Creation Care, & Climate Politics

                                                   Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault 

This Groundling blog is my opportunity to celebrate God the Creator and the extraordinary diversity and beauty of Creation. As the name suggests, our scriptural witness says that we are adamah, formed of the soil, rather than disembodied spiritual beings. And our Christian story affirms that the Creation God proclaimed is good, and very good, and is redeemed through the Incarnation, literally God-in-the-flesh.

All this means that the Creator is imbued in every aspect of our humanity and therefore must be reflected in our discipleship, our willingness to cherish and steward the Earth, Turtle Island, in practical and political ways. 

Today the Canadian government will share how it will fulfill the Net Zero Emission Accountablity Act  which it passed in June 2021. Since then we have a new Environment Minister, Steven Guilbeault, who was an environmental activist in a previous life. Will that passion make a difference? The Liberals have made plenty of virtue-signalling commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the past six years and essentially missed every target by a wide margin. It's easy to be cynical about their commitment to address the Climate Emergency which is at a tipping point.

I want to be a hopeful person because hope is at the heart of our Christian faith. I would get down on my knees and touch the earth to pray for what will unfold in this plan, but the ground is frozen and arthritis makes it a challenge to get back on my feet again. I will pray, just the same, and I will make a prayerful commitment to dig past the rhetoric to the substance of what Minister Guilbeault shares with us. I ask that you do the same. 

This quote from Katharine Hayhoe, a Canadian teaching climate science in Texas, and a Christian who is passionate about Creation Care, says it well. 

Crucifying Creation?

 

Recently my sister-in-law, Shirley, a regular reader and occasional hymn writer sent me a Lenten devotional she'd read written by a pastor in Santa Fe New Mexico. It was a reflection on the way we as humans have desecrated our planetary home. While we may acknowledge the Creator with our lips we "crucify" Creation. The writer, Talitha Arnold refers to a painting which was controversial because it portrayed a gorilla on a cross. It may have been unsettling but crucifixion was a common form of execution in the Roman Empire and has been used as a form of capital punishment in Saudi Arabia and Syria. 

I found the name of the artist for this work --Monika Steinhoff -- but unfortunately there are no images available online. 

 In the "it's a small world" category, I met Talitha while attending an Earth-Honoring Faith event at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico a decade ago. Here is her worthwhile reflection: 

Creation on the Cross --Talitha Arnold

But we proclaim Christ crucified. - 1 Corinthians 1:23 (NRSV) Years ago in Santa Fe, a local artist created a stir with her painting of the Crucifixion. In place of Jesus on the cross, the artist put a gorilla. Rather than Roman soldiers or Mary and the other women bearing witness below, the artist included animals of all kinds. Like their human counterparts, some turned their heads away, others stared with sorrow at what was happening above them. For weeks, the local paper was filled with letters about the painting. Many devout Christians saw the artist’s depiction as sacrilegious and mocking of Jesus’ passion. They felt their faith was ridiculed and their Savior denigrated. Other people used the controversy to paint (no pun intended) all Christians as close-minded sticks-in-the-mud opposed to freedom of expression. Few people seemed to get the artist’s message—that just as the powers and principalities of Jesus’ time had nailed him to the cross, we modern humans were killing off the rest of creation. Climate change and other environmental crises make that long-ago painting even more relevant. Jesus’ crucifixion certainly demonstrates what we human beings are capable of doing to one another. Yet as Paul reminded the Corinthian Christians, the cross also proclaimed God’s power of life over our ways of death. For Paul, the cross called the early Christians to turn away from death to trust God’s promise of new life, not just for themselves but for others. I doubt Paul ever saw a gorilla, much less one on a cross. Yet had the apostle lived in our time of deforestation, global warming, and other ways we crucify creation, I think he would understand the artist’s message. Do we have the courage to face the cross of creation and acknowledge what we’ve done to this earth? Can Lent’s hard journey to Easter lead us to new ways of living so that the rest of life on this planet can live? Prayer Forgive us, Lord, for crucifying your creation. Give us the courage to repent and turn to your ways of life. Amen.

