September 16, 2012
The need for a new vision
of the universe
The human community is facing
an increasingly complex and threatening situation. Our use of the earth
as a resource for meeting our human needs and wants has brought us to a point
where it is clear that the earth will not be such a fruitful resource for our
children and grandchildren. We must begin to re-think our relationship to
the earth and to its life-supporting resources. We need to reimagine our place
in the universe. We have for so long thought of ourselves as somehow
different from, and superior to, all of creation. As rational creatures,
with a free will, we were somehow exceptional in the universe, leading us to
value our own needs and/or wants over the needs and interests of all other
dimensions of creation. This has led us to a cultural and technological
approach to nature which denies the value of the bio-systems that surround
us. Value is rooted in human choice.
But the Hebrew Scriptures
make clear that from the very beginning God found all of creation to be good,
indeed very good. Indeed, human beings, according to the Genesis account,
were created last, as the final touch on the magnificent work of
creation. God commanded that human beings care for creation, and with
human reason and human free will, such a responsibility was a reasonable demand
by the Creator God. But what does care mean? This has been a question
side stepped or simply ignored in our drive to exploit the resources of
creation to meet every human desire.
For a long time, the
Passionist priest, cultural historian and self-proclaimed eco-theologian Thomas Berry has been calling for a
re-imagining of our place in the universe. Nature is not primarily a
resource to be exploited; it is the home for many living and dynamic systems of
life. The dynamic flaring forth of the universe from its beginning until
now is the flaring forth of humanity as part and parcel of the dynamics that
constitute the universe. The universe is not “other” to us, but is mother
to us!
Seven years ago, at Sacred
Heart Church in the Waterfront South neighborhood of Camden, NJ, the
parishioners gathered to talk about the future of their ministry. 300
people gathered, and one of the emphases in ministry that the group adopted for
the parish was the environment. What was clear to those gathered, given
their physical location in, arguably, one of the most environmentally
devastated places on planet earth, was that we must address issues of
environmental justice. We must address them not only because the lives of
our children and grandchildren will depend upon it, but in response to the call
of God in Genesis, that humanity care for the earth and all its
abundance.
Out of that communal
affirmation, the Center for Environmental Transformation was born. It is
a non-profit organization whose mission is to educate people on issues related
to environmental justice, to caring for the earth and all its
inhabitants. The Center is home to a 24 bed retreat space which opened in
2009 and has hosted two dozen groups from universities and high schools in the
region. We also have a fully functioning greenhouse, where 13,000 organic
heirloom seedlings are grown each year. We maintain a native plant
nursery, two vegetable gardens, a fruit orchard and a tree nursery. Young
people work in the garden as Junior Farmers, learning everything about food,
from seed to table. We host a Farmer’s Market every Friday from 4-7PM at
1729 Ferry Ave., with our partners from Philadelphia’s Greens Grow.
In June of 2009 one of our
sources of inspiration and guidance, Thomas Berry, died. In his honor we began
the Thomas Berry lecture, held each October. Our first speaker was Professor
Mark Graham, a member of the Theology & Religious Studies Department at
Villanova University. The second speaker was Miriam MacGillis, founder of
Genesis Farm in northern New
Jersey. Last year we had Judy Wicks, founder of the White Dog Café in
Philadelphia, and founder of the Sustainable
Business Network of Greater Philadelphia.
On October 7th at 3PM at
Sacred Heart Church the fourth Annual Thomas Berry lecture will take
place. The speaker is Mary Evelyn Tucker, Ph.D.,
professor in the School of Divinity at Yale University, also with an
appointment in the School of Forestry and Environmental Science. She was
a close colleague and collaborator with Thomas
Berry, and has established herself as a foremost scholar in thinking
through a “new cosmology,” equal to the challenges of our time. She
co-produced, with physicist and cosmologist Brian Swimme,
the documentary film “The Journey
of the Universe.” Earning a regional Emmy for documentary film in the
Northern California region earlier this year, the film walks us through the
story of the universe from its original flaring forth to the present. The
goal is to provide avenues for reimagining our place in creation. It the
great work to which our generation is called.
These lectures, the gardens
and orchards and the retreat facility are the realization of that
communally-generated dream in October 2005. For all of us at the Center,
the grace of God has been at work in this effort since the beginning. The
21st Century will be the context for a great struggle about how we are to
understand our relationship to the bounty of creation. The Center has
positioned itself to do its “bit” in steering that struggle toward a more
reverent and grateful celebration of God’s gift to all of us.
Join us on October 7th!
Tickets are $20. Email us at info@camdencenterfortransformation.org.
Peace to you and yours!
Mark Doorley, Ph.D.
President, Board of
Trustees
NEWS & NOTES
1.
WORK DAY:
October 6th 9AM – Noon. Join us for a morning of work in the
gardens. There is plenty to do. Please contact Andrea Ferich aferich@gmail.com to let her know you are
coming. Bring your own work gloves and drinking water!
2.
WELCOME TO THE
CENTER! The Board of Trustees is very happy to welcome Michael Zier to
the Center as our new retreat coordinator. Michael’s responsibilities
include marketing the retreat facility, scheduling and coordinating retreats,
creating evaluation processes and managing a volunteer database. Michael
is coming off a two year Peace Corp commitment in Armenia. Our decision
to hire Michael came after a months-long process which began with eliciting
applications. We received 19 applications, from very talented
people. After much discernment and two rounds of interviews, we settled
on Michael and he accepted. How he came to our attention is a story worth
telling. Fifteen minutes before I was going to send the job announcement
out on the internet, I received an email from Michael. He was preparing
to return to the States from Armenia and was reaching out to institutions in
Camden where he had spent considerable time in the past. He was wondering
if there might be a possibility of a job! I sent him the job announcement
and he applied. While his selection is a result of our due diligence in
the hiring process, we believe God was also working. Michael is getting
himself settled at the Center. Next month he will have something to
contribute to this newsletter, to introduce himself.
3.
THOMAS BERRY
LECTURE: Again, join us for this wonderful event and fundraiser for the
Center. Sunday, October 7, 2012 at 3PM at Sacred Heart Church.
Tickets are $20. Contact info@camdencenterfortransformation.org
to secure yourself a ticket. See attached flyer! Click here
to hear our guest speak about the issues she’ll explore with us.
4.
Saturday, October
27, 2012: Awakening the Dreamer Symposium. This is a great follow
up to the Thomas Berry lecture. This symposium will guide participants
through a series of exercises that will enable them to come to see that an
environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human
presence on this planet is an achievable dream for our future. See
attached file.
5.
We are very
excited to welcome the following groups to the Center during the next month:
a. September 20-23: Bishop Eustace Preparatory
School, Pennsauken, NJ
b. September 29: Villanova University Environmental
Justice Learning Community, Villanova, PA
c. October 5-6: St. Mary’s Episcopal Church,
Ardmore, PA
d. October 10-13: King’s College, Wilkes-Barre, PA
e. October 13-20: Villanova University, Villanova,
PA
6.
Ways in which to
support the Center (for each, unless otherwise noted, contact us at info@camdencenterfortransformation.org
a. Contribute to the General Operating Fund
b. Contribute to the 2012 Capital Campaign (replacing old
windows in Center, rebuilding side porch, redesigning front entrance)
c. Purchase Fr. Michael’s book, “It’s A Terrible Day,
Thanks Be To God” or the DVD “The Poet of Poverty.”
d. Purchase native plants and a rain barrel. (It’s a
great time to plant these perennials). Contact Andrea at aferich@gmail.com.