Love for the Future

David Osborne

Description

Climate change, pollution and diminishing resources mean that the future will be difficult for life on earth. We need the courage to face up to what is happening, the determination to work at the problems and the freedom to let go of the old ways of living which are causing such damage to the earth.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Christian mysticism

Informations

• Publié par: Wild Goose Publications
• Date de parution: 14 juin 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781849522687
• Langue: English

Extrait

Environment • Spirituality • Personal growth • Virtue ethics
Climate change, pollution and diminishing resources mean that the future will be difficult for life on earth. We face an environmental crisis.
Clearly we need technological solutions to some of our problems, and appropriate political and social programmes. But to meet the challenge we must also change ourselves. We need the courage to face up to what is happening, the determination to work at the problems and the freedom to let go of the old ways of living which are causing such damage to the earth. And that is hard. The scale of the problem can feel overwhelming. We may be drained by fear or worn down by our seeming lack of progress.
In this book David Osborne tells of a long pilgrimage on foot to the island of Iona, an ancient centre of Celtic Christianity. In telling the story he draws on the Bible, the Christian tradition and other sources of wisdom to suggest the qualities we need to develop in ourselves for the journey we face into the future.
He points to some of the spiritual resources available to us and suggests ways to develop our spiritual lives in order to grow in compassion, faith, hope and wisdom, while tapping into the energy of the Creator to work for the healing of the creation.
The book contains material for personal reflection and group discussion, pointers for further reading, and practical suggestions for a way of living in which we can make our own journey into the future with love.
Using the thread of a long walk from Shropshire to Iona, David Osborne weaves together autobiography, spiritual reflection, and passionate concern for the future of the earth threatened by irreversible climate change. A rare resource for all those people struggling to keep faith and hope going in the face of what feel like insuperable odds .
         Tim Gorringe, St Luke's Professor of Theology, Exeter University
www.ionabooks.com
LOVE FOR THE FUTURE
A journey
David Osborne
   www.ionabooks.com
© 2013 David Osborne
First published 2013 by Wild Goose Publications, Fourth Floor, Savoy House, 140 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3DH, UK, the publishing division of the Iona Community. Scottish Charity No. SC003794. Limited Company Reg. No. SC096243. www.ionabooks.com
ePub: ISBN 978-1-84952-268-7 Mobipocket: ISBN 978-1-84952-269-4 PDF: ISBN 978-1-84952-267-0
Cover image: Rural Landscape © Liliia Rudchenko/123rf Stock photo.com
All rights reserved. Apart from reasonable personal use on the purchaser’s own system and related devices, no part of this document or file(s) may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Non-commercial use: The material in this book may be used non-commercially for worship and group work without written permission from the publisher. Small sections of the book may be printed out and in such cases please make full acknowledgement of the source, and report usage to the CCLI or other copyright organisation.
For any commercial use , permission in writing must be obtained in advance from the publisher.
David Osborne has asserted his right in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
For
Susan Green
Acknowledgements
Numerous people have contributed to this book, many of whose names I don’t know. They were people with whom I had a chance conversation, who took part in one of many discussions, or who encouraged and helped me on one of my journeys. But for the long walk that I describe here I particularly wish to thank Bishop John Davies who made it possible, Rob Bianchi who took great interest in the project and joined me for a short way, and the staff at Scargill House, Stanley and Kathleen Hope, Peter Norton, the community at Samye Ling, my sister Margaret Robertson, and the Resident Group at the MacLeod Centre who all provided great hospitality.
The ideas developed in many discussions within the Diocese of Bath and Wells, especially in the Environment Group, and I am particularly indebted to Jane Eastell, Michael Perry, Bernard Joy, Cathy Horder, David Maggs, Melvyn Matthews, Lydia Avery, Adrian Armstrong, Brian Kellock and Nick Denison, the Diocesan Secretary, who was fully behind the development of a diocesan environment policy. Also to Professor Tim Gorringe of Exeter University for his consideration with me of the fundamental ideas in the book.
For help in writing it I wish to thank Sue Dorricott for typing up my original journey notes, Brendan Walsh for suggestions regarding the structure, Bishop Peter Maurice for a short sabbatical that gave me time to think, Elizabeth Thomson for applying her language and literary skills to one of my drafts, Sandra Kramer at Wild Goose Publications for her interest and superb editorial work, and to Susan Green, my colleague, without whose commitment to parish work I would not have had the time to do it.
