Monday, June 13, 2016

#SacredEarth Day of Prayer and Actions

Saturday, June 12th marked the 6 month anniversary to the COP 21 agreements, and the start of Laudato Si Week marking the 1 year anniversary of that important encyclical by Pope Francis.  Because of these important events, it was also a world-wide day of prayer and action for the planet and a call for world leaders to commit to a 1.5 degree limit on global temperature rise. 


To learn more about the day and access some of their prayer resources, click on the link here: http://sacredearth2016.org/ 

 In St. Louis, a small group of 8 people from various Congregations and from MO Interfaith Power & Light gathered across from St. Francis Xavier College Church for a prayer service and litany remembering many around the world who have fought to defend the rights of creation such as Wangari Maathai, Wendell Berry, Pope Francis, Rev. Sally Bingham and, Karen Baker-Fletcher, and Maxima Acuna de Chaupe, and some who have even been killed for that very work including Berta Cacere, Chico Mendes, and Dorothy Stang.  It was a moving reminder of the impact one person can have inspiring others, and our challenge today to pick up the work we have inherited from these great leaders to continue speaking out on behalf of all creation.


Here was the full litany used:

Sacred Earth Sacred Trust
June 12, 2016

Introduction/Welcome:

Today we celebrate Sacred Earth 2016, a global day of prayer and action for creation.  June 12 marks six months after the Paris Climate Agreement and the beginning of Laudato Si’ week, ending with the first anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical on June 18.  We join with others, both past and present, committed to protecting our sacred Earth community, and lift up some of these mentors who have heard the voice of Creation crying for justice and have responded to that call.

Reader 1:  We lift up Pope Benedict XVI, who was a global voice pointing to the suffering that climate change causes for the world’s poor.  Guided by faith, he called on people of all traditions to protect the Amazon rainforest, to end the factory farming of animals, and to act for environmental stewardship.

Response:  God of Life, help us to hear the voice of your Creation crying for justice.

Reader 2 (after Pope Benedict):  We lift up Reverend Sally Bingham, an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of California and founder of The Regeneration Project, focused on its Interfaith Power & Light campaign, a religious response to global warming.  As one of the first faith leaders to fully recognize climate change as a moral issue, she has helped many to see the link between faith and creation and to take action through energy stewardship and advocacy. 

Response:  God of Life, help us to hear the voice of your Creation crying for justice.

Reader 3 (after Sally Bingham):  We lift up Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement in Africa, where she helped to plant over 30 million trees and provide jobs to the unemployed, while also preventing soil erosion and securing firewood.  She worked for the rights of women, of Nature, and of the politically oppressed.  She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 and died in 2011.

Response:  God of Life, help us to hear the voice of your Creation crying for justice.

Reader 4 (after Wangari Maathai):  We lift up Chico Mendes, the Brazilian rubber tapper, trade unionist, and activist who fought to protect the Amazon rainforest from logging and cattle ranching.  He advocated a return to sustainable agriculture and urged nonviolent protests against corporations that would rob Brazilians of their livelihood.  He was shot and killed in 1998.

Response:  God of Life, help us to hear the voice of Creation crying for justice.

Reader 5 (after Chico Mendes):  We lift up Berta Cacere, an indigenous activist in Honduras, who led a campaign of the Lenca people against a hydroelectric dam project that would flood large areas of native lands and cut off water and medicine supplies.  She said, “We must undertake the struggle in all parts of the world, wherever we may be, because we have no other spare or replacement planet.  We have only this one, and we have to take action.”   She received the 2015 Goldman Environmental Prize and was assassinated at her home on March 3, 2016.

Response:  God of Life, help us to hear the voice of Creation crying for justice.

Reader 6 (after Berta Cacere):  We lift up Karen Baker-Fletcher, an eco-justice theologian who interprets the Bible from an environmental, African-American, and womanist perspective.  She states that environmental racism is a form of oppression and connects the abuse of Mother Earth to the abuse of black women’s bodies: both have been exploited and raped for economic gain.  She writes, “We are all responsible for giving life back to that which has given us life – God and the elements of our planet.”

Response:  God of Life, help us to hear the voice of Creation crying for justice.

Reader 7 (after Karen Baker-Fletcher):  We lift up Wendell Berry, poet, novelist, essayist, and Kentucky farmer, whose writings celebrate the holiness of life, land, and community.   With a deep reverence for the land and agrarian values, he connects the dangers of the future with a failure to live fully in the here and now.  He writes, “Maybe we could give up saving the world and start to live savingly in it.”

Response:  God of Life, help us to hear the voice of Creation crying for justice.

Reader 8 (after Wendell Berry):  We lift up Dorothy Stang, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur and passionate advocate for the farmers of the Amazon Basin and the rainforest.  Her daily life in the rainforest’s beauty taught her to appreciate “Earth’s lungs” as a shelter for myriad plant and animal species, fresh water reserves, and indigenous peoples.  After 40 years of living with the rural poor, she was killed by two hired gunmen on February 12, 2005.

Response:  God of Life, help us to hear the voice of Creation crying for justice.

Reader 9 (after Dorothy Stang):  We lift up Maxima Acuna de Chaupe, an indigenous farmer of Peru’s northern highlands who has suffered beatings, violent evictions, and a legal battle to protect her land from being turned into a gold mine by the corporation, Newmont and Buenaventura.  She says, “I may be poor.  I may be illiterate, but I know that our mountain lakes are our real treasure.  From them, I can get fresh and clean water for my children, for my husband, and for my animals!”  In April she received the 2016 Goldman Environmental Prize.

Response:  God of Life, help us to hear the voice of Creation crying for justice.

Reader 10 (after Maxima Acuna de Chaupe):  Finally, we lift up Pope Francis, a prophet in our midst, who, by his daily witness shows us how to be authentic and humble servant leaders.  A year after his encyclical, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home, he continues to remind us that “each creature reflects something of God and has a message to convey to us” and that “the Spirit of God has filled the universe with possibilities and therefore, from the very heart of things, something new can always emerge.”

Response:  God of Life, help us to hear the voice of Creation crying for justice.

Sharing:  Now we invite you to name any others who belong in this litany of those who care for our common home and bring them into this sacred circle.  After each additional name, let us respond “God of Life, help us to hear the voice of Creation crying for justice.”

Concluding prayer:  Loving Creator, we thank you that we are part of your magnificent Universe and beautiful Earth.  May your Spirit awaken in us a desire to protect our planet’s precious biodiversity, the animals and plants and ecosystems that are all revelations of your divine mystery.  Breathe into us solidarity with all who suffer because of our irresponsibility and indifference.  Move us to be people of hope and action with hearts of tenderness, compassion, and care for one another, for the entire community of life, and for our common home.  Amen.



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