Mining - Resource Extraction - Fracking

An Environmental And Ethical Challenge (Part 2)

In ancient seas, hydrocarbons of coal, crude oil and natural gas were deposited in sedimentary shale rock.  Over the last century the ‘conventional’ shallow reservoirs of these fossil fuels, are being depleted and now hydraulic fracking is used to extract deeper ‘unconventional’ natural gas deposits.  Like the tar sands extraction, fracking is raising new ethical concerns. 

What is Fracking?  A vertical well, reinforced with concrete, is drilled miles beneath the earth’s surface. It is then turned horizontally to run an equal distance into the shale where natural gas is trapped.  Small fissures are made creating perforations in the rock.  Several million gallons of water mixed with sand and chemicals to keep the fissures open, are then forced down the well under extremely high pressure, fracturing the rock and creating paths for the gas to flow towards the well. About 70% of the fracking water is brought back to the surface for re-use or as waste water.  Watch YouTube: “Hydraulic Fracturing- Shale Natural Gas Extraction” (3 mins) and “Shale Gas Drilling: Pros and Cons”(7 mins).

Supporters of fracking are motivated by economic growth and the desire for domestic energy security; thus, shifting power from the Middle East to democratic regimes. This is a modern worldview. Scientifically well based, they advocate comparison analysis citing, e.g. using less water than agriculture. However, does this rationale justify the means? To its credit there is research to reduce the volume of water and toxic chemicals. Yet overall, the industry is severely under-regulated and is exempt from federal water management laws and other environmental legal obligations.  Ultimately economic profit from the expansion of fracking remains the goal.

Environmentalists, challenging fracking, are in a post-modern worldview, advocating for ethical sustainable practices and responsible stewardship. Environmental and health issues are primary concerns. For fracking, vast amounts of water are used stressing current reservoirs with competing needs.  The chemicals, many of which are carcinogens, cannot be safely removed from the waste water. A fear is that water not recovered will contaminate aquifers and ground water. The toxic greenhouse gas, methane, often leaks into the atmosphere impacting climate change. Fracking even appears to increase earthquake activity. In an era when the low cost of gas undermines development of renewable resources, new standards of sustainable goals are desperately needed to challenge fracking’s unprecedented pace.

Thomas Berry writes, “We can no longer live spiritually in any adequate manner simply within the limits of our early religious tradition.”1    What is needed is an expanded “spirituality of intimacy with the natural world.”2   As science and technology thrust humans into an increasingly complex world we must develop as “ecological sensitive personalities” with a new understanding of rights that shifts the preferential corporate influence to one that includes both the rights of local communities and of nature. This is the emerging integral worldview.

Beacons of hope are arising, probing the deeper dialogue, to give equal voice to humans, industry and the natural world as Quebec and Nova Scotia declare a moratorium on fracking pending environmental assessment and other countries ban it. As Sisters of St. Joseph of Canada ‘the more’ compels us to be counted among the prophets of an integral worldview with its, sustainable earth community spirituality.  This moves us from polarization to inclusion, recognizing the values and shortcomings of any position.  Inspired by Father Nepper, we are called to live into the “holy disquietude”3 that begs a questioning and discerning heart.

1 Thomas Berry, The Sacred Universe; pg. 19

2 Ibid, pg. 138

3 Fr. Nepper, Portrait of a Daughter/Sister of St. Joseph

Mining: A Turning Point Needed (Part 1)

Perhaps you grew up in a mining town, or in a family who has history of links with mining. For many Canadians over the last century the link was with actual mines. We saw directly both the negative impacts on the environment and the benefits to families. For many Canadians today, the link is with investment and the stock market. We do not easily see how mining impacts the people, the environment or the well-being of the planet and its waters unless we seek out those answers. What we hear most is that mining benefits the economy. We live in a society that ranks economic benefit both as its bottom line and as the ideal in which corporations have more rights than individuals or communities of peoples. As long ago as 2007, Mining Watch Canada stated the following: 

Across Canada, communities and Aboriginal governments are saying they have had enough when it comes to the privileged access mining has to land under the existing system, which grants “free entry” to prospectors and mining companies under the assumption the mining is the “highest and best” use of land. Globally, communities are demanding a say in their own futures, and Indigenous peoples in particular are increasingly demanding free, prior, informed consent for development projects that will affect them. (www.miningwatch.ca)

Canada has the highest number of mining companies in the world listed on our stock market. Canadian mining companies are increasingly accused of violations of human rights and violations of ecological integrity around the world. Development and Peace (www.devp.org) as well as Kairos (kairoscanada.org) and now, the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (http://cnca-rcrce.ca), continue to call for an ombudsman for the extractive industry sector who could insist on responsible mining at home and abroad. They also seek legislation making Canadian companies liable in Canadian courts for injustices in other countries.

Some of the ecological devastation that has resulted from mining is documented in videos, photos and personal stories on the above websites. You can also type “impacts of mining” into your browser and find hundreds of pictures, some very disturbing.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Currently there is much exploration in Northern Ontario, in what is called The Ring of Fire. I recently heard Bob Rae, the negotiator for the Matawa Tribal Council which represents the nine First Nations in whose territory the mineral deposits lie. He has heard a wide range of concerns. It has moved him to say there is a triple bottom line to which we must attend, if we want the kind of new relationship with the Indigenous people and the land that is needed.  The triple bottom line is: environmental, social and economic. Such a triple bottom line, so essential, can restore our relationship to the environment as well as the relationship with Indigenous Peoples and create a right relationship with the economy as well. New legislation, an ombudsman and the above tri-fold criterion for mining would indeed be a turning point.

