Kathie Davey sent ECI this update:
We have prepared for the Season of Creation by putting up a number of quotations from Laudato Si’ in the Church, hoping that these will bring its message into our hearts.
We have also placed a large globe near the altar with the Prayer for Creation below it.
Our organist has been wonderful, providing the liturgy with suitable hymns praising God in his works of Creation, accompanied, line by line with beautiful images and every week the Prayers of the Faithful include prayers that we should be mindful of the needs of creation and our responsibility towards it.
There is a small group of “crafty “ people which joined up with “ STITCHES for SURVIVAL” and has been making woollen panels to adorn COP 26 in Glasgow in November, later to be re-purposed into blankets for the homeless, refugees and others. Meanwhile, the panels have been on the Sept. 26th Climate Strike in Dublin and at the gate in Shankill for the regular “Fridays for Future” witness. Recently, we have also hung them along the church railings on Sundays, weather permitting! As well as being decorative, their messages are thought –provoking, especially when rather cryptic and they provide a chance to talk to people about what COP 26 is all about!
We also add an update of the Biodiversity Border which is coming into its own.
We hope and pray that political leaders will act with courage, objectivity, and determination and respond to the demands of those who see the urgency of the climate Crisis and NOT to those who wish to delay in order to increase short term profits.