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FEN ENewsletter December 2020

Greetings from FEN, the Faith Ecology Network, an Australian hub for strengthening an interfaith dialogue between science and religion.

Editorial

The UN went ahead with its Summit on Biodiversity on September 20^th online instead of in China. In the opening remarks, the President of the UN General Assembly, Volkan Bozkir, outlined the high stakes involved in the issue of biodiversity, stating that “our existence on this planet depends entirely on our ability to protect the natural world around us”.  Has this really hit home to us? It is clear that Earth is speaking to us. How can we learn to really listen and bring about the urgent changes that are needed? It is worth looking at the video link of the UN Summit for a global picture.

As 2020 draws to a close, it is also worth reflecting on the header of the Editorial of the first FEN E-Newsletter of this year: “2020 Vision – Having eyes to see how things really are.” With the impacts of COVID 19 affecting how FEN operated this year, I can see how interdependent and interconnected we really are. Being part of the Faith Ecology Network heightens my awareness of this as we learn from being the human part of ecosystems where the tiniest can have as great an impact as the biggest. I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude on behalf of the Steering Team to so many people who have helped make 2020 a good year for FEN in the face of many difficulties:

Thank you to:

• The Mercy Foundation for their grant and for their generosity in allowing us to change two of our events to online ones,
• The Sisters of Good Samaritan for their auspicing services without which FEN would not be able to operate,
• The Steering Team of people from seven faith traditions and especially to the smaller team which planned the events – all as committed volunteers,
• Jason John who generously became the Communications Person and who enabled the online events to be so successful,
• Volunteer Crystal Carpenter, who assisted with editing videos for the initial “Deep Listening in the Natural World” online event and to the volunteers from the Bahai’i, Jewish, Brahma Kumaris, Buddhist, Muslim, Aboriginal and Christian traditions who created the videos to share,
• Catholic Mission for producing the wonderful FEN promotional video,
• Andrew Skeoch, key presenter for the two online events, “Deep Listening in the Natural World” , who shared his knowledge, insights and wisdom gained over his years as a nature sound recordist in a way which resonated well with people from diverse faith traditions and none.
• Sally Neaves and Miriam Pepper for their facilitation skills at the events,
• Greater Sydney Landcare and Sue Martin for the 10 Ways for Faith Groups to Care for Biodiversity Resource,
• Our partners, ARRCC, Australian Earth Laws Alliance, United Religions Initiative, and Nature for All Australia, who promoted our online events.

Having had our focus this year on “The Wonder of Biodiversity”, together we have grown into a new understanding of our diverse faiths, inspired by a slowly increasing understanding of ecology, especially learning from our Indigenous sisters and brothers. It is up to us to continue that growth and to turn that new understanding into action in and from our faith communities.  We look forward to 2021 with hope and trust in being part of the post Anthropocene era.

Anne Lanyon, FEN Co-ordinator

Current Activities and News from FEN Networks

Western Sydney University

Daniel Jantos, the WSU University Chaplain, explained to Anne Lanyon recently that across eight campuses, the University engages some 45,000 students, a great many of whom come from the Western Sydney region, a region of exploding economic growth and urban development. It is also one of Australia’s most multicultural regions.

Daniel stated that the WSU full-time chaplaincy is partly in recognition of the important role that religion plays in multi-culturalism and that in the chaplaincy service, they believe they are integral partners in the university’s goal of embracing cultural diversity. Daniel feels there is an important “prophetic” role that is needed in advocating for a higher level of awareness and responsibility in relationship to the wellbeing of our planet and its natural systems.

Daniel added that a large percentage of the students do not identify with traditional religious views and practices but are very thoughtful about their responsibility to their communities and to the privilege of getting a tertiary education. They are often also the most interested in the question of Earth care. Yet, it is often noted that the most religious students tend to be some of those least interested in environmental sustainability and climate change. Many of the “non-religious” students presuppose this to be a function of conservatism and religious orthodoxy. There is a high representation of various orthodoxies in the western Sydney community that function to retain cultural strength and cohesion and many students see the issue of environment as a luxury issue on which they may focus sometime in the future when they, and their families, are materially secure.

An initiative of the student environmental collective is a small vegetable garden at the Kingswood campus near Penrith They are a small, dedicated student organization that has been trying to get this garden up and growing for some time.

