Earth Gospel: a Guide to Prayer for God's Creation

Do something for the environment - pray. The icecaps are melting. The air we breathe and water we drink are polluted. Forests are being cleared of oxygen-making trees and ecosystem-integral wildlife. Our daily lives impact our earth - mostly leaving negative footprints. The environmental challenges we face are real and almost out of control. We're free to enjoy the earth's bounty and beauty, but that privilege brings responsibility. How are Christians to respond as stewards of God's creation? Explore through prayer the interconnecting love that binds God, humankind and creation - forming a sacred trust. Hamilton-Poore found himself thinking about nature and preservation while being drawn to a certain riverside when he lived in Iowa. "... Every time I came within sight or sound of the river, I found myself in prayer," he writes. "'Wading into Willow Creek' was like walking into a sanctuary where a divine liturgy was already in progress - a liturgy that the creation itself was singing to its Creator. I experienced myself and creation 'held' in the hands of Christ, the 'first-born of all creation,' who holds together all life, all creation." He came to realize that loving God means also loving God's creation. Christian love-in-action on behalf of the earth is essential. How we live should be informed and shaped by prayer, and how we pray should be informed and shaped by how we live. God's beloved creation is groaning. May we rediscover hope and be led to a renewal of prayer and action on behalf of our home. Tread lightly.