Etienne Eason is the driving force behind the pilgrimage. Growing up, Etienne watched with despair as governments failed to live up to their commitment to limit global warming, made at the Paris climate conference in 2015. Despair is justified. Global emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, a main cause of global warming, are higher today than they were in 2015. Yet, one of the first actions taken by Mark Carney, as our new Prime Minister, was to eliminate the carbon tax, considered the most effective tool in reducing our emissions. The record wildfires in 2013, which covered Ottawa and Montreal in choking smoke, were a personal call to Etienne to become a climate activist.  Through action there is hope.

The global campaign for a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty was launched about eight years ago as a response to shortcomings in the Paris climate agreement. In that agreement, governments committed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, which is considered to be tolerable from the standpoint of survival of the human species. Last year, global temperatures broke through the 1.5-degree guardrail. However, the Paris climate agreement failed to identify the need to reduce the use of fossil fuels.

The fossil fuel treaty calls for an immediate halt to the expansion of fossil fuel use – no new pipelines or powerplants – and an equitable phasing out of existing uses. The treaty had been endorsed by 16 countries, 3953 organizations, and over one million individuals. Signatories include the Anglican Church of Canada and the City of Ottawa, but not yet the Canadian government.

The Pilgrimage for the Planet consists of a two-day bike trek from Montreal to Ottawa followed by a series of events in Ottawa. Pilgrims will

leave Montreal on Saturday, May 10, stay overnight at a church in Vankleek Hill. A reception is planned at St. Paul’s University to welcome their arrival in Ottawa Sunday afternoon, May 11. Participants will present the case for signing onto the Fossil Fuel Non=Proliferation Treaty to the federal government in the morning on Monday, May 12.

Anyone can participate. Best of all, you do not have to make the full Montreal-Ottawa pilgrimage to take part. Organizers are working on a variety of local walking pilgrimages, and even an online pilgrimage that will follow progress along the Montreal-Ottawa route. Visit the event website (below) for more information and to sign up as a participant.

Websites for more information:

Pilgrimage for the Planet – https://easternsynod.org/pilgrimage-for-the-planet/

Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty – https://fossilfueltreaty.org/

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I can’t think of a better way to be reassured of God’s generative goodness but to walk through a northern forest filled with spring flowers just as the leaves pop out. Across the Ottawa Valley, native plants demonstrate God’s goodness as our forest floors show off yellow trout lilies, mixed with tender violet hepaticas, and, a bit later, hundreds of trilliums. How many seasons does it take for a colony of white bunchberries to slowly spread along a nature trail? As the Creator declared long ago, “It is good.”

Although I’ve searched for Canadian wildflowers in their habitats for years, more recently, I’ve also started growing these plants in my own garden. Many Canadian gardeners are becoming more serious about cultivating plants that are indigenous to the region where they live. Local Anglican parishes such as Church of the Ascension in Ottawa are already actively planting these native gardens. (A local environmental organization maintains an interactive map of native plant gardens, and it includes churches across the region https://wildpollinators-pollinisateurssauvages.ca/pollinator-gardens/). Biologist generally use the terms “native” and “non-native” where non-native species have been introduced to Canada after European contact with Indigenous peoples.

Why does it make sense to grow native species in a Canadian garden? First and foremost, these plants belong here. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love planting annuals like orange marigolds. Probably, I will sneak some into my garden every year until my last breath. However, if our Creator had wanted marigolds to survive -20 C winter weather, I’m pretty sure They could have made that happen! As it is, marigolds die in autumn in Ottawa. Instead, we have been given butterfly weed. It’s a family member of the more familiar common milkweed and has survived harsh Canadian winters since time immemorial. Its complex flowers grow in bright orange clusters, which begs the question: “If we can splash bright orange throughout our gardens by planting butterfly weed, why not walk in step with what the Creator intends to grow right here in the first place?”

Karen McClure is a parishioner at St. Bartholomew Anglican, a master gardener in training, and a member of the congregation’s newly minted environmental committee. She says that native plants support local eco-systems, attract wildlife and enhance biodiversity.

