Fire and Hope on Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday

Receive this cross of ash upon your brow,
Brought from the burning of Palm Sunday’s cross.
The forests of the world are burning now
And you make late repentance for the loss.
But all the trees of God would clap their hands
The very stones themselves would shout and sing
If you could covenant to love these lands
And recognise in Christ their Lord and king.

He sees the slow destruction of those trees,
He weeps to see the ancient places burn,
And still you make what purchases you please,
And still to dust and ashes you return.
But Hope could rise from ashes even now
Beginning with this sign upon your brow.

British cleric, poet, and musician, Malcolm Guite wrote this sonnet for Ash Wednesday a decade ago. It is dreadfully appropriate for the Year of Our Lord 2020 given the fiery devastation of Australia, destructive wildfires in California and Alberta and the Amazon which have occurred since it was written.

There is a call to repentance and an invitation to a hope which rises from the ashes. 

Beloved Amazon

Last year I wrote about the synod or symposium concerning the countries and peoples of the Amazon Basin convened by Pope Francis in Rome. It was a signficant gathering over two weeks which included Indigenous representatives. It became controversial amongst those who perceived Christianity and Roman Catholicism in disturbingly racist and colonialist ways. Francis himself was receptive and celebrated the Indigenous expressions of faith which critics decried as pagan.Some of the devotional sculptures brought by Indigenous residents of the region were stolen and dumped in the nearby Tiber river, although they were later recovered. 

Francis recently issued a post-synodal exhortation,  called Querida Amazonia, which translates as "the beloved Amazon". In it he identifies four dreams for the future of the region which to my mind are powerful, and should be taken seriously by every Christian, regardless of background. 

These are the dreams, the four major sections of the exhortation:

I dream of an Amazon region that fights for the rights of the poor, the original peoples and the least of our brothers and sisters, where their voices can be heard and their dignity advanced.

I dream of an Amazon region that can preserve its distinctive cultural riches, where the beauty of our humanity shines forth in so many varied ways.

I dream of an Amazon region that can jealously preserve its overwhelming natural beauty and the superabundant life teeming in its rivers and forests.

I dream of Christian communities capable of generous commitment, incarnate in the Amazon region, and giving the Church new faces with Amazonian features. 

I hope that Pope Francis' influence can help bring to fruition aspects of these Godly, just, and compassionate dreams. I feel that his commitment to care for Creation in the Amazon is exemplary. He is a true Groundling! God knows he'll have a challenging time in doing so, even within his own church. 

Moby Dick and the End of an Era

In a recent conversation about classic books with Ruth, my wife, we agreed that we would probably never read Moby Dick even though it is oft-quoted. We decided to listen to it as we travel hither and yon, and that's what we have been doing.

We're now about a third of the way through the 135 chapters and it has been a revelation. The Sermon is about a rather fiery message on a Sunday morning about Jonah and the whale which is thoroughly entertaining. Then there is The Ramadan,  a surprisingly enlightened outlook on another religion given that Melville's novel was published in 1851 (there are still racist perceptions.)

It's also fascinating that Melville, who worked in his youth as a whaler, interjects in his narrative praise and support for the importance of the whaling industry of the 19th century. 

It's obvious that whaling is generally held in low regard, because of its butchery, but through Ishmael, the narrator, he is an advocate for the almost Godly dignity of the whaling industry..  Whalers have expanded our understanding of the globe through exploration. The whale is important to world literature. Even kings and queens rely on whale oil for their coronations. I wasn't so sure about this latter claim, so I checked. Lo and behold, the mixture of ingredients in the coronation oil for the current monarch of the British Empire, Queen Elizabeth II , included ambergris from a sperm whale, of which the fictional white whale was one. 

Ishmael also points out that whaling is the generator of considerable wealth because the harvested oil is used for many important purposes, including lighting. 

But, though the world scouts at us whale hunters, yet does it unwittingly pay us the profoundest homage; yea, an all-abounding adoration! for almost all the tapers, lamps, and candles that burn round the globe, burn, as before so many shrines, to our glory!



Moby Dick Erika Gallagher

All this struck me as quite current, in a way. We constantly hear similar arguments for fossil fuels, even to the claims that they are the source of wealth in Canada we are moving toward "ethical oil." Eventually though, whales were hunted toward extinction, and whale oil was supplanted by -- you guessed it -- fossil fuels. 

