earthConnection Deepening Our Connection to Creation

Deepening our Connection to Creation

By S. Caroljean Willie

Afriend of mine recently commented that she felt this pandemic was Mother nature putting humanity in a time-out. Remember as children when our parents used this technique to encourage us to think about what we did? Perhaps this is God’s way of saying to us “Think about what you have done to my creation.” At earthConnection we continue to strive to model what sustainability is through our organic garden as well as providing information via webinars, newsletters, our website and Instagram. We work with a number of different audiences from Girl Scouts to adults.

Rather than list the topics of our bi-monthly webinars, I would like to share some of the content from a few of the presentations. “A Call to ecospirituality” focused on how we find ourselves in the place we are today and what we are called to do as people of faith. The presentation traced our evolving relationship to creation back hundreds of years and echoed Father Thomas Berry’s assessment that we are in trouble right now because we are in between stories. He noted that the story of creation which flows from Genesis is a divine revelation, but is incomplete. It is a static model of creation which posits that creation was finished on the seventh day. Yet we know from science and theology today that creation is ongoing; God is continually revealing Godself to us in new and unique ways. Whereas once we believed that earth was the center of the universe, we now know that we are only a part of one of thousands of galaxies. God never stopped creating but calls each of us to continually be co-creators of a more just and peace-filled world. ecospirituality is a belief in the sacredness of all creation recognizing the Divine as an integral part of creation and that human beings are inextricably related to all other life forms within an interrelated, interconnected, ever-evolving web. It calls us to live in right relationship with all of creation. Specific activities in art, music, literature and writing offered ways to deepen one’s own connection to creation.

The presentation on “The Realities of Climate Change” focused on the scientific evidence supporting the human role in climate change, but also offered ideas on how to understand and respond to climate change deniers. Drawing from the work of climate scientist Dr. John Cook, it detailed the characteristics of science denial: fake experts, logical fallacies, impossible expectations, cherry picking and conspiracy theories. His book, Cranky Uncle vs. Climate Change, as well as his website www.skepticalscience.com provide information from climate scientists throughout the world. In addition to being a scientist, Dr. Cook is also a cartoonist and he employs that skill in both his book and website making complex topics easy to understand.

Despite getting a late start, S. Winnie and the “Garden Ladies” provided 562 pounds of vegetables to the Good Samaritan Free Health Center this season. Since 2006 they have provided 12,595 pounds of veggies to the clients of numerous social service agencies. S. Winnie has also provided several lectures for students from Cincinnati Tech on alternative energies.

S. Caroljean has offered environmental programs via Zoom for teachers in Belize, an earth literacy center on Vancouver Island, the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, DePaul university as well as to members of the SC Federation. A current project is developing programs for teachers at the elementary level on a variety of environmental issues.

SC Associate Sue DiTullio maintains our website and social media presence. Check out www.scearthconnection.org.

S. Winnie Brubach and her volunteers were able to donate 562 pounds of fresh vegetables from the EarthConnection gardens to the Good Samaritan Free Health Center this season.