Creation Time & Honouring the Ecomartyrs

We are well into what we call Creation Time, the Season of Creation, or Creationtide, five weeks of liturgical reflection and intentional action as people of the Creator and Creation. The bible makes constant reference to God's revelation in the astonishing diversity of creation and God-made-flesh in Jesus affirms the earthiness of our faith.  

This is a time to celebrate Creation with our whole being, with a daily sense of awe and wonder and gratitude. At the same time we are called to act on behalf of all creatures as our kin and to raise our voices on behalf of those are marginalized and persecuted. The global reality is that every week someone dies defending these rights, often without much in the way of acknowledgement 

In a review of a new book titled Ecomartyrdom in the Americas for the Christian Century magazine Chris Burdon reflects: 

It’s hard not to feel complicit when we contemplate our next grocery run. The convenient items and ingredients for our favorite dishes are paid for with an unfathomable price. The produce section’s fruits and vegetables make those who pick them sick because of the pesticides. The cars that carry our groceries home run on precious metals that are attained by exhausting local water supplies. Is the contemplation of our complicity enough, or do we need to do more?

Elizabeth O’Donnell Gandolfo’s new book will make readers question the depth of their own commitment to righteousness. Gandolfo, a Catholic theologian who teaches at Wake Forest University School of Divinity, tells the stories of several ecomartyrs—people who were killed because they advocated for kinder stewardship of the earth and its resources—and contextualizes their work theologically.

Ecomartyrdom is not a new phenomenon. Gandolfo draws a direct line from the colonialism of the past to capitalist extractivism in the present. She finds in these oppressive systems a laser focus on exploitation, often with impunity, and little regard for the bodies crushed along the way. Alarmingly, she notes that “since 2002 alone, Global Witness has documented over 2,200 environmental defenders who have been assassinated” and “at least three people a week are killed protecting our environmental rights.”

The Christian Century book editor adds:

Ecomartyrdom in the Americas, says reviewer Chris Burton, is the kind of book that makes readers question whether they are living with integrity and righteousness. Theologian Elizabeth O’Donnell Gandolfo “tells the stories of several ecomartyrs—people who were killed because they advocated for kinder stewardship of the earth and its resources—and contextualizes their work theologically.” She focuses on the witness of Christians in Latin America, like Sister Dorothy Mae Stang (who “spoke truth to land-grabbers, advocated for the rights of poor farmers, and fought for the preservation of the Amazon rainforest” until her murder) and Father Alcides Jiménez, “a Colombian priest who articulated the immanence of Christ as present in creation” while speaking out against oil extraction and monoculture crop planting. “Theology is at its best when it centers the margins, and Gandolfo’s book is an excellent addition to a prophetic legacy pleading for the interruption of extractivism,” writes Burton.

Honouring the martyrs during Creation Time and remembering environmental advocates in our prayers can be an essential aspect of this season.