(This is Part l of the Green Window on Mining, in the next issue Part ll of Mining will follow on Fracking)

Musing on Living Our Charism

Knowledge of our furry and feathered friends can teach us much. Whether, furry, feathered or human, we are blessed with our own unique DNA. It is my conviction that our CSJ charism of unity is part of our DNA just as the built-in urge to hibernate or fly south for the winter is intrinsic to some mammals and birds. This gift for creating unity is part and parcel of our spiritual DNA. As daughters and sons of the Joseph family, we do not acquire the charism but rather resonate with it. Through deepening faith and lived experience our awareness of the charism increases.  As we become more sensitive to this gift within us, we are better able to release its giftedness. 

Lately, I have been prayerfully reflecting on our CSJ spirituality and wondering how its way of life might be stated in terms more accessible to today’s seekers. I have discovered for myself alternate language in keeping with today’s thinking. I hope I have recaptured the essence of the spirituality which Médaille initially articulated using the terms uncreated Trinity and created Trinity.

Médaille used the concept of the uncreated Trinity and created Trinity to foster fidelity to the charism.  He ascribed respectively active and all inclusive love, self-emptying love and communing love to the Father, Son and Spirit and the virtues of zeal, obedience and cordial charity respectively to Jesus, Mary and Joseph.  Recently, in pondering the link between our CSJ spirituality with the living out of our charism I’ve come to think of our spirituality of communion as the three movements of unsparing compassion, deepening contemplation, and evolving consciousness which bring to life the charism.

But we are not alone, as humans, in this endeavor. All creation is living into this dynamic as the Creator, Son and Spirit are the underlying mystery of the universe which is like an invisible and hidden music that interplays beneath and within the visible familial roles of both humans and creatures. This awareness can bring an intentional manner of being that enables us to live the CSJ spirituality with purpose. Thus our everyday actions put “skin on our spirituality”.

My musing on our spirituality leads me to marvel at how the inborn nature of the animal world mirrors aspects of our own spiritual orientation. We are one!

Earth Church and Christian Discipleship

Since Vatican II, as Christians we have been reminded of the call to “read the signs of the times.” To do so is to root the call to discipleship in the “here and now”. Our “here and now” is our presence in a world, at once sacred and beautiful through which we experience God’s indwelling and divine reflection and simultaneously a world under intense environmental distress that threatens all life systems and results in profound human suffering. In this context it is perhaps little wonder that Pope Francis chose to be named for the patron saint of ecology, Francis of Assisi! 

Like his predecessors, John Paul 11 and Benedict XV1, Francis is a leader wholeheartedly committed to the Christian call to care for the Earth. In the recent Encyclical, Lumen Fidei, begun by Benedict and finished by Pope Francis we read: “Faith, by revealing the love of God the Creator, enables us to respect nature all the more, and to discern in it a grammar written by the hand of God and a dwelling place entrusted to our protection and care”. (#55) Through this Encyclical, Francis adds to the vibrant and evolving tradition of Catholic Social Teaching in which we have seen increasing and urgent calls to Christians to enter into a new consciousness in creation, revitalized environmental responsibility and partnerships with all peoples who have a care and concern for the Earth.

This is not something new but the growing of a tradition steeped in Scripture that tells us that God “fills the world with awe” (Psalm 104) and that Christ is the “image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation”, because the entire universe was created in, through and for Him.” (Col. 1: 15-17).

Building on Scripture the Canadian bishops have recently reminded us that “The wondrous beauty of creation ought to lead us to recognize within it the artistry of our Creator and to give him praise. The created world is not simply a place to live or material for our use”.

The environmental crisis, the Bishops of the Philippines have said is “the ultimate pro-life issue”. Care for the Earth, John Paul 11 stated strongly “is not an option for Christians”. So the formal teaching of the Church is not at odds with the modern environmental movement; rather it is a lively participant in it calling each of us to personal conversion and committed action.

One recent call may especially touch our lives as Sisters of St. Joseph, Associates and Companions. In his inaugural homily, Pope Francis referred to St Joseph as “protector” historically of Jesus and Mary, and as protector of the Church in the world today. Francis then calls each person to learn from Joseph the “vocation of being a ‘protector’”.  He explains that vocation: “Being a protector is not just something involving us Christians alone; it also has a prior dimension which is simply human, involving everyone. It means protecting all creation, the beauty of the created world, as the Book of Genesis tells us and St. Francis of Assisi showed us. It means respecting each of God’s creatures and respecting the environment in which we live. It means protecting people, showing loving concern for each and every person … It means building sincere friendships in which we protect one another in trust, respect and goodness. In the end, everything has been entrusted to our protection, and all of us are responsible for it. Be protectors of God’s gifts!”

Cosmic Reflections on the Pascal Mysteries

I am walking on a path by the river. Ice has now completely silenced the waters. Snow has blanketed the ground. Trees silhouette their bare and mute forms against the grayish sky.  All seems at a standstill: life stymied by some invisible inner forces. I remember witnessing all the letting go, the surrendering, the stripping, the dying that nature underwent as it transitioned from autumn to winter just a few months ago.

Because I am made of the stuff of the earth myself, I know that there is more to earth’s cycles than what I can observe above the ground. Underneath my feet, at this very moment, death is slowly yielding to the same invisible inner forces that brought it about in the first place. A whole new gestation process is underway; new life is taking shape, vibrating, readying to spring forth in new manifold expressions. For, in all of nature, nothing lives that does not die only to be reborn again, changed by the very experience itself towards something ever new. Such is God’s marvelous design.

