Ecumenical Gathering will consider ways to care for our common home (Photo: Pixabay)
The Redemptorists are sponsoring an Australian Ecumenical Gathering to explore new ways of caring about the planet and our future.
Anglican Bishop and President of the National Council of Churches Australia, Bishop Philip Huggins will join leading ecologists, scientists, economists and theologians at St Clements Retreat and Conference Centre, Galong in NSW, as together participants look at practical ways to implement the recommendation of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ in this land, Australia - our common home.
David Marsh, winner of the Australian Government Individual Landcarer Award 2017, will host a visit to his Boorowa farm on the Sunday, March 10.
The Gathering will also consider the warning from world-renowned naturalist Sir David Attenborough to world leaders gathered at the United Nations-sponsored summit on climate change in Poland last year.
"The world's people have spoken. Their message is clear. Time is running out. They want you, the decision-makers, to act now. Leaders of the world, you must lead. The continuation of our civilisations, and the natural world upon which we depend, is in your hands,” Sir David said.
Sir David Attenborough in his speech to World Leaders echoes the challenging words of Pope Francis in his Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ - On Caring for our Common Home: “The earth herself, burdened and laid waste, is among the most abandoned and maltreated of our poor she groans in travail… We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will. The violence present in our hearts is reflected in the symptoms of the sickness evident in the soil, in the water, in the air and in all forms of life”. - Laudato Si’ 2.
The weekend begins at 5 pm Friday March 8 with a welcome to Wiradjuri country, and ends at 2.30 pm on Sunday. The Opening Keynote address will be delivered by Dr Ross Garnaut, a leading economist who has authored two influential climate change reports.
For more information on the weekend, click here to visit the Redemptorists’ website.