Thursday, February 24, 2011

Earth Day and Good Friday

By a coincidence of the calendar and lectionary, 2011 sees Good Friday fall on April 22, which also happens to be Earth Day. Founded by Gaylord Nelson (that's not a made-up name) in 1970, Earth Day was seen as key to the birth of the modern environmental movement. Good Friday moves around, of course, as it is related to the complex calculations concerning the date of Easter, so this coincidence won't occur again for a while (2095 in fact).

That got me thinking about life and death, which are such features of the story of Good Friday. Jesus, goes through the ordeal of suffering and death, yet is the source of healing and life. He is a pioneer of the path through death to resurrection and new beginnings. Could that narrative provide an inspiration for environmental action as well as spiritual and personal transformation?

If this Good Friday, we could all "put to death" one specific action, habit or practise that damages our earth, perhaps we could all share in being the means by which hope of new life comes into being. And what better day to celebrate that new life than Easter?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mike;
Great idea to tie these two important events together.
What will your liturgy look like? Will it continue to be anthropocentric?
Peace;
Allan

Unknown said...

I really like your piece on Earth Day and Good Friday. As the editor of an eNewsletter for the Central Maryland Ecumenical Council, I would like to include the article in the newsletter - with proper credit posted as well. Is that agreeable to you Mike?
Jack Sharp
Baltimore, MD
website: www.cmecouncil.org
email cmecouncil@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

Great post, another blogger led me here. Thanks.

Mike Peatman said...

Just discovered comments were moderated on this post - sorry. Please feel free to share the ideas wherever