Margo Delaney sent us this latest news:
The Season of Creation is a special time when we reaffirm our commitment to appreciating the wonder of God’s gift of creation. It is a time when we invite our parish community to join in our spiritual, practical, community and global efforts to cherish and protect this bountiful free gift.
We are guided in our celebration by Eco Congregation Ireland’s “scaffolding” of spirituality, practical, community and global.
SPIRITUALITY
As always, we create the sacred space as a focal point to highlight the season. While symbolically showing the beauty and diversity of our “common home”, it calls us “to hear the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor”.
PRACTICAL
Each week from September 1st to October 4th, we focus on a specific theme. Week one begins with OUR LIVING PLANET, followed by week 2 OUR WATER; week 3 OUR AIR, week 4 OUR CONSUMPTION and week 5 OUR SHARED FUTURE. The Care for the Earth notice board carries a poster to illustrate each theme , and parishioners are given an action card, inviting them to take some practical actions that help to keep our environment sustainable, and to pray the shortened form of THE PRAYER OF CREATION.
COMMUNITY
During the second week of the Season of Creation, our parish community gathered to begin preparing a plot in the church ground for the planting of a pocket forest of native trees and a hedgerow. The sun shone, the parishioners gathered, and all willingly followed the instructions of the pocketforest leaders as the ground was forked, fed and covered with membrane to allow the microorganisms to aerate the soil in preparation for the planting of 70 trees and the hedgerow later in the year. Through the outreach of ECI, we are delighted to have been the recipients of a small grant for the purchase of garden equipment needed for the work.
GLOBAL
The linking of the Season of Creation with the “The Cry of the Earth, the Cry of the Poor“ and the challenge to simplify our lifestyles and daily practices calls us all to remember that those who suffer most from destruction of our planet are the poorest, most vulnerable people.