We are in the midst of a 21st century transition from fossil fuels and while the road is bumpy, there is evidence that it is occurring. We can be grateful for all the benefits we've enjoyed from the fossil fuel energy era, even as we hope it comes to an end.   We can hope and pray that humans aren't on the edge of extinction because of our over-reliance, along with so many other of God's creatures.   

Accidental Wilderness

After several years of drifting away from CBC television's The Nature of Things series we've been watching both current and past episodes thanks to streaming, the reason we'e stopped watching conventional TV in the first place.

The most recent episode was An Accidental Wilderness: The Leslie Street Spit. The Spit is a human-made peninsula out into Lake Ontario in the heart of Toronto. It was created as a breakwater using rubble and construction waste from the TO subway excavations and other projects. Initially it was a barren wasteland with all sort of concrete and rebar protruding through the soil. Now there are areas of the Spit which are more than 60 years old and, lo and behold, the wasteland has become an urban wilderness. Not really a park, as the program points out, even though the official name is Tommy Thompson Park, but an urban wilderness area with 360-plus species of mammals, birds, and amphibians. 

https://gem.cbc.ca/category/documentaries/featured-documentaries/a04e4803-9d0c-4480-845f-54bcf081b65f



There is now an excellent team of people ensuring that this accidental wilderness is balanced and that it can benefit all the critters, including humans. There are walking tours for birders and people spot mink and rabbits and coyotes. Busloads of urban school kids show up to learn about aquatic creatures and regeneration The Spit is an important migratory bird stopover as well. We were encouraged by what we watched and I might even say it was a spiritual experience. We are discovering as humans that when we get out of the way, or at least step back, ecosystems and what we might term as Creation will recover, slowly at times, remarkably quickly at others. 

I regularly read of the success stories such as marine protected areas where fish species return once over-fishing is ended. One of my favourite stories is about an orange juice company in Costa Rica dumping a thousand truckloads of orange peels in an area that had been denuded of trees. While the company was subject to a lawsuit, a study showed that 16 years later this area had self-regenerated and become quite lush with many species of trees and vines. The organic material of the dumped peels had inadvertently proved to be a natural nursery. 


Costa Rica

Researchers have discovered that within the radiation exclusion zones around Chernobyl, Ukraine, and Fukushima, Japan, many species of wildlife have returned once humans departed. While they may not be healthy in the long-term, humans had driven them away altogether. 

It's strange to think that this happens despite ourselves as is the case with the Spit and in Costa Rica. I do believe that we can "live with respect in Creation", as our United Church New Creed suggests, through humility and allowing our beautiful, complex planet to flourish. 

Hawaii may be a great distance from the Leslie Street Spit but this prayer seems fitting for what is happening in Toronto and many other places on our beleaguered planet. 

May God’s earth continue to live.

May the heavens continue to live

May the rains continue to dampen the land

May the wet forests continue to grow

Then the flowers shall bloom

and we people shall live again.   

Hawaiian Prayer

Fukushima Exclusion Zone

More Church Forests and Providence

A couple of days ago I wrote about an Emergence magazine essay by Fred Bahnson about the remarkable Church Forests of Ethiopia. They are sanctuaries of biodiversity in a deforested country. Bahnson is a Christian who is a eco-contemplative, an excellent writer who invites us to move deeper into our experience of Creation and Creator.

I also mentioned my friend Carmen who was in Ethiopia last year on a hiking trip with several others.  I sent him a link to a National Geographic article about Church Forests when I found out he was going and he visited a couple of them while there. In Ethiopia he and his companions chatted with another North American over lunch and discovered that this person was also writing an article about Church Forests.



When I sent Carmen the link to the new Emergence essay and accompanying film he realized that his random encounter over lunch was likely with Fred Bahnson. They have since corresponded and, yes, it was writer Fred.

Perhaps this wasn't random or coincidental after all. I've spent the past couple of days marvelling over the long odds of this happening. I'm delighted that it did. I've heard that God moves in a mysterious way, God's wonders to perform. 

Here is the link to my recent blog on the subject and the National Geographic piece which got this all going. 

https://groundlingearthyheavenly.blogspot.com/2020/02/mystical-church-forests-of-ethiopia.html

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/01/ethiopian-church-forest-conservation-biodiversity/

Turn on the Light & Pass the Salt?

