Ever eager to jump on the latest cultural bandwagon, the Diocese of Niagara offers this thinly disguised Gaia worship as part of their Green Awakening.
The whole liturgy is here; this is the opening prayer:
Opening Prayer
One Beneath our toes
Beneath our shoes
Beneath floors
Beneath basement and cement and foundation
All We are still standing on holy ground
One Amidst cheerful chatter
TV drones and telephones
Planes and trains
Sirens, horns, and the squeal of tires
All We listen for the call of the Earth
One As square, grey scenery is photographed
Amidst trash, contamination, pits, pollution
Waste, seen and unseen
We are tired people, grasping for energy
All We are still standing on holy ground
One Bike riders and gardeners whisper alternatives
as creation groans beneath the weight of waste and
excess
Beneath even that sits holy ground
Firmly rooting all in the moving, shaping,
Cleansing powers of creation,
All We listen for the call of the Earth
What next, one wonders? Why this, of course:
I see the liturgy includes as its final reading a “Letter from Chief Seattle”, i.e., the alleged letter from Chief Seattle to President Franklin Pierce. Unfortunately, the “letter” has been exposed as a fake written a century after the chief’s death:
http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/progress/fake.html
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/seattle.asp
Thanks Scott – interesting.
Niagara has lost its way and will latch onto any new thing.
Let the dead bury their own dead.
Oh, Lord
The video is rich! I especially got a kick out of the line, “,,, dancing naked for Beelzebub.” No doubt rapturously thinking they are accomplishing some great spiritual thing.