Environment Meditation and Healing Garden

14th Anniversary: 8th November 2025

Prayers for the Planet

Robbie Tulip
Chair, ACT Churches Council
Chair, World Student Christian Federation Asia Pacific
Coordinator, ANU Chaplaincy

As Canberra Interfaith Forum celebrates the Environment Meditation and Healing Garden,
we join in prayers for our planet.    
All our different faith traditions call us to reflect on the timeless truth of God’s gracious love,
in all the different languages and concepts we use to worship the sacred and the divine and holy.

Indigenous people in Central Australia recognise Tjukurpa ("chook-orr-pa"),
the ancient sacred Law that binds people, place and all species from time before memory,
honouring Country as kin, walking the tracks that teach right measure, taking only our share,
repairing what we harm, and keeping waters, soils and all beings safe.
We honour Dadirri, the Indigenous practice of inner deep listening and quiet still awareness.   
Standing here on Dhawura Ngunnawal, we commit to walk gently so that all who belong to this Country
may flourish in a spirit of respect and reconciliation and recognition.

Pope Francis taught in his Encyclical Laudato Si that we must care equally for humanity and for nature.  Pope Francis called on the church to evolve from its former lack of care for nature, to recognise the divine blessing upon all life in our shared planetary home.

The eternal purpose of God is reflected in the unchanging stability and order of the cosmos, and in the abundance of life on Earth.  On our human time scales, the stars of the night sky are the same yesterday, today and forever.  We contrast the order of the eternal heavens against the disorder of our world.  May the will of God be done on Earth as it is in Heaven, in order that our planet may be transformed to reflect the glorious love and grace of God.  All things are connected through the eternal word of God.

Buddha taught “As a mother would risk her life to protect her only child, so with a boundless heart should we cherish all living beings.”  This means our love for all life on Earth is a love that is protective and courageous and active.  We care for rivers, forests, coral reefs, soil, insects, birds, fish, mammals, people, for the oceans, the air and the land, as if each were the only child entrusted to us.

The Upanishads, the ancient sacred text of India, say “All this, whatever moves in this world, is pervaded by the Divine. Enjoy by renouncing, do not covet what belongs to another.”  We may understand this reverence for ecology as seeing the ancient complexity of nature as sacred in the eyes of God.

Baha’ullah, founder of the Bahai faith, taught that “the Earth is but one country and all people are her citizens.”  May we reflect on this high vision of unity and global thinking as we consider the fragility and sensitivity of our shared planetary home.

The prophet Mohammed taught in the Holy Koran “He raised the sky and set the Balance, so do not transgress the Balance.”  “Balance” (mīzān) means cosmic, moral and spiritual order: creation is patterned in the tides, seasons, food webs, carbon and water cycles. Mīzān names right proportion and action and points us toward an ecological spirituality.

Ancient Chinese tradition tells us that humanity reflects the Earth, the Earth reflects the cosmos, the cosmos reflects the Tao, and the Tao reflects nature.

In the Hebrew Bible, King David prayed that the trees of the forest might sing for joy before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth.  The trees of the forest represent the eternal stability and order of God, in contrast to the instability and disorder of our broken human systems, now standing under divine judgement.

In the Revelation of Saint John, when the seventh angel sounds his trumpet to signify the reign of God, we are told that God will destroy those who destroy the Earth.  This sombre judgement suggests the peril we face, as the forces of evil continue on their paths of destruction.

And yet in the midst of this conflict with the forces of destruction, our faiths bring great hope.  Saint Paul rejoices in hope in his Letter to the Romans, proclaiming the creation will be freed from its bondage to decay, waiting in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

Jesus Christ taught in his Sermon on the Mount that the meek will inherit the Earth.  May this teaching help us to reflect on the sinful assault of humanity upon wild nature, and to see the power and blessing of God among the humble, treating the least of the world as though they were Jesus himself.

The nations of the Earth are gathering in Brazil for the thirtieth conference of the parties of the intergovernmental panel on climate change, on the edge of the mighty Amazon rainforest, to consider the immense problems of climate change.  We see that the average world temperature increase has already exceeded the Paris Accord target of keeping rising heat below 1.5°C.  Our planet is in a fever, with every prospect of it getting much worse.  The 2025 state of the climate report just published by Oxford University is titled ‘a planet on the brink.’  It tells us the Amazon, and many other vital and priceless Earth Systems, are at risk of system collapse.  We pray for COP 30, that it may find speedy and effective responses to the growing dangers of climate change.

We pray for all who have recently suffered the impacts of extreme weather, including the biggest ever Hurricane to hit Jamaica and Cuba, Hurricane Melissa, and the series of severe typhoons hitting the Philippines, China and Vietnam.  The deadly summer heat in Europe, the Middle East and South Asia brought fires and unbearable conditions.  Drought in Africa is bringing famine.  The poles are melting, allowing ever more heat from sunlight to warm the planet.  The severe fires that destroyed suburbs of Los Angeles in the USA in January bear the signature of climate change, as planetary weather loses its stability.  Floods in Queensland brought a year’s rain in a week.  So many homes are becoming uninsurable, a sign of the growing crisis.  Ocean heat content reached a record high, contributing to the largest coral bleaching event ever recorded, measured as affecting 84% of reef area around the world.

The Holy Bible opens with the teaching that In the beginning, God said let there be light.  God saw that the world was good.  The blessings and providence of God offer hope that the covenant of grace may endure and grow.  Our scientists today measure the light of the Earth, and have found that our planet is now 2% darker than 25 years ago, reflecting less sunlight back to space, a primary signal of dangerous climate change as clouds evaporate and ice melts.  The challenges of climate stability go well beyond cutting emissions, and require a new global thinking, drawing on our great faith traditions, together with modern technology, in a spirit of scientific humility and love for the whole creation, working together to minimise the harmful impacts of global warming.

These prayers are offered in the spirit of interfaith respect and courteous dialogue, seeking to bringing our sacred religious heritages together in solidarity and love, to help us solve the severe challenges facing our planetary environment and our different communities who all depend on our Mother Earth for our stability and security and prosperity.

In the holy name of God, Amen.