Ron Cole : off the map...navigating life.

Moore to the Point: Ecological Catastrophe and the Uneasy Evangelical Conscience

(image courtesy Cam Cardow: Ottawa Citizen)

If you read anything today, read this! Russell D. Moore awakens the evangelical conscience in a brilliant reflection on the ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico...

For too long, we evangelical Christians have maintained an uneasy ecological conscience. I include myself in this indictment.

We’ve had an inadequate view of human sin.

Read the whole post...HERE.

Nick and Josh round table conversation...a faithful response to the oil spill & creation care

In my most recent post, " the empires new clothes...the naked truth " I skimmed the slippery surface our relationship with the empire. Our insatiable appetite for oil at any cost to the exploitation and destruction of creation, and a global economy in which money is thrown into it like a slot machine and financial experts pull the lever of luck. Where is the prophetic voice of radical subversive faith that critiques, corrects, that reveals an alternative view to that of the empire?

Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation (and a person of faith), raised a prophetic word when he spoke of our “addiction” to oil. Addictions, as many people have discovered, eventually make your life not work anymore. And that is what has happened to the U.S. and the world -- our oil addiction is making things not work. The list of consequences is long -- from critical climate changes, to the loss of jobs, to supplying money for terrorists, to sacrificing the lives of our young people in wars over oil, to watching an oil spill that nobody seems to know how to stop pour hundreds of thousands of gallons each day into the Gulf of Mexico. ( Sojourners GOD'S politics; Jim Wallis )

On Monday Nick and Josh brought together 3 prophetic voices, in this podcast Josh grabs another round table podcast with the likes of Julie Clawson, Ben Lowe, and Tom Sine. The four of them discuss the (lack of a) Christian response to the oil spill in the gulf of Mexico as well as other issues facing the American Christianity’s move towards more active caring for creation.

For more on the three guests click below: Julie Clawson, Everyday Justice
Ben Lowe, Green Revolution Tom Sine, The New Conspirators and Mustard Seed Associates (also, see Christine Sine’s blog)

This is likely one of, if not the best conversations I've heard on faith and it's relationship with creation care. Tom Sine, Julie Clawson, and Ben Lowe speak with great wisdom and passion. They critique. They encourage, and they offer hope with practical solutions.

Do yourself a favor, listen alone or get together with a few friends and listen...but do listen!!!

[Direct link to ep 151 - Oil Spill Roundtable with Ben Lowe, Tom Sine, and Julie Clawson]

You can also sign a petition ( HERE ) against offshore drilling at AVAAZ.org the world in action.

Lost...the voice, the cry, the shuffling feet of Climate Refugees

They are not victims of political upheaval or violence, who have access to financial grants, food, tools, shelter, schools and clinics through governments and international organizations. They are environmental refugees. Rising sea levels and catastrophic flooding, expanding deserts and drought...races of people are losing land in which they've lived in all their life. They are a people on the move in search of any piece of life sustaining land.

Lost in the economics of who's going to pay what, and lost in the science of whose at fault, and lost in the technology of can it save us, and lost in the voices babbling of politicians...is the voice, the cry, and the shuffling feet of refugees on the move.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
–William Butler Yeats, from “The Second Coming”

In Copenhagen we've assembled the rich, the powerful, and the brightest. It's my prayer we won't see the best, and worst...and have done nothing.

 

While the disastrous consequences of climate change may seem a ways off for some in the developed world, the International Organization for Migration reported today that it has already driven an estimated 24 million people from their homes--a number, they warned, that could rise to as high a billion people by 2050.

In most cases, these "Climate Refugees" are fleeing rural regions stricken by desertification, water pollution, and famine--problems caused directly or made worse by global warming--and heading into already crowded cities. As these factors become more common with the rise of temperatures in the coming years, the effect of these mass migrations on hard-hit regions will be devastating and eventually become worldwide.

The research sites that the number of people affected by natural disasters has more than doubled in the last 20 years as being a major cause of the migrations. Those impacted most are the poor, who have no means of migrating internationally, which tends to drive internal movement, namely into urban centers--many of which are unequipped to handle the influx.

