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From the Garden to the City: a redemptive understanding through the ecology of cities
1. From the Garden to the City:
a redemptive understanding through the
ecology of cities
SURE Congress
July, 2013
2.
3.
4. Cities have become the dominant global
human habitat of this century in terms of
geography, experience, constituency, and
influence
Morgan Grove
Cities: Managing Densely Settled Social-Ecological
Systems, 2008
Pleased to be here. I was raised an Anglican: my father was the son of a rear admiral in the US Navy, served in the Pacific Theater, was ordained a deacon just after the war in the Diocese of Massachusetts, after studying at ETS. He moved to Toronto to do his Phd at the Pontifical Institute and met my mother, who was working in Toronto and had been brought up in the parsonage in Stratford Ontario. My dad was ordained here in Toronto and his first job was at Dean of Theology at Huron College in London, where they moved and had a family. My Dad spent his career as an academic- he was a medievalist, but attached to a local parish where he preached, eloquently and often morbidly as like many clergy families - my parent’s relationship with the church was an ambivalent one. But I was very fortunate, that a young priest came to serve in my home parish when I was 10 - his name was Terry Finlay, who many of you will know, as he eventually became Bishop of this Diocese and Archbishop of Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario. I think Terry’s approach to pastoral ministry has greatly influenced my understanding of how healthy communities can be enabled to thrive. I was fortunate to again decades later to be part of another parish where Terry became Rector, and he was then succeeded by our host here this weekend - Doug Stoute, who also has impressed upon me the potential of communities of faith to be places of sanctuary, exploration, beauty and challenge. And his ministry here - as all of you share as stewards of cathedrals, sets you all apart, I think. Because the role of cathedral is something with an even larger mandate, than smaller, more modest local church communities. (I bet you’re a bit self-conscious about that - suggesting your role is different from other parish ministry - just as we work in cities can feel sheepish about suggesting cities are more important than rural areas or small towns, But I think they, and I’ve just had to get over myself about this, and stop apologizing. The world is urbanizing: for good reason. The church better too. You are to the faith community, what cities are to civilization. We nurture diversity; we harbor exception; we have deep resources so we can take more risks; and we’re confronted with the myriad challenges -- and opportunities --of contemporary urban life. Which is why you’ve had Michael and Rosanne and I presenting to you over these last few days. The ministry of a cathedral - like the city in which it is located --- must be prophetic. And I am using the term prophetic as: resonant to our time; broadly significant; important; both ominous AND hopeful. I’m going to tell you a little bit about I started thinking about cities this way.
Beacon of Hope
I became an urbanist - largely because of the influence of this woman, who many of you will recognize. Is there an American among who can tell me who this is? Saw city as a complex adaptive system--an ecology.
Organic: growing in an interconnected way….and can evolve depending on diverse variable --flexibly depending on the feedback….dependent connective tissue that links the overal system
Or breaking down ---In a connected way --cities mimic natural systems---- they evolve, grow, and decay in an organic way. New Orleans --like every city --is a living city AND a dying city ----
Those were isolated examples but in any ecosystem these overlay--- many. And we can construct systems in a way that also have the organic capacity to adapt --what is this?
Interactions. Processes. Forms of ‘capital’ that interact: FEEDBACK LOOPS that allow a system to adapt and evolve.
Morgan is a ‘deep’ ecologist, a natural systems scientist, this world used to be divided: nature here/cities there -- that is changing as we shift to an ecological understanding
Great challenge of NOLA: LIVING WITH WATER. Previous reliance in engineered solutions: levees. Coastal erosion etc.
Fellowship Sept 2005. Debt to the Gulf Region. 80 % of the city, 180,000 housing units. ‘Natural’ Disaster? WHAT FLOODED : River or Lake? Sea level, Rich or poor, White or black. Old or new. Federal highways. Sprawl. Jacobs cautioned me: what are we going to do about New Orleans…..? Bureaucrat. New Orleans will do something about New Orleans. Complex mix of factors: not just the levees breaking.
Ways New Orleans disrupted its organic structure…industrial canal….oil and gas….
Favourite sign that just about says it all, Disconnection. Lower 9.
Resilience.debris.
Beacon of Hope
Denise survives superdone. Opens house--creates a ‘hub - a beacon of hope….
76 neighborhoods. 300 n’hood organizations.creating horizontal, lateral organizations that straddle class, race, ethnicity, broader shared/collective interests and identity --- SUPPORTING A RENEWED CIVIL SOCIETY
Karen Gadbois. Evacuated on the floor of her van mid course chemotherapy. Dogs. Comes back and starts to see houses slated for demolition.
Pam Dashiell. Holy Cross Neighborhood Association: Center for Sustainable Engagement and Development. Bayou Bienvenue. Was a wetland/cyprus swamp=== now salinated ---- no access ---bringing it back
