Around Town: Kinder Morgan / Praise, Making Peace with Creation, A Rocha . . .

These are dark times, says Jason Wood, but he remains hopeful as he sees many people of faith rallying to protect creation.

A couple of weeks ago (November 19) Jason Wood and members of Earthkeepers joined the large Climate Justice March which began at city hall.

A few days later he wrote:

Yes, these are dark times. Promises made by Canada’s political leaders to take decisive action on climate and a renewed relationship with Indigenous peoples seem now like little more than smoke and mirrors. Despite anguished protest and rigorous fact-based analysis, we watch one destructive project approved after another.

And that was before Trudeau’s announcement that the Liberals are approving Kinder Morgan! But his main point was that he still has hope:

On Saturday, I joined with Christians and other people of faith from across Vancouver and its home in Coast Salish territories [at Spirit of Life Lutheran Church, just east of city hall on 10th]. We came from a diversity of traditions – Catholic, Protestant, evangelical, Quaker and more – but were united by agonizing desire to encounter anew the Creator.

We needed strength for the urgent work of loving and protecting the rest of creation. We sang. We lamented. We prayed. Then at the heart of our service, we gathered for communion, re-membering Christ’s body broken for us, now living in us, making us one.

This worship service took place at Spirit of Life Lutheran Church before the Climate Justice March.

But my favourite moment was when we praised. At one point, we were invited to give thanks for the gifts of creation, following each statement with the declaration: “Praise be to you, O Lord.”

In the outpouring that followed, it was like my soul was borne upward on waves of praise, cresting higher and higher, until I could only gape wonderingly around me at a horizon saturated in the glory and majesty of God. Rocks, sun, wind, belugas, trees, salmon, bacteria – everything was already rejoicing in a song of praise. And we simple, slow humans were finally (finally!) joining in.

For his whole reflection, go here.

Following Trudeau’s announcement, Wood wrote:

Today is just one more reminder that our government hears the voices of fossil fuel industry loud and clear.

But I believe we have a more powerful voice. Last weekend, alongside thousands of Indigenous peoples, public officials, concerned citizens and other people of faith, I pledged:

“With our voice, in the courts or the streets, on the water or the land.
Whatever it takes, we will stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion.”

Making Peace with Creation

Making Peace with Creation will premiere December 7 at Regent College.

The timing couldn’t be better. Next Wednesday (December 7, Making Peace with Creation will premiere at Regent College.

The film featuring retired Regent College professor Loren Wilkinson is sure to add some welcome perspective to the heightened tensions surrounding Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s thumbs up for the Kinder Morgan pipeline.

My own brush with civil disobedience was 20 years ago, when my wife, Mary Ruth, and our daughter and I were among the 800 or so people arrested in the protests about logging in the Clayoquot Sound area on Vancouver Island. I still feel that was the right thing to do. . . .

I must say that if those protests and arrests were appropriate then, in attempting to change BC logging practices (and in that they were partially successful), such action is far more appropriate now, and the issues even more important.

This whole topic is way too big and complicated to talk about in a few paragraphs, but let me make a few points which might help us all as we think and talk about the Kinder Morgan protests, the pipelines, Canada’s increasing importance as an oil producer, the health of the planet and the relevance to all of this to our frequent prayer: that God’s kingdom will come ‘on earth’ as in heaven. . . .

Poet and theologian Loren Wilkinson has spent his life thinking, teaching and campaigning about the environment – or creation, as he prefers to call it. . . .

From their home on Galiano Island he and his wife, Mary-Ruth Wilkinson have encouraged generations of students to think long and hard about the meaning of creation and of our responsibility as creatures within it. . . .

Through personal reflections (set both in the beautiful Gulf Islands and Vancouver), stimulating conversations with leading thinkers, artists and activists, and specially created art work, together with extracts from his poetry, Loren Wilkinson presents his own compelling and beautiful vision for human life in the 21^st century.

A couple of other environment-related events this weekend:

A Rocha at Christmas

Ordinary Time will have concerts at A Rocha and three other locations this weekend.

A Rocha’s Brooksdale Environmental Centre in south Surrey is hosting three events over the next few days:

* Christmas Shopping at Brooksdale December 1 – 2, 5 – 9 pm.

Shopping locally and buying fair trade reduces our impact on creation and supports local economies. Therefore, everything we sell is either locally produced, fairly traded or promotes an environmental ethic.

* A Rocha Christmas Open House on Saturday (December 3), 1 – 4 pm:

Bring your family to Brooksdale Environmental Centre for some good holiday cheer. Join us for carolling by the fireplace, site tours, plus hot drinks and treats for sale.

* Ordinary Time in Concert on Saturday evening, starting at 7 pm:

Celebrate the Advent season with the original bluegrass and folk tunes of Ordinary Time. Enjoy good cheer and wonderful music in a house concert setting.

They’ll also have two concerts December 4, at First Baptist in the afternoon and St. John’s Vancouver in the evening.

Vespers for Standing Rock

Richmond Eastern Catholic Church will host a Solidarity with Standing Rock Vesper for Creation on Sunday (December 4), at 6 pm.

They say:

Join us in prayer for a just and irenic solution to the concerns of the First Nations at Standing Rock. Come to pray for inspiration and repentance to be good stewards of God’s creation.

“Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes that are your inheritance. For a little while your people possessed your holy place, but now our enemies have trampled down your sanctuary.” (Isaiah 63)