The Environment

On Thursday we focus on the environment. We seek to discover and promote new ways of sustainable living as an expression of our caring for God's creation.

Member John Martin recently wrote: What state is the earth in at the moment?

In Australia soil salination is continuing and prevention measures grossly underfunded; land clearing continues, species of plants and animals are still becoming extinct; reliance on non-renewable fossil fuels increases as we continue to drive large cars and transport our goods long distances by road rather than rail. Houses are still being built without something as simple as solar hot water systems. I even heard of one building company where eaves on a house are an 'extra'. Precious water from roofs of buildings still goes to waste while we in Sydney watch anxiously as the level of our biggest dam, Warragamba, steadily drops.

The earth's temperature continues to rise as a result of human activity and our Government refuses to sign the Kyoto protocol.


Recently I read Psalm 104. This Psalm is a litany of components which together make up the created order: the heavens, wind, fire, earth, oceans, springs of water, grass for animals to eat and plants for people, trees for birds, high mountains for wild goats, the moon and the sun. The first section of the Psalm concludes:

24 O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

Made in God's wisdom, an earth full of God's creatures.

It is as if the human species is adding a postscript: 'Destroyed in human foolishness, earth empty of God's creatures'.

In the midst of the gloom, which we cannot ignore, it is good to see Wellspring people making an effort to be gentle with God's earth.

One of our members reminded us all that whereas the practical measures we employ are important. 'Those details are less important to me than the spirit behind them. I have tried to make environmental concern part of my spirituality'.

For this member, the way practical measures are undertaken is important. 'It can be done is the same spirit as the monks of old did their penitential practices i.e. offered up to God with love and dedication, but also with a sense of fun.'

The call to the Church is for us all to see environmental concern as an intensely spiritual matter. The Psalmist can have the last word:

When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground. (Psalm 104:34)

Reflection

"How necessary it is for monks to work in the fields, in the rain in the sun, in the mud, in the clay 'in the wind. These are our spiritual directors and our novice masters. They form our contemplation. They instil us with virtue. They make us as stable as the land we live in."

Thomas Merton - " When the Trees say Nothing"

"Australians are looking to ways of bringing the Australian landscape into their spirituality: to come home to this land's spiritually and so to complete the sea crossing they or their ancestors have made form other homelands. It is only to be accepted that they look to Aboriginal spirituality in their quest. This was a spirituality (the Law, the Dreaming) which evolved in the landscape, over thousands of years, and which was expressed in practice, in story, in art and in ceremony by those who were part of the landscape. There is no question of appropriating the Dreaming but rather of taking up the cue from Aborigines themselves that the Law can be read from the landscape."

Eugene Stockton - "Mysticism in the Australian Environment" p. 13-14

Readings

Psalm 104:16-21 | Mark 4:26-34

Prayer

"Invisible we see you, Christ beneath us,
With earthly eyes we see beneath us
Stones and dust and dross...
But with the eyes of faith,
We know you uphold.
In you all things consist and hold together.
The very atom is light energy,
The grass is vibrant,
The rocks pulsate. All is in flux;
Turn but a stone and an angel moves.
Underneath are the everlasting arms.
Unknowable we know you, Christ beneath us."

From a prayer of George MacLeod.

Isolated Members and Friends
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Facebook
The Wellspring Community has a Facebook group. For more information about Facebook click here. If you want to look at the Wellspring group then first you need to sign up. When you've signed up use the search function and you should find the Wellspring group. You'll need to ask for permission to join the group. That will come to the Wellspring office for approval.

Wellspring Book Publication
"Campfires and Wellsprings", a great read to supplement the urban pilgrimage.