Yesterday in church  we heard Jesus telling us that we are will be salty Christians in the world if we want to make a difference in the world. In the Sermon on the Mount of Matthew's gospel Jesus offers hopeful blessings which turn the ways of the world upside down.Then he tells his ragtag hillside congregation that they will be salt and light, seasoning and illumination for their culture. 

These are spirituals metaphors yet we know that they are based in everyday truth. Our human blood is a mild saline solution and our bodies can't survive without salt. During the course of my lifetime salt has become the enemy,linked to high blood pressure and others illnesses. Yet we can't survive without it and food just tastes better with this mineral seasoning. In Jesus' time it was valuable enough to be used as currency for Roman soldiers (salary). 



Last month we watched an episode of CBC's  The Nature of Things  called Pass the Salt and at the end we were more confused about sodium chloride than when we began. In 1977 a sort of "war on salt" was declared with warnings about the detrimental health outcomes from consuming too much. Yet there is very little scientific evidence that salt is all that bad for us. 

Only one in four humans is salt-sensitive and so we don't really need to hide the saltshaker, although our increased consumption of processed foods means we getting a lot of "stealth" salt and moderation is a good idea. 

Where we do need to lay off the salt is on our roads and sidewalks because the run-offs has a negative effect on our waterways. The eggs of many insects and amphibians are compromised by our road salt runoff.

It is a good reminder that salt is a mineral, mined from the earth or harvested from the seas and oceans -- real Groundling stuff. 

So, great metaphor about living the gospel, and "moderation in all things" when it comes to actual consumption. Thanks for this one, Jesus. 

Here is The Nature of Things link:

https://gem.cbc.ca/media/the-nature-of-things/season-59/episode-9/38e815a-0122947a376

Lent, Easter & the Beauty of the Earth

1 For the beauty of the earth,
for the glory of the skies,
for the love which from our birth
over and around us lies,
God of all, to you we raise
this our hymn of grateful praise.

2 For the beauty of each hour
of the day and of the night,
hill and vale, and tree and flower,
sun and moon, and stars of light,  R

3 For the joy of human love,
brother, sister, parent, child,
friends on earth, and friends above,
for all gentle thoughts and mild,  R

4 For each perfect gift sublime
to our race so freely given,
graces human and divine,

flowers of earth and buds of heaven,  R

                                         Voices United 226

I've been leading study groups in our Trenton United Church congregation and I've really enjoyed the thoughtful, spiritual people who attend. They are quick to express their gratitude but I feel that I receive so much from them.

Currently we are exploring the biblical concept and Christian practice of hospitality. During Lent I'll work with Rev. Isaac (my kid & pastor) with the devotional book For the Beauty of the Earth by Leah Schade, an ordained Lutheran minister and professor. It moves us through this reflective season of the Christian year using lines from the traditional hymn of the same name as the foundation for each week.

 The book also offers eco-faith ideas for the 50 days of the Easter season as a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. The United Church has slowly but surely included Creation and Earth-care themes into our worship life with Earth Sunday in April and Creation Time in September/October. I really appreciate this Lenten resource as well. In a time of climate crisis we need challenging and hopeful faith and worship resources through which God can speak to us about our responsibility and sense of wonder in Creation. 

I'm including this post on both this Groundling and my Lion Lamb blogs, even though it is really Groundling material. In the event that any reader closer at hand is interested in a copy of the Lenten book we ordered plenty, and at $7 they are a steal. With 40 days in Lent and 50 days in Easter that works out to less than 8 cents a day! And for a limited time only we'll included free Sunday worship services. Go ahead and order now!

Here is a youth choir singing John Rutter's wonderful version of For the Beauty of the Earth. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTOfSKXkRa0

Mystical Church Forests of Ethiopia

I've written about church forests in Ethiopia and that our good friend Carmen visited some while on a trip there last year which was primarily focused on hiking and scrambling up to churches carved into cliffs -- no thank you on the latter!

I've sent him the link to a new and remarkable essay in Emergence magazine  about church forests by Fred Bahnson, who is something of a faith/Christian writing hero for me. A hundred years ago Ethiopia was covered in trees but the forest was relentlessly whittled away for agricultural land. While there has been a massive effort to replant trees in the past couple of years the remaining intact and bio-diverse islands of forest surround churches, where they have been protected. There are several thousand of these small oases and there is a current joint project to study and revitalize forty of them involving forest ecologists Dr. Alemayehu Wassie and Dr. Meg Lowman alongside the Ethiopian Orthodox priests of these congregations. 



