Just read David’s post, here, and it’s hard to see this as much more than earth worship vaguely dressed in Christian garb. Makes me think of GK Chesterton – “When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing — they believe in anything.” Don’t get me wrong, there’s a place for stewardship of the Earth and in that, like everything else, we’ve messed up. But last time I looked we worship the Creator rather than the creature – and I don’t think the Diocese of Niagara is so clear on that anymore.
One Beneath our toes
Beneath our shoes
Beneath floors
Beneath basement and cement and foundation
All We are still standing on holy groundOne Amidst cheerful chatter
TV drones and telephones
Planes and trains
Sirens, horns, and the squeal of tires
All We listen for the call of the EarthOne As square, grey scenery is photographed
Amidst trash, contamination, pits, pollution
Waste, seen and unseen
We are tired people, grasping for energy
All We are still standing on holy groundOne Bike riders and gardeners whisper alternatives
as creation groans beneath the weight of waste and excess
Beneath even that sits holy ground
Firmly rooting all in the moving, shaping,
Cleansing powers of creation,
All We listen for the call of the Earth
I posted this comment at David’s blog, but I think it’s worth repeating:
Poetic personification??
For example…..Psalm 19:1-4 The heavens are telling the glory of God;
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours forth speech,and night to night declares knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words;their voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth,and their words to the end of the world.
The Revised Standard Version, (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.) 1973, 1977.
I don’t think so. We are supposed to listen for the Holy Spirit, not the call of the earth (whatever that might be).
In Psalm 19 creation is calling us to direct our focus to God and give Him glory. There is none of that in this piece of work, I don’t know if the reference to creation groaning in the fourth stanza is a deliberate reference to Romans 8:18ff, but if it is, it is a rash misapplication of Scripture.
This reminds me of the 2007 Niagara Synod, where mother Earth was used as an alias for God. If you didn’t read my article “Is my diocese Schizophrenic” on the Niagara synod it was re-published on page 3 of the March 2008 newsletter here: http://goodshepherdstcatharines.ca/newsletter.htm
I am not at all surprised at the level of “Mother Earth worship” that is taking place in the ACoC.
I’m (again) called to point out that lameness is not actually heresy. Although some of this stuff is so fuzzy-headed, it might cross a line into heresy inadvertently.
It is heretical though Henry, it denies the Trinity.
Is this the same diocese that had the dance around the pumpkin song at Haloween?
I don’t think so, I think that was Ottawa, but I could be misremembering.
I am as concerned about the degradation of the Earth as the most ardent environmentalist. But I believe the root causes of global pollution – greed and over-consumption – are spiritual and moral in nature, and will only be reversed when people and nations, individually and collectively, repent, accept the Lord’s forgiveness, and live selflessly to restore what we, like locusts, have ruined. I do not see any need for us to change our lives, in this liturgy, which bleats pathetically “we are still standing on holy ground” and does not call for a transformation through the Lord Jesus. Thus it is not a Christian liturgy. All it does is to make rather defeatist statements, to the effect that in spite of everything, “we listen for the call of the earth”!! What about listening for God’s call?