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.
No comments:
Post a Comment