This course, part of the IBTS Learning Network, is open to members of all and any denominations (or even if you don’t belong to any denomination!), from anywhere in the world.

The course explores how Christians can respond to the current multiple ecological crises, no matter who and where you are placed. You will acquire biblical, theological, and ecological resources for reshaping your understanding of discipleship and attend to concrete practices that may bear witness to Jesus Christ, cultivating lives that are properly aligned with God’s redemption of creation.

Details are as follow:

• Course begins: 3^rd October 2024
• Duration: 10 weeks, 3-5 hours per week
• Format: Fully online, facilitated course of 10-20 participants, with a weekly virtual meeting
• Cost: 150 Euros, scholarships are available
• Language: English

What are you waiting for? Sign up here!

For more information, including who the facilitators are, head on over to: https://www.ibts.eu/programmes/eco-crisis-and-the-gospel-1

We often make a distinction between who we are and the place where we live and relate to each other, as if the territory we inhabit does not influence us directly. This distinction is made even from within our Christian faith, where we tend to recognize ourselves as stewards of creation. While a valuable affirmation, this has at times led us to make assumptions that place us in superiority to the other beings that God has created.

That is to say, because we are stewards of creation, we sometimes believe that the future state of creation depends solely on us. However, as humanity, we must be held to account for many aspects of the deterioration of the Earth. Seeing ourselves as the saviors of God’s creation in a vertical relationship is a perspective that is distant from biblical truths.

Recently, during a visit to a mountainous region inhabited by the Wiwa people (Colombia), and in conversing with Christian brothers and sisters from different native peoples, we tried to put on the table some affirmations that also exist from our cultures about the territory and the people who inhabit certain geographical spaces. It was beautiful to recognize that in many of our cultures the Divine presence is affirmed since the beginning of time, in some cultures this presence is known as the Creator and Shaper of the universe, who created us in interdependence with the territory, created the human being as part of the geographical space.

What does it mean for native peoples to recognize themselves as a territory? Although my reflections fall short in expressing the depth of this statement, some thoughts that I can share are: we are territory, because we feed on what is produced in this portion of land, we are biologically constituted by elements, nutrients, vitamins, in common with other living beings in our environment; we are territory because our sensitivity to certain sounds, such as the song of certain species of birds, the sound of the streams running through the paths, the rustling of certain animals, are part of the familiar, the everyday, the normal, this defines much of the way we think and feel; we are territory because we visualize ourselves as a small being in the immense creation of God, building houses that try not to alter and affect the rest of the great shared home; we are territory, because we inherited from the rays of the sun and from our grandparents the color of our skin; because our arms, our lungs, our legs and heart, are the way they are and work the way they work, because we are at a certain height with a certain diet and with activities that in that geographical space we can do and therefore, be.

Are these statements far removed from the Scriptures? I have thought a lot about some biblical texts, such as Isaiah, when God speaks about the creation of a new heaven and a new earth, linked in a direct way to a happy people, full of joy (Is. 65:17-25). And I am also captivated in calling to mind the many stories in which Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God, using natural examples from his own territory, that is, the way of feeling, thinking and living, reflected in the teachings of Jesus, which was completely linked to his familiar environment, the everyday, his normality.

In drawing these thoughts together, I would like to invite us to question ourselves, today with so much concrete, in the face of so much modernity: how is our relationship with the environment that forms us physically, biologically, and in our feeling and thinking? What challenges does the church face today to fully recognize itself as part of the territory it inhabits?

We pray. Dear God, Creator and Shaper of the universe, thank you for making us part of the ecosystems you created, we recognize that we are interdependent with all your creation. Please give us the humility to be sensitive to what surrounds us, to dream and rebuild that harmonious relationship with the territory that also forms us.

Benita Simón Mendoza
Lausanne Catalyst for Creation Care

Benita Simón Mendoza is a Mayan Kaqchikel woman from Guatemala. She works locally on environmental restoration issues and has recently joined the Lausanne team of creation care catalysts.

Artículo de Benita Simón Mendoza, Catalizadora de Lausana para el Cuidado de la Creación
Benita Simón Mendoza es una mujer maya kaqchikel de Guatemala. Trabaja localmente en temas de restauración medioambiental y se ha unido recientemente al equipo de Lausana de catalizadores del cuidado de la creación.

A menudo solemos hacer una distinción de lo que somos, con el lugar en que vivimos y nos relacionamos, como si el territorio que habitamos no influyera en nosotros de manera directa. Incluso desde nuestra fe cristiana, solemos reconocernos como los mayordomos de la creación, y claro, esta valiosa afirmación, en algunos momentos nos ha llevado a otras suposiciones que nos colocan en superioridad de los otros seres que Dios ha creado.

