ASSISI FORMATION - Creation and Reconciliation program April 13th-21st 2012
The Creation and Reconciliation program is an invitation for those in leadership roles within the Church and its allied organisations/agencies.
The Creation and Reconciliation program is centered on the essential link between the two - both creation and reconciliation are grounded in God’s creation of the world. God’s action of creating and reconciliation means that all are called to reconciliation and healing. Creation and salvation are part of one act: God’s self-giving act of love. The Christian call is to action through mission - mission characterized by reconciliation and liberation and the involvement of all creation. Fr Denis Edwards will explore these themes on the opening day.
This immersion program offers an opportunity for interpreting an experience of personal transformation, through spending time on country, into leading social change for justice, reconciliation and integrity of creation.
ASSISI FORMATION - Animators for Sustainabilty Program
“someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, humanity will have discovered fire.”
(Pierre Teilhard de Chardin)
Are you wondering ...
- What would it take to animate the call to justice, peace and integrity of creation such that we learn together how to live and work sustainably on our planet?
- What is required for your organisation to take the transformative journey to ecological sustainability?
- What wisdom exists in Catholic Teaching that may help you and your organisation respond to the call for ecological conversion and sustaining God’s Creation?
- What would it take to truly harness the energies of God’s love?
In my capacity as Acting Director of Catholic Earthcare, I invite you to participate in the formation experience and, secondly, to pass this invitation to others in your network for whom this would be applicable.
Catholic Earthcare Australia offers ASSISI as a comprehensive and holistic sustainability initiative for organisations to achieve sustainability. A three-day intensive is central to the formation experience. Participants are required to do preparatory work and follow-up work. During the course of the formation experience, participants are exposed to contemporary ecological theology, scientific understandings of sustainability and transformative social processes that can inspire and support this critical work.
Would you like to join with others to seek, discern and transform a new way of being that responds to the call for ecological conversion through participation in our ASSISI Formation - Animators for Sustainability program?
Yours truly,
Luke Edwards
Acting Director
Catholic Earthcare Australia
luke.edwards@catholicearthcare.org.au
Support Documents to download
Printer Friendly version of Luke's letter
Download an invitation and further information
Several Catholic Education Offices are offering varying degrees of sponsorship for attendance at this program - check with your office for the current status of the sponsorship.
To view samples of the pre-reading for ASSISI Formation - Animators for Sustainability click on the links below:
Catholic Earthcare Australia has partnered with CarbonSystems to provide Catholic organisations with the means for measuring and reporting on their environmental performance as a part of the ASSISI sustainability initiative. The purpose for this partnership is firstly, to enable Catholic organisations to measure their ecological footprint and secondly, to reduce their footprint using the intelligence gained from the audit tool 'ESP - Enterprise Sustainability Platform'
ESP is being offered through Catholic Earthcare Australia to all Catholic organisations including Catholic Schools, Education Offices, Diocesan Offices, Parishes, Agencies, Universities, Health Organisations, Religious Congregations and Orders. The ESP system can aggregate and report on all of these diverse areas and over time will enable Catholic Earthcare Australia to report on the environmental footprint of the Catholic Church in Australia. Click here for the environmental audit brochure.
Click here to LOGIN to the Catholic Earthcare personal ecological calculator.
Nobel Prize winner, Al Gore endorses Catholic Earthcare's ASSISI
At a meeting in Sydney on 14 July, Catholic Earthcare's executive director, Jacqui Remond briefed Mr Gore on Earthcare's mandate from the Australian Bishops' to affect an 'ecological conversion' to an environmentally sustainable church in Australia.
Ms Remond said Earthcare's ecological sustainability model 'ASSISI' (A Strategic, Systems-based Integrated Sustainability Initiative) was now being piloted in Catholic schools and parishes in NSW and Queensland, in the Franciscan congregation in Australia and New Zealand, and in St John of God hospitals.(PDF 456KB).
Story by Dan McAloon
ASSISI
ASSISI (A Strategic, Systems-based, Integrated Sustainability Initiative) constitutes the Australian Catholic Bishops' sustainability initiative. It is a new, ongoing, large-scale intervention developed by Earthcare. It provides a theological, spiritual and practical base for implementing Earthcare's ecological vision for Catholic schools, parishes and church communities, agencies and congregations. It is a useful model and a roadmap for the way to achieve ecological sustainability for the Catholic Church in Australia.
The overarching aim of ASSISI is to provide a foundation for and a pathway to best practice in achieving ecological sustainability in Catholic schools, parishes, church agencies and organisations and congregations in Australia. The definition of ecological education which has been put forward for Catholic schools is relevant and appropriate for all Catholic organisations and agencies: a life-long process of recognising values and clarifying concepts in order to develop skills and attitudes necessary to understand and appreciate the inter-relatedness of all creation, and to know of creation as a gift from God which requires equitable sharing and right relationship. It also entails practice in decision making for living a life that is ecologically and ethically sustainable.
The approach we take in achieving our aim is not one based on compliance with externally imposed models and frameworks. The 'learning communities' approach involves a co-created process that enables organisations to work meaningfully with broader sustainability frameworks and make autonomous decisions appropriate to their own context and that link with their strategic intent. This enables the ecological conversion required for full ownership and embedding of ecological sustainability into all aspects of organisational life in the context of, and in collaboration with, the broader community.
Earthcare has embarked on a strategic partnership with Carbon Systems Australia to institute a system across the whole Catholic Church in Australia, in order to measure, track and report on energy, water and carbon performance on an ongoing basis. The Enterprise Sustainability Platform (ESP) is a low cost automated data collection tool for tracking, monitoring, benchmarking and reporting each Catholic organisation's ecological footprint. This provides essential information for decision making and driving reduction programmes.
Jacqui Remond, Director of Earthcare, is assisted by Megan Seneque in program design and facilitation. This is a long term approach, inspired by Catholic teachings, values and beliefs. It is aimed at developing, implementing and monitoring the processes needed to facilitate the development of a spirituality of communion that is at the heart of achieving ecological conversion and ecological sustainability in the Catholic Church in Australia.
To register your interest in this sustainability initiative complete your details in the registration box below and click 'submit'.*Required information.
(Your details will not be disclosed to any third party)
all calendar a part of your plan for 2012. Catholic Earthcare are delighted to be a part of the People and Planet: Social Justice and Environment Diary and Wall Calendar 2012. Please click 
