The Christian Science Monitor

‘Creation care’: How churches aim to save a warming planet

The Rev. James Ravenscroft holds a Sunday service of his Three Rivers Forest Church, which he founded in 2017, in Richmond Hill, Ontario. He sees this church as part of his environmental activism.

The group stands in a circle at the edge of a forest of maple, aspen, poplar, and oak.

At this “wild church” north of Toronto, member Paula Windsor reads from Hermann Hesse’s “Ode to Trees.” “Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree,” she reads from the 20th-century work.

When she finishes, the Rev. James Ravenscroft traces the ideas in the secular text to Scripture. “If we pay attention, we hear something similar in a sense when we hear Genesis 2:9,” he tells the dozen congregants of Three Rivers Forest Church on a recent Sunday. “‘Out of the ground, God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, as well as the tree of knowledge of good and evil.’”

There are more

“Hope isn’t just twiddling our thumbs”A renewal for religion?

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Christian Science Monitor

The Christian Science Monitor4 min read
For This Affordable-housing Advocate In Ontario, Tiny Homes Are Where The Heart Is
When Nadine Green walks the pathway of tiny homes erected in two rows on a small patch of grass at the outskirts of this city, everyone seems to have something to ask or tell her. For this community of formerly homeless people now each living in thei
The Christian Science Monitor2 min read
Helping Kids Find A Balance With Smartphone Use
My daughter is a budding teenager, and it’s fun for us to watch movies together that I loved at her age. Some of the films – dialogue and plot – have aged poorly. Sometimes we cringe together at the sexism that went right over my teenage head. Someti
The Christian Science Monitor4 min readInternational Relations
How China-Philippines Tensions Are Bringing South China Sea Conflict To New Brink
Chinese and Philippine coast guard ships collided this week in a fresh clash between the Asian superpower and its neighbor in the South China Sea. The escalation of the territorial dispute in the strategic waterway has brought China and the Philippin

Related Books & Audiobooks