When Charlotte asked if I would help set up an Eco Group I didn’t realize that it would be the start of a journey. It may yet not be one of many physical miles but it is opening up new territories. I have been to the top of the tower and into the bowels of the boiler room with the green auditor who came to survey the church. I have wandered amongst the ivy-clad tombstones of Holywell Cemetery where badgers and foxes roam. I have meandered through the pages of the Internet seeking reusable coffee cups.
It may be that this is the starting point of a pilgrimage, a journey to a sacred place. That sacred place is Earth, where we are all privileged to be custodians. The mission statement of the ‘Green Team’ reads:
‘We have a green goal: for SMV to play its part in renewing the face of the Earth by using resources responsibly, creatively and unselfishly. As individuals and as a church we will model care for the planet by cutting down our environmental footprint and seeking ways to promote environmental conscience in our city’ (with thanks to Mary Lean for this.)
Documentaries frighten us with images of the plastic filled bellies of dead sea birds, news reports tell of unprecedented thunder and lightening in the Arctic and newspapers promulgate politicians’ climate change denials. We must continue to be horrified by the wrecking of our planet.
Mahabharat, the epic Sanskrit text contains the passage:
‘Remember that we must only take from Nature that which is necessary. If human beings forget this principle and begin to abuse their power over nature, future generations of humanity will pay the price’. Many Hindus begin the day with a prayer apologising to the Earth ‘ for stepping upon you with my feet’ .
Christianity has its own saintly champion of the natural world in St. Francis of Assisi, who recognised the importance spiritual odysseys ‘the journey is essential to the dream’.
If pilgrimages are about strengthening faith that faith should challenge pilgrims to consider their every action and its effect on the environment. As Pope Francis writes in his encyclical letter
‘Enlighten our minds to preserve all endangered species so that we may continue to appreciate all of Your creations.’

Let us be good stewards not wreckers -Tread Lightly.

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