Laudato Si’ Week May 16-24
Laudato Si’ Week 2021, to be held May 16-24, will be the crowning event of the Special Laudato Si’ Anniversary Year, a celebration of the progress the whole Church has made on its journey to ecological conversion and sustainability. People around the world will join together in prayer and celebration of God’s wonderful gift of creation. Events are planned throughout the week and can be accessed by signing up via this link; laudatosiweek.org/. Resources can also be accessed from our Diocesan web site: rcdhn.org.uk
There is growing awareness of the climate and ecological emergency and the disaster which awaits future generations and the whole of creation if we don’t change direction. The science is unequivocal – we have to make rapid cuts to our emissions over the next decade or face runaway climate change threatening the viability of all life on earth. We must act now or it will be too late.
Laudato Si’ challenges each one of us to respond to the crisis by embracing an ecological spirituality in which we acknowledge we are intrinsically part of God’s wonderful gift of creation. This leads us to embrace a sustainable lifestyle living in harmony with nature and each other. The week will conclude with the launch of a major 7 year project from the Vatican to embed Laudato Si’ throughout the Catholic family including Dioceses, Parishes, Schools and families. This major initiative will involve us all and there will be much more about this in the coming months.
Laudato si Circle ‘Gods Garden’
We know that staying hopeful can be especially difficult now, given the multiple crises and the severity of each one. That is why we invite you together, as one global Catholic community, to help each other build hope, as Pope Francis reminded us in his message for the 2020’s; "as Christians the Care of Creation is the ultimate act we can engage with". Those of you who can and are interested are invited to join us for a 30 minute zoom meeting of prayer and reflection and sharing gardening tips on the 1st Saturday of each month. If you are interested please email clare.myersmyers@btinternet.com Together let us stop looking at the familiar and listen, suddenly, to the unfamiliar.
Pope Francis wrote the encyclical Laudato Si in 2015. Now the fifth anniversary of the encyclical comes in the midst of another watershed moment - a global pandemic - and Laudato Si's message is just as prophetic today as it was in 2015. The encyclical can indeed provide the moral and spiritual compass for the journey to create a more caring, inclusive, peaceful and sustainable world.
Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I proclaimed 1 September as a day of prayer for creation for the Orthodox in 1989. Since then the World Council of Churches was instrumental in making the special time a season, extending the celebration from 1 September until 4 October the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology beloved by many Christian denominations.
Pope Francis and other religious leaders around the world encourage us all to take time to care for creation during the month-long celebration.
We invite you to say the Popes prayer for Creation each day and try to do something towards caring for creation.
A PRAYER FOR OUR EARTH
All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe
and in the smallest of your creatures.
You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.
Pour out upon us the power of your love,
that we may protect life and beauty.
Fill us with peace, that we may live
as brothers and sisters, harming no one.
O God of the poor,
Help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this earth,
so precious in your eyes.
Bring healing to our lives,
that we may protect the world and not prey on it,
that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.
Touch the hearts of those who look only for gain
at the expense of the poor and the earth.
Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,
to be filled with awe and contemplation,
to recognise that we are profoundly united
with every creature as we journey toward your infinite light.
We thank you for being with us each day.
Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle for justice, love and peace.
Pope Francis, ‘Laudato Si’
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOgF2Kgel6k Animation for children produced by CAFOD
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Interested in living Laudato Si?
We share this with you as we hope that you might like to take a little time out to focus on the season of creation.
Just click on the link and sit back Christians in Chicago still united for an ecumenical prayer service
There are two events which you may wish to sign up for .
The first is an excellent opportunity to take part in 2 webinars focusing on our responsibility to invest wisely.
The second is an inspiring weekend retreat by zoom looking at how we can live out Laudato Si in our parishes.
Webinar series: September/October 2020
This autumn, we would like to invite you to join a webinar series to find out how Catholic religious orders, dioceses and other organisations can use their investments to accelerate the clean energy transition and support a green recovery.
Part 1: Fossil fuel divestment: Accelerating the clean energy transition
Tuesday 22 September 2020, 4.00-5.30pm
Register to join the webinar
This webinar will give an overview of how Catholic religious orders, dioceses and other organisations can divest from the fossil fuel industry and support a just recovery from Covid-19. It will also be an opportunity to find out why the Vatican recommended divestment from fossil fuel companies in June 2020.
