Season of Creation blossoming in Belair
Local
More than 70 people turned out on the fringe of the Adelaide Hills one Sunday in late September for an afternoon of prayer and reflection and to celebrate nine years of a revegetated stretch of land about the size of two football ovals.
Mercy Grove, in a corner of Belair National Park, came about as a “direct inspiration from the Laudato Si’ encyclical” from Pope Francis in 2015, said Holy Family parish member Barbara Colla.
“We planted 200 native plants and trees there in 2016. It’s hard to say how many trees are there now, some of the gums are up to 20 feet tall,” she added.
Deacon Tee Ping Koh, who was also present at the Year of Mercy planting and is a member of the Council of Integral Ecology, said this year’s annual ecumenical Season of Creation celebration prepared by the Holy Family community was one of the most successful to-date.
Students from the School of the Nativity in Aberfoyle Park contributed a variety of artwork on the theme of Creation, and the Thank God It’s Friday (TGIF) youth group for 9 to 12 year olds made bunting highlighting the logo Peace in the Garden and depicting stories of Creation.
It was all part of a parish-building event and attended by Maxine Moore, chair of the Mitcham Hills Inter-Church Council and the Diocesan Ecumenical and Inter-faith Commission (DEIC) with parishioners from other churches also turning out.
The guest speaker, Courtney Hunter-Hebberman, a Peramangk and Ngarrindjeri custodian of the land, shared the wisdom of the Aboriginal people in the caring of the country and talked about cold burning and how to do an ecological survey of the country.
“She opened our eyes to the wisdom of the Aboriginal people in recognising many signs in nature, for example recognising when a tree is stressed,” said Deacon Tee Ping.
“There is a very rare grevillea tree in Mercy Grove showing signs of stress, which we need to respond to and protect.”
Barbara Colla is the parish representative for the Earthcare program run by Caritas Australia, which is designed to assist all parishes around Australia to become ‘living Laudato Si’ communities’.
“The Belair National Park found us a spot at the back and top of the park. There was once a gatehouse there and it was demolished and the site cleared for us to begin planting. The park installed a big water tank, about 6000 litres, which they would fill for us to water the plants,” she said.
A roster of volunteers from the parish was set up by Terry Tierney for watering, a week at a time.
“Terry and Julie Langman liaise regularly with the park, and they are very happy with what we are doing and how we care for the site and at one stage, asked if we would take on another site, but we are all getting older…” Barbara said.
Much of the work is done by a core group of volunteers including Barbara’s husband Clem who is a dab hand at mowing and weeding, often assisted by Julie.
Clem and Terry have installed a garden seat for anyone to meditate, pray or just sit in nature. There is little time to stop and admire the good works though, with plans for next year’s 10th anniversary already underway.
“One hundred plants have already been ordered from a nursery,” Barbara said, adding there were thoughts of providing a shelter for smaller birds and animals (prickly plants are a clever option here) and a corridor to help native bees thrive.
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