Clouds, the Heavens, & the Moment We're In

 

 John Hartman 

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,  and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.

 1 Corinthians 10: 1-4

O tell of God's might, O sing of God's grace,

whose robe is the light, whose canopy space,

whose chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,

and broad is God's path on the wings of the storm.

O Worship the King v2 Voices United 235 

Last Saturday there was an article in the Globe and Mail about clouds and art and why  we need these Painting of Clouds are Just What the World Needs Right Now. Needless to say, I was intrigued and I appreciated the "centre fold" piece which did better justice to the accompanying works of art than reading it online. 

  

Author Ian Brown has some profound things to say about clouds:

Quotidian, untouchable, impermanent and yet somehow always there, clouds remind us what it is to be materially of this world, when so much of what we see and know is mediated through a tiny rectangle in our palms. We store the data of our lives in the Cloud, but these are the real thing – up there in the sky, to which we have always looked to see what’s coming.

Brown introduced me to artist John Hartman who has created some powerful images of clouds over Georgian Bay, a happy place for us because we visited Killarney Provincial Park so often when I was in ministry in Sudbury. We paddled on the bay many times and both admired the clouds and watched them carefully for signs of impending dirty weather.

 

                                                          Swirling Clouds -- Gregory Hartman 2021

Brown also quotes Greg Hardy, the Saskatchewan landscapist, Greg Hardy, who has been obsessed with the prairie sky since he was a boy in Saskatoon:

“It’s not like there’s a God, or anything,” he told me a while ago. “But there is something larger than oneself that happens when nature unfolds – like when there’s a big storm or the clouds are racing by at 90 miles an hour.”

 

With respect to Hardy as an artist, I figure there is a God, and one partial to clouds if scripture is any indication. The day after Ian Brown's article one of the Lenten lectionary passages the apostle Paul reminds us of the cloud which led Moses and the people of Israel as they sojourned in the wilderness.

I appreciate that Brown also gave me a "I did not know that" moment when he makes reference to Luke Howard, a late-18th century Quaker who is sometimes called the father of meteorology. Howard named the three principal categories of clouds – cumulous, stratus, and cirrus. I immediately think of my late clergy father who would bore us blind describing cumulonimbus and cirrostratus cloud formations, yet I continue to be fascinated by clouds to this day. 

And yes, Jesus seemed to be aware of the sky and how to interpret it. 

The Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test Jesus they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 

                          Matthew 16: 1-3

I can't depart from the subject without giving credit to Joni Mitchell who made this confession in her hit Both Sides Now. I've even included a link to Joni singing the song at the Isle of Wight festival.

I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQJ3Rq7IQXA

 

                                                                Edge of the Forest -- Emily Carr

                                                          Blaze of Glory -- Rebecca Vincent 

Monarchs are on the Move!

                                              St. John's Bible -- the conclusion of the Gospel of Mark 

 It's March and the Monarch butterflies are on the move. This is the month that they leave their winter roosting sites in Mexico to make the extraordinary journey northward, eventually finding their way to Canada. It is extraordinary that in the final phase of this migration millions cross the vast expanses of the Great Lakes. We've seen them roosting in trees along the Lake Ontario shore in the Fall, like thousands of pieces of stained glass. 

Recently I purchased a facsimile volume of the St. John's Bible containing the gospels and Acts (I got a great deal!) This was commissioned by a monastic community in the United States  as the first hand-calligraphed and illustrated, or illuminated manuscript of the bible in centuries. 

In the resurrection chapter at the conclusion of Mark there is an accompanying illustration of Monarch butterflies in various phases, as symbols of transformation. As we await the miracle of Easter morning we can also anticipate the return of these wondrous creatures. 

