Our Vision and Motivation
The earth is the Lord’s and all that fills it,the compass of the world and all who dwell therein. Psalm 24:1
For you, Lord, have made me glad by your acts, and I sing aloud at the works of your hands. Psalm 92:4
May the glory of the Lord endure for ever; may the Lord rejoice in his works. Psalm 104:33
God delights in creation. At Mucknell Abbey, we want to show in our lives some echo of that delight. So we want to affirm the greatness of the created material order, and that we exist in relationship to God, to each other, and to the rest of creation. Why should Christians care about the earth? Primarily because God cares.
On 25 March 2011, Archbishop Rowan Williams visited Mucknell to preside and preach at the eucharist for The Annunciation, to dedicate the Oratory to the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Benedict, and to bless the Abbey as a place of welcome and hospitality. The following words are an excerpt from his homily at the Eucharist:
"This new home for a community has been designed and constructed with deep attention to the kind of world we’re in; the kind of world where it won’t do to ignore considerations about ecological balance, sustainability and the health of the whole environment. And surely that’s part of the same listening: listening for the creative Word in things, in the stuff of the world; listening our way into the depths of what is around us, so that the Word comes alive in what we do with the things that are around us, the stuff we live with and live on.
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"So, ausculta, listen, as The Rule [of Benedict] says. But also speak, be who you are, be who you say you are in this place. Let this place be what it is, and let all of that together be God’s Word to this wider environment."
But it is also a question of justice. Human activity, mostly in developed countries, has caused great harm to our planet home, affecting the atmosphere, land and ocean. We have caused great hardship for our neighbours in developing countries, and damaged many ecosystems, often beyond repair.
It is also in our own self-interest. Because we are only one thread in an inter-dependent web, we are endangering our own future. We have caused the extinction of many species, and may cause the extinction of our own.