Our natural environment and the health of God's creation has always been on the agenda at FCCSR. A few years ago, our "green" interest took the form of a church-wide effort to reduce our carbon footprint (and thus our contribution to global climate change.) This included a number of energy efficiency retrofits at the church and membership in California Interfaith Power and Light.

In 2012, we conducted a re-assessment of our sustainability efforts and decided to focus more on public outreach. Our goal is to help educate people on the environment-faith connection in ways that are positive, practical and inspiring. No lectures and no guilt trips. We Promise!

Here's news of our next event:

The next video in our monthly Earth Stewards series at Pilgrim Park in Terra Linda will be "The Great Story," featuring the Geologian Fr. Thomas Berry.  It was Thomas Berry's first book, The Dream of the Earth in 1990, that linked religious and spiritual concerns to the rapidly growing modern environmental movement triggered by the first Earth Day in 1970. The Dream of the Earth was the inaugural volume of the "Sierra Club Nature and Natural Philosophy Library" which followed David Brower's conference series, "The Fate of the Earth," dealing with the environmental crisis and particularly prospects for nuclear annihilation. 

As a pioneer in the field of spirituality and ecology, Thomas Berry created a quiet revolution. He was a monk, a cultural historian, an author, a teacher, and a mystic. He saw his life work as waking us up to that sacred story. He called us "mad" for the way we are despoiling our home, our planet, its beauty, and its living systems. He was a force that reminded us that we are living through the greatest extinction spasm of the past 65 million years. We are the ones responsible. Berry's life work called on us to change our ways.

At the heart of this beautiful film (50 minutes) is Berry's experience of the universe as a cosmic liturgy. He reminds us that "we are not a collection of objects but a communion of subjects."  His values were rooted in this sacred cosmology which includes the entire natural world. The mountains, rivers, birds, fish, all living organism are not there for our use, but for a union which is needed for us to become who we are. As Berry said, "I am not myself without everything else." Newsweek magazine hailed Berry as "one of the most provocative figures among the new breed of eco-theologians."

Another pioneer in this field, Matthew Fox, said "We are grateful to Thomas Berry and to the makers of this marvelous film, who have captured his spirit, and his deep message-- so important for our times." Come join us on Monday evening, September 24, 7 pm at the DeHaan Center in Pilgrim Park Apartments. They are next door to the First Congregational Church of San Rafael. The entrance is at 33 Merrydale Road, across from the Civic Center (on North San Pedro Road -- turn left/south toward San Rafael on Merrydale, go 1/2 block to the Apartments entrance).

For more information contact Paul Burks, 479-1072, paulburks1@mac.com.

First Congregational Church of San Rafael