I see the same birth, death and rebirth pattern imprinted in our evolving universe, from the first flaring forth, through billions and billions of years of evolution, to now. Galaxies collide, implode. Out of the fragments, new galaxies are born, stars are formed and new astral configurations appear, including a Supernova, home of our solar system, of our earth.   Some stars age and die only to have their dust gift us with all the elements that constitute life today, including my own. I am made of star dust. How awesome!

As science gradually elucidates the Creator’s design, evolution emerges as a continuous movement from life to death, to more and more complex life manifestations. It is not a random process but a movement towards a greater level of consciousness and unity, towards what Teilhard de Chardin calls the ‘Omega point’. And for Teilhard, all is a ‘divine milieu’ and Christ is the Omega point. (1) Is He is not, according to the Scriptures, the one ‘with whom and for whom God created the whole universe’ and through whom ‘God decided to bring the whole universe back to himself’? (2) Is he not the cosmic Christ?

As I prepare to ritually remember with my faith community Jesus’ passion and death and resurrection, I can’t but note how fitting it is that, for those of us living in the western hemisphere, the rhythm of our annual celebration of these paschal mysteries should be anchored in the rhythm of the natural world on the cusp of spring. Effectively, since the fourth century, our Resurrection celebration has been set to coincide with the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox.

In celebrating the paschal mysteries, I also celebrate all that has been life, death and resurrection on our planet earth and in our evolving universe from the moment our Creator set life in motion. I embrace the pattern of life, death and resurrection within my life and around me. I also hear the longings of my own being for greater consciousness of the oneness of all that is in the cosmic Christ.

1. The Future of Man (1957), The Divine Milieu (1960)

2. Col.1:16, 17, 20

Continuous Incarnation

Musing on Living Our Charism

Knowledge of our furry and feathered friends can teach us much. Whether, furry, feathered or human, we are blessed with our own unique DNA. It is my conviction that our csj charism of unity is part of our DNA just as the built-in urge to hibernate or fly south for the winter is intrinsic to some mammals and birds. This gift for creating unity is part and parcel of our spiritual DNA. As daughters and sons of the Joseph family, we do not acquire the charism but rather resonate with it. Through deepening faith and lived experience our awareness of the charism increases.  As we become more sensitive to this gift within us, we are better able to release its giftedness. 

Lately, I have been prayerfully reflecting on our csj spirituality and wondering how its way of life might be stated in terms more accessible to today’s seekers. I have discovered for myself alternate language in keeping with today’s thinking. I hope I have recaptured the essence of the spirituality which Medaille initially articulated using the terms uncreated Trinity and created trinity.

Medaille used the concept of the uncreated Trinity and created Trinity to foster fidelity to the charism.  He ascribed respectively active and all inclusive love, self-emptying love and communing love to the Father, Son and Spirit and the virtues of zeal, obedience and cordial charity respectively to Jesus, Mary and Joseph.  Recently, in pondering the link between our csj spirituality with the living out of our charism I’ve come to think of our spirituality of communion as the three movements of unsparing, deepening contemplation, and evolving consciousness which bring to life the charism.

But we are not alone, as humans, in this endeavor. All creation is living into this dynamic as the Creator, Son and Spirit are the underlying mystery of the universe which is like an invisible and hidden music that interplays beneath and within the visible familial roles of both humans and creatures. This awareness can bring an intentional manner of being that enables us to live csj spirituality with purpose. Thus our everyday actions put “skin on our spirituality”.

My musing on our spirituality leads me to marvel at how the inborn nature of the animal world mirrors aspects of our own spiritual orientation. We are one!

A Story Of Intimacy – “Mary Of The Cosmos”

Mary of the Cosmos

There is a new story to be told, one that requires a vision of the Universe that is alive with creativity and imagination…a story that calls out for new images, symbols, language and structures.  This is the gift of the artists, the poets, and the dreamers – to pull us forward into new perceptions of reality. Inspired by Thomas Berry, artist Bernadette Botstwick, sgm of the Green Mountain Monastery and the Thomas Berry Sanctuary in Vermont has created ‘Mary of the Cosmos’, an icon which “beautifully celebrates the sacredness and holiness of all matter in the cosmos.”  

The representation is rich with symbols:

• The flash of flame circling Mary is the fireball, the first flaring forth at the beginning of creation.

• The three stars represent the cosmological ethics of differentiation, subjectivity and communion.

• The Earth is at Mary’s centre, the planet becomes the birthing bed of Jesus.

• The relationship between Earth and Moon speak of rhythm, tides and the wisdom of the feminine.

• The red cloak that Mary wears points to her humanity, while the blue undergarment reflects Divinity integral with her humanity.

• The universe is flowing through Mary whose body is made of the star stuff of the cosmos.

How would we perceive reality if, like Mary, we envisioned in each droplet of experience, the cosmos flowing through us?   Essential for this transformation is a deep valuing of our experience, well beyond our five senses. Philosopher Alfred North Whitehead insists that every experience must be both “experiential and relational.”  It is the relational that begs attention. As the poet John Keats reminds us: “Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced.”  To truly embody an experience is to welcome with awe the amazing intimacy of creativity it holds.

The icon draws us again:

• The straightforward gaze of Mary, as she looks further into the future, reveals a unified vision of matter and spirit, inviting us with outstretched arms, into the fullness of communion consciousness as life bearers for the planet.

Perhaps this is the double union we are now called to as Sisters of St. Joseph, to be earth mystics. Jesus, humanly fully embodied the essential values of Beauty, Truth and Goodness. Our charism compels us to create a space for the more, be it more compassion, more understanding, more caring and more appreciation of the cultural diversity which is now calling us to the deeper relationships of kinship with all of created reality. Every experience of life with all its complexities and paradoxes longs to be taken up into this sacred space.

