Megan McKenna delivers an enchanting talk on ‘Creation and Spirituality’

US author, theologian and story-teller, Megan McKenna, gave a delightfully lively talk on ‘Creation and Spirituality’ at Trócaire’s head office in Maynooth recently.

Her original and thought-provoking re-telling of the Genesis story and her enchanting delivery of an aboriginal story about caring for the earth quite simply spellbound her audience.

A native of New York City, McKenna has lived, visited and gypsied through North and South America (especially Bolivia/Peru), Europe and a collection of islands: Celtic, Japanese, the Philippines, Singapore, Haiti and the Hawaiian Islands and through Malaysia, India, Marshall Islands, Thailand, Australia and China. She works with indigenous groups, in base Christian communities and with justice and peace groups as well as parishes, dioceses and religious communities.

She has been on the United States National Board of Pax Christi and in 2002 was appointed an Ambassador of Peace for Pax Christi, USA. She teaches at several colleges and universities in the US and facilitates retreats, workshops and parish missions throughout the world, including Ireland. She has lectured at All Hallows College, Dublin, and Mary Immaculate College, Limerick.

McKenna told her audience at Trócaire head office that the creation story we pick up sets a pattern for how we perceive change to happen in the world. “What we could do with creation if we shifted our perspective,” she said.

She told an Australian aboriginal story, ‘The Voice of the Earth’, which she described as “the story of what happens when we stop caring for the earth”. “We must listen to the earth; otherwise the earth will die, and we will too,” she said. “We need to listen to ancient wisdom, and you have it in your Celtic spirituality.”

She said the way we treat the earth reflected the way we treat other people, and we tend not to treat other people well as we have difficulty loving ourselves first. “You must all listen to the earth, and you must listen to each other,” she said. “What’s given is for the building up of community, not for individual use. We need each other desperately, not only in relation to climate change, but also in spirituality…. The thing we have most difficulty listening to is what we most need to hear.”

McKenna’s understanding of the verse “Be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth” was “We are to give everything that was created before us their due.”

“We are to treat the earth with awareness, respect and consideration and we are to serve as luminaries,” she concluded. “Be like God – know the difference between good and evil, reach for wisdom. Listen to our ancestors and the cry of the earth…. There are enough resources; it all depends on sharing resources.”

McKenna has written more than 30 books, including ‘And Morning Came: Scriptures of the Resurrection’, ‘Send My Roots Rain’ and ‘Harm Not The Earth’. Her latest book, ‘Breaking the Word: Reflections for Lectionary Readings Cycle B’ has just been published by Veritas.

The event was organised by Trócaire’s church officer, Hannah Evans, to mark the agency’s new climate change campaign – ‘UP TO US – EVERYONE ACT!’ – and its new parish action sheet, which was co-produced with the Irish Missionary Union. See www.trocaire.org/uptous.

Megan McKenna will be leading a retreat in Ireland in June 2012. See http://meganmckenna.wordpress.com/.