Shared Action Inhabit Creation differently

What is it?

Shared Action

The concept

Compassion, listening and support

Shared Action the desire to act together. It must be a truly international initiative involving all the churches of the CEVAA. It is a shared initiative because it responds to a reality experienced—albeit to varying degrees—by all the churches of the Community. It relies heavily on theological guidance to provide it with its essential spiritual and conceptual foundation. It implements projects to give it a concrete dimension through specific actions. It is built on the principles of networking and communication in order to combine the effectiveness, visibility, and sustainability of the work carried out by the CEVAA churches.”

- extract from the minutes of the 3rd AGM, 2006 - Bouznika (Morocco)

As a community of churches, CEVAA challenges and encourages its members to engage in dialogue and theological reflection. The Shared Action initiative Shared Action community ties among churches at the regional and interregional levels. Following Christ’s example, the churches teach compassion, active listening, and support.

Common Actions within Cevaa mobilize all the member churches of the Community; they must join forces to engage effectively and resolutely in actions and/or debate on themes they have chosen for themselves.

AC 2024-2028

Inhabit Creation differently

Our times cannot ignore the ecological question, which is vital to human survival, nor reduce it to a purely political issue: it has a moral and spiritual dimension that affects everyone, so that no one can ignore it.

As followers of Christ, we have all the more reason to unite with all people of good will to protect and defend nature and the environment.

Creation, in fact, is a gift entrusted to us by the Creator. All of nature around us is a creation like us, a creation alongside us, and in our shared destiny, it tends toward finding in God himself its fulfillment and ultimate purpose: “a new heaven and a new earth” (cf. Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:1). The ecological crisis is for us an even stronger incentive to have a responsible and respectful relationship with Creation: in inanimate nature, in plants and animals, we recognize the Creator’s imprint, and in our fellow human beings, his very image.
Today, we Christians must ask ourselves how we can participate in this work, not only as individuals but also as a community within the Churches. We must foster ethical reflection rooted in our biblical foundations. All of us within the CEVAA can collaborate, as instruments of God, for the safeguarding of Creation, each according to their environment, culture, experience, initiatives, and abilities.
Inhabit Creation differently a call to conversion. At the Community level, we want to respond to the pressing expectations of society and the Churches to help the faithful become more aware and more concerned about environmental issues.

Biblical animation

Throughout Genesis chapter 2, we address questions relating to the origins of man, fauna and flora, and hence of the environment: where did the world come from? Where does man come from? Why work? What is man's responsibility in Creation?

Genesis 2:15 speaks of a garden as the work of God, which becomes the common space where human beings will live and grow. According to the biblical account, the Earth was conceived from the outset as a garden where God planted trees.

Humans had two specific tasks: to work and to preserve the planet as a common garden. The two verbs in the verse express these tasks well. We must cultivate the garden (work, plow, plant, produce) and guard it (maintain, protect, preserve). The text invites us to see our planet as a common garden. Think of it as an open, dynamic world. If it is true that this garden is given to us to be transformed, we must work it according to the rules and instructions of the original gardener.

Romans 8:20-21: For Creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own free will, but because of Him who subjected it, in the hope that it too would be set free from the bondage of corruption, to share in the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Creation, like humanity, is subject to sin. Genesis 3 recounts these various ruptures: between man and God, between man and woman, between man and nature, between nature and God. But this Creation, like humanity, is promised liberation. This hope motivates the Christian's commitment to bear witness for creation to the reconciliation promised and achieved by Christ, in whom and through whom all things were created.

Luke 17:21: The Kingdom of God is among you.
The Kingdom is already here, receivable in faith. At the same time, it is a hope. It is awaited. It will come with the definitive victory of life over death.

Creation experiences this tension, which mobilizes the struggle for justice, peace and the safeguarding of Creation.
The eternal God took man and established him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and guard it.
Today's ecological crisis is fundamentally a crisis of humanity.

Objective

Awareness-raising and reflection

Reflect on the place of humans in creation and listen to what the Bible has to say about caring for them.

Taking concrete action

Encourage local initiatives: tree planting, recycling, energy conservation, and everyday actions to help Inhabit Creation differently.

Mobilizing young people

Giving young people an active role: relaying witnesses, ecological projects, testimonies of faith and commitment.

Sharing and helping each other

Create a network of churches that can share initiatives, draw inspiration, support each other and walk together.

Bear witness to your faith

Carrying a committed Christian message: protect creation, God's gift, and bear witness to active hope.

Development areas

Ecotheology

Theological animation

Youth

Testimonials

Art

History

2006

Women's Caravan for Peace

In 2006, a women's caravan toured all the churches in the community, providing training in mediation, the promotion of women, and theological animation on the theme of peace.

2006

Meeting our neighbors

The Cevaa churches have been meeting the world around them, and thus their neighbors: the migrant neighbor, the sick neighbor and the neighbor who believes differently.

2006

2013

Families, Gospel and Cultures

Changes in the world have created new forms of family. In 2013, Cevaa is exploring this topic through seminars that explore ways of dialogue between the Gospel and cultures.

2013

2024

Living in creation

Since 2024, through the initiative Inhabit Creation differently,” CEVAA has been inviting churches to rethink their relationship with the Earth, God’s gift. This theme calls for an active and responsible faith.

2024