Caring for our common home

Participants engage with the smoking ceremony

Many people from across the Archdiocese gathered at St Peter Chanel’s Church Yarralumla for a ceremony to mark Laudato Si’ week.

Representatives from Canberra’s Laudato Si’ Circle organised the event which included a smoking ceremony, tree planting and liturgy led by Archbishop Christopher Prowse.

“Our parish priest seeded the idea for our Laudato Si’ circle and we felt guided by the Holy Spirit,” group member Roger Fitzgerald said.

Archbishop Prowse helped plant a tree and reflected on the Parable of the Mustard Seed.

“I see today as a mustard seed for us not only here but across the Archdiocese; in the tree you can see the seed and in the seed you can see the tree,” he said. 

Archbishop Prowse and Indigenous representatives help plant the tree

“It is an opportunity to focus on what is happening in the world and to highlight the need to care for this land that God has given us.”

Reverend David Campbell, representing the ACT Churches Council and St Andrews Presbyterian Church, also took part.

“Caring for creation is something that is very important and it is something that has become more important to me over the years of my ministry,” he said.

Canberra and Goulburn Vinnies CEO Barnie van Wyk spoke of the organisation’s plans to move towards renewable energy use. This would include converting half its car fleet to electric vehicles and having solar panels on 17 Vinnies locations across the Archdiocese.

Staff and students from St Francis of Assisi Primary Calwell, Merici College, St Michael’s Primary Kaleen and Rosary Primary Watson were present as well as representatives from the St Vincent de Paul Society, Catholic Education, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council, the ACT Churches Council, the Uniting Church and the Presbyterian Church.

Laudato Si’ Week 2021 runs from 16 to 25 May and is the crowning event of the Special Laudato Si’ Anniversary Year. It is a celebration of the progress the Church has made on its journey to ecological conversion.