As time goes on and the situation becomes more dire, these climate refugees may be ending up at the doorstep of the world's wealthier nations, so says the report:

While acknowledging that the impact of climate change on migration is predominantly internal movement, international migration is nevertheless likely to be increasingly important in the future and will necessitate policy and program responses that are currently lacking.

A BILLION people - one in seven people on Earth today - could be forced to leave their homes over the next 50 years as the effects of climate change worsen an already serious migration crisis, a new report from Christian Aid predicts.

The report, based on the latest United Nations population and climate-change figures, says conflict, large-scale development projects and widespread environmental deterioration will combine to make life unsupportable for hundreds of millions of people, mostly in the Sahara belt, South Asia and the Middle East.

---

About 155 million people are known to be displaced now by conflict, natural disaster and development projects. This figure could be augmented by as many as 850 million, as more people are expected to be affected by water shortages, sea level crises, deteriorating pasture land, conflicts and famine, the report says.

I'm baffled that this is not seen as a crisis by the worlds faith communities. All faiths have a profound connection, woven into the very fabric of creation. On the deepest level we are all related, what ever your color, race, or langauge. Like DNA there is a divine strand of something beyond us that connects us. It is a global village in which we are all...neighbors. All God's people...or if you're an atheist we all come from one cosmic bang.

 

I'm rather shocked reading various faith based blogs, and websites for the past week that there has been a great void, a vacuum...lots of church stuff, lots of deep theological rambling and missional musings. But it seems there is no link between the church and creation, no link between theology and creation...and no link between mission and creation.

 

The plight of environmental refugees my friends is a crisis of faith of biblical magnitude.

 

Jeremiah 9:23-24 “This is what the LORD says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the LORD.”

 

You can follow the United Nations Climate Change Conference news here on their site.

The research sites that the number of people affected by natural disasters has more than doubled in the last 20 years as being a major cause of the migrations. Those impacted most are the poor, who have no means of migrating internationally, which tends to drive internal movement, namely into urban centers--many of which are unequipped to handle the influx.

As time goes on and the situation becomes more dire, these climate refugees may be ending up at the doorstep of the world's wealthier nations, so says the report:

While acknowledging that the impact of climate change on migration is predominantly internal movement, international migration is nevertheless likely to be increasingly important in the future and will necessitate policy and program responses that are currently lacking.

A BILLION people - one in seven people on Earth today - could be forced to leave their homes over the next 50 years as the effects of climate change worsen an already serious migration crisis, a new report from Christian Aid predicts.

The report, based on the latest United Nations population and climate-change figures, says conflict, large-scale development projects and widespread environmental deterioration will combine to make life unsupportable for hundreds of millions of people, mostly in the Sahara belt, South Asia and the Middle East.

---

About 155 million people are known to be displaced now by conflict, natural disaster and development projects. This figure could be augmented by as many as 850 million, as more people are expected to be affected by water shortages, sea level crises, deteriorating pasture land, conflicts and famine, the report says.

I'm baffled that this is not seen as a crisis by the worlds faith communities. All faiths have a profound connection, woven into the very fabric of creation. On the deepest level we are all related, what ever your color, race, or langauge. Like DNA there is a divine strand of something beyond us that connects us. It is a global village in which we are all...neighbors. All God's people...or if you're an atheist we all come from one cosmic bang.

 

I'm rather shocked reading various faith based blogs, and websites for the past week that there has been a great void, a vacuum...lots of church stuff, lots of deep theological rambling and missional musings. But it seems there is no link between the church and creation, no link between theology and creation...and no link between mission and creation.

 

The plight of environmental refugees my friends is a crisis of faith of biblical magnitude.

 

Jeremiah 9:23-24 “This is what the LORD says: ‘Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the LORD.”

 

You can follow the United Nations Climate Change Conference news here on their site.

(Hope)nhagen...a Genesis Accord, or exit theology

The original aim was to find a successor deal to Kyoto, which expires at the end of 2012. The international community had set a December deadline to make it happen.

