Season of Creation: In the Ecozoic Garden
Sunday 22nd September 2024, led by Deborah Colvin
Several varieties of millet growing with vegetables and sunflowers in the Ecozoic Garden on Jermyn St
In 2023 the south-facing, sun-drenched (but also wind-blown!) curtilage of the church became a new growing space for exploring sustainable food growing. The space soon became known as the Ecozoic Garden. The word ‘ecozoic’ was coined by Thomas Berry and means literally ‘a home for all life’. In 2024 we grew many varieties of millet, an adaptable and resilient cereal crop which may become much more important to us in a climate-changed future.
Gathering
We take a few moments to notice the ebb and flow of our breath as we connect with our bodies and with the place we are in.
Readings
Our theme this year emphasises that Creation is not an object that has been created for human use, but rather a subject that we are called to relate to and collaborate with as fellow creatures. By capitalizing Creation, we refer to both the created order and the mystery of God’s continuing act of creation. We acknowledge the whole created order, or the whole cosmos, showing our theological respect, reverence, accountability, and interdependence with the natural world.
From the International Guide to ‘the Season of Creation 2024
Our children need to learn not only how to read books composed by human genius but also how to read the Great Book of the World. Reading this Great Book is natural to children.
Thomas Berry
The fungal networks weave a web of reciprocity. The trees all act as one because the fungi have connected them. Through unity, survival. All flourishing is mutual. How generously the trees shower us with food, literally giving themselves so that we can live. But in the giving, their lives are also ensured. Our taking brings benefits to them in the circle of life. Living by the precepts of the Honourable Harvest – to take only what is given, to use it well, to be grateful for the gift and to reciprocate the gift is easy in a pecan grove. We reciprocate the gift by taking care of the grove, protecting it from harm, planting seeds so that new groves will shade the prairie and feed the squirrels…. Collectively, the indigenous canon of principles and practices that govern the exchange of life for life is known as the Honourable Harvest. They are rules of sorts that govern our taking, shape our relationships with the natural world, and rein in our tendency to consume – that the world might be as rich for the seventh generation as it is for our own.
‘Braiding Sweetgrass’ Robin Wall Kimmerer
Individual contemplative time (15 minutes)
We take 15 minutes to contemplate any living thing that draws our attention in the Ecozoic Garden, the Southwood Garden, or in the green space where we are
Regathering
If you wish to, please share in a few words any response you have had during the contemplative time.
Concluding reading
God makes springs pour water into the ravines;
it flows between the mountains.
11 They give water to all the beasts of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 The birds of the sky nest by the waters;
they sing among the branches.
13 He waters the mountains from his upper chambers;
the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.
14 He makes grass grow for the cattle,
and plants for people to cultivate—
bringing forth food from the earth:
15 wine that gladdens human hearts,
oil to make their faces shine,
and bread that sustains their hearts.
16 The trees of the LORD are well watered,
the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
17 There the birds make their nests;
the stork has its home in the junipers.
18 The high mountains belong to the wild goats;
the crags are a refuge for the hyrax.
From Psalm 104
God of all creation,
Help us to see ourselves as part of the great circle of life,
Taking only what we need,
Bringing justice to the whole earth,
Honouring equally all that lives.
Amen
Upcoming Eco-Contemplative Liturgies
View More Eco-Contemplative Liturgies
