Celebrate Creation this Lent! – Eco-Congregation Ireland

Eco-Congregation Ireland (ECI) is urging churches to celebrate the beauty of Creation this Lent and to take practical steps to care for the environment. We suggest that parishes, communities and individuals might like to plant fruit and nut trees in their localities.

Rathfarnham 'big dig' 001 Planting edible landscapes is one of many practical ways we can prepare for a low-carbon future by increasing local resilience. It is an especially appropriate action to take this year, given that 2011 is the UN International Year of Forests.

All good garden centres stock a range of fruit trees, although Irish Seed Savers, Scariff, Co Clare is recommended for helping preserve native Irish species. Saplings can be ordered over the internet from anywhere in the country – www.irishseedsavers.ie.

Churches are also asked to consider hosting Just Forests’ Wood of Life exhibition. See www.justforests.org.

ECI is also encouraging churches and their members to choose Lenten

resources with an environmental theme. There are plenty to choose from!

Columban Faith and Justice has produced a Stations of the Rainforests DVD for Lent 2011, which incorporates the themes of extractive industries, loss of biodiversity and climate change. Links are also revealed with human impoverishment and loss of livelihoods. A resource booklet accompanies the DVD, providing the script, an agenda for meetings using the DVD, a reflection for each of the Stations and material for liturgies. £7 inclusive of p&p from Columban JPIC Office, St. Joseph’s, Watford Way, Hendon, London NW4 4TY. Tel:020 8202 2555.

The newly-formed Biblical Association of the Church of Ireland has prepared a Biblical reflective programme for Lent on the theme of Creation, which can be downloaded for free fro www.bibliahibernica.wordpress.com.

The Diocese of Bath and Wells’ Lenten course, Love for the Future (which

includes DVD, notes, worship resources and music), is inspiring and

uplifting – a much-needed resource at this time of financial and economic

uncertainty. As we recognise the interconnections of the economic and

environmental crises, this study – for personal or group use – with its

haunting music, encourages us to look beyond despair to the gospel values of

respect, compassion, justice, simplicity, repentance and hope. See

www.bathandwells.org.uk/go/loveforthefuture.

The Irish Catholic Bishops‘ pastoral reflection, Cry of the Earth, provides an excellent starting point for a series of discussions. It invites individuals and parish communities to reflect on the challenge of climate change and the actions we can take to help construct a more sustainable environment. Also, to reflect on the covenant between human beings and the environment “which should mirror the creative love of God, from whom we come and towards whom we are journeying”. See www.catholicbishops.ie/features.

Also recommended is Operation Noah‘s Between the Flood and the Rainbow (www.operationnoah.org), the Methodist Relief and Development Fund‘s Lenten Bible study pack, What does the Bible say about Climate Change? (www.mrdf.org.uk), the Church in Societ Environmental Advisory Group’s Environmental Bible Study – Five Studies on God’s Works in Creation and

Redemption (www.churchinsociety.org) and Christian Ecology Link‘s Ecocell (www.christian-ecology.org.uk).

Judy Cannato’s books, Quantum Grace: Lenten Reflections on Creation and Connectedness and Quantum Grace: The Sunday Readings (Ave Maria Press) are both excellent for individual reflection.

For many people nowadays, Lent is not a time for giving up, but for taking up. Love Life Live Lent is a delightful book filled with suggestions for both children and adults to undertake during Lent – small and fun actions that can inspire and transform one’s family, community and the wider world. See www.livelent.net.

Also recommeded are Trócaire‘s Lent 2011 (www.trocaire.org), Christian Aid‘s Count Your Blessings (www.christianaid.ie) and Tearfund‘s Carbon Fast resources (www.tearfund.org) as well as the Ecumenical Water Network’s Seven Weeks for Water meditations and action ideas, which this year focus on the theme ‘Water, Conflict and Just Peace’ (oikoumene.org/7-weeks-for-water).

“Over the winter months many people in Ireland experienced water shortages, which gave us a new appreciation for water and an insight into the major problems so many people in developing countries experience on a daily basis,” says ECI chairperson, Catherine Brennan SSL. “Water is a valuable resource to be preserved and shared for the benefit of all creatures and the wider creation.

“Climate change is a reality, as can be seen from changed weather patterns throughout the globe, but by uniting together in prayer and action, we can make a real difference.”

Her Head

Near Ekuvukeni,

in Natal, South Africa,

a woman carries water on her head.

After a year of drought,

when one child in three is at risk of death,

she returns from a distant well,

carrying water on her head.

The pumpkins are gone,

the tomatoes withered,

yet the woman carries water on her head.

The cattle kraals are empty,

the goats gaunt-

no milk now for children,

but she is carrying water on her head.

The engineers have reversed the river:

those with power can keep their power,

but one woman is carrying water on her head.

In the homelands, where the dusty crowds

watch the empty roads for water trucks,

one woman trusts herself with treasure,

and carries water on her head.

The sun does not dissuade her,

not the dried earth that blows against her,

as she carries the water on her head.

In a huge and dirty pail,

with an idle handle,

resting on a narrow can,

this woman is carrying water on her head.

This woman, who girds her neck

with safety pins, this one

who carries water on her head,

trusts her own head to bring to her people

what they need now

between life and death:

She is carrying them water on her head.

Her Head