This month we continue to celebrate the Season of Creation with its theme of “To Hope and Act with Creation”.
The theme for the O’Shea Shield 2024, the annual speech and drama competition for Secondary Schools in Wellington and Palmerston North dioceses was Te Ahi Ka (Sparks of Hope). The Young Catholic section of NauMai (Welcom) - the Catholic Newspaper for the 2 diocese - reprinted an article by Poppy McCaskey, a Year 10 student Sacred Heart College Napier on “Action as the Antidote for Eco-anxiety” which was her prepared speech for the competition.
This article focused on eco anxiety which she says is a major issue for young people. They worry about what their world might be like in the future if we do not act to reverse the negative effects of climate change. There are many things about our world that provoke anxiety – growing conflicts and divisions within and between countries, the rising cost of living, the housing crisis and the number of people who must leave their home countries which are no longer safe or life giving for them but who can struggle to be accepted in other places.
This article and the focus of the Season of Creation 2024 are reminders of the need to “ignite sparks of hope” in the face of anxiety. A spark is such a small thing yet as the Bruce Springsteen song Dancing in the Dark reminds us “you can’t start a fire without a spark”. Often a seemly insignificant action by one person or a small group can catch the interest and imagination of others and becomes a major movement. Looking at websites on people who were sparks of hope you can find many examples. These 3 stood out for me
When it comes to action on climate change the name of one young person has become globally familiar. In the summer of 2018, when Greta Thunberg was just 15 and in ninth grade, she staged a two-week strike outside the Swedish parliament, demanding that her government cut emissions. In 2020, 4 million people joined her in a strike across 161 countries.
Greta Thunberg
In New Zealand Kate Sheppard lead years of campaigns and petitions for women’s suffrage. On 19 September 1893, New Zealand became the first self-governing country to give women the right to vote in parliamentary elections. The Electoral Act was signed into law by then-governor Lord Glasgow.
Kate Sheppard
In December 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Alabama. She was detained and fined. Her action sparked widespread civil disobedience campaigns and peaceful protests and contributed to the civil rights movement in the USA which was to lead to the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Rosa Parks
Even if the spark does not ignite a national or global movement it can still set a few hearts on fire and help people to overcome anxiety and give them hope. The American professor Norman Cousins believes that “The capacity for hope is the most significant fact of life. It provides human beings with a sense of destination and the energy to get started.”
We give thanks for all those who are sparks of hope in our world.
Fr Patrick O'Shea lives and works in Aotearoa/New Zealand
Shop
Comments (0)