However, a rift between developed and developing nations over emissions — who should cut, how much, and who should pay for it — has dampened expectations for what will come out of Copenhagen.

The words of yet to be Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2002 when he was leader of the now-defunct Canadian Alliance party, "Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations." His rationale may have shifted slightly since then, but, Canada is still more of an obstacle to see constructive action in the Global Warming/ Climate Change Crisis. And with the down turn in the economy globally, the huge loss of jobs in the global work force, the continual shifting sands in the Stock Markets and national debts that are entering the realm of infinite...the reality to do something about Global Warming effects the climate of many many factors. Global warming is an insidious self inflicted disease that not only destroys life, but also spreads injustice especially in the poor marginalized spaces on the planet.

It is surely not a socialist scheme, I would like to coin the term a " Genesis Accord ". Above any thing it is about " All " creation, every speck...every race and language of people; beyond borders and boundaries; all land, all waters, all the landscape, the air in which we all breathe communally with each other. Without a an accord in which all inhabitants of creation take seriously as individuals and as countries...we can without a doubt say creation is coming to an end. It's Over!

Sadly a lot of the worlds faiths are not engaging their communities in the importance of this crisis. There are pockets of conversation and action, but not what you would expect. Especially when all faiths theologically are woven into the very fabric of creation.

Since the last reformation  " Christianity's theology of redemption and salvation have been pretty myoptic in terms of vision...saving the individual soul. One of the biggest challenges for the emerging/ missional church will be to develope a theology that is cosmic where redemption is about " ALL " of creation, and how that will play out interms of the church's missiology.

We need to re-read the creation story of Genesis...waking up to the reality that we're not outside of it, innocent by-standers...we're actaully in the midst of it.

26-28 God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them
      reflecting our nature
   So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
      the birds in the air, the cattle,
   And, yes, Earth itself,
      and every animal that moves on the face of Earth."
   God created human beings;
      he created them godlike,
   Reflecting God's nature.
      He created them male and female.
   God blessed them:
      "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
   Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
      for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth."

29-30 Then God said, "I've given you
      every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth
   And every kind of fruit-bearing tree,
      given them to you for food.
   To all animals and all birds,
      everything that moves and breathes,
   I give whatever grows out of the ground for food."
      And there it was.

31 God looked over everything he had made;
      it was so good, so very good!
   It was evening, it was morning—

The above from Eugene Peterson's Message in Genesis chapter one. Another piece of scripture that I have often sited for a more cosmic approach to redemption is Colossians 1:15-18

15-18We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.

18-20He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross .

Emphasis mine of course, but in the context of above, people of faith can not ignore any part of creation. Lay hold of this thought...if Christ spoke all creation into existence, is in and holds it all together...on that cross it wasn't just your redemption and salvation that hung in balance...it was " all " of creation. So...the resurrection, the new creation...has to be about redeeming " all " of creation. This is the Missio Dei for people of faith.

I'm not a theologian...more of a dreamer, that prays that the same Spirit that filled Jesus would fill me with the imagination of Christ. The thought that Jesus spoke " absolutely everything " into existence, seen and unseen...and that when the Father saw it, he said it was good...very good. And, that even at this moment...He is in, and of all things...and holds it all together.

If I make " the theology of redemption " about " All " of creation, instead of just you and me...and people...am I diluting, watering down what the cross is about. And if the " new creation " in to which Jesus calls as as partners, to co-create to build the new creation " the Kingdom "...is about everything. Everything...from people, to the environment, to social justice, global equality, poverty, politics, wealth, ...what does that mean for the Missio Dei of the church, for your faith community and for you as an individual. Could it be our view of redemption is so incredibly shallow...compared to the imagination of Christ. The challenge for the missional/emerging church will be to write and live a theology...that captures the imagination of the Kingdom Jesus wants to live.

Despite protests to the contrary, modern Christianity has become willy-nilly religion of the state and economic status quo. Because it has been so exclusively dedicated to incanting anemic souls into heaven, it has been made the tool of much earthly villainy. It has, for most part, stood silently by while a predatory economy has ravaged the world, destroyed its natural beauty and health, divided and plundered its human communities and households. It has flown the flags and chanted the slogans of the empire. It has assumed with the economists that the " economic forces " automatically work for the good and assumed with the industrialists and the militarists that technology determines history. It has assumed with almost everybody that " progress " is good...It has admired Caesar and comforted him in his depredations and faults. But in its de facto alliance with Caesar, Christianity connives directly in the murder of Creation.

