To the editor:

As a retired Protestant pastor who has been a student of most of the world’s great religions for his adult lifetime, I write to commend Pope Francis’ encyclical letter, “On the Care of Our Common Home.” His letter, whether as a book or online, deserves a careful reading, reflection, understanding with others and, ultimately, to serve as a concerted call to collective responsible action by the Earth’s peoples.

Fort years ago, I preached a seven-part series on the “Survival of Planet Earth.” Even then, there was more than sufficient evidence that the operating paradigm of technocratic industrial growth and consumerism was endangering the systems of the Earth. In the decades since, the evidence has only become more abundant and the voices more insistent that the paradigm must change.

The Buddhist environmentalist Joanna Macy calls it correctly, “The Great Turning,” this shift from an industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization. Pope Francis represents many of those strong voices that need to be heard and heeded so that Mother Earth may be respected and renewed.