EARTHKEEPING
NEWS
A NEWSLETTER
OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY
Volume Fourteen, Number Three
May / June 2005
Teilhard de Chardin Conference
The Teilhard 2005 conference was held in New York City on April 7-10 to honor Pierre Teilhard de Chardin on the 50th anniversary of his death. The four day conference included speakers Brian Swimme, Jeffrey Sachs and Steven Rockefeller, to name just a few. The conference was held at a variety of locations around New York City, including the United Nations, and was attended by over 300 participants.
The highlight of these presentations, for me, was a video submitted by Wangari Maathai of Kenya, recent winner of the Noble Peace prize. Wangari told her story of planting trees in Kenya. She ended her talk with an African folktale about a hummingbird that is trying to put out a forest fire by flying back and forth from a river to the fire with drops of water. When the other animals scoff and question the hummingbird's efforts, the bird answers: "I’m doing the most I can." She encouraged the conference participants to "do the most they could" to save our planet Earth!
In addition to conference sessions, there was a celebration with music and dance at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine and Teilhard’s "Mass on the World" at St. Ignatius Church.
Personally, it was a great feeling to be among so many gathered to share our deep concern for the sacred value of our planet. Echoing the words of Pere Teilhard de Chardin: ". . . the only truly natural and real human Unity is the Spirit of Earth."
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