“We need to think about what we can personally do to protect the environment,” says Max Le Moine, after attending Good Seed Sunday just a day prior to Earth Day on April 21 at Trinity Anglican Church in Ottawa.
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.
“Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be.”