By coincidence or serendipity or providence we saw that PBS was re-broadcasting a 2018 Nature documentary called Sex, Lies, and Butterflies. Here is some of the information shared in this gorgeous episode: 

Noteworthy Facts:

• All butterflies share a single, genetic ancestor – a small brown moth that lived more than 50 million years ago.
• Butterflies are actually moths – about 20,000 species of them – and inhabit every continent on the planet except Antarctica.
• Though the flight pattern of butterflies seems totally random, their oversized wings act like an enormous rudder, enabling them to soar with complete control.
• The eyes of a Painted Lady butterfly, whose habitat spans Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Africa, contain more than 30,000 lenses.
• A butterfly uses its tube-like tongue – or proboscis – to feed. It uncoils its proboscis and sucks up liquid nourishment using a micro-pump in its head.
• 
  
  
  

Water from the Rock & World Water Day

But the people thirsted there for water; and the people complained against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried out to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” The Lord said to Moses, “Go on ahead of the people, and take some of the elders of Israel with you; take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.  I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink.” Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 

                               Exodus 17: 3-6 NRSV

 Ruth, my partner of nearly 48 years (46 married) is a patient person who rarely gives me the side-eye -- or she may be very stealthy. Just the same, I have been receiving baleful looks and sighs recently because I'm aware that waterways are opening up and I'm itching to get out there. 

We are both avid canoeists and kayakers and being on the water scores of times during the pandemic has saved our sanity. We aren't deterred by a fear of capsizing but Ruth prefers warmer air temperatures than what we see in the forecast for today, which is World Water Day. Actually, the theme for this year isn't what we are able to see in lakes and rivers and streams. It's what lies below:

GROUNDWATER - MAKING THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE

Groundwater is invisible, but its impact is visible everywhere.

Out of sight, under our feet, groundwater is a hidden treasure that enriches our lives. 

Almost all of the liquid freshwater in the world is groundwater.

As climate change gets worse, groundwater will become more and more critical. 

We need to work together to sustainably manage this precious resource.

Groundwater may be out of sight, but it must not be out of mind.

We are increasingly aware that aquifers around the planet are being depleted as humans stick the equivalent of giant straws down to water sources and suck up what has existed below the surface for millenia. And in our quest -- lust? -- for oil chemicals are pushed underground to force it to the surface, often contaminating essential sources of potable water. In Canada we contaminate our groundwater and waterways with the excessive use of road salt. 

                                                            Moses Strikes the Rock -- Marc Chagall 

In 2010 I took part in a week-long seminar at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, which was part of a decade long project called  Earth-honoring Faith: A Song of Songs. The focus that year was  Water and a Baptismal Life and it was exceptional in its variety. A person from the water authority in Santa Fe spoke to us about the looming crisis for the declining aquifer which supplied the capital city of the state and the efforts to reduce water usage. 

In the exodus story in scripture Moses strikes a rock and water gushes forth for the parched people of Israel as they sojourn in the wilderness. The apostle Paul uses this imagery as well. Water is a practical necessity for all of us and a spiritual element in most religions. 

Years ago I saw that there was congregation the Southern US, Water from the Rock Baptist Church, and I wanted to go there just for the name. 

I could say more, but I need to persuade --pester? -- Ruth...

 

 

Every Day is a Day of Forests

8 

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

    nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
 For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thought...

12 For you shall go out in joy,
    and be led back in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
    shall burst into song,
    and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
    instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial,
    for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

Isaiah 55 NRSV

This morning I was out the door early enough that the sun was still rising and on my way to a Conservation Area north of Belleville -- God bless conservation areas. One direction took me out on the boardwalk where I could see the setting moon and the rising sun. In the other direction I walked through a stand of cedars, past maple trees which are being tapped, and along a maple swamp where the ice has turned a wonderful green which is a sign of Spring. 

Each of these areas are akin to cathedrals for me, holy places where I often stop and give thanks to the Creator. In Canada we love to cut trees down and often do so without much thought but we are blessed with the sheer number of them despite our recklessness. Canada has one of five great forested areas left in the world and while much of this may not seem like eye-catching old growth it is vital to the health of a planet which is choking to death. 

