 Hello, I am Fr. Ken Forster, an Oblate of Mary Immaculate. Climate change is a spiritually and morally urgent matter to us as Oblates of Mary Immaculate because we have long listened to the cry of the poor and to the cry of the earth. We know first hand that it is the poor in our communities that we serve who suffer first and suffer the worst effects of environmental degradation and climate chaos. That is why we advocate for an integral ecology as envisioned by Pope Francis in his groundbreaking encyclical Laudato Si. On this Earth Day, we grieve that 17% of the Amazonian rainforest has already been cut down and in Canada huge swaths of the boreal forest have also been lost. We hope that we don't continue to let short-term economic profit dictate this discussion but realize that eco-friendly energy, if given government support that it needs, besides saving the planet for future generations, will be an economic engine for the future. We commit ourselves to praying and working, not only on Earth Day itself but throughout the year, to lead and encourage our communities of faith to take personal responsibility as well as demand action for our governments to repair and restore environmental integrity in the regions where we live, where we work, where we worship. Christian churches have blessed the culture of dominion over the resources of the earth and over all other living beings by our constant anthropocentric reading of the Genesis account. We need to lead the way out of this myopic view. For the love of all creation, we commit ourselves to an integral relationship between humanity and nature as gifts of God.