TAKING CARE OF OUR HOME: SPUQC launches Environmental Advocacy

Christians believe that Nature is beautiful and we are steward of God's creation. The Earth is given to all. Its heritage is something of enduring value designed to benefit all future generations. Those who receive such a gift and benefit from it are duty bound to conserve the resources and pass them on for future generations to enjoy. All things are connected like the blood that unites us all. The Native American Indian Chief Seattle once said that man did not weave the Web of Life, she/he is merely a strand in it. Whatever she/he does to the web, she/he does to him/herself.

Loren Wilkinson asserts that to deny the reality of an environmental crisis is an enormous mistake for those who worship the Creator. Such denial neglects a major human responsibility and withholds the Gospel from the places where it most needs to be heard. As Christians, it is imperative to diagnose our fragile Earth and draw some collective efforts as the world becomes increasingly interdependent and fragile.

Beyond the economic dimension of globalization, there is an increasing global consciousness to promote and advocate environmental stewardship to our ailing Mother Earth. UNESCO affirms that environmental education should be included in our educational framework for sustainable development. Michael Cohen justifies the necessity of ecoliteracy in our school community when he said:
" [We] spend an average of over 95% of our lives indoors, cloistered from nature... We live well over 99% of our adult lives knowing Nature through detached stories and pictures, not through the sentient pleasure of experiencing webstring connections with our natural and spiritual origins in people and places... Our detachment traumatizes, prejudices and estranges us from Mother Nature and each other, from natural love, community and balance."
Admittedly, we are suffering from one form or another of this disconnection with Nature to a greater or lesser extent which came from our upbringing, education and socialization. It has become part of us, our pagkatao. What is painful is that this disconnection affects the way each of us decide and act. We need to stretch our thinking and see that the global environmental crisis is a complex set of consequences of the collective way we people on this planet think. Joan Campbell puts the challenge on this important educational agenda: We are the generation of choice. We still have a choice to halt the destruction, the ravaging of the Earth. We are the generation that could stand in harm's way and be those who preserve God's creation for future generations."

During the SPUQC Educators' Congress last May 2007, school heads, administrators and educators declared their responsibility to the Earth, to one another, to the greater community of life and to the future generations. Conscious of their collective efforts to impact fundamental changes in their institutions lifeways and values, the Congress mandated its participants to integrate environmental education in their curriculum and outreach activities and form partnerships to care for the Earth and one another.

The creation of the Spirituality, Mission and Advocacy Office is a watershed and fresh initiative of the SPUQC community in its environmental advocacy. This important office affirms the school community as the venue to commence the process of developing new attitudes and behavior toward the environment and our relation to it individually and as a community of faith. Integrating faith and our environment advocacy is a commitment in creating spaces where all God's creations are loved and celebrated. Getting started, the SMA Office is on its way putting up an integrated and comprehensive ecoliteracy program for the institution which includes strategic planning, partnership, eco-spirituality formation to the faith community and choosing liturgical resources for our advocacy among others. This school year, the University launches its institutional environmental commitment by lining up activities that will heighten the ecological consciousness of the community. The college Freshmen Program/Biology and the Spirituality, Mission and Advocacy Office spearheaded the activities on October 2-6, 2007 which included ecoliturgy, forum on the environment, mural printing competition, essay contest, pet blessing, environmental exhibits and tree planting in the mystic mountain of Banahaw in Sariaya, Quezon. The activities aimed to propel greater consciousness on the exigency to stimulate, if not initiate, a community-based sustainable and integrated environmental program for the University.

The theme, "Kalikasan, Karapatan, Kinabukasa" affirms basic ecological principles that everybody should live by in relation to the earth and to one another. It is a challenge to us Christians and Paulinians to manage the environment for the benefits of present and future generations. Our stewardship includes shared responsibility, conservation, waste minimization and enhancement of the long term productive capability and quality of our natural systems. The theme is also a constant reminder for us to take no more from nature than nature can replenish by adopting lifestyle and development models that respect and work within nature's limits.

SPUQC President, Sr. Nintha Lucilla Baldado, SPC, opened the activities in a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the first day. She led the Paulinian community in viewing the different exhibits prepared by students and invited exhibitors like the Haribon Foundation and Green Peace Movement. Sr. Lucilla and Mr. Roy Cosca of the Spirituality, Mission and Advocacy Office read the declaration of the University's institutional commitment to the environment. Classes of Dr. Abercio Rotor, Mr. Mel Waje, Ms. Odette Apodaca and Dr. Ronel dela Cruz prepared materials for the exhibits that projected diagnosis of the environment and what schools could do by adhering to basic environmental principles. Exhibits were displayed in front of the chapel and at the SPUQC Museum. The documentary of Al Gore, The inconvenient Truth was also shown to some students to stimulate personal and collective responses on the issues presented from the film. Haribon and Green Peace Foundation provided the community extensive presentation on the state of Philippine biodiversity that needs sustained programs. These organizations are pioneering in the promotion of partnerships and sense of community at all levels which are critical in building an equitable, sustainable, and peaceful world. During the environmental activity week, a mural painting competition on the environment was launched through the auspices of the Office of the President and SPUQC Museum. An artist for the environment, Dr. Abercio Rotor motivated and guided the participating students from the different departments in articulating their collective views on environment and their role as stewards of creation. There were four entries representing the College of Arts, Sciences, and Education, College of Business and Technology, College of Health Sciences and the High School Department. The awarding will be done sometime in November to allow artist-judges to evaluate the impressive art work of the students. For the essay writing contest, Ms. Anna Margarita Mercado, a senior student of the HRM Department, bagged the first prize for her essay entitled, The Great Battle. Her winning ecoliterary piece based on the theme goads everybody to be equipped with the willingness to initiate change and a humble heart full of compassion for our Mother Earth. Ms Nenita Brocoy facilitated the essay competition.