“It’s a way that we as Christians can care for the earth,” she says. “It is a way to make a difference in one’s own backyard.” St. Bart’s has already planted serviceberry bushes in the church gardens and hopes to add more native plants this coming season.

Plants and its pollinators “grow up together” in an evolutionary sense over very long periods of time.

Biodiversity is threated by habitat loss, climate change and other factors. This in turn threatens the survival of pollinators such as butterflies and bees. These creatures are absolutely essential to the future of plants, and by extension, our own future as human beings.

Doug Tallamy, author of Bringing Home Nature: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants, defines a plant to be indigenous to a region when it “has evolved in a particular place long enough to be able to establish the specialized relationships that are nature.” He adds, “Most of the relationships between plants and animals are highly specialized, and they take a long time to develop.” When plants are moved around the world, like marigolds planted in Canada during summer, these special relationships are broken down.

“Local insects typically can’t eat these [non-native] plants and all the things that depend on those insects disappear as well, because there’s nothing generating those insects,” explains Tallamy. Thus, biodiversity is at risk.

Native plants can meet almost all of a gardener’s wishes. There are low plants (prairie smoke) and tall plants (Joe Pye weed). Gardeners with shady lots can try a shade-loving plant such as zig zag golden rod. And, pearly everlasting will bloom almost the entire season. New England asters, flat-topped asters and certain varieties of golden rods provide colour well into fall without spreading too aggressively.

So, for me, here’s the good news. First, anybody with a little garden, or even a flower box on a balcony, can support biodiversity and our planet by planting some native species.

It’s probably one of the easiest steps a gardener can take to truthfully answer to the baptismal vow, “I will, with God’s help.” Why not help fight climate change by doing what you already love to do? Plant some species that belong where you live. Churches can plant these native plants in flower borders and tell their neighbours that biodiversity matters!

Second, native plants can help us better understand God’s absolute delight in creating all of our world. His love for creation extends to even the coldest, darkest parts of our planet. He gave us butterfly weed and zig zag goldenrod! Nothing seems to speak louder than spring flowers in our northern climate: Joy will find a way. The Light will overcome darkness.

A note about Latin names

In her little book The Serviceberry, Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, author Robin Wall Kimmerer mentions that the serviceberry, known by the Latin name Amelancier alnifolium, has many other common names, including saskatoon, juneberry, shadbush, shadblow, sugarplum and sarvis. She adds, “Ethnobotanists know that the more names a plant has, the greater its cultural importance.” However, scientists use agreed-upon Latin names to ensure everybody studying plants is, in fact, referring to the same species. If shopping for native species be aware of plants that include pretty sounding names in brackets. For example, a species sold as Amelanchier Canadensis ‘Rainbow Pillar’ is a so-called nativar. It is derived from the native Serviceberry, but has been bred for a specific trait, such as height or other considerations. True native species never have a name that includes marketing idiom.

The Latin names of native species noted in this article in order of appearance:

Trout Lilies (Erythronium americanum), Hepatica (Anemone Americana), Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum), Bunchberries (Cornus canadensis), Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa), Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum), Purple Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium purpureum), Zig Zag Golden Rod (Solidago flexicaulis), Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea), New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae), Flat-topped Aster (Doellingeria umbellate).

Resources

Johnson, Lorraine, and Colla, Sheila. A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating Habitat for Native Pollinators: Ontario and Great Lakes Edition. Douglas & McIntyre, 2022

Need some inspiration?

Plan a visit to Ascension Anglican Church on 253 Echo Drive in Ottawa. Their grounds demonstrate how native plants can create vibrant gardens. Many of the plants are identified with signs noting their common and scientific names.

Where to obtain native plants around Ottawa?

Many local gardening centres will carry some native species. The non-profit Fletcher Wildlife Garden https://ofnc.ca/programs/fletcher-wildlife-garden near The Central Experimental Farm organizes an annual native plant sale in spring. Plants can also be bought at some local farmers’ markets and ordered online from A Cultivated Art https://www.acultivatedart.com/native-plant-store

Nandy Heule is a visual artist who enjoys gardening with native plants. She lives in Ottawa where she was recently received into the fellowship of the Anglican Communion at a moving ceremony presided over by Bishop Shane Parker.

