The role of loss in climate work
Recently, I was a panelist for a group of faith leaders from Together Colorado interested in addressing care for creation and public policy. Each of us on the panel was to address our own eco-theology, and our thoughts specific to being a person of faith working in the public sphere. I found myself speaking about the call to hold spaces of grief, and to name the true and hard things. I said that one of my tasks as a clergyperson has been to name that the old is passing away, and that we are called to live differently.
After the panel presentations, we moved into smaller groups to discuss how we were moved, what resonated, and where we wanted to go. My own small group articulated a vision of hospice and midwifery, of endings and new beginnings, based in love and sanctuary and abundance. Only when we face with open eyes the endings, and grieve, can we also birth anew, and celebrate.
What is old is passing away. Species are becoming extinct and rainforests irrevocable lost weekly now. Portions of the ice making up Greenland melted 70 years early last month. If your hope about the environment rests in what was, in what is passing away before us, your heart will be broken. Franciscan theologian Mary McGann says that we are afraid to fall in love with the earth because we are afraid of having our hearts broken. And I get that. I do.
But we need not be afraid. There is new life in the endings, and only by facing the grief and lament can we move into a new vision of abundance and green sanctuary. We all carry varying images and visions for what could be. As a Christian, mine is deeply intertwined with the patterns of death and life, endings and resurrections.
But for us all to face the Climate Apocalypse with grace and love, and resilience, we must also face the grief, and lament. And know that this too is holy. We must discover what it means to care for this earth, and all of Creation, and how we as people of faith move and act together in a hope based in truth and solidarity.
Rev. Jessica Abell, Prophet of the Apocalypse