 From Ann Barrett, UUCGV Green Team Member LOVING NATURE IS A SPIRITUAL THING I have enjoyed working with the UU Green Team for over a year now and have some reflections I’d like to share with our congregation. We are a varied group of between 8 and 12 steady members. We all seem to get along well together. We inspire each other, all members contribute to our projects and share great ideas to further our goals to help keep the planet livable for all life, including humans.
At our last meeting in September, we decided we needed a mission statement. Penny Hopkins and Richard Hyland made a stab at it and here is what they created: "In living into our 7th Principle, the mission of the Green Team is to guide ourselves, our congregation and our community into a deeper awareness, understanding, and commitment to preserve and protect the “interdependent web of all existence” of which we are part." Our 7th principle has always been my favorite. It includes everything, not just humans. Because I love science, especially life science, I see the interconnected relationships that make up all life on our planet. Many people seem to think that physics is boring and lifeless, but living relationships are based in physics, which is, after all, the study of how the universe physically functions. The more we understand our world and our place in the universe, the more unbelievably miraculous it is. It is huge and yet the tiniest of sub-atomic particles are the driving force behind it. It is immeasurably complex, but as we study it, we see its art and beauty. This strikes me as the most sensitive approach to try to understand the nature of God. We are just a tiny speck of dust in the vastness of the Universe but think of how amazing we are. Humans can feel, think, learn, understand, create, build, and love. Jesus said we are made in the image of God. And if God created the universe, we owe it to ourselves to be stewards of our beautiful little planet. We owe it to each other for our actions to be based in love, as the great religions teach us, so that all of life is valued and protected. My journey with the Green Team has been a spiritual journey. I am discovering month by month ways to think about my faith as a way to act, with the 7th principle as my core belief. We humans should really think hard before we destroy the gift we were given – life on our tiny planet. God’s children would surely look at everything with the eyes of gratitude. That would mean that our fellow travelers on this earth, animals, plants and all living things, should be considered and valued when we plan any human project. They are our lifeline for survival. I hope our Green Team will continue to work together and to welcome new members to join us in our quest. It gives me a perspective that brings joy to my daily life and helps me better contemplate the difficult issues that are before us today. We will be presenting an idea to the congregation about how to measure our own carbon use footprint so that we can decrease the effect of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Richard Hyland will talk to us about that in December. A link to UU Ministry for Earth you might enjoy: www.uumfe.org Comments are closed.
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