University ecumenical service reflects on creation, water

The service took place in the Maclaurin Chapel and was described as a “beautiful evening of prayer, reflection, unity and fellowship” in an Auckland Diocese Facebook post.

The theme, “Living Waters”, takes its inspiration from a passage in Ezekiel chapter 47: “Where the river flows, everything will live.” The theme was a reminder of the life-giving gift of water and the shared responsibility to care for God’s creation and humanity’s common home.

A special part of the evening was a reflection by Catholic theologian Dr Rocio Figueroa, inviting those present to use their imagination to see a new and different world beyond themselves.

“Ezekiel offers us something important here,” Dr Figueroa said.

“In his vision, human beings are almost absent from the passage of the waters. The initiative comes from God; the water flows, and life returns. Human beings do not create the river. Rather, they encounter and receive something that has already begun to flow,” she said.

The vision calls people to renew and relearn their place in creation and to imagine a different relationship with creation, involving aspects of reciprocity and love.

Dr Figueroa’s reflection invited people to consider not only how they care for creation, but how humanity understands itself as part of creation and has a responsibility to protect water and seek justice.

FULL STORY

Season of Creation Ecumenical Service (Catholic Diocese of Auckland/Facebook)

The River That Gives Life (Rocio Figueroa blog)