Page 154 - Prayer Book

154
Prayer B o ok
It is a cosmic communion of others and other things,
which constitute our existence as unique Others! There-
fore, we owe gratitude to everything! We owe gratitude to
the entire Universe, through which God has constituted
our existence!
Here, the issue of ecology arises. We owe respect to the
entire Universe and especially to our immediate environ-
ment, the natural world! Every violation, every abuse of the
natural environment on our part is a sin, said the blessed
Metropolitan of Pergamon! “We must learn to confess our
ecological sins,” he said, “and to repent for them and grieve
over them, just as we do for every sin.”
This position of the blessed Metropolitan John is more
relevant today than ever! The Earth is overheating, forests
are burning, sea levels are rising, ready to flood entire
coastal countries, and eventually, entire continents!
In other words, life, our life, our very existence, is in
danger of being lost! And we are solely responsible for this!
We are responsible for our destruction, or rather, our self-
destruction! Therefore, as Metropolitan John of Pergamon
said, we must indeed grieve for our ecological sins, repent,
and turn around! We must change our way of life, extin-
guish hatred, and love one another! Because hatred and
indifference toward the “other” are to blame for this im-
pending destruction!
Amen.
Written by the unworthy priest,
Pavlos Koumarianos