Global Tent for our Common Home: Pan-Amazon Synod

Sisters Rita Heires and Eileen Mckenzie

Cry of the Earth. Cry of the Poor. This statement encapsulates the Amazon Synod held in October. During the Amazon Synod, bishops from around the world gathered to consider the dire ecological needs of the Amazon region and its people. Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration joined other religious congregations around the world to create symbolic spaces — the global tent. The tent was placed in the St. Rose Convent courtyard. Sisters, affiliates, staff and the general public were invited inside to spend time reflecting and praying for the reality and spirituality of the Amazon region. We opened the global tent experience with a prayer service on Oct. 7. The beautiful fall morning served as a nice backdrop for the gathering. Later in the month, due to weather, the tent was relocated to the St. Rose Gathering Room. Below are a few quotes left in the tent for us to ponder.

“Global Tent. Tent City. Amazon Canopy. All our home. All are home."

“What we think and what we speak sends waves of compassion or destruction. Be a wave of compassion.”

“For a respect for Earth and all we are given, I pray.”

“Praise God for a full moon and beautiful sunrise. First frost. Hello Autumn.”

The Amazon Synod, Oct. 7 through 27, offered opportunity for deep dialogue among its participants, the world and God.

According to Columban Center for Advocacy & Outreach there was a great spirit of opening new paths for the church both in the Amazon and universally. The church held a ceremony of public apology to the indigenous peoples of the Americas for the wounds caused by colonization. Many people were moved when one indigenous woman cried out, “We want peace, just peace.”

How can each of us help build “just peace?”

In August of 2019, Pope Francis said that the Synod on the Amazon is “the child of Laudato Si’,” his 2015 encyclical on caring for our common home. “Those who have not read it will never understand the Synod on the Amazon. Laudato Si’ is not a green encyclical, it is a social encyclical, which is based on a ‘green’ reality, the custody of creation.” – justresponse.faith