A World on Fire

“The fireman responded to an apartment fire and found a bed on fire. They questioned the tenant as to how the fire started. “I don’t know,” he said, “it was on fire when I lay down on it.” – Robert Fulghum

This spring I had the incredible opportunity of traveling to the Vatican for meetings and events around the release of Pope Francis’s recent encyclical, Laudato Si, about the need to radically re-think our economic system and our view of the good life, in order to protect god’s creation and god’s people.

What struck me most about the whole experience is our need to stop making small changes, and to start making big ones.

This summer my home province of BC was on fire. Again. And what seemed most shocking was that we barely flinched. In all kinds of crises, the horror in retrospect is how long business-as-usual carried on.

And once the crisis has (hopefully, eventually) passed, the stories we want to tell are of ordinary folks as they began to courageously respond. We are made of stories. And these types are favourites. At least they are favourites of mine.
So I was thrilled about the Pope’s encyclical – I think it is important. But I am even more thrilled about some events close to home:
I’ve spent much of this past year on parental-leave, dealing with small cries and crises, never more deeply aware that the world was on fire around us. I’m grateful that each day more people are finding ways to organize to change that.

Fondly, Chris

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Conversations about both faith and climate in Canada need some fresh voices. We’re it.

Interested in having one of them join a panel at an event or conference you are organizing? Or guest-preach in your congregation? Or contribute to your newsletter, magazine or blog?

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Find out more.

About Christine

Christine is a community organizer, activist, and communicator. She was raised in the United Church, and did graduate studies on ‘Religious Leadership for Social Change’ in Berkeley, CA. In her other work, Chris leads strategic communications at the Columbia Institute and their Centre for Civic Governance. Chris regularly talks about feelings, practices yoga, worships food, contemplates purpose, nurtures plants, and preaches about the need to create social, political and economic systems that reflect our desire to care for one another. She actively believes that people are good.

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