Action4Creation
by the Revd Charlotte Bannister - Parker

St Cuthbert’s Isle is a place of refuge, where St Cuthbert (634 – 687), the early Anglo-Saxon Saint in the Celtic tradition, went to rest and pray in the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, in Northumbria. This was a place St Cuthbert sang psalms ‘in tune with the wind and the waves’.

This term, St Mary’s is delighted to offer a pilgrimage on a journey to creation care. St Cuthbert found peace and a closeness to God in nature even when he was living in that very remote and isolated landscape. So while we are grappling with lockdown and our own social isolation in these difficult times, please join us online this term for a warm and welcoming series, looking at our relationship with God, creation and the environment.

I envisaged this course to be like going on a pilgrimage together. Pilgrimages have been defined as acts of faith, a former spiritual practice in which devotees, the pilgrims take a spiritual journey to a sacred destination and undergo a transformation in the process. Due to the lockdown, we can’t physically go on this pilgrimage together but I promise the course for Action4Creation will be a fun, inspiring and thoughtful pilgrimage to help us understand our role as co-carers of God’s beautiful creation.

Through this journey we can look forward to a ‘new haven and new earth, home of justice’ (2 Peter 3.13 ) and move towards the revelation of God in creation and expand our ecological action and personal growth.

This is one of my favourite Trinitarian prayers inspired by the Celtic tradition, written by Esther de Vaal.

The keeping of God upon thee in every pass,

The shielding of Christ upon thee in every path,

The bathing of the Spirit upon thee in every stream,

In every land and sea, thou goest.

The course starts on Tuesday 13 October, at 6pm and will take place on Zoom. Please contact the Church Office at admin@universitychurch.ox.ac.uk if you're interested in attending.