by Stuart E. Brown

Stuart Brown is the Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism. He has worked in interfaith relations for many years in both Africa and Canada and is the author of The Nearest in Affection.

Whatever we may believe, we all live on the same planet, flying through space in the same universe. From the stars sparkling in their distant galaxies to the wee beasties creeping along the surface of our globe, or even inside some larger animals, like ourselves, the human beings, all this has fascinated and inspired generations ever since prehistoric times. Some believe that all this emerged by chance, or by a series of coincidences, while many insist that our world is the product of a deliberate design, of the plan of a creator, and the seeming happenstances are merely what Lucie Vanier-Vincent would call coinci-Dieu or divine arrangements.

Many faith communities consider the human race to be the stewards of creation, claiming that human beings somehow are the pinnacle of creation: "a little lower than God", says Psalm 8, while the Qur'ân speaks of humankind as the vice-regents of God (Q 2:30, etc.). This recognition could justify a proprietary attitude, or at least an assumption of authority as God's special agents, among those people who wish to develop the resources of the earth (and the heavens, with space technologies), and we recall the parable in which Jesus seems to condemn the servant who had done nothing with the money entrusted to him (Mt 25:26). But with authority comes responsibility, and the extinction of species through our abuse or negligence could very well bring us a heavy judgment as societies and as individuals who have not always made the best choices.

In this issue we offer you a small package of reflections on the theme of stewards of creation, beginning with the thoughts of Brian Deer from the Iroquois community on the Great Condolence which marks the resumption of responsibility after a period of mourning, and those of Manjit Singh, a professor at McGill University and the current chair of the Montreal Interfaith Council, who tells us of how his Sikh community views questions of ethics. Then there are articles on the concepts of justice and ethics in the Hebrew Bible by Pierre Roth, and on the connection in Islamic thought between ecology and economics, by Abdarahmane Sakho, a veteran of Muslim-Christian dialogue, who has lived in two very different environments, in Mauritania and Quebec.

Frank Giffen, a minister in the United Church of Canada, relates his parish's experience with the study guide prepared to help members of his denomination understand their Muslim neighbours. Our final article is both a supplement to our last issue, on mission, and a novel perspective on ecology and responsibility, as it presents the missiological reflections of the Right Revd Larry Robertson, an Anglican bishop living in Canada's Far North.