Wendall Berry: Christianity and the Survival of Creation

We can do nothing, justified by our faith alone and wait for the mass exit at the bus stop to Eternity...or we can act as partners, as brothers and sisters, as all God's children and redeem, restore creation...building a new creation.

Update from Mike Todd over @ Waving or Drowning...

Mike has a video posted of activist, writer and author Naomi Klein in a hard hitting, sobering and brutally honest video around the conversations, and dealings of striking an accord with substance. She mentions the Convergence of Movements, Mike asks, as I have, " Where is the Jesus Movement ", or broader, " Where is the voice and presence of faiths from around the globe."

Despite protests to the contrary, modern Christianity has become willy-nilly religion of the state and economic status quo. Because it has been so exclusively dedicated to incanting anemic souls into heaven, it has been made the tool of much earthly villainy. It has, for most part, stood silently by while a predatory economy has ravaged the world, destroyed its natural beauty and health, divided and plundered its human communities and households. It has flown the flags and chanted the slogans of the empire. It has assumed with the economists that the " economic forces " automatically work for the good and assumed with the industrialists and the militarists that technology determines history. It has assumed with almost everybody that " progress " is good...It has admired Caesar and comforted him in his depredations and faults. But in its de facto alliance with Caesar, Christianity connives directly in the murder of Creation.

Wendall Berry: Christianity and the Survival of Creation

We can do nothing, justified by our faith alone and wait for the mass exit at the bus stop to Eternity...or we can act as partners, as brothers and sisters, as all God's children and redeem, restore creation...building a new creation.

Update from Mike Todd over @ Waving or Drowning...

Mike has a video posted of activist, writer and author Naomi Klein in a hard hitting, sobering and brutally honest video around the conversations, and dealings of striking an accord with substance. She mentions the Convergence of Movements, Mike asks, as I have, " Where is the Jesus Movement ", or broader, " Where is the voice and presence of faiths from around the globe."

Sabbatical over...mystified emerging/missional musing

Faith can't be taught; faith can only be caught. The environment where people are living a faith life, openly trusting in God and one another, is where real faith is tossed back and forth. Children who grow up in that kind of environment where faith is being tossed around, where a faith vision is being celebrated and the invisible is taken seriously, naturally receive the gift of faith.

Real faith is too real to ignore. If a person is teaching religion without offering some faith to catch, then teaching religion is largely a waste of time. It becomes an immunization against the real thing.

(Richard Rohr, Radical Grace: Daily Meditations)

Well the sabbatical is pretty much over. It has been a time to process, reflect, read and pray...to look back and look ahead. This space really grew out of finding myself in a similar transitional place 5-6 years ago. I found myself thinking differently, and in conversations outside of what I was hearing in many faith communities. Talking to Jordon Cooper, and Brian McLaren at the Shifting Realities Conference brought me closer to the " emerging conversation." For six years I have followed it, and engaged it. The conversation has always been open. It has made us look at worship, it has stretched the limits of theological thinking all in the context of the post modern or post-post modern culture we find ourselves. The conversation seems to have stalled.

I'm reminded of Kester Brewin's words in the perface of the " Complex Christ ", " It is my prayer that as we come to what might be a difficult age in this ' emerging conversation ', we may not give up trying, but make those decisions we know are difficult; it is my deepest fear that we may look back in the future with sadness and realize we didn't grasp this opportunity."

A quote from Chesterton, exhorts us to pursue something greater, " It is not that Christianity has been tried and found wanting, rather it has been found too difficult and left untried."

The emerging/missional conversation is not the " be all and end all ", but it engages us in the more difficult and untried. This goes well beyond the trendy lingo of " post modern culture " to a world that teeters on the brink of destruction. If the Christian faith can offer nothing more than the " heaven or hell " option...it will continue to ignored. 

