That’s the message from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, marking 1 September as both the start of the Orthodox ecclesiastical year and the Day of Prayer for the Protection of the Natural Environment, an observance the Ecumenical Patriarchate established in 1989 and which now brings Christian communities together worldwide: “a symbol and practical promotion of the unity of Christians,” as he put it.
“Humanity must at last cease acting as though it does not know and definitively cast aside the illusion that planet Earth can in perpetuity withstand the burdens and destruction caused by human activity, or that nature has the power to renew itself of its own accord.”
He’s calling for “ecological responsibility” to become “a categorical imperative,” for individuals and for humanity as a whole, pointing to the Gospel’s parable of the “foolish rich man” as a warning against the consumerism still driving the crisis. What’s needed, he says, is nothing less than a “Copernican Turn” in how we understand progress and creation itself.
Read the Patriarch’s full message, and find out how your community can join the Season of Creation 
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Take Note - Reflections on life, music, politics, retirement and more by Ken Gray 
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