Dr. Almeyehu Wassie

Bahnson visited some of these churches and met with Alemeyehu for his essay and the companion film. At one point he observed an elderly woman making the sign of the cross and bowing as she entered the forest. He reflects:

Perhaps I was witnessing more than gestures of devotoin, important as they were. Maybe they were also the secret to conserving the forest, small acts that together with hundreds of other gestures like them formed an invisible shield around the forests of Zajor...Our Western conceptions of belief are almost entirely inward and private.Here, and at other points on my journey into these forests, I was witnessing the performance of a mystical geography, the soul's journey to God made visible in the landscape. 

I love the mystical quality of these words and they make me wonder if we might all acknowledge God, Creator, Incarnate Christ, and Holy Breath when we enter a woodland or forest. Would making  the sign of the cross and bowing in reverence be the simple acts which remind us that trees are a gift from God which deserve respect and protection? 

Perhaps it would be best for you to read the essay and watch the film yourselves. I encourage you to take the time to do so. 

https://emergencemagazine.org/story/the-church-forests-of-ethiopia/

More Broken Promises

As a Christian citizen of conscience in this marvelous country of Canada I could not vote for a return of the Liberal party in last Fall's federal election. As with millions of other Canadians I chose one of the other parties which claimed to take environmental issues, particularly the climate crisis, seriously. I say claimed because the Libs were so earnest about climate change four years earlier but failed to deliver in so many respects. The day Trudeau and company announced the purchase of am aging crude oil pipeline for billions of dollars, then promised the expansion of Trans Mountain, I decided I couldn't vote for the Liberals again.

This expansion has now been cleared to proceed in the courts but there is still strong opposition, including amongst several First Nations. This is not the only fossil fuel project which has received a go-ahead despite claims of sovereignty by Indigenous groups in British Columbia. Both the federal and and BC governments "talk the talk" of environmental care and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples but their actions suggest otherwise. 

The United Church of Canada has spoken truth to power through a letter from Moderator Richard Bott to Prime Minister Trudeau and while our efforts may seem futile it is important to voice concerns. It is also essential that we pray without ceasing, including prayers for the safety of those who are peacefully protesting on hereditary lands and may be forcibly removed . There is a growing impatience about the ineffectiveness of peaceful protest and I hope that this doesn't lead to violence. 

Slowly we are realizing the connection between Indigenous land stewardship and environmental protection, but governments are tuning out for political expediency.

Here is a portion of the prayer which accompanies the United Church letter regarding the  Wet’suwet’en First Nation 

 We speak, God of all Creation— but are they just pretty words? 
Words like “right relations” and “reconciliation,”
 like “consultation” and “rights-based legislation.” 
But, when push came to shove on the unceded lands of the Wet’suwet’en, 
actions showed willingness to use force over conversation— 
legalism over discussion— Settler rules over Indigenous lives. 
Open our hearts with truth to the fact that these actions give lie to our words. 
Open our minds with wisdom,
 that the leaders of the governments of Canada and British Columbia
 would stop the relentless move forward; 
that they would stop the destruction, stop the imposition of will...

Swarm

Do not fear, O soil;
    be glad and rejoice,
    for the Lord has done great things!

 I will repay you for the years
    that the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
    my great army, which I sent against you.

Joel 2:21,25

When we hear about locusts, flying insects which eat plants, in the bible it is hardly ever a good thing. John the Baptist may have enjoyed them as a snack, but he was eccentric, to say the least. Usually they are considered to be a plague -- in Egypt, then Revelation -- as a punishment of, well, biblical proportions.



In the past few days we have heard about massive swarms of locusts, millions and even billions, which are moving in great, destructive clouds across the countries Eastern Africa. In Kenya there are more locusts than in the past 70 years and they are eating everything in their path. I listened to an interview with an agricultural expert who said that not only do they create an infernal din with their wings, the sound of their munching on crops is loud as well. This is the stuff of nightmares.

