Christians unite in prayer in run up to Copenhagen

Members of the Catholic, Church of Ireland, Methodist and Lutheran churches in Nenagh held a two-hour prayer vigil in St Mary’s Church of Ireland, Nenagh on 6^th December. Some came for just a few minutes, others for the entire two hours, but between 20 and 30 people were present at any one time.

The focus of the vigil was a table covered with a green cloth symbolising creation, on which were placed symbols of the faith shared by all Christians – a cross, a bible and a candle – together with a globe symbolising the beautiful God-given planet earth, now threatened by global warming.

In a calm, contemplative atmosphere, those present listened to readings and music, reflected in silence, and prayed for the success of the Copenhagen talks. They prayed too for the world leaders gathered there, including our own – it is not nations that make decisions, but individual human beings, who must feel the heavy burden of their responsibility. And they also prayed for an end to the human greed which is damaging our God-given planet.

Young people played a big part, among them: Thomas and Ellen Langley from Templederry who read prayers; and Leaving Cert student Maggie Starr who read her poem ‘It’s a sprint to the line’.

Joc Sanders, one of the organisers, was particularly pleased that local TD Máire Hoctor attended, and hoped that she would convey the message of the vigil to An Taoiseach Brian Cowan and Minister for the Environment John Gormley, who was to lead the Irish delegation at Copenhagen.

Comments heard afterwards over shared refreshments included:

• “Let’s hope that the governments can wake up and see what the average everyday people are seeing over the world”;”The poor earth needs all the prayers we can manage”;
• “It was moving and meaningful, and especially so because it was a shared witness with Christian traditions working together”.
An ecumenical prayer service for Copenhagen was also held in the Catholic church in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan. Also, St Louis associates held a prayer service for climate justice in Monaghan on 13^th December, which included readings from Genesis and use of the colours of the rainbow. Participants banged drums or bongos or shook rattles in a prayerful way 350 times at 3pm as part of the global ‘wake-up call to climate justice’.
The Three Rock Churches’ Environment Group, a group of churches working together to promote environmental awareness in south Dublin, held an ecumenical prayer service in Holy Cross, Dundrum on 29^th November. The speaker was Fr Dermot Lane, President of the Mater Dei Institute of Education and Parish Priest of The Ascension of the Lord, Balally.

In his homily, Fr Lane said that everybody needed to make changes to their lifestyles in order to help prevent runaway climate change. “We may run the risk, if we continue with our current lifestyles, of handing down a damaged planet to the next generation,” he said. “It may, in fact, be stealing from the next generation, unless we change our lifestyles.”He said that if proof of “the ongoing climate crisis” was required, one only needed to look at the floods that had “devastated” parts of the country recently. He also made reference to the recent pastoral letter produced by the Catholic bishops, The Cry of the Earth, which encourages everyone to undergo an “ecological conversion”.

“The spirit of God is the source of all life; the spirit of God breathes life into the dust of the earth. We are rooted and grounded in the universe … we are from the earth and belong to the earth,” he said, adding, “It is through the power of the Creator that we can renew the face of the earth – in our community, in our churches and in our religions.”

The Three Rock Churches’ Environment Group is made up of lay representatives from Dundrum Methodist, Whitechurch and Kilternan Church of Ireland parishes as well as the Catholic parishes of Holy Cross, Dundrum, and the Church of the Ascension of the Lord, Balally.

The Group has also organised competitions for school pupils and shown Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth. It is currently lobbying Dublin Bus to provide feeder buses to the Luas and hopes that the council will provide a piece of waste ground that can be developed into a garden. It also plans to screen The Age of Stupid film.