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/
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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