Eco-Spirituality

Dear Friends,

When I was growing up in Ireland, there was a phrase that was used to describe Unitarians ‘those Unitarian folk are the people who believe that you come from the earth and go back to the earth!’  It was a phrase that was mostly used in a slightly derogatory way by folks from more fundamentalist religious traditions.  I think these folks felt that our lack of prescriptive teaching about an afterlife somehow meant we were ‘no hopers!’

Unitarianism and Unitarian Universalism has always placed a great emphasis on the importance of living well in this life.  Living well is about living in harmony with each other, living in harmony with all sentient beings, living in harmony with Mother Earth and the God Source.  Our Unitarian Faith calls us to be good caretakers of our Earth.  Our Unitarian Faith challenges us to acknowledge the dreadful impact that global warming, ocean acidification, deforestation and pollution is causing to our planet and to get out there and do something about it!

Why would we live out our lives focused on an afterlife when some of our sister sentient beings are in danger of extinction, when  Mother Earth is under threat from the selfish and ignorant acts of humankind?  I believe that the God Source calls us to be responsible caretakers of our planet.  I believe that the Universal God Source calls us to protect both fauna and flora.  I believe that we are called to speak up and out against global warming, ocean acidification, deforestation and pollution.  I believe that our Unitarian Faith in action means that we need to challenge those politicians who deny global warming is a problem.

I believe our Unitarian Faith calls us individually and collectively to be a voice for preserving the fauna and flora of our beautiful and wondrous planet.

I don’t mind that some folk say ‘we come from the earth and go back to it!…………….’  For me it describes in part something of the beauty of our Unitarian and Unitarian Universalist Faith.  I’m reminded of the words of a song by Joan Osborne ‘What if God Was One of Us?’  I’m sure God would speak up for our fauna, our flora, for the preservation of our Planet Earth!

As we enter Fall, may we commit ourselves as a community to being more fully engaged with Mother Earth.  On Saturday 15th at 10am we will have a day conference in which we explore this very theme.

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