GIAN Network
Ecology
Objectives of the Global Ignatian Advocacy Network (GIAN) Network of Ecology
The goal of Ecojesuit is to facilitate dialogue and engagements to reconcile with God, with one another, and with Creation, addressing the broad call for action of Laudato Si’ and the urgency for a just global transformation in care for the Earth and the most vulnerable. This involves Jesuit social, educational, and pastoral institutes, collaborations with other religious congregations, the Church, the scientific community, faith-based organizations and movements, civil society, Indigenous peoples, and those seeking the common good.
Water is a unifying theme for ecological responses under the tagline Action for Water: Care and Defend. Its value lies in its connectivity because water is always central to discussions of environmental and social impacts. There are five related areas of action:
- Disaster Risk Reduction and Water
- Energy Transition and Divestment
- Lifestyle, Organic Farming and SDGs
- Land-Use Change, Mining and Resource Extraction
- Education and Solidarity
Universal Apostolic Preferences
Caring for our common home
The UAPs are the pursuits we share in the source of consolation and the direction of life-mission. These preferences are the expressions of a mission and life in collaboration with the youth and others, and a reminder of the need for a more integral and holistic response to address the signs of the times. It is clear that we must approach these with deepened efforts that consider God, neighor, and creation.
“They are a message of collaboration, a new way of understanding our presence – we want to do things with others; not looking for collaborators but being collaborators,” said Fr. General Sosa. There are 16,000 Jesuits and 100,000 partners. Can we not coalesce around these preferences? What a calling for Jesuits to go out and collaborate! The call is to more broadly network; otherwise, each institution will take a different and uncertain path. The message is hopeful and encouraging, it asks where the Spirit is active today, and it is in the young and the poor, Father Sosa shared.
One very beautiful and positive statement of engagement is that of participating in a mature and secular world:
We resolve to collaborate with the Church in experiencing secular society as a sign of the times that affords us the opportunity to renew our presence in the heart of human history. A mature secularized society opens up spaces for the complex dimensions of human freedom, especially religious freedom. In a mature secular society, the conditions exist for the emergence of circumstances conducive to personal religious processes, independent of social or ethnic pressure, that allow people to ask profound questions and to choose freely to follow Jesus, to belong to an ecclesial community, and to adopt a Christian lifestyle in social, economic, cultural, and political spheres.”
The three strategic objectives of the network are to:
- Promote Global Cooperation
- Accompany Regional Actions
- Share and Promote Local Initiatives
“Do not be afraid,” let go and the grace of God overtakes.
Who is part of this newtork?
John Kennedy S.M. (MDU)
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