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Our Earth Day celebration this year will be held on Sunday, April 27. The 10 am family service will have an environmental focus, including our third annual Blessing of the Bicycles and alternate modes of carbon free transportation. We will give thanks for the wonderful earth and its gifts and encourage each person to make lifestyle changes that will have a positive impact on the environment. We will pray for God’s help in all our efforts.

Following the service, we will gather for a Souper Sunday event with a Carbon Footprint Game, which continues the theme of environment, led by Bill Nuttle. Our individual carbon footprint is the best indicator of our climate impact. Knowing our footprint can help us make personal changes in our daily lives to lessen our negative impact on the climate. The game, and group discussion afterwards, will help participants examine ways to accomplish the changes.

Concurrently, a special craft time for the younger environmentalists will be offered focusing on pollinators.

The third annual Salad Garden event will take place on Saturday, May 17. Soil, seeds and planters will be available, so that participants can come to the church and create a salad garden that they can grow and care for and then enjoy its produce during the summer. It’s a great way to enrich your patio or balcony. It’s also a wonderful way to help young people see where food originates and how much care is needed to produce it. Growing food is a perfect way to reduce carbon emissions; you don’t have to drive to the store to purchase it and no transportation is needed to get the product to the store. Plus, it’s wonderful to see plants spring from the earth. The event runs from 10:30 until noon.

Our second annual Cycle Clinic will be on Saturday, May 31. At this event, people drop by the First Avenue parking lot with their bikes, and a team of St. Matthew’s parishioners will guide participants through a quick five-step checklist to assess the health of the bicycle. The team will help the cyclists understand what repairs are needed to make the bike safe and more efficient.  It just takes a few minutes to get one of our enthusiasts to work with the rider and the bike to find ways to make riding more enjoyable and regular maintenance as easy as 1,2,3. The clinic will be from 10 am until noon.

The Creation Matters Working Group at St. Matthew’s would love to see people from all parishes join us in our initiatives to be stewards of God’s Creation. Every effort we make to highlight the environment and to minimize our carbon footprint is an effort to be the best caretakers that we can of God’s gift to us.

The Great Glebe Garage Sale: Repurposing on a Neighbourhood Scale

St Matthew’s parish has also participated in the Great Glebe Garage Sale for over two decades.  The event is important on several levels, which is why the parish continues to be involved despite the huge effort it takes.

First and foremost, this event brings the parishioners together. Everyone is encouraged to invite their neighbours to contribute to the sale too. Prior to the sale all the donations are gathered and sorted. The more valuable ones go to the premium table and are washed, polished, priced and displayed on the First Avenue side of the church. The remainder of the goodies are destined for the White Elephant Table where shoppers are encouraged to “make an offer.”

The third area of the event is book sale.  Volunteers work for hours sorting and organizing the books into several different categories. It is a thing of beauty to see all the books out on tables having been a crazy collection of boxes just a week before the sale.

Because the Great Glebe Garage Sale requires volunteers at many levels it works as a real team builder.  It also highlights our parish in the neighbourhood. Many people who come to the sale use St. Matt’s as their starting point.

The second aspect is the environmental impact.  With the whole neighbourhood involved, it is a perfect opportunity to repurpose items no longer useful to the vendors or donors. There is no restriction on the things that can be sold. At St. Matthew’s we get kitchen goodies, vintage radios, CDs, records, lighting fixtures, linens, garden tools, and the list goes on.  The environment benefits because all these things are given a second life. The amount that does not go to the landfill is enormous.

The third level for St. Matthew’s is the fundraising aspect. In the last five years, the sale has brought in more than $10,000 annually. Last year, the sum was close to $15,000. That is significant help to our outreach programs. The GGGS organizers ask participants to donate 10% of the amount earned to the Ottawa Food Bank. So again, the rewards are multifold. The parish adds to its fundraising total, and the Ottawa Food Bank benefits too. — Margaret Terrett

The Great Glebe Garage Sale is always the Saturday after the Victoria Day weekend.  This year the date is May 24. Come and enjoy the fun!

