Commentary on ASTE 2009
The following was Don Murray's column in the Truro Daily News  following the 2009 Seminar.
The Column is called 
"A Word to the Spiritual Seekers"
From: Don Murray

STRANGE HANDWRITING - Posted with his permission

The parties he threw to try to make it all go away were not working. On this occasion he was in the midst of a "great festival for a thousand of his lords." He had the glow on from the freely flowing wine when a strange thing happened. "The fingers of a human hand appeared and began writing on the plaster of the wall."

"The king was watching the hand as it wrote. Then the king’s face turned pale, and his thoughts terrified him. His limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together." He knew that whatever the hand was writing it was not good news. But none of his soothsayers could translate it.

The queen – bless the queen, it’s the women who really know what’s going on – came to his rescue by reminding him of the great Hebrew wise man, Daniel. Daniel was summoned and did translate the writing. It was not good news. "Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; Tekel, you have been weighed in the scales and found wanting; peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians." (Daniel 5)

All last week at our Seminar we could imagine that in many ways, we, the western world, and more and more all of the world, are that king. We were reminded in blunt fashion that we have misused the natural world; earth, air, fire (energy) and water and the results are endangering our future..

Dr. Heather Eaton, Professor at Saint Paul University, Ottawa, and interested in religious responses to the ecological crisis, wasted no time in laying out the grim scientific data that tells us that our earth is in crisis and rushing toward disaster. Especially for those unfamiliar with the reality we face, the first day or two were heavy and depressing. We are more or less like the king partying it up while helping to denigrate the natural systems and rhythms of the earth. Heather was like Daniel, translating the handwriting on the wall. The king was about to lose his kingdom, we may be about to lose the earth. (This analogy is mine, not hers!)

She went on to point out the resources within Christianity and the various religions of the world to help us live in our time with creativity and courage. Think globally, act locally, meditate hourly.

Dr. Larry Rasmussen, a lay theologian of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and working on Christian ethics, is reinterpreting the biblical story in the light of the ecological crisis and recasting the rituals of the church as acts which unite us with the earth. This opens the door to a whole new dimension of Christian understanding and response.

It is now being widely recognized, even in the secular world, that the religions of the world must be brought on board if there is to be a creative meeting of the present challenge. The United Nations, Earth Watch, and even the World Bank have initiated programs to involve the various religions.

Undergirding all our discussions was the presence of Native spiritual leader, gkisedtanamoogk.

In our morning worship times he led us through the morning ceremony of the Longhouse. Each day he introduced a portion of the ceremony; calling the spirits from the four directions, purification (smudging); thanksgiving; focussing on the elements, honouring the ancestors and the yet unborn, pondering action, and release of the ancestors and spirits

He introduced us to a way of life that knows the earth and all her inhabitants to be sacred and which lives in communion with the generosity of the earth and her rhythms. His was an assuring and challenging presence, introducing us to a way of life from which we have much to learn.

We must read the handwriting on the wall and know that we have both scientific and spiritual resources to meet it.

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