On October 4, 2007, the community celebrated the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the Patron Saint of Ecology, with the Eucharist presided by Fr. Cristono Pine of the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans). The launching of the environmental week jived with this important feast of the Church as we draw inspiration from the saint whose worldview and philosophy reflect a non-dominant view of creation. In his canticle of creation, St. Francis exudes a relationship reflect a non-dominant view of creation. In his canticle creation of creation, St. Francis exudes a relationship that is egalitarian considering himself as a 'being-with-others', an attitude that we can adopt in our environmental advocacy and the rest of creation. The Eucharistic celebration affirmed an institutional commitment to an educational philosophy for stewardship and sustainable development. This vision was reconcretized in a covenant signing where the community together read their commitment to care for the Earth. A part of the Earth manifesto reads: As a Catholic institution, we commit ourserselves to be actively involved in addressing these ecological problems. As Paulinians seeking to fulfill our baptismal covenant and witness to the power of the Holy Spirit in Christ, we will act and wherever possible undertake the following:

To encourage all members of the Paulinian community to understand that God calls us to care for the creation by making our communities and environments better places for the next generation than they were in our lifetime.

To actively support initiatives that are concerned with the planetary crisis.

To support the struggle of indigenous peoples to maintain their cultural heritage, natural heritage, and human rights.

To help publicize and network information, developments, events, publications and all sources of knowledge among our friends, neighbors, congregation members, Church leaders, and government officials.

To support opportunities for younger people to experience first-hand how people in their own communities are affected by the planetary crisis and how they can work to change the world in which the live.

To promote training and educational programs in all aspects of the planetary crisis as they relate to our worship and community life.

To encourage and support public policies that reflect the principles of sustainable community.

To commit ourselves both to energy conservation and the use of sustainable energy sources.

To demonstrate simplicity of lifestyle in our patterns of consumption to counteract greed and over-consumption.

Indeed, as members of the Paulinian community, we must play our part in bringing about this transformation toward a just, sustainable future. Now is the time for prayerful action based on the foundation of our faith. After the Eucharist celebration, the traditional blessing of animals followed where some students brought their favorite pets. As part of heightening the ecological consciousness of the Paulinian community, an environmental forum was organized on October 5, 2007 with prominent artist-environmentalist Mr. Noel Cabangon and Ms. Chin-Chin Gutierrez as speakers. Mr. Cabangon, a songwriter, singer, musical director and an environmentalist, expounded on the theme of the environmental week. He stressed on the responsibility of everyone for the present and future well-being of the human family and the larger living world. He further claimed that when we live with reverence for the mystery of our being and the gratitude for the gift of life, the spirit of human solidarity and kinship with all life forms is strengthened. Meanwhile, Ms. Chin-Chin Gutierrez, also an artist for the environment, reiterated the need of education for sustainability. Emphasizing the 1987 World Summit principle of sustainability development where present needs are satisfied without compromising the needs of the present generation, environmental  advocacy must envision a world in which all present and future humans are healthy, have their basic needs met, have fair and equitable access to the resources of the earth and have a decent quality of life. She challenged everybody to change contemporary mindsets demanded by the environmental crisis. That Nature in not a "resource" to be owned but a "home" to be maintained and protected. That we are not separate from nature but Nature as a web in which we are part. And this principle can only be a reality if we engage in contemplation of who we are in relation to the rest of creation. The forum gave us indeed a choice to fortify our call to be stewards of God's creation.
Culminating the week's activity was trek to the mystic and enchanting mountain of Banahaw in Sariaya, Quezon for tree planting. On October 6, 2007, unit representatives of the institution, together with the local government of Sariaya, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and a church-based organization, planted 300 narra seedlings in Brgy, Mamala I as part of reforesting the national forest park of Mt. Banahaw. A memorandum of agreement was executed among the group participants. Sr. Fides Pangilinan, SPC, signed the agreement in behalf of the University President, Sr. Lucilla Baldado, SPC, who wholeheartedly supported the initiative of the institution, Forging partnership with local organizations is an essential factor in ensuring the success of any community-based environmental project.

The activities are far from over. What we have started as a community was just to stimulate us to a greater and more sustainable collective action in our advocacy. E are awaiting the three year plan of the institution through the Spirituality, Mission and Advocacy Office. One of our efforts to launch SPUQC as a research university is hosting a national conference next year on new media and environmental advocacy. Our community is becoming conscious of the products that we are patronizing. All these initiatives are positive signs of hope that we are truly concerned in taking care of our home - Mother Earth. Kuan Tzu constantly reminds us: "If you are thinking a year ahead, sow a see. If you are thinking ten years ahead, plant a tree. If you are thinking a hundred years ahead, educate the people."

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