Christian Unity & Care for Our Common Home

During this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity I've pondered the grim truth that Christians of various stripes often seem better at belligerently highlighting their differences rather than humbly finding common ground. The result is not pretty, and many who have no time for organized religion point out our discord as a reason for rejecting organized religion. If we can't live Christ's love with one another, how can we expect or gain any credibility? 

I noticed that this year there is an initiative by Green Anglicans to explore Christian unity through care for our common home, Planet Earth, Pope Francis' encyclical on care for the Earth was called Laudato Si: Care for our Common Home. 

I like this notion of mutual care for the planet. When I was at St. Paul's United Church in Bowmanville we had a weekend event with seminars on this theme, sponsored through our ecumenical ministerial. We had participants from congregations of different denominations and our son, Isaac,spoke about his work as coordinator of the Green Church Project in Montreal. It was an encouraging couple of days and I appreciated the involvement of folk from diverse theological outlooks who cared for Creation. 

Given the theme of the vine bearing fruit for this year I wonder why it didn't occur to me that it is well suited for a Creation theme. Perhaps we can have grape expectations for next year!