This is the United Nations International Day of Forests and as I write I can glance out at two sizeable white birches in our year, two large spruces, a locust, and a 10-metre tall walnut which our neighbour says was planted by the squirrels. There are other trees visible a little farther off in our area as well. Sometimes I take this for granted, and its a sin.

Yesterday one of the lectionary readings was from Isaiah 55 but unfortunately it didn't include the verses which speak of a variety of trees clapping their hands in joy. Our loss.  Now you know that trees have hands!

https://www.un.org/en/observances/forests-and-trees-day

A Wild Church & the Spring Equinox

 

This is the first day of Spring and while the flowers aren't exactly bursting forth we've been pleasantly surprised to see some shoots emerging in sheltered spots. The snow has quickly receded from our yard and I was excited to see that the Moira River is opening north of Belleville.

I heard an interview on the CBC Radio program appropriately named Fresh Air with Rev. Bruce Sweet about a Wild Church Worship service to be held this afternoon near Midhurst, Ontario. Bruce is a retired UCC minister and I know him because he kindly visited my father in a nursing home during his final months and presided at his funeral. 

Bruce was featured on the CBC program Tapestry three years ago because he'd become involved in the Forest Therapy movement, about which I've written and experienced. He's now offering monthly outdoor worship experiences as a complement to rather than competition with "inside the walls" church services. Bruce was articulate about what he's been doing and his connection to the Wild Church Network of  roughly 170 congregations which are now offering these opportunities, mostly in the United States, the UK, and Canada. https://www.wildchurchnetwork.com/About-Us

Two of the organizers of the outdoor summer ministry in Algonquin Park, Svinda and Marilyn, are congregational ministers who also offer monthly Cathedral of the Trees worship experiences. They are part of this growing movement and the Algonquin ministry, in which I've participated, is under their auspices. We were chatting recently and they admitted that their February St. Brigid gathering was a tad frosty! https://riseabove470.wordpress.com/cathedral-of-the-trees/

There is a semi-feral feel to what is emerging, which seems to fit, don't you think? When I retired I said that I wanted to be more of a "be-wildered outsider" and I've done what I can to honour this. 

Jesus did some of his best work in the midst of Creation, offering the Beatitudes from a hillside, feeding a crowd by Galilee, using a storm on the lake as a "teaching moment." We'll find our way through Holy Week to the olive grove of Gethsemane where Jesus and his disciples were camped out. Why wouldn't we follow his example? 

The Dawn Chorus and Lent

Birds are singing, woods are ringing, with thy praises, blessed King

Lake and mountain, field and fountain, to thy throne their tributes bring

We stepped out onto the deck in the morning gloaming to take in the March full moon, the last of Winter. This week we've been able to see some clear moonsets and sunrises, both reminders that amidst the manifold woes of the world our planetary home still follows its course.

There was an added gift outside at that early hour. The robins were in full voice, the first reminder of what will be the swelling Dawn Chorus. Before long our days will begin with what is often an astonishing choir of birds, although we're told that in many places this remarkable phenonenom is diminishing because the number of songbirds has been drastically reduced. International Dawn Chorus Day isn't until Sunday, May 1st (also Mental Health Sunday)  but for us it was this morning. 

I've invited you to "hear the bird of the Lord" for a few minutes each day during Lent as a spiritual practice, a notion I've pilfered from a pastor in California. We've been attempting to do so day by day, and appreciated the mindfulness of listening to the voices of Creation. 

Yesterday we were at Lodge Point which is part of Sandbanks Provincial Park. Lake Ontario was full of "bergy bits," thousands of chunks of ice, and amidst them were rafts of waterfowl. Our nine-year-old grandson was with us and he got a kick out of using binoculars and for the first time getting how to identify his subject and focus in. I have the excellent Sibley Birds app on my phone, so I could show him the Goldeneyes he was viewing and play their wing whistles and calls. He was delighted to make the connection, which warmed his ol' grandpa's heart. 

