By Iain Radvan, SJ | Australian Province
[From “Jesuits 2024 - The Society of Jesus in the world”]

About an international meeting with the dynamics of a retreat: to listen, reflect, experience, and move from a destructive relationship with the Earth, to one capable of profound respect.

Ignatius intended that the one receiving the Exercises encounter God directly and so re-orient his or her life. So, we too, members of the Being with God in Nature ministry and the Care for our Common Home Committee, intended that the International Ignatian Ecospiritual Conference (IIEC 2022), with the dynamic of a retreat, help participants to encounter God in Nature over six days and re-orient their values, goals, and actions to the care of our common home.

After having dealt with the technical aspects of creating an online conference, with the great support of Anthony Costa, an IT manager specialized in online religious events, our two biggest challenges were finding good speakers, and willing financial sponsors. Our panel of speakers eventually included Jesuits Xavier Jeyaraj (Secretary for Social Justice and Ecology for the Society of Jesus) who gave an opening address and Pedro Walpole (co-ordinator of Ecojesuit) who spoke about Laudato si’ in action. Peter Saunders also spoke on the encyclical Laudato si’, Dr Leslie Hughes (Professor of Biology at Macquarie University) on the climate emergency, Tony Rinaudo on his work with World Vision restoring degraded natural environments, and Sherry Balcombe, an indigenous elder, reminded us of the spiritual connection the First Nations have had with the land for thousands of years.

Father General Arturo Sosa opened the conference with these words, “This is an opportunity to explore our deep interconnectedness with all creation through mindful encounters with nature, reflection, sacred listening and prayer ... this ecological conversion is an invitation to experience Christ present in all Creation.”

Participants were grouped in hubs of about eight, some in person, some online; besides those in Australia we had four hubs around Southeast Asia. Each morning began with prayer, a time of quiet reflection to be open to the grace of God for the day.

The speakers showed us first our present destructive relationship with Earth, as a kind of First Week meditation; then, as the Principle and Foundation does, how God intended our relationship with Earth to be; and lastly how we can change our attitudes and practices to be more respectful of Earth. Each afternoon the participants were encouraged to move to some area of nature – a garden or park – and do a spiritual exercise that would engage their senses with the natural environment. We wanted them to experience intimacy with Earth in a concrete way, just as Ignatius wanted us to encounter God directly. The last part of the day saw them meeting in their group again where they shared their wonder and delight in having been closely attentive to the trees, birds and animals they encountered.

The final session of the conference (or retreat!) focused on the Laudato si’ Action Platform: we wanted the participants to incarnate their enthusiastic new-found relationship with Earth. From an evaluation form here are some of the responses:

I wanted to be educated and moved. Each successive day deepened my understanding and clarity of how I can move forward practically.

[I now have] an informed mind and a converted heart on ecology saturated with Ignatian spirituality to be significant and to do something significant.

[I want to] share my insights with others, plant trees, pray in nature, care for nature and write something on ecology.

[I have received] renewed enthusiasm and direction for action. A deepening spiritual openness to the gift of God in creation.

I felt that God was, I would say, telling me that I am part of creation. So, I didn’t have a long list of things that I felt God was asking me to do other than to reconcile within myself and nurture myself.

[I want] to add more actions to my home/personal way of doing. (...), I also would like to use some of the conference materials, when they become available, to share with my local parish.

In a subsequent meeting with the hub facilitators, we, organisers, found out how fruitful our labour had been. The whole experience was made of respectful listening, emotional honesty, frustrations, wisdom, hope, energy, and a sense of community with their fellow participants.

The spirit and content of the Conference is not lost. All the prayers, talks and spiritual exercises continue to be available on the website www.godinnature.org.au hosted by the Province “Care for our Common Home” committee. Furthermore, some of the generous sponsorship money remained, which is being used to offset the carbon emissions of the conference and to seed another ecological spiritual conference/retreat for young people now being organised for 2024.