I don't want to entertain the notion that this is God's wrath directed at people who are already amongst the poorest on the planet. There is talk about this as a sign of significant climate change in Africa which has led to drought in some regions and torrential rain in others. The predictable cyclical patterns of weather are now affected by shifts in the bigger picture of climate. 

Sadly, is the consumption of wealthier nations which it driving the climate crisis, but it is have-not countries which pay the price. In the book of the prophet Joel there is hope that Creation will be restored when God's people repent and see the light. I pray that we do so in time for humanity and all living things. 

Sunday Saunter

After worship on Sunday a group of Trenton United congregants went on a hike to the Bleasdell Boulder, which is the largest glacial erratic in Ontario and one of the largest in North America. During the last ice age a glacier plunked this honkin' big boulder near the edge of the Trent River and it's a brief walk in to find it.

We had fun on the way, with a scavenger hunt for objects in nature.  The trail was a bit slippery but I was the geezer and did just fine alongside kids who were enjoying the outing. Son Isaac grew up going on congregational hikes and now he and Rebekah are leading the way with the boys, who love being outdoors. And the hotdogs and hot chocolate were also appealing.

It would be wonderful if congregations included regular walks and exploration. We can become "be-wildered outsiders" together, as Jesus and his disciples were. Ya, I realize they didn't have to contend with Canadian winters!

Abundant Life Thrives in Wetlands

It's been at least 30 years since my first visit to Israel and an important part of the story of the modern-day state was the draining of malaria-infested swampland for agricultural purposes. Make no mistake, the development of an agricultural economy preceded the manufacturing and tech industries and was something of a miracle given the challenges. At the same time it removed many thousands of hectares of marshland which were hugely important for migratory birds, water retention, and ecological balance. Since the 1990s efforts have been underway to restore those wetlands, although with some resistance from farmers because species such as storks and cranes eat crops.



Cranes in the Hula Valley, Israel

Canada is vast compared to Israel but we also have a problem with the destruction of wetlands, especially in the southern areas of the country where humans take over. In Ontario the north shores of  lakes Erie and Ontario, as well as Georgian Bay, have experienced a dramatic reduction in the area of wetlands which filter runoffs and provide habitat for a wide variety of birds and aquatic species. And there are efforts to restore wetlands even as there is human pressure to reduce them. 

Yesterday was World Wetlands Day and while I decided to reflect on groundhogs rather than marshes, I'm following up. Ruth and I are paddlers, both with canoes and kayaks and this Quinte/Hastings area is blessed with significant wetlands. When we paddle we see far more diversity of creatures, great and small, than we ever do when hiking or cycling. Last year we kayaked on a little-traveled stretch of the Trenton waterway and listened to magnificent chorus of frogs, one of the amphibians in decline in our province. We see everything from dragonflies to turtles to otters to ospreys and eagles, to deer (yup, deer can swim) as we move quietly about in areas which include wetlands.

Perhaps we can keep in mind that the Israel that Jesus grew up in and walked and boated on during his ministry would have included wetlands. You'll never see a painting of Jesus near a marsh, but it might be good if someone took that image on. 



Fall paddle on the Salmon River, Southern Ontario

Groundhogs & the Rhythms of Creation

In the Christian Calendar this is Candlemas Day, a recognition of the presentation of the infant Christ in the temple.This is also Groundhog Day in North America, with amusing ceremonies involving the rotund rodents and seeing shadows and predictions about the length of winter. It all may have begun with Punxsutawny Phil in North America but the roots of this curious celebration/prognostication  are in Germanic and Celtic traditions involving hedgehogs. Here in NA it became groundhogs, including Phil, Wiarton Willie in Ontario, Shubenacadie Sam in Nova Scotia, etc. Candlemas and Hedgehog/Groundhog Day are connected in the distant past. 

More importantly, today is our daughter Jocelyn's birthday, and she still has the Groundhog character I created for her when she was a child, cut out of wood and decorated as a fairy story critter to celebrate the day. 

It's both quaint and important that we include these sometimes ancient traditions which acknowledge the seasons and the solstices within the rhythms and celebrations of our lives. It's too easy to ignore that we are creatures who live within Creation rather than dominate it, and when we lose this connection we imperil ourselves and all creatures.

 I'm not holding my breath over the predictions of the legion of groundhogs who will be manhandled out of their lairs today, but I appreciate the gesture.

And happy birthday Joc!