Bulletins

Acting for Creation Bulletin #20 (23/04/2026)

Acting for Creation Together in Gippsland

ACTinG seeks to encourage and equip Gippsland Anglicans to study the theology of creation; and to pray and act to safeguard, sustain and renew the life of the Earth.

Email us: acting@gippslandanglicans.org.au

We would love to hear from you.

This month’s bulletin from Dennis focuses on one of the aims of ACTinG: to learn about God’s creation and what is happening to it (in summary). See the aims at: https://www.gippslandanglicans.org.au/acting/about-us

‘We do not study a silent world. We study a spoken one.

A family of magpies has gathered at the church entrance in recent weeks. One mature female, Mayson or Maisie, is bold and insistent. With the doors open each day, even the birds sometimes cross the threshold, as if joining the praise.

To live within creation is to observe with more than just our eyes. A kind of word is given, sometimes in our language and sometimes in the calls of birds. The world is not empty. It is expressive.

At the end of April, the Church remembers Anselm of Canterbury. His work is often seen as an argument, but his deeper insight is more important: understanding begins not with detachment, but with relationship. We are not outside, neutral observers. We belong in the world, addressed by God.

For Anselm, faith does not end thought; it invites it. Faith seeks understanding. Reason becomes a way to pay attention to what is given. Observation is not cold, but relational. It draws us deeper into creation and calls the Church to active care.

Today, Rowan Williams continues this idea differently. Scientific observation does not oppose faith; it is one way to pay careful attention. Science looks for patterns. Theology asks why those patterns exist.

Science asks how things behave. Theology asks why we can trust the world to make sense at all.

John’s Gospel makes a clear claim: “All things came into being through him.” Creation is made and held together in the Word. The Logos is not absent. The word is spoken, and it continues to be spoken.

This means that listening matters.

If frogs fall silent in a wetland, something is wrong. Science makes this clear. Absence is not neutral; it signals that something is out of order. Our task is to observe what is present, notice what is missing, and respond.

Here, the Fifth Mark of Mission becomes clear: to protect creation’s integrity and renew the earth. This begins not with activism, but with attention. It is not about saving a silent object, but about hearing and responding to creation that already speaks.

When we lose the ability to listen, it becomes easy to overlook the harm we cause. To care is to return to the right relationship by paying attention to the Word that gives life.

Science and faith do not need to stand apart. Both are attentive. Both invite dialogue with the world and with God, who speaks through it.

Perhaps it begins with a desire to listen again, whether in Scripture, in silence, or in the magpie’s call at the church door. Because the Word is given.

We do not study a silent world. We study a spoken one.’

Peace be with you,

From the ACTinG team