What does it mean for humans to accept that we are not the centre of life, but continue to worship God in a tradition which has assumed that we are? How do we worship the God of this evolving life? A God who is ancient. Personal but not human. As much female as male. The God who is beyond us, became one with us (and, many Christians claim, one of us), and who remains within and amongst us? This is the kind of understanding of God which comes to us through a serious engagement with the new stories about the origins and nature of creation. These new stories are based on the observations of cosmologists, evolutionists and ecologists, for example. What do these new creation stories mean for our understanding of God, ourselves and our place in the world? How do they nurture and shape us through worship? These questions confront people of all religious traditions. This book might be of some use to you whatever your tradition, especially if you are a Jew or Muslim. It is, however, written within the Christian tradition: by me, a minister in the Uniting Church in Australia, with an honours degree in zoology, a postgraduate degree in environmental studies, and a PhD on the implications of the science stories about creation for the Christian story. After finishing the PhD, I was privileged to become the ecominister at Scots Church in Adelaide, which created a range of opportunities to explore how a rather esoteric PhD could be of use, and even exciting, for a general audience. Probably the longest lasting legacy of that ministry will be the ecofaith worshipping community, which meets in Botanic Park, and much of this book was originally worked through with that wonderful bunch of people over two years. You can find out more about them at http: //ecofaith.org This book starts with the ritual which I created for the first six weeks of the community's life, with a brief commentary on the reasons for each element. Then follows the first five weeks of reflections written for that group, plus some of the themes we explored later which seem to be somewhat unique, and therefore worth turning more trees into paper to record.
Jason is a half time minister with Uniting Earth Ministry in the NSW/ACT Synod of the Uniting Church in Australia, and a recipient of a Tabitha Grant to extend his exploration of the interplay between evolution and theology. He has started a couple of ecofaith communities as part of his ministry with the Uniting Church, and lives on the edge of a forest in a little house with his family, and many neighbours: including goannas, echidnas, koalas and snakes. Since the kitchen has no walls, bandicoots often visit, followed by the carpet snake who likes to eat them. His PhD explored the connections between evolution, ecology, environmentalism and faith. He has been a uni chaplain, an environment officer in the Qld Uni Student Union, and a researcher for the Queensland Synod bioethics committee, as well as a congregational minister. He has produced a number of zero budget clips on youtube exploring ecology, environment, evolution and faith.