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Le Moine, an industrial design student at Carleton University, adds that worship focused on creation care can help Christians to start talking about the environment. For example, he asks, “How can I move industrial design to be more sustainable?” Le Moine regularly attends the Connect service on Sunday afternoons at Trinity on Cameron Ave. The service is led by Paul and Evelyn Mugarura with Archdeacon Mark Whittall, who invited A Rocha Canada to facilitate the Earth Day celebration.   

Paul Heintzman, a volunteer leader with A Rocha Ontario, says Good Seed Sunday asks participants to reflect on creation and can reinforce the principles of Biblical creation care. “We are asked to be stewards of creation all of our lives,” he says. “I pray Christians will take stewardship of creation seriously.” 

Unlike Christian organizations focused mostly on political activism, A Rocha Canada asks its volunteers to be “hands-on,” to get involved in conservation and stewardship activities, says Heintzman.  A Rocha volunteers work as “citizen scientists,” to monitor loons, Monarch butterflies and frogs in the Ottawa-Gatineau region. They also organize nature walks and maintain a garden at University of Ottawa which produces veggies for the Ottawa Innercity Ministry. A Rocha is an international Christian conservation organization with projects in the global South and North. 

Daniel Godfrey, also a student at Carleton University who attended the worship service and potluck supper afterwards, says “There’s no time too late to get started” when it comes to looking after the environment.  

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In November 2023, Guild members attended an in-house workshop to study the process and to facilitate the remembrance of the connection between who we are within the greater body of Earth and our role in an ecosystem of healing. The workshop was led by Robin MacDonald a facilitator, who works within the realms of social justice, earth care, as well as spiritual and mental health.

In March, the Guild delved even deeper during two online book club sessions to explore Joanna Macy and Molly Brown’s book Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work that Reconnects, which describes the work of reconnecting, or deep ecology, “as a body of work and teachings to move from ecological apathy and grief to social healing and collective thriving.”

There is no doubt that the labyrinth can be helpful to provide a framework for working through difficult realities such as climate change. Walking the labyrinth provides time for a releasing, reflecting and gaining new perspectives. Macy and Brown’s book could be considered as a guidebook to do the spiritual work of reclaiming our humanity here on Planet Earth. It explores our relationship with the natural world, and indeed how we are part of the natural world. It also asks how one can work through apathy and hopelessness to a place of synergic power. The role of spirituality is explored in terms of our oneness with the Earth.

Joanna Macy calls upon her five decades of activism to share her experience for this work. Molly Brown’s family moved to Los Alamos shortly after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. She reflects on the banality of evil and the assumptions of scientific and military culture.

The Work that Reconnects is presented as a spiral with four stages: 1) Gratitude; 2) Honoring our pain; 3) Seeing with new and ancient eyes; and 4) Going forth.  (see image, above right).

I appreciated the many examples of practices shared in the book which were unique ways to integrate the work in a practical way. For example, the practice of inviting representatives from different life forms such as a bird, a river, and a fish to speak as part of a ‘Council of Beings’ to humanity, brings a powerful message of interconnectedness.  This book is a rich resource which one could potentially use to engage with reconnection on an ongoing basis.

On May 11, 2024, the Labyrinth Guild is working with Robin MacDonald once again to host a public workshop entitled Stepping Forward for Earth. This retreat-style half-day workshop is designed to facilitate remembrance of the connection between who we are with the greater body of Earth and help clarify your role in an ecosystem of healing. Space is limited so register early.  More information can be found on the Christ Church Cathedral website’s listing of upcoming events:

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The lighting program paid $2000 of the $2400 cost to convert the approximately 30 fluorescent tube fixtures on the lower level of our building to LED tube fixtures. The new tubes use half the electricity of the old tubes. Our annual savings are close to the $400 net cost of the conversion.

To help us decide on the next greening steps to take, we recently enrolled in Greening Sacred Spaces’ Energy Benchmarking Program. This is integrated with the City of Ottawa’s Better Buildings Ottawa Benchmarking and Auditing Program. These programs not only provide data to compare our building’s energy use with similar buildings but also give free advice on reducing energy use and may also provide grants.