A " christianity " that looks on and sees itself outside of everything else and interested only in " man " will continue to be a disconnect in peoples lives.

During my sabbatical I spent time in the works of Meister Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, Hildegard of Bingen, Thomas of Aquinas. In theology classes we spent little time exploring the early christian mystics. It seemed there wisdom was to be shoved into the far recesses away from modern and post modern christianity. Why???, and could there wisdom spark the imagination today, and engage us in the reality of a cosmic salvation and redemption. One that was about all creation not just the " souls " of man. 

More than ever I am convinced redemption is about " All " creation, a new creation, a new earth, the reign of the Kingdom of God. It is not this mere miniscule christianity that offers heaven or hell.

From reading the early christian mystics one thing started to become glaringly clear. It was that of  " theosis ", the divinization of all creatures, the transfiguration of the world, the idea of a cosmic salvation and not the idea of a personal salvation...of it " all " being just about " me ." The Kingdom of God, is the reign of Christ over everything, the transfiguration of the world, a universal resurrection, a new heaven and a new earth.

This is the real context of our faith ( read Colossians 1:15-21 ). How do we see christianity in that? How do we live our faith out, lived out in those words...and in the world around us?

Sooooo...I'm back. Refreshed and hopefully with words to stimulate conversation and faith. I continue to follow and engage myself in the emerging/ missional conversation. Above all, I pray that when all is said and done, that we will have done more than we have said...that it just hasn't been talk. But, that we have encouraged each other to practice a faith that truly engages every aspect of creation...that we build the Kingdom of God, preparing the way for the reign of Christ.

The Upside of Down...Thomas Homer-Dixon @ Uvic :: Saturday

Saturday May 19th 7:30 pm @ the University of Victoria

University Center :: Farquhar Auditorium                           

Cost :: Free

Details here to resereve your seat

In The Upside of Down, political scientist and award-winning author Thomas Homer-Dixon argues that converging stresses could cause a catastrophic breakdown of national and global order — a social earthquake that could hurt billions of people. But he shows that this outcome isn't inevitable; there's much we can do to prevent it. And after setting out a general theory of the growth, breakdown, and renewal of societies, he shows that less severe types of breakdown could open up extraordinary opportunities for creative, bold reform of our societies.

Homer-Dixon contends that five "tectonic stresses" are accumulating deep underneath the surface of today's global order:

• energy stress, especially from increasing scarcity of conventional oil;
• economic stress from greater global economic instability and widening income gaps between rich and poor;
• demographic stress from differentials in population growth rates between rich and poor societies and from expansion of megacities in poor societies;
• environmental stress from worsening damage to land, water forests, and fisheries; and,
• climate stress from changes in the composition of Earth's atmosphere.

Of the five, energy stress plays a particularly important role, because energy is humankind's master resource. When energy is scarce and costly, everything a society tries to do — including growing its food, obtaining enough fresh water, transmitting and processing information, and defending itself — becomes far harder.

The effect of the five stresses is multiplied by the rising connectivity and speed of our societies and by the escalating power of small groups to destroy things and people, including, potentially, whole cities.

Drawing parallels between the challenges we face today and the crisis faced by the Roman empire almost two thousand years ago, Homer-Dixon argues that these stresses and multipliers are potentially a lethal mixture. Together, they greatly increase the risk of a cascading collapse of systems vital to our wellbeing — a phenomenon he calls "synchronous failure." Societies must do everything they can to avoid such an outcome.

On the other hand, if people are well-prepared, they may be able to exploit less extreme forms of breakdown to achieve deep reform and renewal of institutions, social relations, technologies, and entrenched habits of behavior. This is likely our best hope for a prosperous and humane future.

relationship...faith and the environment

tomorrow Sunday April 22...is Earth Day

Blind Beggar, Rick Meigs offers some great ideas on how faith communities can less there impact on the environment. Ancient monastic communities seemed to live in relationship with the environment that surrounded them.

This, I believe is an awakening call to the Christian in the street, to an environmental ethic and through this a recognition of the problems that our own planet faces.

