United Nations World Oceans Day
Theme Revitalization: Collective Action for the Ocean.
I live along the Thames River and only rarely have had occasions to put my toes in the surrounding ocean of earth’s continents. Paul Bains, our Blue Community Coordinator reminds us in our June Newsletter that “Over 30 million Canadians live inland. One in two live along the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River. For many Canadians, it is not the ocean and coastline that frame our identity; rather, it is the vast interconnected landscape of wetlands, lakes, rivers, and waterways. Canada has over 2 million lakes and more than 8,500 rivers. All of this water flows through one of five drainage basins to the ocean – 60% of this water flows north to Inuit Nunangat (Inuktut word meaning homeland, used by Inuit in Canada). Thus, in Canada, ocean literacy is fundamentally about our relationship with the ocean and the waterways that connect us to each other and the sea.” (Sourced from: https://colcoalition.ca/our-work/)”
Our congregational heritage, having grown out of living the gospel, continually calls us to live in right relationship with God, with all people and with creation. And so, I am fascinated by this beautiful and mysterious system that God has loved into being – the ocean: the rich interplay of hundreds of thousands of marine species, deep cold currents transporting oxygen and nutrients, the fact that the ocean is really one continuous body of water that oceanographers have divided into four principal areas. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/all-about-the-ocean
The UN reminds us that “the ocean connects, sustains and supports us all. Yet its health is at a tipping point and so is the well-being of all that depends on it.”
Since 2017 when our congregation became a Blue Community, we have challenged ourselves with effecting change with the multiple relationships we have with water, from our misuse of it in over consumption, to clogging it with plastic, to advancing the awareness of water as a sacred right for all.
The many voices calling for change are heralds of hope.
This year there is a wonderful opportunity for us to learn more, and find out about the communities, ideas and solutions that are working together to protect and revitalize the ocean and everything it sustains. This day long event is hosted by the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs, with the generous contribution of Oceanic Global, which is made possible by La Mer. The event will be broadcast live. RSVP to join the United Nations World Oceans Day (UN WOD) virtual broadcast taking place on Wednesday 8 June, 2022.
Perhaps we will meet around the zoom screen!
Sister Loretta Manzara, csj