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LETTER
TO CATHOLIC BISHOPS
CONFERENCE
OF THE PHILIPPINES :
AN
APPEAL TO MAKE CREATION CELEBRATION PART OF THE LITURGICAL CALENDAR
By A Group of Proponents to Celebrate "Creation
Day and Time
of Creation" as part of the Liturgical
Calendar in the Philippines
[
This
was conveyed to members of the CBCP in June 24, 2003 in anticipation of
the organization's
annual
assembly scheduled to be held the following month.]
His
Excellency
Most
Rev. Archbishop Orlando B. Quevedo, OMl, D.D.
CBCP
President
And
all the Bishops assembled at the Bishops’ Conference July 2003
Through
Msgr.
Hernando M. Coronel
Secretary
General
CBCP
Secretariat
470
General Luna St.
lntramuros,
1002 Manila
24
June 2003
Re:
Celebrating God the Creator and God's Creation
"Creation
Day" and "Time of Creation"
Your
Excellencies,
This
year we commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Pastoral Letter on
Ecology
"What Is Happening To
Our Beautiful Land?"
which
the Catholic Bishops of the Philippines wrote in 1988.
We
- a group of concerned Catholic communicators, educators, and priests
- would like to take this occasion to draw Your attention to some
developments taking place in the Christian world within these last
fifteen years that would support the Bishops' urgent call of 1988 "to
respond to the ecological crisis.” In
reference to Your suggestion as to
"b)
What the Churches can do
...
Our different liturgies must celebrate the beauty and pain of our
world, our connectedness to the natural world and the on-going
struggle for social justice. ...”
we
would like to propose to the Bishops of the Philippines to accept the
invitation of the Ecumenical
Patriarch Dimitrios I of Constantinople, released on 1 September 1989,
to “the entire Christian world to offer ... every year on
this day prayers and supplications to the Maker of all, both as
thanksgiving for the great gift of creation and as petitions for its
protection and salvation."
For
the last five years there have been strong ecumenical efforts in
Europe to celebrate God the Creator and God's Creation during a
"Creation Day" and a "Time of Creation." This has
been an emerging and expanding fruit of the Second European Ecumenical
Assembly in Graz, Austria in 1997, sponsored both by the Conference of
European Churches (CEC) and the Council of European Bishops'
Conferences (CCEE).
Here
in the Philippines, we, the members of the above mentioned group
together with the institutions we are associated with, have been
celebrating God the Creator and God's Creation through various
individual activities, and mostly within the time of the year that has
evolved so far as a "Time of Creation," i.e. from 1 September
(Orthodox Creation Day) to 4 October (St. Francis of Assisi) or the
Sunday following it.
From
our own experience and deliberations thus far, we strongly believe that
the Catholic Church in the Philippines as a whole would be invigorated
through a liturgical expression of Her "Celebrating God the Creator
and God's Creation". This would also serve as a religious and
spiritual motivating power to implement the urgent recommendations of
the CBCP's Pastora1 Letter on Ecology "What
Is Happening To Our Beautiful Land?" We believe that a creation
spirituality is the heart for practicing an ecological ethics and
forming a social conscience.
This
is also an opportune year to address this issue in a more official and
thus more effective way as it was 20 years ago, in 1983 in Vancouver,
that the "Conciliar Process for Justice, Peace and the Integrity of
Creation" (JPIC) was set in motion by the World Council of Churches
(WCC).
Considering
the points mentioned above, we do request the Catholic Bishops of the
Philippines to put "Celebrating God the Creator and God's
Creation" - "Creation Day" and "Time of
Creation" on the agenda for their meeting this coming July!
Attached
find a “Brief Rationale” of our proposal and “Sample texts from www.ecen.org
for “Creation Day” and “Time of Creation” for liturgies, prayer
services, personal use …” Additional to that, we are more than
willing to enter into a more extensive dialogue with the respective
persons in charge for preparing the agenda for the July meeting! We will
be able to do so by the beginning of June, after summer break!
Gratefully
anticipating a favorable response to our petition and cordially wishing
You the Peace and Joy of Our Risen Lord Jesus Christ,
I
remain,
(Sgd.)
Fr. Georg Ziselsberger, SVD
Professor
- DLSU
On
behalf of:
Dr.
Mina M. Ramirez Sr. Anne
Braudis, MM Ms. Victoria C.
Corral
President
Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary
Professor-UST
Asian
Social Institute
Baguio City
Fr.
John Leydon, MSSC
Fr. Raymond Bodson, CICM
Prof. Ed Aurelio Reyes
Malate
Church / CELL*
CICM-JPIC
Asian Social Institute
*CELL
= Center for Ecozoic Living and Learning / Silang, Cavite
Attached
find:
1)
Brief Rational (3 pp) (click
to read)
2)
Sample texts from www.ecen.org for Creation Day and Time of Creation for
liturgies, prayer services,
personal use (5 pp) (click
to read some of these)
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Other background articles are listed, with links in the Creation
Celebration
opening
page. click here.
Other important materials can be downloaded from
www.ecen.org
.
For a proposed Seven-Step Plan to join the Creation
Celebration,
click here.
To
access an environment-oriented website, click this link: http://earth.web.ph
.
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