Daniel is looking for the involvement of someone who could come alongside those students and help them succeed in cultivating and sustaining that garden in order for it to be a springboard to a longer term and stronger relationship. Being at a busy location on campus, it would also be a chance to interface with many students for the purpose of conversations and discussion of issues around faith and ecology. Such a hub could be recreated on other campuses and become a place where students might benefit from the eldership that is non-existent for many of them in their own community around questions of environmental sustainability and climate change. There is also a small group of young Muslim women who have been exploring ways to provide some leadership to their own communities on these questions.

If you are that person or persons interested and willing to collaborate with Daniel in this exciting work at WSU, please contact Anne Lanyon at faithecology@gmail.com

FEN Enrichment Day at the Wivenhoe Environment and Conservation Area

On December 5^th, 12 of the FEN Steering Team enjoyed a large part of their Saturday exploring Biobanking Site 2 of this 300Ha Cumberland woodland by the Nepean River (north west of Camden and Narellan in NSW). The site is a project of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan to return this area from a mainly dairy farming mode to the original Cumberland Woodland vegetation. Manager, Geoff Green, obviously a man committed to caring for country, led us around a small section adjacent to the Nepean River. We were also able to spend time reflecting on our year, enjoy each other’s company in an open environment (though disturbed by small planes), and do some brainstorming of plans for 2021.

FEN ENewsletter October 2020

On the 12th, we will have several short intergenerational responses to the concept of Deep Listening in the Natural World.  Here's a Jewish Perspective.

FEN ENewsletter May 2020

Editorial

2020 vision – having eyes to see how things really are.

"Adults have often lost the ability to wonder in awe. The way that children look at the world as if everything is new and worth examining is exactly how discoveries are made." Jo Harding, Manager Bush Blitz

Late in 2019, a FEN Steering Team got together in Sydney and, following the suggestion of ecologist member Haydn Washington, decided on our 2020 focus of the WONDER OF BIODIVERSITY.  Biodiversity is the variety of all life forms on earth - the different plants, animals and micro-organisms and the ecosystems of which we are a part. We humans, as part of the animal kingdom, are also diverse.

Our various faith traditions and the sciences do have something in common. We all share a sense of WONDER at the natural world. The gift of learning from the sciences about the millions of Earth’s known species has enhanced our ability to WONDER at the singularity, complexity, beauty and intricacy of all of the web of life. Australia with its unique flora and fauna, especially is “one of seventeen countries described as being 'megadiverse'. This group of countries has less than 10% of the global surface, but support more than 70% of the biological diversity on earth.”

At the global level, United Nations Environment Programme Executive Director, Inger Andersen, kicked off 2020 as a “Super Year” of significant nature and biodiversity plans, decisions and actions, because, as she explained, “we’re losing species at about an average 1000 times the natural extinction rate; ...about a million are about to go extinct under the business as usual scenario. And at a time when global temperatures have reached all-time highs and our planet seems to be on fire, nature is our biggest ally.”

At the local level, in February, the FEN Steering Team was well into plans for two key events. The first was to be a Public Interfaith Prayer Vigil in Belmore Park in the heart of Sydney on May 28th to coincide with the International Day for Biological Diversity and Aboriginal Reconciliation Week.  The second was to be a Public Forum on September 6^th in the lead-up to the UN Conference on Biodiversity to have been held in China in October.

Then came the COVID-19 pandemic and everything changed.

What hasn’t changed is the need for Biodiversity protection, thus FEN’s need for seeking another way of sharing our common concern for earth’s declining biodiversity and our commitment to its preservation. The Steering Team is currently seeking advice from media personnel as to how to do this. If you have ideas or would like to support us, please contact us at faithecology@gmail.com

Suggested Action for you as Individuals as well as for your Faith Communities

During the COVID-19 Restrictions, a practical way of growing in Wonder about Biodiversity in your own backyard, local park or place of worship is to join BushBlitz. It is claimed to be Australia’s largest nature discovery project where you can learn about the biodiversity in your own place and maybe even discover something new which you can record on the Living Atlas of Australia.

