April 22 - Earth Day; Our Holy Home

"...the combined intelligence of the [human] race could not

create the life of a plant…”

Dr. Ernest Holmes,
The Science of Mind,  p. 91.4

Earth Day, officially observed on April 22, is an annual international event that recognizes stewardship of our planet as crucial to our collective survival. Many indigenous and other cultures have long recognized and celebrated our connection to the earth. Over time the old ways of understanding seasons and cycles have dropped into the background of human thinking. A drive for material prosperity without accountability has supplanted a collective sense of our planetary home as sacred. 

Early in the 20th century, western ecologists such as Rachel Carson began to address this impact and the harm done to life on our ‌planet. Fifty-one years ago, in 1970, a commitment was made by 1 billion people and 190 countries to commemorate Earth Day with global actions such as reducing carbon emissions, reforestation, land and wildlife reclamation. We invite you to let earth day be a call back to intimacy with your environment, whether that be your neighborhood, community, city, or planet, so that collectively we may be mindful of our impact on the natural world.

We encourage our CSL communities to participate in local environmental initiatives and Earth Day celebrations and share how the concept of Oneness includes the living planet that sustains us. In a mutually nourishing way, the earth is here to serve us, and we are here to take care of the earth.

We resonate with Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, environmentalist Wangari Maathai, who declared:

"I never differentiated between activities that might be called spiritual and those that might be termed secular...I came to recognize that our efforts weren’t only about planting trees but were also about sowing seeds of a different sort -- the ones necessary to give communities the self-confidence and self-knowledge to rediscover their authentic voice and speak out on behalf of their rights (human, environmental, civic, and political.")(2)

We offer a call to spiritually motivated social action by inviting you to reduce, reuse, and recycle while holding a mental equivalent of being stewards of a healthy, loving world. We encourage you to learn about the efforts of environmentalists such as Dan Raven-Ellison of London, who goes to extraordinary measures to show us how good our environment actually is and how it can be radically improved. (1) 

A list of additional international environment educators and leaders is included in the resources below.

And most importantly, we invite you to meditate on your oneness with all life through our shared heritage in the Divine and let that meditation further inspire you to embrace environmental harmony.

Rev. Edward Viljoen, DD (hon.), Spiritual Leader, CSL
Rev. Masando Hiraoka, Chair, Spiritually Motivated Social Engagement Committee
Rev. D. Jacqueline Edwards, SMSE
Rev. Cindy Grimes, SMSE
Ayodele McClenney, RScP. Leadership Council
Rev. Martha Quintana, Global Services CSL

Footnotes:

https://www.environmentshow.com/dan-raven-ellison/
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/spiritual-environmentalis_b_762801

Resources:

 
The History of Earth Day - https://www.earthday.org/history/

Podcast of world environmental leaders and famous environmentalists - https://www.environmentshow.com/leaders/

Ten Ecological Leaders We Can Learn From - https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/10-environmental-leaders-we-can-all-learn-from/

Pachamama Org, The Spiritual Side of Environmentalism - https://blog.pachamama.org/the-spiritual-side-of-environmentalism

Unicef’s Earth Day Guide speaking to the vulnerability of children - https://www.unicefusa.org/stories/earth-day-2020/37234

Water for the People - https://www.waterforpeople.org/