SEPTEMBER 2022


ND: What are you most passionate about in your work toward creation care?


Anna: I’ve been very inspired recently thinking about this idea that we are not beyond redemption. I hear over and over again the idea that the best thing human beings could do for the planet is to allow ourselves to go extinct—a really pessimistic, despairing idea. Many people of my generation are deciding not to have children because they can’t imagine bringing a child into the world with such an unfathomable future. I go back to that image of dominion as being not about domination, but about a unique human capacity to nurture creation toward flourishing. Tis is stewardship that I’m talking about. If we look to many indigenous communities, and even modern-day permaculture movements and regenerative agriculture movements, we see examples of people who put this concept into practice in exciting ways. Te classic example is that of the Amazon rainforests. People think of the rainforests as the quintessential example of untouched wilderness, but that’s not the case. In fact, much of the rich biodiversity that we have in the


rainforests is there because of generations of human intervention on the part of the indigenous people who lived there, nurturing it toward the biodiversity that we so celebrate. Likewise, the present-day United States upon colonization was not untouched wilderness—it was consciously tended, a garden. It's important for people to hear the message that, even beyond the idea of being neutral toward creation, human beings can benefit creation, that we can nurture and care for creation in a way that is generative. We have to say “yes” to something; it can’t just be about what we say “no” to. Tere has to be a vision of hope, and it can’t be a flimsy hope.


Recommended links: Laudato Si’ https://www.vatican.va/content/dam/francesco/pdf/encyclicals/ documents/papa-francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si_ en.pdf


Laudato Si’ Action Platform https://laudatosiactionplatform.org/


“Te Romero Prayer” by Bishop Ken Untener http://www.romerotrust.org.uk/romero-prayer


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