Colourful Dreamer

As I have reflected on these sessions, I realise how much Jeff has affected me over these last few years. Certainly he has made the urgency crystal clear. Inspired by his contribution in 2018 I took a motion to our synod asking for the then leadership team to offer some leadership around this. And they did, and I got pulled into that, broken shoulder and all. And I made sure my parish observed the Season of Creation each year, and that we as a parish thought about how to reduce our carbon footprint. But Jeff was talking about something more. Because all of that still treats creation as something other. Something that I can use to exploit for economic gain, or to care for to avoid the economic hardship that is coming. That is where most of the conversation sits. But he is inviting us to both critique the underlying assumptions around this and then to go deeper.  In the question and answer time at the end of the first session we talked about the underlying assumption within "western...

The second half of the mornings that Cathy spoke were led by Jeff Golliher. Jeff is one of my heroes. He has been a gift to the Order and to the wider church for a long time now. I first met Jeff in October 2018 at a meeting of the Chapter of the Province of the Americas. On the final day he took us through the very recently released IPCC special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.  Jeff is a Franciscan, a retired Episcopal priest, and a cultural anthropologist. He has travelled widely to explore the spiritual path in the Western and Eastern traditions and among indigenous peoples. Much of his work has focused on the spiritual dimension of the environmental crisis. For more than ten years, he served as Canon for Environmental Justice and Community Development at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan. For nearly 30 years he was the environmental representative for the worldwide Anglican Communion at the United Nations. He...

I am finding it an interesting exercise to read Paul and his letter to the divided church in Rome in this Season of Creation. It causes me to wonder if one of the ways we “live according to the flesh” is to sever our relationship with creation. Genesis reminds us that we are created from the soil in the image of the creating God to tend and care for all creation. Our wellbeing is intimately connected with that of creation. And yet so many of our prayers only talk about our need to love God, with no reference to Jesus’ repeating of the commandments to love God by loving our neighbour. And in this Season of Creation, I would include all creation and all creatures on this small common home as our neighbour. We might describe sin as being unable to find other ways of living even when we can see that our dependence on a fossil fuel economy is now altering the climate, reducing biodiversity, and choking us with pollution.   Paul invites us to know that the Spirit of God is with us in all...

Because I am away during this year’s Season of Creation, I have decided to move our engagement with this time to July. And maybe that will encourage us to take part in the actual Season is some more active ways. This year’s theme, chosen by young people working with the International Steering Committee, is Let Justice and Peace Flow. The Prophet Amos cries out “But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5: 24). This year we are invited to join the river of justice and peace, to take up climate and ecological justice, and to speak out with and for communities most impacted by climate injustice and the loss of biodiversity.  We are invited in this week’s readings to reflect on what stops us joining this mighty river. In his letter to the Romans, Paul speaks of how Christ breaks the power of sin that enslaves us. While there are many ways to understand sin, I wonder if in the context of climate change, biodiversity loss and life-threatening...

I wrote this three years ago. I am not preaching this week so have not written and theme. But in light of Gabrielle and other weather (climate) catastrophes over the last month or two,  it seems we need more than ever to " change our priorities and to live in such a way that this planet is not just treated as a resource to use, but as God’s gift." It begins with Abram and Sarai being invited to leave everything behind. Everything that shaped who they were and their place in the world. Their maunga, awa, marae, iwi and hapu. They were invited to become the people through whom God would restore humanity and all creation to all that God had originally intended. Nicodemus is an inheritor of this identity. But over the centuries his people had forgotten, and it had become all about maintaining your place in the tribe, your privilege and power. Jesus invites Nicodemus to leave everything behind and join the people through whom God is restoring humanity and all creation to all tha...

You can listen to this sermon here   Gate Pa –  29 th Sunday in Ordinary Time- Year C – 2022 Readings Psalm -                   Psalm: 119:97-104                                               First Reading -       Jeremiah 31:27-34 Second Reading -   2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:5                      Gospel -                   Luke 18:1-8                                                          What I want to say: This...