Sabrina M. Chiefari is a Catholic Environmental Educator from Tkaronto/Toronto. As Integral Ecology Specialist for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto, she is a long-time proponent of Deep Ecology and Integral Ecology.

Ready?

Looking back: Have you wondered why 2030 keeps coming up as a goal-reaching year? It’s because in 2015 all 193 UN Member States adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a (then) 15-year concerted effort to address some of the world’s most pressing issues.

This timeline isn’t arbitrary as the 2030 deadline was set with data from climate change, the threat of widespread violence and warfare, and equitable prosperity as main considerations.

Scientists from all over the world have emphasized the importance of achieving key goals in global biodiversity, water action, and ecosystem restoration by 2030 as crucial to the welfare of human existence into the next 100 years and beyond.

2030 has become the “green standard” for goal setting whether it’s a Laudato Si’ Action Plan or work on a single SDG. We have seven years to go. At times it may seem like there’s been no progress. But I invite you to read about what’s transpired in just the last six months by clicking here for good news stories in creation care.

Set?

Status check: Let’s do something of a “Creation Care Self-Scan”. For Earth Day, our friends at For the Love of Creation created this Earth Week calendar. They also have some resources for “Creation Care as Self-Care” reflections. And if you’re still challenged by encounters with climate change deniers, check out this Climate Spiral tool from NASA and this recent advice from climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe.

Go!

Earth Day may have just passed, but the baton for ecological justice will continue get passed, from one event to another, until this Fall.

From now until the International Day for Biodiversity, check out our social media for helpful reminders about all the different skills we need to bring to creation care. We also invite you to join us on Thursday May 25th, 7pm, at the Mary Ward Centre for a Laudato Si’ Week event. You can learn more and RSVP here.

Look out for upcoming events, whether online or in person, to mark World Environment Day on June 5. Before long the Season of Creation will be here, and this year’s theme is “Let Justice & Peace Flow”.

Finally, COP28 is expected to round out a busy year of ecological and climate justice. Much work needs to be done and there is a great deal of concern that the Presidency of one the world’s major oil exporters (a role that provides critical leadership during a COP) will not yield the radical results necessary. We can and should do better than “1.5℃ to stay alive”.

School Visits

For Vocation Animator, Julie Cachia, and Creation Care Animator, Sabrina Chiefari, planting seeds to help others increase their awareness, knowledge, and call to action with integral ecology, and exploring one’s purpose in life, is part of animating the mission of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto.

Invitations from secondary schools have provided fertile soil to complement the school curriculum with in-class workshops on care for our common home and who we are being called to be in today’s world. Presentations are interactive and creative, inviting students into conversation, learning and personal reflections.

A special thanks to Sisters Rosemary Fry, Dorothy Schweitzer, Pat Macaulay, Kristine Fernandes, and CSJ Associate Alice Wong-Rettig for helping us bring these programs to life.

Here is a summary of our humble beginnings, over the last year and a half, of sharing our  integrated voice from the Sisters’ Ministries to TCDSB staff and students.

Schools Visited:

• Michael Power St. Joseph
• Joseph’s College School
• Joseph’s Morrow Park
• Madonna CSS