Further Reading and Resources

The Ecological Citizen is a peer-reviewed online journal that is striving to address the central issue of our time: how to halt and reverse our current ecocidal course and create an ecological civilization. Creating a harmonious, respectful and mutually flourishing relationship with the ecosphere is the basis of such a civilization. This involves preserving and restoring biological richness, ecological complexity and evolutionary potential – as well as the beauty, mystery and integrity of Earth. www.ecologicalcitizen.net/

Australia’s Strategy for Nature and supporting website, Australia’s Nature Hub. This is the Government Strategy to work together to address biodiversity decline and provide enhanced opportunity for collaboration and partnership across governments and sectors. As Australia is a Party to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the national biodiversity strategy and action plan is Australia’s national plan to implement the Convention’s Strategic Plan and Aichi Targets. Australia became a party to the CBD in 1993 and has had a national biodiversity strategy and action plan in place since 1996.

The Forum on Religion and Ecology is an international multireligious project contributing to a new academic field and an engaged moral force of religious environmentalism. Its Monthly Newsletter offers a broad range of resources.  https://fore.yale.edu/

New Books on Ecology and Ritual:

Living Landscapes: Explores the role of meditation on the five elements in the practice of Yoga. Christopher Chapple looks at the world of ritual as enacted in three faiths of India.

Sparks of the Universe: Jennifer Callanan, inspired by Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’, On Care for our Common Home, has written this book of rituals for educators, students and all those committed to awakening ecological awareness. https://coventrypress.com.au/sparks-of-the-universe.

Sparks of the Cosmos: A book of 80 rituals divided into four parts representing the four pathways of Creation Centered Spirituality, by Margie Abbott rsm. Each part has its own introduction, theological reflection and 20 rituals with original poetry introducing each section. www.mediacomeducation.org.au/shop/sparks-of-the-cosmos/

Current Activities and News from FEN Networks

Connections between COVID-19 and the Wonder of Biodiversity – We have posted memes of personal reflections by some FEN members on the FEN Facebook Page.

FEN Auspicing body, the Sisters of Good Samaritan, run the Wivenhoe Environment and Conservation Project. The project’s purpose is to restore, nurture and promote the biodiversity of the Cumberland Plain Woodland and preserve the heritage of the Mater Dei Site at Camden NSW. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Landcare Group has had to put a hold on their volunteer work at the site.  www.facebook.com/wivenhoeconservation.org.au/

The Rahamim Ecology Centre run by the Sisters of Mercy at Bathurst has sadly closed. A FEN group held a reflection weekend at Rahamim when FEN was in transition after the closure of the Columban Mission Institute’s Centre for Peace, Ecology and Justice. So we know what a loss to Faith and Ecology education this is.  The Rahamim staff thank their many supporters in their wide community who have been part of the Rahamim story for helping to make the Rahamim mission and vision a reality over the past 14 years. Fortunately, the Mercy work in Earth literacy, education, spirituality and advocacy is to be continued! Please contact the former Eco-Education Coordinator, Sally Neaves, who will be continuing her work with the Sisters of Mercy of Australia and Papua New Guinea. In her new role, Sally’s email address will be sally.neaves@ismapng.org.au.

Australian Religious Response to Climate Change is holding a Multifaith Online Service for the Climate Strike, May 15^th Let's make sure we support it as people of faith. The best way we can do this is to ask a few others in our own faith communities to get involved. The single most effective thing you can do is to sign up and ask other people from your faith community to participate in a multi faith nationwide service supporting the strike. Please register your interest and involvement at www.arrcc.org.au/multi_faith_online_service_for_the_climate_strike

Proposals are invited for AELA’s biennial Earth Laws Conference - "Earth Laws Asia Pacific - Earth, Sea, Fire, Spirit", which is planned for 14-16 October 2020 in Brisbane, Australia.

The escalating impacts of climate change are being felt around the Asia Pacific region. As Australian communities recover and rebuild from a summer of horrific bush fires, other communities are coping with sea level rise, flooding, forced transition of cities and communities to safe zones, increasing environmental deterioration and biodiversity loss. With the outbreak of COVID-19, environmental protection efforts have changed in many parts of the world and there is much to learn from and share with our each other.

The Multifaith Association of South Australia held an Interfaith Prayer Vigil for Healing the Earth to celebrate the 50th anniversary of EarthDay with Kaurna Elder Uncle Frank Wanganeen and nine faith representatives sharing a healing ceremony for people and planet on the Karrawirra Parri (Torrens) riverbank. There was a double blessing of fine weather and the fact that the event was recorded by Community TV Channel 44 and live-streamed so it can be shared. www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfkAi5FqYWs; www.facebook.com/themfasa/videos/241109323937833/

Thank You from the Faith Ecology Network · Australia
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