Parishes in the process of Ecological Conversion
Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish, Kirribilli, NSW.
Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish Community, together with the Parish Communities of St Mary’s at North Sydney and St Francis Xavier at Lavender Bay form the greater parish of Our Lady of the Way.
The Pastoral Team at Our Lady Star of the Sea have decided to establish a committee to look at the parish's impact on the environment and to facilitate parishioners working together generally in support of the environment.
At the first meeting of the Environment Group the discussions centred on the moral dimension of environmental problems.
The group, inspired by Papal statements on the Environment (see references below) outlined why they believe the environment is more than a political or economic issue.
- As Catholics we believe that Jesus gave us these commandments - to love God above all things and to love our neighbours as ourselves.
- Love of God requires respect for the world he gave us.
- Love of neighbour prohibits the selfish destruction of the environment without regard for those it hurts or the needs of future generations.
The Catholic attitude towards nature - in a word - is "stewardship" ... the careful and responsible management of the world God entrusted to our care. In the book of Genesis, humankind is granted dominion over the rest of Creation.
This does not mean that God does not care how we use the material world. The Environment Group have stated that: "... an important first step is to get 'our own house in order' and to this end, it is hoped that the Parish will undertake an environmental audit in the near future.
This audit will inform the measures the Parish can take to lessen its environmental impact and also the measures we, as individuals, can take - to lessen our environmental impact.
There will be regular environmental updates in the Parish Bulletins and the environment has become a regular theme in the church's music selections and the Prayer of the Faithful.
References:
*Not only is the material environment becoming a permanent menace - pollution and refuse, new illness and absolute destructive capacity - but the human framework is no longer under man's control, thus creating an environment for tomorrow which may well be intolerable. This is a wide-ranging social problem which concerns the entire human family. Pope Paul VI
* World Day of Peace message for 1990 Pope John Paul II
Further Reading (Recommended by the Parish Environment Group):
The ethics of climate change solutions