The image of ‘Mary of the Cosmos’ and symbol descriptions are used with permission from Green Mountain Monastery.. For poster and cards of this icon visit www.greenmountainmonastery.org

Spring Reflections

Spring Reflections On Christology – In Conversation With Ellen Leonard

“In Christ’s Resurrection, the earth itself arose,” declared St. Ambrose of Milan.[1] We take the opportunity of this time of reflecting on the salvific moment of Christ’s resurrection to re-think our Christology. As before, we turn to the work of Elizabeth Johnson. There we learn to re-position our human story within the enlarging horizon of  planetary and cosmic history and recognize that there are far reaching implications for our faith lives. As Johnson relates: 

It rearranges the landscape of our imagination to know that human connection to nature is so deep that we cannot properly define our identity without including  the great sweep of cosmic and biological evolution.[2]

Within this perspective of a new landscape, we realize that we exist symbiotically – and that our very existence depends upon the natural world of God’s entire creation.  In fact our creation issues forth from and is entirely dependent upon all the beings and elements of earth and universe. It is the perspective of a new humility. The sarxor “flesh”of Jesus’ incarnation in John 1:14 indicates for us that Jesus, the incarnate One, was inseparable from earth. Thus born, the genetic material of his body was kin to the grasses, fish and whole community of earthly life birthed in ancient seas. The “flesh” of John reaches beyond Jesus to encompass the whole biological world of living creatures and stardust of the universe. As ourselves, Jesus carried within his being the “signature of the supernovas and the geology and life history of the Earth.”[3]

Re-situating our faith story in this epic landscape has significant implications. The earthly finitude was embraced by our God and thus inestimably blessed and good. It is the perspective of a “deep incarnation” and has considerable moral and ecological implications for the contemporary living of our faith.[4]  This Jesus embodies the hope of “all creation groaning into fulfillment” (Romans 8).  As Schillebeeckx insists, the church, the community of disciples is “the only real reliquary of Jesus.”[5]

The final transformation is the stuff of our very lives bringing the kin-dom of inclusivity and justice to all the beings of earth. This body of Christ, this reliquary, is found in present time, in our lives as we call one another to a deeper justice, knowing that all is interconnected and interwoven. It is no surprise to realize that the places of deepest degradation of Earth are the places of deepest degradation of humans. The poor live near the ash heaps of our consumer society, the women and children suffer at the edges of polluted rivers and fields. Justice for one is justice for the other. All is connected. All bodies matter to God, that is the message of “deep incarnation” that our  emerging theologies of this new landscape beckon us to understand. Social justice, repair of unjust structures and ecological justice, reconciliation of relationship of all bodies merge into a call for integrity of all creation, the peace of the universe. We are called to embody the community of Jesus, the community of Earth in a new and just way for all creation.

[1] Anthony Kelly, Eschatology and Hope, ( Maryknoll:Orbis, 2006), 177.

[2] Elizabeth A. Johnson, “An Earthy Christology,” America April 13(2009), 4.

[3] Sean McDonagh, To Care for the Earth, (Sante Fe: Bear, 1986), 118-119.

[4] Edward Schillebeeckx, Christ: the Experience of Jesus as Lord, (New York: Seabury Press, 1980), 641.

[5] Elizabeth A. Johnson, “Deep Christology: Ecological Soundings,” in From Logos to Christos: Essays in Christology in Honourof Joanne McWilliam,  eds. Ellen Leonard and Kate Merriman, (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2010), 170Ibid., 165.

Autumn Reflections

Autumn Reflections On Christology With Ellen Leonard Csj

Ellen began our conversation by recalling a story by the noted U.S. naturalist John Muir. When Muir came upon a dead bear in Yosemite, he penned a fierce criticism of religious people who make no room in heaven for noble creatures such as this magnificent bear:

Not content with taking all of earth, they also claim the celestial country as the only ones who possess the kinds of souls for which that imponderable empire was planned. To the contrary, he believed, God’s charity is broad enough for bears.[1]

For Ellen the contemporary and emerging Christology is all about enlarging one’s perspective. Christology in the Western church has been almost exclusively anthropocentric or human-centered. Elizabeth Johnson, Ellen notes, points out the need for a wider scope in theology, one which puts Christology back in tune with the basic themes of biblical, patristic, and medieval theologies.[2] In our day, with the widening circles of universe and evolution being mapped out, the human race itself is being repositioned as an intrinsic part of the unfolding story of life’s network -on our planet, in our solar system . In this place we know ourselves within the ever-expanding and entire cosmic story and history.

Repositioning our anthropology within the ongoing wonder of this cosmic scale has far reaching implications as we seek to understand our place in such a millennial history. It fundamentally rearranges the landscape of the imagination of our hearts and minds. As we begin to plumb the depths of such relationship, we begin to realize how the human is  embedded in the natural world. We evolved as part of the universe from its very deepest, wakening inception.

Such repositioning of our anthropology calls us to a new landscape on which to understand the significance of the incarnation.  It is to begin to realize that it is seeing the incarnation as not being relevant just for humankind but for all creation. In Johnson’s article in America, she writes, “for God so loved the cosmos” that all creation was birthed.  It can be called a “deep incarnation,” that radical and divine inclusivity that has touched deep down, calling all beings into a continuous, unfolding relationship with divinity.

Humans are not alone in their suffering and seeking of salvation for “all creation has been groaning in travail together until now” (Romans 8:22). In this widening view of divinity, the circle of redemption reaches out to include all the natural world, giving cause for an ecological ethic. Now divinity can be seen in the light of a cosmocentric and biocentric horizon, not just anthropocentric. We can know this as a vision of “deep resurrection,” extending and expanding in the boundless love of a cosmic God.

