Faith & Ecology Network (NSW, Australia)
Since 2002 I have worked with the Faith and Ecology Network (FEN). Twelve different faiths look to ecology to give a common language. At meetings, a scientist speaks then three or four members respond from their faith tradition. It stimulates and is mutually enriching. The parable of Jesus tells how vineyard workers complained to the owner when latecomers got the same wages as they did. Are you envious because I am generous? (Matthew 20:15).
God might ask us, are you envious because I have shared my gift of life so widely - animals and fish, grass and trees, even with bugs, fungi and worms? God places us within a kaleidoscope of life, but do we really love it and want to share life within this mesmerising diversity?
Biodiversity – A Buzz word for ecologically aware people
Biodiversity is a buzzword for ecologically aware people. Many scream the word in protest. Humans are destroying the habitats that underpin life. They are right. We applaud their scientific analysis, but do we commit to changing expectations and economic rules that allow such destruction?
As believers, we enter a dialogue with the world that benefits all sides, wrote Pope Francis (Laudato Si 62).
We add to a fuller human response. We proclaim that every life form comes from a self-giving God. We comprehend that diversity of life in sea and air, on and under land is the first revelation of God and underpins our life.
A full human response means that we work together and care for our common home
Often misinterpreting Scripture, humans have exploited nature to create empires of slavery. Self-centred cries of ‘scarcity’ prompt Jesus to ask: is the cost-of-living crisis in reality a cost of expectations crisis?
God was angry with empty-headed Job for not recognising God at work in the natural world. A slow read of Job chapters 38-40 is a fruitful meditation. Australian readers appreciate paragraphs on crocodiles.
Blessed with a self-reflecting role within God’s creation, humans grow responsible. Believers humbly commit to ecological conversion.
Nature teaches us first, survival involves struggle and self-giving. Christ the Suffering Servant lived out this truth (Isaiah 53). Second, transformation grows through cooperation. The ecological term mutuality captures the processes as plants and animals, set within a particular place, help each other to survive, grow and mature.
Love is key. Passionate scientists inspire us. Some become media stars like David Attenborough. Painters excite us as they capture colour and shapes. Care for creation is in the order of love wrote Pope Francis (LS 77).
We share this incarnational earthly adventure with creation – A Red Panda peeks from behind the bamboo
Gratitude and excitement bubble up within us caught up in our incarnational earthly adventure. We praise God in prayer, singing of cosmic and earthy wonders, like St Francis, calling them sister and brother.
As the human population creeps towards ten billion, God calls us to be co-worker to help create a new epoch of life to the full (John 10:10). We dream careers, new studies, seek new ways to enjoy life on earth in the company of all God’s creatures as friends, not competitors.
We begin by loving the multi-forms of life where no person, nor culture, or religion is against us. We commit to the community of all life. Aggression, fear and self-interest melt away under the abundance of the God-given diverse life on earth. We thank God faithful in every age for the biological diversity of this wonderous earth – God’s life-sustaining creation.
Columban Fr Charles Rue
Related links
- Read more from the current Columban eBulletin
