As part of National Biodiversity Week, the children of the Glebe NS have been conducting a wildflower survey in the Aughrim Climate Action Park and in the Rectory Garden Project. The results were staggering. Thanks to the gradual processes of re-wilding in the eco-campus here, there is now an extravagant abundance of wildlife flourishing in the meadows and walled gardens. From daisies and dandelions to forget-me-nots to gentian speedwell; from clover and brambles to yellow rattle and yellow iris; from cuckoo flowers and cow parsley to purple vetch and phacelia, there is beauty beyond imagining, to delight the hearts of those who are eagle-eyed enough enough to seek it out.
This weekend our parish has published a new YouTube video of those wildflowers, entitled National Biodiversity Week 2023 in the Aughrim Climate Action Park. It is framed with prayer-postcards based on the appointed psalm for the Day of Pentecost: “You send forth your Spirit and they are created; and so you renew the face of the earth.” The psalm reminds us that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is not only the gift by which the Church was brought into being and through which it is renewed and refreshed in each new age. That same Spirit is also instrumental in the processes by which the whole of creation was brought into being and through which it continues to be refreshed and renewed, year after year.
It is a particularly helpful verse therefore, at this moment in the unfolding life of the Church. In this time of ecological crisis, Christians from different traditions right around the world are finding themselves refreshed and re-energised as they are being prompted by the Holy Spirit to become engaged in the urgent work of caring for creation. They, like us, are discovering through those endeavours a rapturous delight in the world around them and an overflowing gratitude for the abundant gifts which God how showered upon us in creation.