Speakers include:
▪ Fr Augusto Zampini, Co-Secretary of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human
Development
▪ Dr Lorna Gold, Vice Chair of the Global Catholic Climate Movement
▪ Br Stephen Power SJ, former Treasurer of Jesuits in Britain
▪ Sr Susan Francois CSJP, Assistant Congregation Leader and Congregation Treasurer,
Sisters of St Joseph of Peace
▪ James Buchanan, Bright Now Campaign Manager, Operation Noah
Part 2: Investment for a green recovery: Innovation in impact investing
Wednesday 21 October 2020, 4.00-5.30pm
Register to join the webinar
The webinar will give an overview of how Catholic religious orders, organisations and individuals can make investments with positive environmental and social impacts.
Speakers include:
▪ Lord Deben, Chair of UK’s Committee on Climate Change
▪ Dr Sr Gemma Simmonds CJ, Director of Religious Life Institute at University of
Cambridge
▪ Neil Thorns, Director of Advocacy and Communications at CAFOD
▪ Sr Pat Daly OP, former Executive Director of Tri-State Coalition for Responsible
Investment
▪ Shaun Cooper, Head of Finance at Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood
▪ Victoria Carrion, Director of Membership and Partnerships at the Catholic Impact Investing Collaborative
This webinar series is sponsored by Operation Noah, Catholic Impact Investing Collective, the Global Catholic Climate Movement, CAFOD, Trocaire, Conference of Religious, Association of Provincial Bursars, National Justice & Peace Network and Justice and Peace Scotland.
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Living Laudato Si’: Your Parish and Your Planet: Zoom Retreat, 16th-19th October2020
(Led from Boarbank Hall, Cumbria)
WHY? Faith is the place to start.
WHAT? Understanding is the place to start.
HOW? Sharing experience is the place to start.
WHEN? Now is the place to start.
WHERE? You parish is the place to start.
WHO? Are YOU the place to start?
What will happen? A long weekend of talks and discussions on zoom, and practical
activities, on living the message of Laudato Si’ in and through your parish.
Who is it for? Any interested parishioner is most welcome to join us. The weekend is aimed
especially at people with parish responsibilities or who are part of or want to start a relevant parish group.
Timed Sessions will be on Friday night, Saturday morning and night, Sunday afternoon and
night and Monday night (leaving people free during the day on Monday).
Speakers include:
Trish Sandbach, who worked in education for CAFOD for many years and led to St
Benedict’s, Garforth, in the Leeds diocese, to winning a Livesimply award. (see
https://cafod.org.uk/Campaign/Livesimply-award).
John Paul de Quay, a founder member of the Ecological Conversion Group and Journey to
2030 (see https://journeyto2030.org/)
Sr Margaret Atkins, an Augustinian Canoness at Boarbank Hall in Cumbria, a teacher of philosophy and theology, with a lifelong interest in the natural world, and author of Catholics and Our Common Home: Caring for the Planet in a Time of Crisis (CTS).
A panel discussion for sharing advice on practical projects.
Cost - voluntary donations gratefully accepted, but there will be no fee for the weekend.
To apply, simply email Sr Margaret Atkins on margaret@boarbankhall.org.uk
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As we come to the end of the Season of Creation we are reminded that we can do so much to help our world, as David Attenborough says 'we must change now'.
There are many things we can do as individuals and collectively we can with effort shift a way of thinking. I therefore commend our novena to pray for a new way forward within our diocese.
Along with local Laudato Si animators, the Justice and Peace Co-ordinating Council are asking that the diocese commits to ethical investment and makes a commitment to divest from fossil fuels.
Please join us in our novena prayer each day at 6pm from Thursday 1st October to pray that the Diocesan Trustees understand and respond to the causes and consequences of climate change.
“It is good for humanity and the world at large when we believers better recognise the ecological commitments which stem from our convictions” Pope Francis (LS64).
Please see the prayer below which we hope you will pray and share as widely as possible .
Dear Lord, we belong to you. All that we are and have is Yours.
Help us to use well all that you have given in our care.
Pour out the power of your love that we may protect all that is vulnerable:
Mother earth and all her creatures help those of us who have been given the responsibility over money and resources.
Help us to invest in all that nourishes and protects, harming no one.
Send us your Holy Spirit to discern how to invest (Y)our resources wisely.
Help us to be a poor church for the poor.
Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle, for justice, love and peace. Amen
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As we move towards the end of the season of Creation we might wonder ‘what is Mercy’ Dr Carmody Grey explains in this short video
What is Mercy? Connecting With Nature, with Dr Carmody Grey
Many people think that Christianity is myopically focused on human welfare. Here, Carmody Grey explains that, in Laudato si', Pope Francis retrieves an older and richer theological vision: the earth and all its creatures are objects of God's mercy, and they should be objects of ours too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiGlI3YyDwo
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