In the light of this perspective and returning to Muir’s reflection on the noble bear, we can envision an inclusive heaven, beginning here on earth. As the early church Father St. Ambrose wrote “In Christ’s resurrection the earth itself rose.”

[1]Johnson, Elizabeth, “An Earthy Christology.” America April 13 (2009). http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=11566&o=34698[accessed April 15, 2009].

[2] Ibid.

“The Emerging Secret”

Care For God’s Creation And The Social Teaching Of The Church

Long known as the Church’s “best kept secret”, Catholic Social Teaching (CST), with its concern for the poor, families and communities remains largely unknown by many in the Church. Even less known is the recent emergence of concern for God’s creation within that body of Church teaching. 

CST is strong in its call to Christians. As Pope John Paul II stated in his 1990 World Day of Peace Message, “The ecological crisis is a moral issue, the responsibility of everyone – care for the environment is not an option” (#3 and #10).

Scripture is the starting point for the Church’s teaching on the environment. It is based on the recognition that all creation belongs to God: “The Earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it” (Psalm 24: v.1). The creation story in Genesis reminds humans that they have a responsibility to care for the rest of creation of which they are but a part. We read in Scripture that God saw creation as “good” (Genesis 1-28). Pope John Paul II accents this goodness and beauty of creation which he says “is called to glorify God” (#14).

CST also recognizes the sacramental nature of the universe by reminding Christians that in nature God is revealed to us. In their pastoral statement on the environment, “Renewing the Earth” the U.S. Bishops emphasize this point: “For the very plants and animals, mountains and oceans, which in their loveliness and sublimity lift our minds to God, by their fragility and perishing likewise cry out, “We have not made ourselves” (#6).

This grounds our call to respect creation. As John Paul states: “Respect for life and for the dignity of the human person extends also to the rest of creation”(#16). The Bishops of the Philippines in their 1988 document on the environment state that the environment is “the ultimate pro-life issue” thus linking the Church’s teaching on ecology to its teaching on a “consistent ethic of life”. Joining our care for the earth with our concern for the poor, the Canadian bishops remind us in their pastoral letter “You Love all that Exists” that: “We are called as co-creators to join God’s work to repair some of creation’s wounds which have been inflicted due to our ecological sins. We are also called to creative actions of solidarity with those who have less access to the benefits of God’s bountiful creation.” To achieve this they commend a three-fold response; a contemplative response through which we are called to “deepen our capacity to appreciate the wonders of nature as a act of faith and love”; an ascetic response which calls us to adjust our lifestyle choices limiting our consumption for the sake of the earth and its most vulnerable peoples; and a prophetic response which publicly challenges unjust structures. As Pope Benedict states: “The Church has a responsibility toward creation and she must assert this in the public sphere” (Caritas in Veritate #51).

10th Anniversary of ‘The Dream Seed’

Stairwells, like wooded trails and roadways, are places of transition.  It isn’t every day that conversations in a stairwell give birth to a whole new life. Yet that is what happened. Conceived in conversation among Sisters Janet Fraser, Linda Gregg and Gwen Smith in a London Motherhouse stairwell in April of 1999, the Federation Ecology Committee was birthed in Toronto by a Federation leadership decision later that year.

In 1999 the General Superiors of each Congregation invited members to form the Federation Ecology Committee. A communication from Sister Jean Cunningham, Executive Director, to the General Superiors of our Congregations, dated Oct 8, 1999 states that the Committee met in Cobourg on Oct 6th. The letter reads: “At this meeting there was a great deal of concern expressed over the treatment of the First Nations’ rights regarding East Coast fishing.”  Early records are sketchy. We focused on creating and doing, not recording! We realized that “the Spirit caught our hearts.”  Our committee’s record of activities begins with the articulation of our vision: “The Dream Seed,” which we began in earnest in 2000.  Now, in 2010, we celebrate the 10thyear of the birth and development of our vision: “The Dream Seed.”

The Federation Ecology Committee’s Trinitarian vision recognizes the core relationships of the Holy Trinity revealed in creation; especially, the Trinity of principles at the centre of the universe (interiority, diversity and communion). It recognizes that our Charism, as Miriam Therese McGillis reminded us, is irrevocably rooted in the centre of the universe’s creation. Our vision is also Trinitarian in its expression: Ecological Spirituality, Earth Literacy and Ecological Practices for Sustainable Living. We have worked for the integration of theology, spirituality and praxis. This we express as the Trinity of knowing, being and doing.

As we reflect with gratitude on these ten years we recall how the Spirit urged us and guided us to develop and offer ecologically focused retreats. Many of you have participated in the following: Earth Spirit/CSJ Spirit; Water: Life-Blood and Birthright of All Creation; Doorways to the Heart: Aboriginal Perspectives on Ecology; and Walking Sacred Earth: contemplatively, ascetically and prophetically. These were graced moments both for participants and for team members. We also shared eco-focused prayers, most recently the Hamilton Ecology Committee’s Intercessory Prayers for the Care of the Earth. Sister Jeanne Fortin’s reflection: Ecology and the Maxims greatly enriched us. This too we shared with you.

With chuckles and smiles now, we remember the intensity of the struggle to articulate and support the development of the CSJ Earth Literacy program: “Village Earth.”  We affirmed that, although it is hosted at Villa St. Joseph in Cobourg, this is truly a Federation initiative. We are now a few steps closer to having it recognized as a University credit course. We have developed a Village Earth Outreach program for Youth and are currently working on a program for parishes. However, we grieve that we have not yet accomplished our vision to offer the program in our respective Congregations.

