Scottish ecologist, Dr Alastair McIntosh, delivered the public lecture at Ireland Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in April. In keeping with the overall theme of the gathering, ‘Knowing God’s Creation’, Dr McIntosh took as his theme: “To Become ‘the People of the Cross’: Climate Change, Violence and some Meanings of Creation in Our Times”.
The script of his address is available to read on the Quaker website by clicking here and Dr McIntosh has kindly written the following introduction for people approaching the talk via the Eco-Congregation Ireland website:
What I expressed in this year’s public lecture of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Ireland owes a very great deal to Eco-Congregation Ireland. Especially to events with which Eco-Congregation has been, to varying degrees, associated or in the background. I am thinking in particular of the Climate Change & Well-Being of the Community conference that the Sisters of the Cross and Passion organised at Drumalis in February. Also, events held last year by Eco-Congregation in association with both Fitzroy Presbyterian Church in Belfast and the Quaker meeting in Cork. Prior to that have been several other events that involved such Eco-Congregation luminaries as Sr Catherine Brennan of the Saint Louis order.
I would like to place it on the record that early in 2014, when recovering from what had been a life-threatening illness, Sr Catherine telephoned me from her hospital bed. She apologised that she would not be well enough to make it to the event in Fitzroy. Such was the combination of my poor hearing and her respiratory illness affecting her voice that I could hardly make out what she was trying to say. However, as later confirmed, I got the essence of it. She had said in a tone of the utmost urgency: “Tell them about the Cosmic Christ.”
In addressing the Quaker’s Yearly Meeting, I took those words as part of my commission. Since Catherine said them, they have been ringing round and round in my mind, like the prayer bell of an early Celtic saint.
Those of you from Eco-Congregation Ireland who want to read the lecture on the Quaker website should be forewarned. It is not about the practicalities of environmentalism. That job is done very well by others. Instead, I took the occasion to explore some meanings of Christ and the awkward topic of “the Cross” for today’s world. I did so under the rubric of the Irish Quakers’ overarching theme for this year: “Knowing God’s Creation.” I did likewise, albeit from a different angle, in my closing reflection at the Drumalis conference. That has also now been written up as Seeds of Fire and can be downloaded as a PDF document from the link.
In these ways, I have tried to pay heed to the Spirit’s calling. I have tried to discern new openings of the way for this, the third millennium. It is thinking and feeling that has been stimulated over several years now from right across Ireland. It is also spreading seeds elsewhere, and I just wanted those of you who work so hard for your Eco-congregations to know that, and with appreciation.