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Salmon inspire Earth Day ceremony
People from a multitude of faiths gather at a Kitsilano beach to bless the fish as they go to sea
Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, April 23, 2007A crowd of people from the Jewish, Christian, Buddhist and other religions walked to the low-tide line and placed their hands in the water off a Vancouver beach Sunday to bless the journey of salmon and mark Earth Day.
The open-air service, called the "Interspiritual Gathering to Bless the Salmon as they Head to Sea," was one of a number of events organized by Greater Vancouver faith groups and environmental organizations to emphasize the sacredness of nature.
The Squamish Nation Canoe Family drummed, danced and chanted after speakers from a variety of religions delivered homilies to more than 75 people about how salmon can be an inspiration for humans because of their courageous effort to flourish in the face of natural and human-made adversity.
View Larger ImageParticipants in an Earth Day inter-spiritual gathering dip their hands in the water in support of young salmon heading out to sea.
Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun
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The salmon-blessing ceremony was conducted at a Kitsilano beach near the Maritime Museum, which event organizers said used to be an aboriginal village -- as well as the mouth of one of the 57 salmon spawning streams that once coursed through what is now the city of Vancouver.
"This blessing of water is the blessing of life," said Rabbi Joseph Saltoun, who remarked on how humans need to work to ensure the idyllic Garden of Eden can manifest itself in each generation.
As herons and gulls wafted above the waves, Cynthia Cole of the Soka Gakkai International Buddhist Organization urged people to live with "the courage and confidence" of the salmon by working together to protect nature, from which humans are inseparable.
"Every living creature is full of God," said Rev. John Marks, of St. Mark's Anglican Church in Kitsilano, quoting from the 14th-century German mystic Meister Eckhart.
The salmon-blessing ritual was organized by a variety of religious and ecological groups, including Adam va-Adamah Jewish Environmental Society, the Multifaith Action Society of B.C., the Rivershed Society of B.C. , the Sierra Club of B.C. and the Watershed Watch Salmon Society, as well as VanCity Credit Union.
Although B.C. aboriginal groups hold annual celebrations to mark the return of adult salmon to spawn in rivers and streams, this new event has been held the past two years to bless the beginning of the journey of tiny salmon, called fry, out to sea.
In addition to the salmon-blessing ceremony, the Earth Spirit Community led meditative walks through the trails of Pacific Spirit Park on Sunday to help people experience nature as holy.
"These silent walks are attempts to adopt a more receptive and reverential approach to nature -- to see it as a sacred space," said Toni Pieroni, a Vancouver counsellor who specializes in eco-psychology and eco-spirituality.
"We're trying to get people to slow down, become aware of their breath and become more receptive to nature, so that they can come from a place of stillness. The Earth is an alive, sentient being," she said.
As the 37th annual international Earth Day wound down on Sunday evening, Vancouver's Canadian Memorial United Church held an ecologically oriented spiritual service to help launch a new book by Rev. Bruce Sanguin, titled Darwin, Divinity and the Dance of the Cosmos: An Ecological Christianity (Copperhouse).
dtodd@png.canwest.com