We have grown tone-deaf to the songs of the birds, bye and large, and I often wish I was more attuned to these extraordinary creatures. I sense that we have also become increasingly deaf to the Creator, which is a profound hearing loss. 

There is still plenty of time during this Lenten season to listen to the birds. Perhaps we'll also learn to listen to the many other voices of Creation and cherish them as Spring unfolds. 

The old hymn above and below was turfed from newer United Church hymnals because of it's male and monarchial imagery. While I agree with that decision it still stubbornly comes to mind when I hear our avian companions

Waters dancing, sunbeams glancing, Sing thy glory cheerily;

Blossoms breaking, nature waking, Chant thy praises merrily

St. Patrick for Groundlings

In today's Lion Lamb blog I ditched St. Patrick for St. Brigid even though this is his feast day, so perhaps I should give him some due here in my Groundling blog. Here are portions of two St. Patrick's blog entries from years past, one from a decade ago and another from March 2010. 

                                      ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

For me St. Patrick's Day is always a reminder of the Celtic Christian tradition which has been rekindled and redisovered in recent years. It is a creative, earth-honouring, less hierarchical approach to the community of faith which is so old that is new again.

I like the prayers and blessings which were created for every aspect of life, a willingness to find the holy and extraordinary in the midst of the mundane and ordinary. Below is a portion of a "hatching prayer" which caught my attention after seeing the chickens of our friends on the weekend and enjoying the eggs we purchased from them since our return.

I Will rise early on the morning of Monday,

I will sing my rune and rhyme,

I will go sunwise with my cog

To the nest of my hen with sure intent.

I will place my left hand to my breast,

My right hand to my heart,

I will seek the loving wisdom of Him

Abundant in grace, in broods, and in flocks.

I will close my two eyes quickly,

As in blind-man's buff moving slowly;

I will stretch my left hand over thither

To the nest of my hen on yonder side.

                          ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 I decided to share a blessings with you on St. Patrick's Day which comes from a remarkable collection of prayers and blessings assembled by Alexander Carmichael. Carmichael was a British "simple servant" in the 19th century who in the course of travels related to his work became aware of the rich oral prayer tradition of rural folk in Scotland and Ireland.

Collecting these prayers became a passion for this gentle and compassionate man, what one biography described as a "beautiful mania." The collection, known as the Carmina Gadelica, has preserved hundreds of lovely Celtic prayers which might have otherwise been lost.

God be with thee in every pass,

Jesus be with thee on every hill,

Spirit be with thee on every stream,

Headland and ridge and lawn:

Each sea and land, each moor and meadow,

Each lying down, each rising up,

In the trough of the waves, on the crest of the billows,

Each step of the journey thou goest.

Action & Prayer, Down by the Riverside

 

4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
    the holy habitation of the Most High.
5 God is in the midst of the city;[a] it sha

ll not be moved;
    God will help it when the morning dawns.
6 The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter;
    he utters his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord of hosts is with us;
    the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Psalm 46:4-7 NRSV

So often I don't know about the special anniversaries and "days of" until they are upon us or have slipped by. I try to blog in advance although that doesn't always work. It means that when I see something like International Day of Action for Rivers (Monday) I am responding after the fact. 

Rivers fascinate me and I've made more of an effort to understand the watersheds in proximity to where we live. We are paddlers, both in a canoe and kayaks, getting out on the water scores of times in each of the past two years of the pandemic. We have snooped along sections of the Salmon and the Moira and the Trent rivers within an hour of home. I'm already paying attention as sections of the Moira which runs through Belleville open up and I'm excited that within a few weeks we will be able to make our first foray of 2022. 

As it happens, the most recent issue of Canadian Geographic arrived the same day with an article about called I am Mutehekau Shipu: A River's Journey to Personhood in Eastern Quebec (impressive timing!) In countries around the world rivers are being franted legal personhood and rights, and this is the first in Canada. Rivers are dammed and used as conduits for industrial and human effluent, but in February of 2021 the Innu people of the region and the municipality made this joint declaration as part of the Mutehekau Shipu Alliance. 

