“We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now”

We are experiencing another summer where local and global temperature records are being smashed repeatedly, where we are seeing widespread heatwaves, droughts and fires worldwide. It feels a bit apocalyptic – a little (or perhaps very) frightening.

As I read this week’s reading from Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome, I resonated with his imagery. It certainly feels like the whole creation is ‘groaning.’  

Amid the sea of quite concerning environmental (and other) news, I came across a story like a tiny seed of hope in a barren land. It was about a group of nuns in New York that have partnered with a local Indigenous tribe, the Shinnecock, to farm kelp, hoping to increase the health of the polluted, degraded bay that they share. So far, this relatively small project has seen tremendous success. It reminded me of other kernels of hope and good news, like the efforts that have been underway right here in Átl’ka7tsem/Howe Sound, which have also seen some success in supporting salmon and herring.  

It felt to me that this was a little medicine, a little healing, a little relief for the aches, pains and groaning of our Sister, Mother Earth (as St. Francis called her). Maybe it was also a little medicine, healing and relief for my own troubled heart. 

The world’s problems, whether climatic or otherwise, can feel immense and overwhelming. However, our faith can lead us to the realization and freedom that we do not need to carry this weight alone while also not excusing us from responding. Our faith can help us to face these frightening realities honestly and take responsibility for our part while also holding onto hope that justice, healing and wholeness are still possible, with God’s help. 

This summer, we have been urged to reduce our water consumption. It is timely that we just replaced our old, water-hungry, frequently running toilets thanks to the Diocesan climate response grant, helping us to live into our baptismal promise “to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.”

How else can we respond as a church and as people of faith? How else can we respond to the groanings of creation, of our Sister, Mother Earth, with compassion and care, praying that they might be, like Paul wrote, the groans of ‘labour pains,’ of a new life, a new and better world, as opposed to the groans of death. 

As followers of Jesus, let us respond to these questions with courage, boldness, faith, hope and love, advocating, educating, greening, growing, and transforming our habits and those of our society to become the world that God dreams for all that God has made. 

Thanks be to God!

CG+