hadn't been cut short by cancer she might have written about the threat to the marine choir as well. 

As people of faith it's important to be humble about our limited of knowledge regarding the complexities of Creation and to live with a sense of respectful wonder, appreciating that all nature sings, including both skies and seas.  

A Loss for A Rocha & Creation Care

One of the first books I read about a practical response to environmental issues and Creation Care from a Christian perspective was Under The Bright Wings by Peter Harris. Miranda and Peter Harris were a British couple who were involved in a mission in a small village in the Algarve region of Portugal in the early 1980's. They became aware of a wild area nearby  which was key for migrating birds and was under threat by development. 



Miranda and Peter Harris

The promotional material describes what transpired:

Beginning from a keen awareness of their Christian responsibility to the environment and their neighbours, Peter and Miranda develop a vision for a project that combines cross-cultural evangelism, community living and conservation.  This book describes their experiences, the challenges that were overcome and the people involved in making it happen.  It also provides an exploration of the Christian commitment to conservation as an act of worship and of mission.

The outcome of this initiative was a local organization called A Rocha which is now international in scope, including here in Canada. I've written about another inspiring book, Planted: A Story of Creation, Calling, and Community, by Canadian co-founder, Leah Kostamo. A Rocha Canada is supported by literary icon Margaret Atwood. https://arocha.ca/



Leah Kostamo & Margaret Atwood

Sadly, Miranda Harris and two other key figures in the movement were killed in a car accident a short time ago, and husband Peter was badly injured. A funeral will be held at the beginning of the week, and supporters around the world will be mourning their loss.

It's important to realize that Christians around the world from a variety of theological outlooks are making a difference in caring for the Earth out of their convictions of faith. I heartily endorse both of the books mentioned and we can ask ourselves what we are doing where we are, and as we "live with respect in Creation."  (United Church New Creed)

The Wall: A Crime Against Creation

Paddlers on the Rio Grande River

And God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: 
cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.’ 
And it was so. God made the wild animals of the earth of every kind,
 and the cattle of every kind, 
and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. 
And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1 NRSV 

The self-appointed Supreme Being Trump has been crowing about the impregnability of the wall under construction along the US-Mexico border. The problem is that as billions of dollars are spent, climbers, including an eight-year-old girl, have demonstrated that it is scalable in minutes. And smugglers are using basic power tools to cut holes in the not-so-big, not-so-beautiful structure. 

I have touched on another story which is not so widely reported, which is the significant environmental damage being done by the construction. My previous blog was about the degradation of a butterfly sanctuary. Now bulldozers have ploughed through the , an International Biosphere Reserve. The saguaro cacti which we associate with North American desert wilderness are being shoved aside. In recent years jaguars have been moving back into the southern states from Mexico but the wall will cut the few adventurous males from the female population.  



Destruction in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

And in an article called What Happens When you Wall Off a River? we're told that a section of the wall will run along the Rio Grande river effectively cutting off a corridor of water and wildlife, as well as expropriating land owned by some families for generations. To build the wall in Starr County, at least 10 wildlife refuge tracts — all part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge — will be destroyed.

This ridiculous monument to xenophobia is a crime against Creation, as well as desperate humans seeking sanctuary. Biodiversity is celebrated in the first book of the Judeo-Christian bible yet somehow millions of American Christians support a president whose administration defiles the environment at every turn. God help them. 

When Does Winter Begin?

Snow in early November? Bittersweet!

And on the same day [November 1] we keep
the feast of All Saints, of those who recently or long ago
worked in the world the will of the Lord.
After that comes Winter’s Day, far and wide,
after six nights, and seizes sun-bright autumn
with its army of ice and snow,
fettered with frost by the Lord's command,
so that the green fields may no longer stay with us,
the ornaments of the earth.

Yesterday we awakened to a blanket of snow over our world and discovered that our three adult kids who live in Toronto, near Lindsay, and in Trenton were all experiencing the same. A little over a week ago I was putting sealant on the driveway in a tee-shirt, two days ago we had what will be our last paddle of 2019, and yesterday I took the last of the leaf bags to the yard-waste depot. Talk about working to the wire!

Now it looks like winter -- is it winter? The modern calendar says no and, absurdly,  autumn persists until December 20th. We all know better, at least just about anywhere in Canada other than the Left Coast. I happened upon a piece yesterday about the Old English calendar which declares November 7th the beginning of winter, which makes a whole lot more sense in Canuckland. Now, that same calendar marks February 6th as the conclusion of the season, which is at least ten weeks shy of reality for us. It does seem to make more sense, though, that the solstice is roughly half-way through the season rather than the beginning. 

The piece notes that there is a theological and spiritual component to the change of seasons, which for me is an acknowledgement of the Creator and a reminder that winter is more than the advent of dicier driving weather to which we refuse to adjust. There is a God-given rhythm to the seasons, although one which humans seem to be altering with breakneck speed. 

As an aging Groundling I seem to be more aware and appreciative of the changing seasons and I'm grateful for all...four, it's four isn't it?...

Read the entire, excellent blog piece here:

https://aclerkofoxford.blogspot.com/2014/11/after-that-comes-winters-day.html


Frost must freeze, fire burn up wood,
the earth grow, ice form bridges,
water wear a covering, wondrously locking up
shoots in the earth. One alone shall unbind
the frost’s fetters: God most mighty.
Winter must turn, good weather come again,
summer bright and hot.

The Gift of Graupel?

Goodrich Loomis Conservation Area -- photo Ruth Mundy

The word graupel is Germanic in origin; it is the diminutive of Graupe, meaning "pearl barley" ...Graupel was first seen in an 1889 weather report and has been whirling around in the meteorology field ever since to describe "pellets of snow" or "soft hail" (the latter phrase is an actual synonym of graupel).

After worship this past Sunday we changed into hiking clothes and headed to the Goodrich Loomis Conservation Area north of Brighton. We were waiting for the forecasted sunshine but it never arrived, and it was cool and blustery. The recent windstorm had stripped most of the leaves off the trees, so it all seemed rather bleak as we set out on what was a six kilometre saunter. 

The deeper gift of our walk was auditory rather than visual. It began with the swish of our feet through the thick carpet of leaves and the release of that distinctive aroma of Autumn. There were overtones of childhood in that activity. On the ridge the wind in the branches produced that clacking sound of late Fall and Winter which is very different from the other seasons.

There were birds about as well, the blue jays, and crows offering that bell-like call which is different from other caws and cries. Near the end of our jaunt we first heard and then saw a pileated woodpecker. 

Our return to the valley took us along the creek which was often not visible through the cedars yet could be heard. Then we heard an usual hissing advancing through the upper part of the trees before we saw the falling ice pellets known as graupel -- what a great term. It lasted all of three or four minutes, but it was enchanting. 

What began as a rather disappointing "exercise-is-good-for-us" outing became an opportunity to reorient ourselves to the sense of sound. Despite our aging ears it was all a gift from the Creator.