This trend fascinates me as someone who views rivers as vital to the integrity of Creation. There are plenty of rivers in scripture, in both testaments, although they often seem to be backdrops in stories, including the baptism of Jesus. Imagine if we regarded them as living, breathing entities, worthy of respect and protection.

How about listening to a lovely rendition of I Went Down to the River to Pray by Alison Krauss? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swOLCLrqBn8

            Moira River March 2021

God's Choir & the Insect Crisis

 All God's creatures got a place in the choir

Some sing low and some sing higher,
Some sing out loud on a telephone wire,
Some just clap their hands, or paws, or anything they've got now

There is a television crime series called Cardinal which is well acted and had a suspenseful plot in the first season which kept us watching. We started the second season but it was just too gruesome so we quit. We're a bit disappointed because it is set in a Northern Ontario city which feels a lot like North Bay or Sudbury and was filmed in the north. There is a scene in the season we gave up on where the two detectives are investigating near a remote cabin and they're swatting at bugs as they do so -- that was authentic. 

We lived in Sudbury for eleven years and loved access to the outdoors even though our home was close to the downtown. There were times, though, when the blackflies and mosquitoes were so fierce we thought we were going to be carried away. When we headed out for a paddle we would strategize how quickly we could get our canoe and gear into the water and away from shore to get relief from the voracious bloodsuckers. 

I never miss either of those insects when they are absent in any setting but maybe I should. Insects are disappearing around the planet and we're in trouble if the Insect Apocalypse or Insectaggedon deepens. Recently the climate writer Oliver Milman has been interviewed often because of his new book The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World. In a New York Times review by Thor Hanson we find out what's to blame, and, yup, it's humans: 

Blame for the crisis falls on broad biodiversity threats like habitat loss and climate change, as well as insect-specific challenges from light pollution and the rampant use of pesticides. But Milman draws particular attention to the way industrial agriculture has transformed once-varied rural landscapes into vast monocultures. Devoid of hedgerows or even many weeds, modern single-crop farms simply lack the diverse plant life necessary to support an insect community. As the agricultural ecologist Barbara Smith puts it: “It’s like if the only food available was chips. Chips for everybody even if you don’t eat chips.” 

Milman has an ear for a good quote and a knack for explaining scientific research. He interviews dozens of experts, from beekeepers battling murder hornets in the Pacific Northwest to a biologist tracking declines in beetles through chemical traces in the feathers of the birds that eat them. There are times one longs to linger on a story, but with so much urgent ground to cover it’s hard to begrudge the book its pace. This omnibus approach also reveals something telling: the startling number of scientists who describe their findings as “alarming” or “frightening.” In other words, the people who know most about the crisis aren’t just worried; they’re scared. Unchecked insect declines threaten massive crop failures, collapsing food webs, bird extinctions and more.

In a CBC The Current interview Millman offered the chilling thought that without certain insects the availability of chocolate and ice cream could be limited. Now that's serious!

Sigh. I don't really want to love what it's tempting to perceive as the enemy, and I'll still lay on the Deet, but when we sing "all God's creatures got a place in the choir" we really do have to include the crickets and maybe even the mosquito in the tent. 

More "hear the bird of the Lord"

 

A couple of weeks ago I shared the invitation of a California pastor to "hear the bird of the Lord" during the six weeks of Lent. She suggested taking a few minutes each day to listen for birdsong as a spiritual discipline and needless to say I was delighted by this notion. In many urban settings it can be tough to hear birds, even when attempting to be attentive but its certainly possible where we are, including in our backyard.

This past Tuesday I was walking by the Bay of Quinte when I heard the first red-winged blackbirds of 2022, a raucous croak which is music to my ears after months of Winter. Hearing them tells me that other creatures may know something I don't know about the change of seasons. Ruth saw a red-winged blackbird on one of our feeders and I've heard them while working around the yard.