Other initiatives have expanded Earth Literacy to include education on the integrity of creation, relationships with wider social justice initiatives, and ecological perspectives on the Millenium Development Goals. The latter was presented in the Federation Newsletter.  We continue to enjoy the privilege and blessing of writing for The Green Window. We have become bridge builders. We have shared resources and raised congregational awareness. We have challenged both you and ourselves, to become more organic, more energy conscious and more ecologically aware. Our hopes of “Greening our Motherhouses” have been expressed in unanticipated ways.

We are graced with the beautiful artwork of two Sisters: Sister Anthony Daniel (SSM) for the Ecology Committee logo and Sister Angela Fleming (L) for the mandala on “sacred earth” which integrates CSJ spirit with earth spirit as expressed in the seasons. We are thankful for this shared beauty and creativity.

We want to acknowledge with gratitude the participation of each Congregation in the work of the Federation Ecology Committee, either as members or as the Congregational Leadership contact.

• Toronto: Sisters Janet Fraser, Gwen Smith and Janet Speth.

• Hamilton: Sisters Jean Cunningham, Isobel Gallotti and Nancy Sullivan.

• London: Sisters Margo Ritchie and Nancy Wales

• Peterborough: Sisters Linda Gregg, Shirley O’Rourke, Marilyn Meraw and Mary Rowell.

• Pembroke: Sisters Nicole Aubé and Marjorie FitzPatrick.

• Sault Ste. Marie: Sisters Rita Godon, Norah Murphy and Priscilla Solomon.

We also acknowledge the on-going interest, support and frequent presence of the Federation Office executive staff over the ten years: Sisters Pat Valeriote, Jean Cunningham, Kathleen Lichti, Veronica O’Reilly, Valerie Van Cauwenberghe and ever-responsive Ms. Margaret Magee. Thank you and God bless you!

As we celebrate we ask: “What if we had known the secret all along?”

For stairwells, wooded paths, transitions, and conversations we give thanks and praise to God. For the gifts of ever-deepening communion expressed in hard work, challenging ideas, meals together, occasional beers or glasses of wine, laughter and tears we are thankful.  Most of all, we are grateful for the blessing of ten years of exploring and communicating together, the vision of knowing, being and doing the vision: that All Creation is One in God and that all creation reflects the Trinity.  May God be praised!

“The kinship model knows that we are all connected. For all our distinctiveness, human beings are modes of being of the universe. Woven into our lives is the very fire from the stars and the genes from the sea creatures, and everyone, utterly everyone, is kin in the radiant tapestry of being. This relationship is not external or extrinsic to who we are, but wells up as the defining truth from our deepest being.”

Elizabeth A. Johnson CSJ

Reconnecting to our Earth Roots

The sun is dappled through the cucumber leaves and the tomatoes are showing the first blush of ripening. We are entering into the season of harvest and are privileged to enjoy the abundance of our earth. The sweet scents of summer are yielding to the ripening of a golden autumn season.

Yet, we know, the harvest is not being shared equitably. As large corporations take over food production increasingly, small farmers are edged out.  Agribusiness uses stealth and science to mask greed and control of the safety and diversity of our earth’s food supply. How did this come about? As human beings we have lost our connections to the sacredness of earth, denigrating in many subtle ways those who work with soil and hands. As we know the hierarchical, patriarchal systems of our Western culture and religions have served to sever the ties to the holiness of women and earth. In a recent Sisters of Earth conference in New York, the Indian food activist Vandana Shiva and her sister Mira, a physician, shared with us the systematic and often ruthless ways global corporations have run roughshod over the poorest and hungriest in countries such as India.

Modern global corporations see the world as something to be owned, a commodity for maximizing their profits.  Egregious corporations such as Monsanto determined that seeds are “intellectual property” and have sought patents. Many thousands have demonstrated against classifying seeds as property with rights of patent, it is a battle still being waged.  In India and in all documented cases, companies lure farmers with extravagant promises of increased crop yield from the use of these seeds. In fact, in India, the reality is that food production has decreased.  Farmers who have saved their seeds for generations are forced to buy the GM (Genetically Modified) seeds and the now necessary Western commercial fertilizers.  Monsanto claims that it “invented” wheat plants derived from a traditional Indian variety, which is nothing less than bio-piracy. Markets have been and are increasingly regulated so that only GM seed products are acceptable. Farmers in India have been incurring debt that has only deepened and spiraled each year, resulting in countless suicides. Such is the harvest in a de-sacralized world

There is, however, a different worldview, one of equality, diversity and respect for all beings.  As Thomas Berry often noted, “the earth is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects.”  We live within a sacred global commons where the rights of all beings, human, animal, tree, river and wind have a place in the web of communion. There is much about which to despair but in equal measure there is much from which to draw hope.  We can each have a role in this time where the sacredness of all creation is threatened. Prayer is one deeply important response; our minds and hearts can chart a course each day toward healing of our earth. Key is an appreciation for and support of local farmers, advocating heritage seed saving, or growing a tomato plant. It is time to know that growing food for our sustenance is a holy task, a sacred agriculture.

As this reflection closes, the tomatoes are ripening yet and the harvest is still being gathered. The gift of a home-grown tomato sandwich is a celebration of deepest delight and a grace of holy communion. By this act we are reconnecting to our earth roots. May we bless all farmers and all beings for this gift of life.

See: Vandana Shiva, Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainabilty and Peace, Cambridge, Massachusetts: South End Press, 2005.

Copenhagen Summer

Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change:
A Canadian Youth Perspective

By Laura Tozer and Janet Speth CSJ Toronto

Laura Tozer

“I have been involved in United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change international negotiations since 2005 as an advocate, a communicator, and a student. I work to represent young people who lack a voice in the negotiations that are deciding our future, and to communicate with the public directly about what is going on behind the scenes. I have gained a great deal of experience in this role and I have had the opportunity to work with some amazing young people that are dedicated advocates for action on climate change.

