Faith, Reconciliation, and the Environment
Good morning,
Over the past week, two pieces of my writing have appeared on the internet, and I thought I would rather shamelessly plug them to the Chaplaincy mailing list. Although I am writing fiction for my Masters course, both these pieces are non-fiction. One is a lecture I gave to a group from Dunblane Cathedral in February last year, called “Reconciling All Things: Climate Change and Christ.” It explores my own journey into thinking about the environment as a Christian, and the fruits of reading eco-theology. This was part of a serious of five lectures by different people on the theme of reconciliation. All five lectures, including mine, can be found here: https://www.dunblanecathedral.org.uk/dunblane-cathedral-lectures
The other is a short piece on a website called My Elevator Pitch for God. This website has a large number of essays around 500 words in length, by scientists, politicians, artists, athletes, professors, rabbis, pastors and more answering the question, Why do you believe in God? Contributors include Alan Dershowitz and Joseph Lieberman. The website is here: https://www.myelevatorpitchforgod.com/ My own contribution is here: https://www.myelevatorpitchforgod.com/all-authors/reverend-dr.-donald-macewan It’s called ‘Life in the Presence of God’, and, like my environmental lecture, begins with reflections on my own life.
And while I am here, I thought I would highlight that we ask our chapel preachers if they’d be happy to share their sermons in written form on our website. And many do, including our own Chaplains. This semester’s sermons can be found here: https://sermons.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/candlemas-2024-25/ And follow links back to 2015 if you like.
Finally, here is an image from the talk I gave in Dunblane on ‘Reconciling All Things’:
I took this picture in Burma (Myanmar) in 1999, depicting families living at a railway station, and used it to illustrate a key theme of Pope Francis – that environmental damage is very often the consequence of unjust actions, driven by selfishness and greed, in which the earth and the poor of the earth are exploited. The only truly Christian response is one of justice – for non-human and human creation.
If you do dip into any of these writings, I would be delighted to hear any feedback, and continue the conversations.
Yours,
Donald