Celebrating a Season of Creation with Canterbury

by Don Partridge, Sr. Warden and co-chair of CASE (Canterbury Advocates for a Sustainable Environment)


In his Encyclical Letter, Laudato Si’, Pope Francis makes an “urgent challenge to protect our common home.”  Support for this appeal for stewardship of God’s creation was soon expressed by leaders of the Orthodox Church, Islam, and Judaism. Canterbury Advocates for a Sustainable Environment, CASE, has been quietly advocating for stewardship of God’s creation for a number of years.  Most recently we have supported NMIPL (New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light) and maintained a recycling program for the household’s batteries and CFLs.  Pope Francis goes on to say that “Living our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or secondary aspect of our Christian experience.”  The mission of CASE is very much in line with this sense that environmental stewardship is not just what some radical tree-hugging believers do, but that respecting and protecting God’s creation is central to who we are as Christians. 

We happen to live in an especially beautiful corner of God’s creation.  I’ve been fortunate to have been able to hike trails past 500 year old trees and through treeless badlands, to break trail on my skis through fresh snow in a totally silent forest, and to paddle lakes set in Georgia O’Keefe paintings.  These are easy reminders to me of why it is important to be stewards of creation, but my real challenges come with my less obvious interactions with the environment.  I have developed expectations for unrestricted transportation, availability of out-of-season produce, and instant delivery of unnecessary consumer goods that cause me to have an unsustainable impact on God’s creation.  Part of a day of hiking in the mountains is driving to and from the trailhead!

The Roman and Orthodox Churches will hold up 1 September as a Day of Prayer for Creation and the Environment and we at Canterbury will use this as an opportunity to begin celebrating a Season of Creation.  I hope that this will be an opportunity for CASE to begin a more active and visible role in the life of the household.  I also hope that this Season of Creation will challenge me so that when I repeat that I believe in God the creator of heaven and earth that I add that I believe that I am a critical steward of what God has created.