1 Antilles Episcopal Conference Pastoral
1 ANTILLES EPISCOPAL CONFERENCE PASTORAL LETTER CARING FOR THE EARTH – OUR RESPONSIBILITY AN INVITATION TO REFLECTION “Earth reminded us of a Christmas tree ornament hanging in the blackness of space. As we got farther and farther away it diminished in size. Finally, it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful marble you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate…Seeing this has to change a person, has to make a person appreciate the creation of God and the love of God”. 1 (Astronaut James Irwin) I INTRODUCTION 1. We, the Bishops of the Antilles Episcopal Conference, recognise our duty to reflect with Catholics, other Christians, and indeed with peoples of other faiths in the Caribbean, on matters that affect all our lives. 2. On November 30th 2003, we issued two Pastoral Letters, one “Justice and Peace Shall Embrace: Crime And Violence”, and another on “Stewardship And The Revitalization of Parish Life in the Caribbean”. In the latter we looked at the notion of stewardship insofar as it pertained to the building up of our parish communities. We were well aware that we were seeing stewardship, i.e. use of time, talent and treasure, in a restricted sense, i.e. building up of parish communities. We knew that stewardship was a much wider concept. Hence, we wrote the following: “The truth is that all human beings are called to be stewards, stewards of God’s gift of creation, the primary sacrament of His love. To thankfully take responsibility for the integrity of creation is an important part of what it means to be made in God’s image.2 We constantly need to be reminded, and to proclaim to the world: ‘The earth and its fullness belong to the Lord, the world and all that dwell in it’ (Ps 24:1).
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