Last week scientists reported that a 2,200 square mile iceberg calved from Antarctica . That’s a piece of ice the size of Delaware. Though scientists are reluctant to attribute the cause of this particular event to climate change, our polar regions are warming much faster than the rest of the world, and ice coverage at both poles is retreating rapidly .

Meanwhile, dozens fires have burned significantly more of the American West this year than in past years, and fire activity gets more intense and occurs for more of the year than ever before. Once again, beloved wilderness areas like Yosemite are under threat, as well as thousands of homes.

And somewhere in the Pacific today, a cloud of plastic larger than Texas is floating slowly by, consisting of part of the 6 billion tons of unrecycled plastic discarded by people in the last 65 years (or 80% of the total plastic produced since 1950 by one estimate.

Oh, and according to the Center for Biological Diversity, it is likely that twelve species will go extinct TODAY.

Roughly 2,000 years ago, the apostle Paul wrote to the Romans that the “whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now (Romans 8:22).” Thinking about the melting ice caps, and the fires raging around the west, and the floating mass of garbage, and the twelve different creatures that will die today as the last of their kind, I understand what he meant, and I think the groans are getting louder and more desperate. Creation is groaning all the time beneath the burden of human activity. Can you hear it?

In that same section of chapter 8, Paul writes that “creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God,” when it will be set free from its bondage to decay. The groans of creation, in a sense, are not just from degradation and destruction, but also of hope for us to reveal ourselves as true children of God. Creation is groaning for people to understand and embrace our divinely appointed role as stewards and caretakers of the earth (Genesis 2:15).

I am eager for Transfiguration to be a moral leader on the issue of creation care, for us to do everything we can to demonstrate that we hear the groans of creation, and to reveal ourselves, to use the words of Paul, as “children of God.” In the next five years, we have as a goal to be carbon neutral in our energy usage, and we can also be more focused on generating less waste for landfills by recycling more consistently and throwing away less “single-use” trash. The Vestry is committed to pursuing this, but it will take a collective effort by everyone in our church to think carefully, work a little harder, and hold one another accountable. Together, I know we can do our part to answer the groans of creation, to live into our God-given responsibilities, and preserve this fragile earth, our island home.

-Casey+