In Copenhagen, the world was supposed to conclude negotiating the new phase of greenhouse gas reduction and climate change adaptation commitments to take place after the first period of the Kyoto Protocol ends. Our leaders failed us and the negotiations sputtered to an end with the Copenhagen Accord drawn up by the US, Brazil, South Africa, India and China, which was not an outcome of the UN negotiation process and has nowhere near the level of ambition and action required to confront climate change.

Canada’s involvement was so shameful that the coalition of over 400 international environmental organizations awarded it the Fossil of the Year award – an ‘honour’ reserved for the country that is the most obstructive to progress on reaching a climate change agreement. Representing a country that so clearly worked against international action on climate change made us harsh critics very quickly. However, we were very frustrated as they accredited 45,000 people but the venue only held 15,000. By the second week non-governmental organizations representatives were barred and so with disappointment we watched voiceless from afar.

In Copenhagen Canada’s representatives did not put forward any money to help vulnerable countries adapt to climate change; they stuck with one of the worst greenhouse gas emission targets in the industrialized world, a 3% reduction from 1990 levels by 2020; they expressed a desire to replace the Kyoto framework, and they argued for a 2006 baseline (not 1990) that would forgive the emission growth that has happened in the interim.

It will be the youth of today who will be left to deal with life in a changed world tomorrow, based on decisions made in Copenhagen. However, I feel hopeful because of the amazing people that I worked with that are dedicated to this issue and because I met so many decision makers from other jurisdictions that are acting on climate change, from cities to provinces to the World Council of Churches. We all need to follow this example and start building a hopeful future by addressing climate change boldly.”  …Laura Tozer

We, Sisters of St. Joseph, can join Canadian youth to raise the dashed hopes of Copenhagen out of the arid dust of distrust and denial. To think critically is to counter the culture of denial that is discrediting climate science through the power of corporations and media. This belief states that human activity is not significant in global warming. There is no global emergency and no reason to change attitudes and behaviours. Is this the gospel imperative we embody? No! Together let us be the voice for our wounded earth building relationships of mutual respect and integrity. 

Recommended reading: Heat by George Mondiot, particularly the chapter on “ Denial Industry”

Is there enough food for all?

The answer you will get to the question: “Is there enough food in the world to feed all the people of the globe?” depends on whom you ask, where you ask, and when you ask.

If you ask someone like the theologian Sally McFague you might hear: There is enough for abundant life for all – we need only share the resources more equitably.

Elizabeth Johnson’s, David Korten’s and Carol Zinn’s responses would be similar, as would Jesus’ response.

If you ask someone in a refugee camp in Darfur, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Columbia, Lebanon, Dominican Republic or Kenya you will get instead a response about the number of refugees dying daily from hunger.

If you ask a CSJ community member, a family member, an associate: “Is there enough food for you each day?” you might get very different responses.  And there would, for certain, be a different answer if you asked groups of financially secure Canadians, new Canadians and Aboriginal persons.

The CSJ Green Window perspective is that there are enough resources to feed all; however, there is a global food crisis that is very real – humanly constructed – but real. It is due much more to the inequities that our global financial systems and social systems create than it is to the failure of the earth to provide sufficient foodstuffs. It is due to our skewed priorities as individuals and nations, and to the priorities of some of our global political organizations. It is due to our lack of consciousness of the interdependence of all life communities, including the global human community in all its diversity.

Sister Sue Wilson, (London) at S.A.I.L. 2009, spoke about the kind of transformation of consciousness to which we CSJs are called. She named the emerging consciousness “symbiotic consciousness.” Such consciousness brings both personal and communal transformation.  In the dialogue with Sue and Joan Atkinson (London), S.A.I.L. participants gained additional insights. Sister Helen Smaggus, (Pembroke) a counsellor/therapist, reminded us that symbiosis facilitates the development of bonds of intimacy necessary for interpersonal relationships. Sister Mary Sheridan (Sault Ste. Marie), from her knowledge and experience as a biology teacher, reminded us that symbiosis is the life process by which one organism attaches itself to another in a mutually life-enhancing and interdependent relationship in which both benefit and both live. Sister Sue’s message was that symbiotic consciousness facilitates a deeper, ever-expanding awareness of how we need and depend upon God, and how God depends upon us to bring about personal and interpersonal transformation. According to Sue, symbiotic consciousness is how we relate to God. It describes the quality of that relationship.

In CSJ spirituality – a truly incarnational spirituality- symbiotic awareness also means developing and maintaining mutually life-enhancing relationships with the dear neighbour: relationships as basic as sharing food and ensuring enough for all.

What could that look like?

What if we chose, even institutionally, to buy locally whenever and wherever possible. For example, the London Sisters at 485 Windemere Road have decided to refrain from buying some items when they are not in season.  What if our Congregations, or small groups of Sisters, or some individuals tried to match more closely our food expenses to those of lower income people? What if we chose to pair up with refugee families, Aboriginal families, Ontario Works families, or families on disability pensions in Canada to try to create a more equitable food supply among us? Would it cause each of us to be inclined to spend less money on food, even as each of us makes sure our diet is healthy and sufficient?

There are two divergent ways of looking at having equitable global food supplies. Both approaches address hunger. One, “Food Security,” focuses on “the amount of food available and people’s access to it.” (www.devp.org) It functions within the current market economy of supply and demand.  Donor governments seek to alleviate hunger through shipping food supplies around the globe. The other, “Food Sovereignty,” is a concept developed by Via Campesina in 2007. This international group of peasant farmers and civil society activists define Food Sovereignty as follows:

“Food Sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agricultural systems. It puts the aspirations and needs of those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food policies rather than markets and corporations.” (Declaration of Nyeleni, Mali 2007, in Backgrounder 1 at: www.devp.org) Via Campesina has made a difference.

