Jesuits believe that reversing the ecology crisis requires significant individual lifestyle changes and collective accountability. And that will only happen when people “experience God’s presence in creation.”
The Old Growth Forest Project is just one among many initiatives being undertaken at the Ignatius Jesuit Centre, which hosts a community garden, organic farm and a retreat house.
“We try to have people experience the passion of God in the ecological crisis… and to bring people to the experience of the Resurrection, and that’s where the hope comes from,” said Profit.
“And hope is where action comes from.”
See www.ignatiusguelph.ca.
Experiencing God in ecology
By Luc Rinaldi, The Catholic RegisterOn the 400th anniversary of their arrival to Canada, the Jesuits are thinking 500 years ahead.
The Old Growth Forest Project, an initiative of the Ignatius Jesuit Centre of Guelph, Ont., is a replanting effort that, over half a millennium, will restore 100 acres of clear-cut land north of Guelph into the type of forest that greeted the first Jesuits in the area 160 years ago.
The project is intended to help promote spiritual development and ecological education in keeping with the spiritual values of Jesuit founder St. Ignatius Loyola. It is just one example of how Jesuit social justice is being expressed through ecology.
“We understand that the root of the ecological crisis is a spiritual crisis,” said Fr. Jim Profit, S.J., executive director of the centre. “It’s important to have people of faith address these issues from a spiritual perspective.”
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