CARING FOR OUR COMMON HOME
By Fr Iain Radvan SJ
Are you interested in promoting ecological change? Would you like to connect “head, heart and hands” as you explore the call to care for our common home?
If you answered yes to both those questions and you’re a young adult, student or young professional aged 18-35 from Australia, then an upcoming summer camp could help you take the next steps on your journey.
The 2024 Young Adult Summer Eco-Camp, at the historic Sevenhill Retreat Centre in South Australia’s Clare Valley, will be hosted by Jesuit and Ignatian Spirituality Australia (JISA) from 7-12 February, 4 days, 5 nights. JISA is a national community of women and men formed in Ignatian Spirituality and working in a variety of geographical locations and online.
Sevenhill is a rural spirituality centre 120 kms north of Adelaide and is surrounded by nature, vineyards and farms. During the camp, experts in climate change, business, agriculture, politics and Ignatian Spirituality will share their knowledge and encourage practical applications.
The holistic focus of the camp is to examine the problems and solutions of the call to care for the Earth, our common home, in an atmosphere of mutual listening, discernment and practical action – to broaden horizons and to strengthen an international network of young people who contribute to real cultural change in the ecology space.
The camp is an ideologically open space where everyone, regardless of gender or orientation, can feel at home in their personal, political, social and religious views, as long as they are open to hearing the views of others.
During the week, knowledge will be shared, applications imagined, interpersonal growth encouraged and meditation and mindfulness practised. Various experts will be present throughout the duration of the camp, providing inspiring content each day and enabling the participants to exchange their own ideas as well. In the afternoons, the students and young professionals will learn how ecological change can work through a variety of activities: excursions, contemplative walking in the bush, and through other practical experiences.
In the evenings, there will be campfire talks with open question and answer sessions, self-generated musical entertainment as well as free time to promote personal networking and encounters. Eucharist will be celebrated for those who wish to attend.
Time for self-reflection and mindfulness will make it possible to critically question the content and to change how participants view Earth, human society and themselves. Even after the end of the summer camp, the exchange among the participants should continue so that the knowledge acquired seeps through from the head to the heart and contributes to long-term and far-reaching changes.
An application process will involve ensuring that the one thing in common is the willingness to learn together, to be open to inner change and to be ready to take future action.
Find out more information or express your interest in the camp.
