Weekly Newsletter
May 26th, 2026
A Note from Rev'd Holly
Dear St George’s,
How do you experience the world of creation? And more particularly, in this time of anxiety and fear and grief concerning the future of our planet in the face of climate change, what are your parables of contemplation of creation?
In a two-part webinar I watched recently, a Canadian Jesuit named John McCarthy asks these questions. He is a boreal forest and lichen scientist, from Newfoundland. And he is also a man of deep faith. The webinar is called Climate Crisis: Finding Hope through a Trinitarian View of Creation. Since this Sunday is Trinity Sunday, and my thoughts have been circling around creation, I found it helpful. He draws on Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ for a different paradigm through which to view creation.
The first webinar challenges our tendency to see the ecological crises of our time simply in secular, scientific terms which seem inevitably related to economic, political and technocratic values. He calls his first parable our “Poverty of Discourse.” As long as we put a “barcode on nature,” seeing creation as existing primarily for our benefit, we cannot experience the goodness and interrelatedness of creation in its own right. We cannot experience the mystery and wisdom, the spiritual relations within nature.
In the second webinar he draws on the Nicene Creed, seeing the whole Trinity as involved in creation. For example, to underline the limitless generosity of God he asks, “Why is there something and not nothing?” Creation is not necessary. All creation is contingent. It is not just “out there.” It has final meaning in the love of God.
There is much more in this webinar to reflect on and pray about than can be addressed here. And the photos are moving. Contemplating the communal, creative nature of the Triune God can reveal to us the inner relational beauty of God’s purpose in creation. May such reflections help us reorient our lives accordingly.
https://jesuits.ca/stories/climate-crisis-finding-hope-through-a-trinitarian-view-of-creation/