It seems too that the calls of the cardinals are becoming more urgent and the chickadees have changed their tune. Robins are back in our neighbourhood, both visibly and in chirp. I went out to the garage and was puzzled to see that leaves had been tossed out of the crack between the door and the paved driveway. I looked over to see a robin waiting for me to get out of the way so he/she could get back to foraging. The crows were noisy this morning and I was surprised to see the crowd of different species of birds at the feeders with the seed diminishing before their furious onslaught. 

On this second Sunday of Lengthen (Lent) I encourage all you Groundlings to get outside and listen for our avian companions. They can be the source of hope as we limp our way toward Easter. 

An Underwater Seaport & Climate Change

                                                                      The Beach in Dunwich

 I don't know why a travel story about a sleepy seaside village in Britain showed up in my Twitter feed, nor why I clicked on it. It was about Dunwich, a place with fewer than 200 residents which has a little museum with displays about the bustling town, one of the largest in England which disappeared into the sea due to a succession of storms in the 13th and 14th centuries. The bustling port never recovered. 

Apparently there have been plenty of stories about fishing gear snagging on the buildings of the sunken town and in recent years work has been done to map these submerged streets from the distant past. These include eight churches and a couple of monasteries where people likely prayed for deliverance from the terrors of those destructive storms. Dunwich is not alone. There are hundreds of coastal communities around the British Isles which have succumbed to the sea.

                                                                             Dunwich Museum 

This got me thinking about the projections about rising sea levels because of climate change and the damage which will result in coastal areas around the world. Cities such as Miami are experiencing what's known as "sunny weather flooding" which is related to the combination of high tides and rising water levels rather than storms. Miami and New York and other big cities are spending billions on climate change mitigation but experts warn that the "perfect storm" of events -- the "storm from hell" could overwhelm defences, as happened in New Orleans. 

Could the day come when millions of people will be on the move because of coastal areas becoming a climate change Atlantis? Would folk gather in churches and mosques and synagogues to desperately pray for deliverance? Perhaps our most meaningful prayer is  repentance for our blindness to the climate emergency and a willingness to change our patterns of consumption and denial of what is already happening. 

                                                                     Flooded downtown Miami

Prayer Walking in Lent 2022

 

 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them,  but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 

                                 Luke 24:12-16

While searching for a book I never uncovered I did come across I did unearth a wee gem which was published nearly 30 years ago. It's called Prayer-Walking: A Simple Path to Body-and-Soul Fitness by Linus Mundy -- how could I not be intrigued by the last name? I don't know how I discovered it "way back when" but I found it inspiring because it schmecked with my personal experience at the time. Was it brilliant? Not really, but it was certainly worthwhile and the right book in the right moment. We were living in Sudbury where I served the largest congregation in Manitou Conference, right downtown. Still, I found time to get outdoors regularly. Sometimes these were prayerful walks and paddles on my own. 

We also had congregational hikes with up to 70 participants across a range of ages. Those outing were more for fun than contemplation. Still, I found out last Summer, decades after we had moved on, that a woman who wasn't connected with St A's at the time came on one of those church rambles with a sister who was part of the congregation and it awakened her to a love of the natural world and a reconnection with a religious community.

Some of you know about the current trend of Forest Bathing which has its origins in Japan. I have been on these contemplative walks and highly recommend them. I've blogged about Forest Bathing and included the concept in study groups on prayer. My only reservation is that this has become a bit of a "flavour of the day" experience and those who lead them pay thousands of dollars to qualify to do so. 

As Christians and Groundlings we can keep in mind that Jesus did his own Prayer Walking as an individual, with his disciples, and even after his resurrection. The story in Luke of the encounter between Jesus and despondent followers  on the road to Emmaus is one of my favourites. It was in the walking and sharing a meal that they were awakened and their hope was restored. 

I wonder if every congregation should provide resources for self-guided contemplative rambles as a priority for the journey of faith? Did we miss a golden opportunity during the past two years? 

I hope you can get out for a prayer walk today. 

Another gem in my personal library