What difference can we make? What influence can we have on the global markets? What impacts do my attitude, purchases and use of food have?

Such questions may feel disempowering, but they can help us discern how we can use our voices and our actions to help make the changes needed to ensure food for all. These choices can be empowering! There are rich resources to help us respond.

Useful websites:

Development and Peace: http://www.devp.org

International Planning Committee on Food Sovereignty: http://foodsovereignty.org

The Hunger Project www.thp.org

Bread and Faith www.bread.org

Carbon Footprint - Revised September 2009

As Sisters of St. Joseph and women of integrity, we are dedicated to preserving our beloved creation of which we are a part. We have a deep concern for our present and our future.  We have a sense of personal and communal responsibility for the seven generations that follow ours. We seek to know more about how we are part of the problem and how we can become part of the solution.

Climate change is a serious problem caused primarily by the carbon dioxide released from burning fossil fuel like oil, coal and gas.

Carbon footprint refers to the amount of greenhouse gases a person releases through the activities in which one participates.

Carbon footprint calculator is an easy, on-line way to determine this amount: http://www..livclean.ca/calculator.php

Carbon offsets refers to the issue of being able to pay to counteract the effect we are having on the earth.  The principle is that since climate change is a global problem, an emission reduction made elsewhere has the same effect as one made locally.  By purchasing carbon offsets you help fund a project that prevents one ton of greenhouse gases from being emitted for each ton that you have caused.  Carbon dioxide providers sell the greenhouse gas reductions associated with projects like wind farms or methane-capture facilities to customers who want to offset the emissions they caused by flying, driving or using electricity.  Although they are called ‘carbon’ offsets, they offset all greenhouse gases that cause global warming from carbon dioxide to methane.  Many of the organizations are non-profit.  While carbon offsets help, the best response is not to create greenhouse gases in the first place.

By making personal changes to reduce our carbon footprint and by purchasing carbon offsets we can become carbon neutral.  The web is full of helpful ways we can start to reduce our carbon footprint.  Here are just a few:

1. Turning the thermostat up in the summer or down in the winter by just two degrees will prevent hundreds of pounds of carbon dioxide from being released each year.

2. Turn off and unplug the computer, TV and other electronics when you are not using them. Even electronics in sleep mode draw power, and most T.V.s are “instant on” and are kept “warmed up”

3. Use power bars for all office equipment and T.V., DVD players etc. Put in an accessible place where its easy to switch off (like not behind and underneath the desk!).

4. Change all light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs, which use 75% less energy.

5. Do your laundry or run a dishwasher only when you have a full load. For laundry use Cold water (there are several cold laundry detergents). Big power savings by not heating water.

6. Eat local. The emissions due to long transport are avoidable by eating local.

7. Reduce use of plastics including bottled water and other beverages, plastic bags.

8. Bring your own coffee mug when you buy coffee at Tim’s.

9. Plant a tree. Grow some flowers and a few tomatoes. Plants and trees help reduce greenhouse gases.

10. Consolidate car trips. Plan and consolidate trips to reduce gas use.

Let us continue to empower one another in the passionate living of our mission of active and inclusive love in our relationship with all of God’s creation.

Helpful Websites: Power Wise – http://www.powerwise.ca/ Every Kilowatt Counts – http://everykilowattcounts.ca/ Ontario Tenants:  Powerwise Tips – http://www.ontariotenants.ca

Green Window Introduction

The Federation Ecology Committee would like to introduce you to its new section of the Federation Newsletter. It is dedicated to reflecting upon the critical issues of our day through a green perspective or an ecological lens. Attentiveness to our charism’s call for the formation of the holistic communion of all beings is heightened by our growing grasp of new scientific understandings and insights. The CSJ spirituality strongly aligns with the fostering of sustainable development and right relations with the earth.

For many in today’s highly technological world, the first thought that comes to mind with the mention of windows is Microsoft’s Windows Operating System rather than the historical, transparent, openings in buildings. Either of these two meanings of windows might aptly apply to our use of the metaphor window.  Today’s society is caught up in its reliance on new technologies. Industry, economics, and habit often dull us to the negative impact our ways have on the life of the planet and its myriad of living inhabitants. Many believe that society is in need of an upgraded  “attitudinal operating system”. This new way of operating would provide space for fresh thinking, a common language and workable strategies to address the vast issues of the present ecological crisis.

When we show an interest in traditional windows, we are following in the spirit of Mother St. John. It is told that she desired that large windows be installed in the renovated building that was to be the home of the reformed Sisters of St. Joseph. Her wish was vehemently opposed by the local ordinary. However, through biding her time with the local bishop she eventually got her wish.  Whether it was her desire that we, as Sisters of St. Joseph, not close ourselves off from the dear neighbour or her gratitude for nature and sunlight after her experience in prison is uncertain. No doubt, she would be in sync with the aspirations of the contemporary Sister of St. Joseph. It is quite appropriate that her descendants endeavour to be more ecologically minded.

We use the image of the green window to symbolize the desire we have to invite and allow God’s Spirit to inform our minds and hearts, as we engage in meaningful ways with the most critical issue of our times. In truth the very survival of life on the planet rests on our choices and our actions.  We, the 21st century CSJs, desire to behold earth anew, wonder at it, celebrate it, and take practical steps toward healing and preserving it for future generations. We, as religious, have an important role to play in the survival of our planet through our choices and our advocacy for environmental change.

Be on the lookout for future reflections in The Green Window which will appear in upcoming issues of the Federation Newsletter.