The Celtic Church had a deep connection to the world around it. As farmers and labourers they would’ve understood the seasons, how to work the land which they tended and cared for. They could see the goodness of the creator in his creation; some early writings show a deep and vibrant love of the environment, an understanding of God at work in their surroundings and in their everyday life.

As a congregation, as part of the body of Christ we need to accept responsibility for our environment, that is too say God creation. If we can do this we are more than likely to put renewed effort into caring and tending for our local surroundings.

Anyway Rick has started the ball rolling with come great ideas...and looks forward to some added conversation...over here.

Earth Day ... a prayer

Here we are, God — a planet at prayer. Attune our spirits that we may hear your harmonies and bow before your creative power that we may face our violent discords and join with your Energy to make heard in every heart your hymn of peace.

Here we are, God — a militarized planet. Transform our fears that we may transform our war fields into wheatfields, arms into handshakes, missiles into messengers of peace.

Here we are, God — a polluted planet. Purify our vision that we may perceive ways to purify our beloved lands, cleanse our precious waters, de-smog our life-giving air.

Here we are, God — an exploited planet. Heal our heart, that we may respect our resources, hold priceless our people, and provide for our starving children an abundance of daily bread.

( by Joan Metzner, found in Earth Paryers; From around the World. 365 prayers, poems, and invocations for honouring the earth  )

Sunday is Earth Day...let this be the beginning of 365

 

Poster from the creative mind of James Kingsley...if your lookin' for highly creative images visit James site, " Young lions of Pop Design." And check out James' Youtube video below.

Walk, Bus, Carpool or bike this Sunday.Join the party!

So this Sunday is earth day, lets decrease the ecological foot print of our communities, start a trend...walk to church with a group of friends, take the bus and make some friends, ride a bike, roller blade, skate board, car pool....

Lets remember...

God blessed them:
      "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!   Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth."

It's time to be responsible faith communities...and as God's children, lets take care of what the Father has given us. Thanks James for getting the ball rolling.

Celtic Monasticism...environmental faith

Jason Clark has a thought provoking post on Celtic Monasticism and the spiritual and theological connection, how they lived and cared for the environment around them. We as a people of faith have distanced ourselves from God the Creator and His words to us in the opening of Genesis;

26-28 God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them
      reflecting our nature
   So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
      the birds in the air, the cattle,
   And, yes, Earth itself,
      and every animal that moves on the face of Earth."
   God created human beings;
      he created them godlike,
   Reflecting God's nature.
      He created them male and female.
   God blessed them:
      "Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
   Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,

The further we have navigated this long corridor of History, as people of faith those words are somewhere off in the distance, no longer audible...our responsiblity...is an environment in ruins.

Our legacy, a faith where redeeming souls is it's priority....and where a faith in redeeming God's creation just doesn't seem worthy. I have written on Celtic monasticism often, a faith life that concerned itself with earth just as much as heaven. Jason looks a Celtic Monasticism and asks questions...much needed questions that we as faith communities need to answer...

God is Green was recently aired on Channel 4. Presenter Mark Dowd put forward the premise that maybe the answer to our problems with the environment lay in the hands of the 4.5 billion followers of the main world faiths, that is Christianity, Islam and Sikhism.

I felt rather inspired by the Bishop of London and it inspired me to think quite deeply about God and the environment.

In this post I'd like to ask you your views on whether you think there a convergence of both the physical and spiritual ecological Christianity, particualry embodied in the growing popularity of the celtic christian tradition?

There has been a resurgence of all things Celtic since the early 1980's, none more so than that of Celtic Christianity.

This, I believe is an awakening call to the Christian in the street, to an environmental ethic and through this a recognition of the problems that our own planet faces.

The Celtic Church had a deep connection to the world around it. As farmers and labourers they would've understood the seasons, how to work the land which they tended and cared for. They could see the goodness of the creator in his creation; some early writings show a deep and vibrant love of the environment, an understanding of God at work in their surroundings and in their everyday life.

So taking those principles from Celtic Christianity how can we apply then to the twenty first century?

Read the rest of Jason's post ... Here.