A message to the Dominican Family from the International Gathering of Dominican Sisters International meeting (DSI) at Genesis Farm, June 8 -20th, 2006.

At the invitation of DSI, ten members of the Dominican Family from the bioregions of Asia and the Pacific, Europe, the Caribbean, South Africa and North America, gathered at Genesis Farm from June 8-20th to study and reflect on the question:

What is Earth asking of the Order?

They were joined by forty-eight additional members of the Order from North America for the weekend of June 16-18th, at St. Paul’s Abbey to further the study and exploration of the same question.

The international representatives from each of these bio-regions shared moving and poignant stories of the ecological destruction taking place in their part of the world that is affecting the people and the land. They did this through the lens of a New Cosmology based on the story of the unfolding Universe. A result of listening to these experiences was a recognition that the major spiritual and ecological crisis afflicting the planet in every part of the world is rooted in a perception that humans are separate from and dominant over all of creation.

Recognizing that the Dominican family is embedded in various cultures and pluralistic societies we urge the Dominican family and ourselves to:

We stand in awe before the Mystery and beauty of existence. We believe this is a graced moment and that we have the capacity to transform ourselves and our cultures. These possibilities open us to a future of hope.

International Participants: