By Sister Sara Dwyer, ASC
For the second year in a row, Christians around the world are praying and acting on behalf of the planet to mark the Season of Creation, Sept. 1 to Oct. 4. The bookend days are the Day of Prayer for Creation and the feast of St. Francis. This year’s theme is “walking together.”
My community of Sisters, the U.S. Adorers, have been “walking together” in resistance and celebration for years, especially since the publication of our Land Ethic in 2005.
For several years now, we have been resisting the Atlantic Sunrise fracked gas pipeline being laid underneath our own farm property in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. At the same time, we celebrate our spiritual beliefs about the sacredness of Earth and our responsibility to protect our common home’s air, water and soil from fossil fuels.
About a year and a half ago, we began “walking together” with the grassroots group, Lancaster Against Pipelines (LAP), to try to stop the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline across Pennsylvania. We are promoting our values while opposing corporate and governmental endorsement of fossil fuels.
Read more about our work with Lancaster Against Pipelines >>
The Adorers and LAP are pilgrims together in this endeavor, experiencing our own Season of Creation.
We Adorers will be celebrating through Oct. 4, with others in the family of humanity, and in a special way within our Christian family. We will continue the dialogue, our advocacy and our educational efforts to raise awareness.
Especially for us as Adorers, members of an international congregation of Catholic Sisters, we “walk together” on our beloved and sacred Earth. We know God created everything, and from our Scriptures, we know, “God saw that it was good.” We are stewards of this beautiful planet; tenants and pilgrims, not owners.
Adorers and our brothers and sisters around the world need to address climate change as a natural, moral and international crisis that risks our security, peace and health.
As we have witnessed increased environmental destruction, exploitation of natural resources and biological disturbances, people suffer, and are displaced and migrate.
This has caused great harm to the fabric of the human community as well as to the planet and the universe.
As Adorers, we are very concerned for the common good of all people, and, for our common home. We understand that our prayers, advocacy and consciousness-raising efforts are part of our Season of Creation.