And for all of it I owe great thanks to Madron who is happy to let her husband go wandering off through Britain and mainland Europe, then hide himself away for hours of writing, and who contributes her own wisdom to my thinking about faith and the environment.
Contents    Introduction    1. Opening Wonder      Resources 1: Wonder    2. Touching the Earth      Resources 2: Engagement    3. Travelling Light      Resources 3: Simplicity    4. Noticing Strangers      Resources 4: Community    5. Mind and Heart      Resources 5: Compassion    6. Lighting Candles      Resources 6. Justice    7. Choices and Changes      Resources 7: Repentance    8. Windows onto God      Resources 8: Faith    9. Fellow Travellers      Resources 9: Fellowship 10. Songs and Stories      Resources 10: Hope 11. The Whole Way      Resources 11: Wisdom 12. The End and the Beginning      Resources 12: Love    Conclusion: Love for the Future    General Resource Books
Introduction
The storm
I was walking along low cliffs and below me the sea was swirling and churning against the rocks. Inland there was rough grass and heather, rising up to a low hill. Above was a big sky, blue and bright with a few racing clouds. I was on Papa Westray in the north of Orkney and walking around the north end of the island. It is a nature reserve, a nesting site for terns and skuas.
There were plenty of skuas. An arctic skua with its pointed tail followed me for some way, coming in close at times and eyeing me as if to make it clear that this was his patch, not mine. I knew not to cut across the heather where the birds nested but to keep to the coast. But as I walked the coastal path I often looked inland as well as out to sea, and I saw very few terns. None on nests. This was not what I was expecting.
As I turned the headland to face west I could see that the clouds that way were bigger and darker. Some were very dark and to the south-west the neighbouring island of Westray was disappearing from sight into falling rain. I increased my pace. I had a waterproof coat with me but would have liked some shelter. This could be fierce. I knew from experience that waterproofs do not always stand up to driving rain. The wind was strong and the clouds were moving fast.
In the centre of the reserve I could see a small building which I took to be a bird observatory. It was probably an old coastguard station, taken over by the RSPB. But to get to it I would have to walk across the nesting grounds and I was not going to do that. Ahead of me, near the shore, I could see what looked like a short wall so I sped up a bit more and headed for that instead.
It was further than I had thought and the rain was beginning to wash across the island as I reached it. And it was, it seemed, simply a single wall of rough stones: a cairn built not into a tower but as a wall, presumably as a shelter. There was no roof, but with the strong wind from the west it was still helpful, and I squatted down and watched the rain, and then hail, rush past me on either side and the heather and grass ahead of me disappear into greyness.
I watched the grey deepen. Small streams formed and flowed through the grass and heather. Around my shelter small pools formed. Then slowly the view ahead cleared and colour returned to the land.
Fifteen minutes later the storm had passed and only the bottoms of my legs were soaked. By the time I had continued along the coast path and then back to the road down the spine of the island they were dry and I could see the rain falling on North Ronaldsay to the east.
Later that afternoon I was at the island’s youth hostel and talking to another guest. I commented that although I had seen a number of arctic and great skuas I had seen very few terns. She said that in recent years there had been fewer terns nesting and a possible reason was climate change. The seas were getting warmer so the plankton were moving deeper into the water. This meant that the small fish that eat the plankton were also deeper and that is a problem for terns and some other birds. Terns do not go deep into the water to catch their food; they pluck it from the near the surface. Now that the small fish are no longer there, the terns cannot catch the food they need for their young.
It made sense as an explanation. Detailed research had yet to be done to check whether this was the case, but it was certainly true that there were fewer terns nesting at North Hill on Papa Westray than there had been a few years before. It is also true that the earth’s climate is changing, the seas around the British Isles are currently getting warmer, and no one knows how this change will develop.
The north of Papa Westray is rough and wild, but most of the island is fertile farmland. Hoy, in the south of Orkney, has large expanses of moorland but most of Orkney is green and used for raising dairy and beef cattle as it has been for hundreds of years. The islands have been inhabited for thousands of years. That evening I visited the Knap of Howar,