by Cleric John Kennedy Philip for BISMumbai

The Season of Creation – an ecumenical movement celebrated by the World Council of Churches along with the Catholic Church was launched at the Salesian Training Institute [STI] Nashik on 04 September 2020. The month long celebration that began with an Eucharistic adoration is to culminate on the feast day of St Francis of Assisi on 04 October.

The month was inaugurated by MumbaiSalesians' Novice Master Father [Dr.] Wyman Gonsalves, who specialised in the Philosophy of Ecology–Philosophy of Science, at the Salesian Pontifical University Rome, with his thesis “Towards a New Paradigm in the Understanding of Biodiversity Loss and its Impact on Socio-Economic Progress in the Writings of Vandana Shiva," later published as a 2018 monograph "Green Mind Over Grey Matter: Ecological Perspectives to Global Environmental Crises."

The community and the novices reflected on the significance of the 'season', with a reminder to take the time to heal and renew their relationship with our common home and with God through prayer and action. A variety of activities - prayer services, adoration services, sapling-plantation programmes, nature-meditations, eco-notice boards - are in the offing, which will help the novices and the entire community to renew, revive, rejuvenate and reconnect with self, others and nature. .