In a this year's convocation seeking "Spirituality for the 21st Century," many speakers invoked themes of creation and ecology. For example:

Brian Swimme
"Our world loses 10,000 living species each year," said Brian Swimme, mathematical cosmologist, "and with each loss, the presence of God is being wiped out. We are a civilization out of touch with the imminent presence of the Divine." But 20th-century cosmology, science's account of the evolutionary nature of the universe, is teaching our religious traditions to see the whole universe as one story: all elements are sacred. Our minds are going to require another level of human consciousness. Drawing on his book, "The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos," Swimme said the new rapprochement between science and religion was opening new hope for saving the planet.

Jim Conlon
For Jim Conlon, social justice and ecology are one issue: "The crack in the ozone layer is directly related to the crack in our streets." Director of Sophia Center, a creation spirituality school in Oakland, Calif., Conlon said that to hear the Divine speaking in creation, we must recognize three principles present in all of creation:

1. Differentiation. Our resistance to difference is the cause of racism, sexism, and classism. We should celebrate diversity, not try to homogenize into a mono-culture.

2. Interiority. There is a spiritual dimension in all of creation.

3. Communion or interconnectedness. Justice lies in relationship rather than in domination.

Rosemary Ruether
Theologian Rosemary Ruether drew on her book, "Gaia and God," to show how ecology and feminism are linked. In human history, the exploitation of nature and the domination of women have been partners. Ruether sketched that history in three steps: both nature and women were subordinated, then demonized, and finally mechanized -- turned into cogs in man's industrial machines. Eco-feminism today works to reverse these trends.