‘It’s time to start caring for all of creation’

THE Diocese of Kerry is playing a leading role when it comes to championing the environment in this month as part of an annual fiveweek-long celebration of the beauty of creation being observed right across the Christian world at present.

The Kerry diocese kicked off its programme of events celebrating the Time for Creation period with a special prayer service in the leafy surrounds of Tralee’s Town Park on Friday evening.

This year’s Time for Creation theme is one on the leading edge of environmental concern - the reduction of food waste and preservation of food supply. Cherishing God’s Gift of Food is the title of the theme informing the five weeks, and one on which expert Donal O’Leary will deliver a workshop in the next event of the celebration.

The workshop Reducing Food Waste and Composting takes place in the John Paul II Pastoral Centre in Killarney at 8pm on Tuesday, September 12 next.

Chef Mark Doe will meanwhile present a cookery demonstration on the theme - ‘being creative with leftovers’ – in St Brendan’s Pastoral Centre in Tralee on Thursday September 28 at 8pm. It’s a topic that chimes exactly with Pope Francis’s recently expressed concerns on global food wastage at a time when a third of all food is being discarded. “Whenever food is thrown out, it is as if it were stolen from the table of the poor,” Pope Francis said. Learning new recipes from Mark might well help participants ‘simply and consciously care for creation in daily life,’ a spokesperson for the Diocesan Justice and Peace Committee said. All Time for Creation events are free.

The group that took part in the special prayer service organised by the Diocese of Kerry in Tralee Town Park on Friday as part of its annual Time for Creation celebration.