Taking advantage of these programs can help faith communities reduce their carbon footprints.

Dave Longworth is Deputy Warden, Church of the Ascension, Ottawa

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This fall, we stepped up our game by hosting a two-day e-waste, scrap metal, battery, and milk bag collection event with the assistance of local company Metro Scrap Metal (MSM). It also served as a fundraising event for us as well. MSM provided 3 large rolloff bins for Saturday, Sept. 16 and Sunday, Sept 17 in the parking lot of the Greely Community Centre. From 9 am to 5 pm both days, we invited and welcomed the public to drive in and drop off old electronics, large and small appliances, scrap metal, batteries of all sizes, as well as milk bags. Drop offs included items as small as a cell phone to freezers and fridges, fencing, to car hoods and doors. By the end of the weekend, we had one bin full to overflowing of e-waste, a second larger bin full to overflowing with scrap metal, and a third bin full of a combination of both, plus a large number of batteries of all sizes, and almost 700 milk bags. On Monday, MSM picked up the larger car and lawn tractor type batteries and the three bins and took care of the recycling. In return, they will provide All Saints Greely a cheque when the weight calculations have been determined. The smaller regular sized batteries were delivered to Home Hardware filling two shopping carts and used printer cartridges were returned to Staples. A weekend event which cost us nothing but time, manpower, and muscle was very much appreciated by the community. 

In the end it will help fund our outreach initiatives and operating expenses but more importantly will help protect our environment by keeping so many numerous items from going to the curb and into our landfills.

In the January 2023 Crosstalk, we told you about our “making a difference one bag at a time” milk bag weaving initiative on Tuesday evenings which started in conjunction with Earthub. To date, 129 sleeping mats, 152 sit-upons, and 2 mid-sized mats have been distributed to local outreach organizations and initiatives. This equates to approximately 66,500 milk bags kept out of the landfill. With about 1,000 milk bags a week being used and keeping up our supply becoming a challenge we do welcome donations. The outer 3 litre milk bags, clean, dry, and flat if possible but not necessary are greatly appreciated. 

Every act of kindness and little bit each of us can do to help protect our environment benefits everyone. 

Please share stories of actions in your own family, parish or community, so we can inspire, learn from and encourage one another.

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Some 25 of us gathered at 10 am to pray and sing our joy as we took turns shoveling soil onto the roots of the one-metre tall white spruce.

Planting that small tree at Epiphany, one of the program’s pilot churches, was only a first step. The Branches of Hope project aims to plant 500 native trees in Ottawa and 500 in Uganda in cooperation with St. Jude’s Family Projects and others. St. Jude’s has already started planting mango, moringa and other trees to help with reforestation and to provide charcoal for cooking.

During the 10:30 am service, Epiphany’s own Valerie Maier, president of PWRDF’s board of directors, told us about the work that PWRDF is doing in Canada and around the world — and helped us understand how vital this work is to sharing God’s love with those in need.

The morning wrapped up with a lively fundraising lunch, a delicious spread of flavours from around the world provided by parishioners.

Is your parish interested in connecting to plant trees and be a part of a worldwide effort to address climate change? Find out how you can participate in this program in spring 2024 by planting trees in the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa (ADO) region: send an email to TheReverendPatrickStephens@gmail.com. Did we mention the trees will be provided free of charge? One tree planted in the Anglican Diocese of Ottawa (ADO) region equals one tree planted at St. Jude Family Projects, Uganda.

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Janet Hope, a warden at St. Mary the Virgin at the time, explained that the pump was able to be shut off entirely during the pandemic so there were no costs and then when the church reopened, a technician brought it back online for a minimal fee of about $75. 

Now when the church is not in use, the thermostat can be turned down very low to 12 to 15 degrees, which also reduces costs compared to the old system which had to be kept at a higher temperature. 

Necessity has led to other green innovations at SMTV too. They have had a composting toilet for years, and although they have to buy drinking water, the church has used water from a rain barrel for other purposes such as watering the plants.

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