Westport Eco-Congregation hosted an array of events for Septembers ‘Creation Time’ with focus on the Harvest festival in Holy trinity Church on Friday 16th and a number of events on the weekend of the 23rd – 25th September 2016. Henry Horkangave a talk at the Harvest
Festival in Holy Trinity Church about bees.
Irish Columban, Fr. Sean McDonagh, an eco-theologian who works to raise awareness on the connections between justice and peace issues, environmental sustainability and faith spoke at all masses in St. Mary’s Church over the weekend. He is author of many books including his latest: On Care for Our Common Home, Laudato Si’, The Encyclical of Pope Francis on the Environment with Commentary. Over the weekend he delivered his message quoting St.Francis; “the duty of man is to protect and enjoy nature, as stewards of God’s creation”.
The Tree Trail was Held on Saturday evening led by Muriel Barry & Sue Ironmonger where the names and features of the different tree species were identified along The Mall.
The pilot p
roject ‘The Good Shepherd’ was held in the entrance to The Fairways on the Golf Course road in Westport. The aim was to present an alternative concept to mowing grass with fossil fuel based machines; this project used sheep to cut grass over the weekend. On Sunday afternoon many withstood the showers for the music and the ‘Bling your Bike’ workshop.
Eco-Congregation member, Kevin Barrett reflected on the event by quoting Psalm 144:13; ‘Let our garners be full, furnishing every kind of produce and our flocks bring forth thousands and tens of thousands in our field’ and saying “While we did not see the tens of thousands at the good Shepherd weekend,we did see the wonderment of children as they looked at our four grazers. For others it was merely a gesture to say think again, not everything has to be cut by a gas guzzling machine. The message this weekend was ‘cut the grass without the gas’. Livestock is nature’s own solution to overgrown grass. Maybe for large grass covered areas in our towns we could let the ruminants take care of it?”
The group is delighted with the positive response to the Season on Creation events in Westport. The group meets once a month to promote the essence of ‘Laudato Si, Care for our Common Home.’ in the parish. Follow the parish newsletter and website for more information. Westport Eco-Congregation is also on Facebook.