For the small group of people who have gathered six times this year, the text we have been reading has been quite inspiring and challenging. It is Rooted and Rising: Voices of Courage in a Time of Climate Crisis by Leah D Schade and Margaret Bullitt-Jonas, editors, with Introductions by Mary Evelyn Tucker and Bill McKibben. (Rowman and Littlefield, 2019)
We have read and discussed the sections called Rooting in Interfaith Fellowship, Rising in Local Activism, Rooting Science and Policy in Faith and Spirituality, Rising from the Margins, Rooting in Liturgy, Moral Vision and Vocation and lastly this year Uprooted, Replanted and Rising. That leaves the final section called Grief, Love and Trees as the reading for our first meeting in 2025. What a read it has been taking us on as many paths as the widespread rambling branches of the magnificent tree on the front cover (no photo acknowledgement available).
The year of 2024 has built on the sound foundations laid in the early pre-Covid years of this group, under the tireless and wise guidance of the since deceased Anne Boyd . We read sections from Thomas Berry, C.P. Kathleen Dean Moore, Charles Eisentein, we immersed ourselves in Laudato Si, read poems and articles from Earthsong magazine and many other resources. More recently we read “Sand Talk – How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World” by indigenous thinker and writer Tyson Yunkaporta to see things form a totally different perspective .
All these have expanded and deepened our understanding of the emerging field of Ecological Spirituality – the Reading Circle’s title that first caught my attention. I have been greatly enriched by the discussions around the contemporary story of the origins of the universe and the urgent call to care for the Earth and all Creation so I look forward to the on-going challenge.
by Evelyn Diradji
First meeting in 2025 is Tuesday 18 February, 5.00 – 6.00 pm, via zoom.
