World Religious Leaders Caring for the Garden

Pope Francis speaks at a conference at the Vatican, Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. Pope Francis and dozens of religious leaders are making a joint appeal to governments to commit to ambitious targets at the upcoming U.N. climate conference.Francis is hosting a daylong conference Monday at the Vatican that climaxed with the signing and handover of the joint appeal to the head of the COP26 conference. (Alessandro Di Meo, Pool via AP)

 On this Feast of St. Francis I went for a saunter (to muse, be in reverie or wonder) in honour of this Roman Catholic patron saint of animals and the environment. It is a gloomy morning but I stopped along the way to thank the Creator for the beauty of the woods and water and to ponder the words "reverence, attention,awe" which I've adopted as a sort of mantra. This is the time of the year for multitudinous mushrooms.

                                                         Mushrooms at the Frink Centre

Meanwhile, thousands of kilometres away, a multitude of dozens of leaders from different Christian denominations and other religions  sprouted up alongside the pope named Francis to sign a joint appeal to governments to commit to ambitious targets at the upcoming U.N. climate conference. At the same time they promised to do their own part to lead their faithful into more sustainable behaviour. According to a Washington Post article:

“We have inherited a garden; we must not leave a desert to our children,” said the appeal, which was signed at a formal ceremony in the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican before being handed over to the head of the COP26 conference, Alok Sharma. For the religious leaders, care  for the environment is a moral imperative to preserve God’s creation for future generations and to support communities most vulnerable to climate change.It’s an argument Francis has made repeatedly and most comprehensively in a 2015 encyclical, “Praised Be” and was echoed Monday by imams, rabbis, patriarchs and reverends who shared how their faith traditions interpreted the call, many of them insisting that faith and science must listen to each other to save the planet.

As Groundlings, those who humbly respect that we as humans and all that lives have been created by God, we will sustain spiritual practices which open us to the wonder of Creation and also motivate us be people of action.

 I am heartened by this Godly collaboration by faith leaders. I hope political leaders will listen and respond. 

Jimmy Carter, Exemplary Groundling

 The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; 

the world, and they that dwell therein. 

 For [God] hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.

                                       Psalm 24:1-2 KJV

This is the final Sunday of Creation Time in the Christian liturgical year, a mini-season which begins on September 1st and concludes on October 4th (tomorrow this year) with the  Feast of St. Francis, the patron saint of critters and ecology. 

This got me thinking about the 97th  birthday this past Friday of former US president Jimmy Carter. Carter is a remarkable human being whose activism in peace-making,  human rights causes, and organizations such as Habitat for Humanity during retirement may arguably outweigh his accomplishments during a single term as POTUS. 

During his presidency Carter was ahead of his time when it came to environmental legislation to protect huge expanses of wildnerness  in attempting to reduce the use of fossil fuels for vehicles, and in promoting the development of energy alternatives. He had solar panels installed on a portion of White House roof more than 40 years ago. They were removed during the Reagan era, put into storage, and never reinstalled. 

As with virtually everything in his life and leadership Carter's decisions were informeed by his Christian faith. As a boy his mother, Lillian, taught him the importance of respecting Creation, as did Annie Mae Willis, the Black  nanny whose care for Jimmy included taking him fishing.

In his book entittled Faith Carter observes "I have met many famous people of deep religious faith, including Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II, Nelson Mandela, Arch- bishop Desmond Tutu, Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin and Billy Graham, some of whom have had a direct and beneficial effect on my life." He goes on the speak of Annie Mae as one of the most influential people in his life of faith. 

I'm impressed that the moral and ethical compass of Jimmy Carter led him to be a committed Groundling, caring for Creation, aware that the "Earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof."