April 16, 2012
A blessed Easter to all of
you! A blessed Passover to all of you! A very happy Spring to
everyone!
A long time ago, when I was
in college, I heard an Easter homily by a fellow named Joe Oppitz, C.Ss.R., now
deceased. Fr. Joe told us that as he left his house to go for a walk to
gather his thoughts for the homily, he happened to hear some rustling coming
from under the hedges near the door. He carefully pulled back the hedges
only to reveal a mother rabbit fawning over her newborn brood. He went on
to talk about Easter and Passover as the annual celebration of life, life in
the face of death, a life gifted to us by a God who never stops loving us,
marveling at us and entrusting to our care this amazing life that we
celebrate. The care of life, the life of our fellow human beings, the
life of other species on this planet, the life of the planet itself: all
cry out for the tender and loving care of God, and of us, God’s stewards.
Coming to an awareness of our
call to care for the earth can often be a resurrection experience. So
many of us take for granted the food that we eat, the water that we drink, the
air that we breathe, the grounds upon which we walk, and the gardens that we
enjoy. It is the “taking it for granted” attitude that eats away at any
ability or willingness that we have to respond to God’s invitation to be the
caretakers of the new life that is the gift of this season of promise. We
need to nurture it, be nurtured by it, to open our eyes to the wondrous reality
of creation and the pressing claims that creation makes on us human beings, so
gifted and yet so unable, at times, to see beyond our own noses to the impact
our lives have on the planet around us, both its human inhabitants, its
animals, indeed, all of creation.
However, spring is a hopeful
time, the time of resurrection (a return from the “death” of winter), a time of
passing over the limitations of human bias to an ever growing awareness of the
fragile yet terribly strong bonds that unite all of creation. In the last
month three events have occurred in our little corner of the planet, in
Waterfront South, that remind me, and I hope you too, that this is indeed a new
time, of new life, and of renewed commitment to caring for all.
First, in March, 12 baby
chicks arrived at the Emerald Street Garden in our neighborhood. Actually
they stayed in Andrea’s house, in a cardboard box, as they were quite
small. Now they are in the old rabbit hutch, converted into a chicken
coop for small chicks. Soon they will be strutting around the garden, and
soon enough they will be laying eggs, eggs that will be used in cooking classes
with the children who gather around the breadoven on Friday’s, dancing to the
tune played by Andrea’s stories. The beautiful thing about chickens is
that their life is an ongoing act of generosity. Imagine, creation has
gotten to the place in its evolutionary path where these birds provide
nourishment for their human neighbors most of their adult life. It is an
act of overflowing generosity on the part of creation, and creation’s
God. We celebrate the chickens as a walking, and laying, reminder of the
tendency of all creation, to overflow with abundance for all members of the
biotic community, an overflow that was manifest in the second event.
On Tuesday, April 10th,
Jorge Cartagena, a young boy who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong
time last June, cut the ribbons on a new house that the Heart of Camden Housing,
Inc., the Jon Bon Jovi
Soul Foundation and the Sacred
Heart Church community had secured for him and his grandmother.
Jorge, who likes to go by George, is now blind, due to the bullet so callously
lodged in his brain that June day. The entire community rallied to
George’s side, and his response? Joy, pure joy. Rather than
allow his blindness to move him deeper into himself and away from those who
love him, it has catapulted him into a life of constant smiles, encouragement
for others, a blessing offered to all with whom he interacts. This
celebration on the 10th of April is not a one and done kind of
event. As Mayor Dana Redd said, herself the recipient of this community’s
generosity when she was orphaned at a young age, this community doesn’t just
care for one day, not just for one year, but for many years. Like
creation itself, the community of Waterfront South and Sacred Heart Church are
overflowing with generosity for one of its own. It is a reflection of
creation’s own abundant flow, and a manifestation of the caring for creation
that ought to mark our lives.
The third event took place
the next day, April 11th, when Mr. Andy Kricun, our friend and the
executive director of the Camden County
Municipal Utilities Authority (the waste treatment plant) located in our
neighborhood, was honored at Villanova University. The Ethics Program of
the university awarded Mr. Kricun the Praxis Award in Professional Ethics in
recognition of his commitment to the ideals of his engineering profession,
keeping paramount the health, welfare and safety of the public, as well as his
clear understanding of the connection between his professional activity and the
common good. At the celebration, Andrea Ferich and Helene Pierson, of the
Center and the Heart of Camden respectively, detailed the ways in which Mr.
Kricun, over 25 years, has worked to become a partner with the community of
Waterfront South to insure clean water for the residents of Camden County, but
also to insure that the lives of the neighbors might be better for the plant’s
presence. The most recent achievement for Mr. Kricun and the CCMUA is the
acquisition of an old factory site to the south of the CCMUA plant that will
become Phoenix Park, a 5 acre waterfront park for the residents of this
neighborhood. The beauty of the river will be more opened to them now.
Once again, the generosity of the work and commitment is a manifestation
of that overflow that characterizes the gift of creation that spring, Easter
and Passover remind us to celebrate.
We are blessed in Waterfront
South and in Camden to have clear opportunities to awaken our consciousness and
our conscience to the Easter call of new life. Whether in the arrival of
chicks, the blessing of a new house, or in the celebration of the professional
excellence of one of our own, all of these are marks of creation’s overflowing
generosity. It is the nature of creation to overflow in generosity. May
we be stewards of this creation. May we too become enlivened in our
hearts and minds, so that we can overflow in generosity, as members of the
circle of creation, in caring for the creation God has so generously given
us. Christ is Risen! Our God has saved God’s people! The
earth is breaking forth in vibrant and pulsing color! What a gift to be
part of it! To do our bit!
Christ is Risen!
Mark Doorley, Ph.D.
President, Board of Trustees
The Center for Environmental
Transformation
NEWS & NOTES
1.
Earth Day
Celebrations in Camden and at the Center. See the attached flyer
for more detail.
a. Thursday, April 19th, Rain Garden
Planting, 9:30AM, Ferry Ave. Branch Library, CFET receives Camden’s
Environmental Hero Award
b. Friday, April 20th, screening of “Journey of the Universe,” a
wonderful documentary that tells the story of this marvelous universe.
Join us for soup at 6:30 and the film at 7:30PM. Sacred Heart Cafeteria
c. Sunday, April 22nd, Fair Earth Day, after
the 8:3o and 10:30 masses at Sacred Heart Church, in the cafeteria (seedlings,
native plants, demonstrations, fun)
d. Tuesday, April 24th, 10AM, Phoenix Park
Groundbreaking, a new 5 acre park on the waterfront, 227 Jefferson Street
2
2. JOIN US!
Saturday, May 5, 2012. Monthly Work Day! Bring gloves and some drinking
water. Meet at the Poet’s Walk, next to 422 Jasper Street. Let
Andrea know you are coming with an email to aferich@gmail.com.
3.
SAVE THE
DATE! Sunday, June 24th, at 3PM in the South Camden
Theatre. A screening of the movie “Journey of the Universe.”
This event is a fundraiser for the Center. Tickets will be
available. This film tells the remarkable story of a remarkable
reality: the cosmos! One of the producers is Professor Mary Evelyn
Tucker, who will be giving the fourth annual Thomas Berry lecture on
Sunday, October 7th, at Sacred Heart Church. SAVE THAT DATE TOO!
4.
YEAH! This
week marks the completion of the new windows on the second floor of the
Center. It has been a long time coming, but with the help of the
Allegheny Franciscans and many individual donors the work was completed this
week, so that the second floor has brand new windows. In total, 30
windows have been replaced with energy efficient windows. We still have
eleven more to do on the first floor. Help us get that done!
Contact Mark Doorley at mark.doorley@villanova.edu
if you’d like to contribute to the capital campaign. We also have a new front
porch to build and the side porch to complete. We need your help!
5.
Last month our
own Andrea Ferich was honored as one of 10 women in Camden recognized as Women
of Purpose. Congratulations, Andrea! Go to our Facebook
page for some photographs.
6.
We hosted a group
from Rutger’s/New Brunswick this last
weekend. They were fabulous! Thank you to Cathy Nevins, Cathy Fox,
and Andrea Ferich for working with this group. They worked in the orchard, and
helped George and his grandmother move into their new house. We hope to
see them back, perhaps as staff for other groups.
7.
We need your assistance
getting the word out that the Center is available for groups who want to spend
a weekend or week with us, learning about sustainability and environmental
transformation, and getting their hands dirty in our gardens, and learning to
wrangle chickens! If you are involved with a school, or a faith
community, that might want to spend time with us, please contact Betty Musetto
at bettyelainemusetto@hotmail.com.