Es decir, por ser mayordomos de la creación a veces creemos que el estado futuro de la creación depende únicamente de nosotros y nosotras, si bien, como humanidad tenemos culpa en muchos aspectos del deterioro de la Tierra, vernos como los salvadores de la creación de Dios en una relación vertical, es una perspectiva distante de las verdades bíblicas.

Recientemente en una visita a una región montañosa en la que habita el pueblo Wiwa (Colombia), conversando con hermanos y hermanas cristianas de distintos pueblos originarios, tramos de poner sobre la mesa algunas afirmaciones que existen también desde nuestras culturas sobre el territorio y las personas que habitan determinados espacios geográficos. Fue hermoso reconocer que en muchas de nuestras culturas se afirma la presencia Divina desde el inicio de los tiempos, en algunas culturas esta presencia es conocida como el Ser Creador y Formador del universo, Ser que nos creó en interdependencia con el territorio, creó al ser humano como parte misma del espacio geográfico.

¿Qué significa para los pueblos originarios reconocerse a sí mismos como territorio? Aunque mis reflexiones se quedan cortas para expresar la profundidad de esta afirmación, algunos pensamientos que puedo compartir son: somos territorio, porque nos alimentamos de lo que se produce en esta porción de tierra, nos constituimos biológicamente por elementos, nutrientes, vitaminas, en común con otros seres vivos de nuestro entorno; somos territorio porque nuestra sensibilidad a ciertos sonidos, como el canto de ciertas especies de aves, el sonido de los riachuelos recorriendo los senderos, el crujido de ciertos animales, forman parte de lo familiar, lo cotidiano, lo normal, esto define mucho de la manera en cómo pensamos y sentimos; somos territorio porque nos visualizamos como un pequeño ser en la inmensa creación de Dios, construyendo viviendas que procuren no alterar y afectar el resto del gran hogar compartido; somos territorio, porque heredamos de los rayos del sol y de nuestros abuelos el color de nuestra piel; porque nuestros brazos, nuestros pulmones, nuestras piernas y corazón, son como son y funcionan de la manera en que funcionan, porque estamos a una altura determinada con una dieta determinada y con actividades que en ese espacio geográfico podemos hacer y por tanto, ser.

¿Estas afirmaciones estarán lejanas de las Escrituras? He pensado mucho en algunos textos bíblicos, como en Isaías, cuando Dios habla sobre la creación de un nuevo cielo y una nueva tierra, vinculado de manera directa a un pueblo feliz, lleno de alegría (Is. 65:17-25). Y de manera cautivante recuerdo también tantos relatos en los que Jesús habló del Reino de Dios usando ejemplos naturales de su propio territorio, es decir, la manera de sentir, de pensar y de vivir, reflejada en las enseñanzas de Jesús, estaba completamente ligada a su entorno familiar, lo cotidiano, su normalidad.

Pensando en esto, quiero hacer la invitación a cuestionarnos, hoy en día con tanto concreto, ante tanta modernidad, ¿cómo es nuestra relación con el entorno que nos forma de manera física, biológica, y, en nuestro sentir y pensar? ¿Qué desafíos vive la iglesia hoy para reconocerse de manera plena como parte del territorio que habita?

Oramos. Querido Dios, Creador y Formador del universo, gracias por hacernos parte de los ecosistemas que creaste, reconocemos que somos interdependientes con toda tu creación, por favor, danos la humildad para ser sensibles a lo que nos rodea, para soñar y reconstruir esa relación armoniosa con el territorio que también nos forma.

There is much more material available than just a few years ago on what they call Integral Theology and many of us think of as ecotheology. The Laudato Si’ Research Institute is responding to a global need for such materials by launching on 3 March (this week) the Laudato Si’ Integral Ecology Collection.

In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis emphasised the importance of a united, global response to the current ecological crisis. Yet dialogue and learning on integral ecology is often hindered by limited access to the academic publications on the subject, which are not affordable for many individuals and institutions in lower-income countries.

The Laudato Si’ Integral Ecology collection seeks to address this problem by making open access a selection of key texts on integral ecology. The collection will provide a valuable resource for lay readers, students, and those undertaking more advanced academic study. Publications in the collection could also be read as part of a book reading group, or an online course.

It appears that the list will include some titles familiar to many, and others that are new, including a selection of authors from the Global South. Here is a sampling:

• Eco-theology by Celia Deane-Drummond (Darton, Longman and Todd, 2008)
• Creation in crisis: science, ethics, theology by Joshtrom Isaac Kureethadam (Orbis Books, 2014)
• Bible and ecology: rediscovering the community of creation by Richard Bauckham (Darton, Longman and Todd, 2010)
• An ecological theology of liberation: salvation and political ecology by Daniel Patrick Castillo (Orbis Books, 2019)

[LWCCN does not necessarily endorse the theological viewpoints represented in these volumes…]