Embracing Local Ecology in Liturgical Expression

Ecology can be defined as the relationship between living organisms and their environment. Human beings cannot exist except within an ecological/environmental setting. The temporality and emplaced nature of our existence is both undeniable and inescapable. So, whenever we study aspects of human behaviour such as ritual, the context in which that behavior occurs must always be a part of what is considered. The Judeo-Christian narrative has highlighted the integral relationship between humankind and our environment from its very beginning: in Genesis 1:28 God states: “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all the living creatures that move on earth,” while Genesis 2:7 explains: “Yahweh God shaped man from the soil of the ground and blew the breath of life into his nostrils, and man became a living being.” Human beings are born of the earth and are constituted from the same matter that constitutes the earth. Like the earth itself, we are carbon-based life forms.Footnote 2 As rational beings, born with intellect, imagination, will, and freedom, humans have a responsibility to care for the earth that is our home, our sustenance, our place of existence, and the venue God has ordained for the living of our lives.