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Something new is happening in creation—a convergence of concern across faith traditions.
People of faith who are attuned to both the needs of justice and the ways of Spirit are
coming together to care for soul, community, and creation.
Hello, I’m Mardi Tindal, Moderator of The United Church of Canada, and those of us who
take part in this movement from within the Christian tradition do so as followers of
Jesus, who said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all
your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind…” You shall love your neighbour
as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Well, what does it mean to truly love God and to truly love neighbour?
Today, God’s creation is in distress. Human-induced climate and ocean change are harming the health
of the planet, affecting all life, including human health.
Loving God, neighbour, and self are possible only as we also love God’s good garden.
The work of soul, community, and creation converge.
In this short video I’d like to show you how practices for the health of soul, community,
and creation work together to offer us life-affirming and hope-filled opportunities.
Every day I hear inspiring stories of how you and others are joining in this movement.
We encourage one another, and my hope is that this short video will encourage you. I’ll
offer some suggestions for your continued involvement at the end.
There’s no better place to begin than here in my mother’s garden, a place lovingly
cared for and nurtured in the cause of abundant wholeness.
Here in the garden we’re astounded by creation and its abundant gifts. From the time of Genesis
onward the earth is described as God’s bountiful garden offering life for which we must care.
Now, we are coming to recognize our carelessness in the garden and the need to discover a new
relationship with our garden home. In just the last 100 years, we’ve built
an unprecedented world of human convenience. While amazing on the one hand, we now know
that this carbon economy is destroying the health of the planet and of humanity.
God’s garden is choking on the fumes. We must now use our creativity to transition
to a post-carbon world, to live within the natural cycles of the garden’s abundance
rather than trying to control it. As any gardener can tell you, it is better
to work with a garden than try
to dominate it. So we need to get busy shifting the way we
live in the garden. And, as we do this, spirits are nourished.
Attention to soul is fundamental to our way of life as God’s people and as followers
of Jesus. This mysterious, wonderful dimension of what it
means to be truly human connects us to all of God’s goodness and provides an internal
compass to right living. Words fail to describe soulfulness, and yet
when we listen deeply and with open hearts we know its presence.
We also know that it longs for spiritual practice. Faith traditions around the world use a variety
of ways to listen for the Holy. Sabbath practices such as prayer, biblical contemplation, meditation,
and worship are among the essentials by which we remain whole and healthy in our relationship
with Holy Mystery, by which we may experience “wholeness, union, and integration with
the common ground of all being.” These practices guide us into right relations
with God, with each other, and with the garden.
Thank God that life in the garden is not a solitary experience.
In addition to all other creatures , we have one another.
In our Christian understanding, we live our faith in relationship with God and with one
another. We come to know God’s love and purposes by engaging with others in seeking
God’s wholeness. This is what Jesus taught and lived throughout
his life. It is a core meaning of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
We are the body of Christ when seeking right relations, not only among humans but with
all of creation. Together we can imagine and live into a post-carbon economy, a healthy
garden that sustains us for generations to come.
Many people, both within our own church and in other faith traditions, are already working
together to green their places of worship and to help each other live into new ways
of living in the garden. Naturalizing gardens, insulating, upgrading energy systems, supporting
community agriculture, holding eco-fairs, installing solar panels, and burning less
hydrocarbons in travel begins a list of what people of faith are doing.
These are among the reasons I’m riding the “Spirit Express” across the country. During
this series of travels by train, I’m inviting folks to come to town hall meetings where
can share our ecological concerns and also our stories about the ways that people of
faith are acting together to make our communities more sustainable and healthy.
(URL in background: www.greeningsacredspaces.net/join. French site is www.greenchurchproject.org/vert)
You and your faith community can play an important role in this movement. Please register yourself
or your faith community with us so we can learn from each other how people of faith
are putting their garden faith into green action.
I will share my work with you and invite you to share your work with me, connecting soul,
community, and creation. Please stay in touch through my blog and other
messages and interactions on the United Church website. And please register to be part of
the green interfaith network. Together we can move from practices that destroy to practices
that are the way of sustainable, abundant life in God’s good garden.