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Corporate Stance Of Great Bend Dominicans
1999
2000 Kinship With and Reverence for earth
2006 |
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We Dominican Sisters of Great Bend claim kinship with and reverence for Earth as Revelation of the Divine. |
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Calculate your Carbon Footprint determine how much carbon your lifestyle emits and strategies to change it. Calculate your Eco-Footprint to determine how much of earth’s resources are required to support your lifestyle and how it compares to others around the world. Enter the H2O Calculator to determine your Water-Footprint |
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We Kinship with the Earth community calls us to embrace the chaos, to be open and creative, to consider movement and imbalance as “normal.” Our universe is capable of self-healing and self-organizing, and so are we — as individuals and as a Community. The Paschal mystery of life flourishing from death takes on deeper meaning. Just as a human body cannot survive in fragments, a leg here and a head there, so the Earth cannot survive in fragments. The Planetary We is the living context where we humans find ourselves. It is the primary revelation of the Divine. By our vow of poverty we have publicly assumed a particular relationship to the rest of creation — a relationship of cosmic reverence. The increasing gap between the wealthy and the poor, and the inexorable pollution of water and air make the faithful witness to this stance more urgent. We engage and respect all of creation and do not take anything for granted. Mystically we are one with all of creation. We are kin with water, air, earth, fire, and even time. Kinship with Earth compels us to dwell with the mystery of God as experienced in creative energy, life force, and source of all being. With this stance, we fall to our knees in awe, take Earth as our starting point of divine revelation , and recognize we are part of a holy living web. |
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Awareness of Earth as a living organism challenges us to understand the significance of our interdependence. Until recently, Western science has perceived creation as objective reality to be observed and manipulated for the benefit of humans without concern for damages caused to the whole system or its long-term consequences. Since the mid-1970s, science has discovered hidden patterns of order in such unpredictable events as a snowflake pattern, river turbulence, weather pattern, and subatomic movement. Creativity requires complexity, yes, chaos. |
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Great Bend Dominicans, with our rural roots, have long been aware of our connection with Earth. If we look back at our history over the past twenty years, we have had community days and general chapters when we have discussed and made decisions on ways to reverence and work for the preservation of the Earth community. It seems only natural that we would choose to solidify our actions of past years in a statement of corporate stance. |
