Spiritual Misfits Podcast · Meeting Ground

The Earth is a Prophet Now (Anne Lanyon)

·1 hr 1 min·3 clips

"I think the earth is a prophet now," and Anne Lanyon links that to species loss on Sydney's Northern Beaches.

1. Spiritual Misfits Podcast features Anne Lanyon discussing the earth as a prophet now, ecology, and interfaith faith work. 2. Will Small hosts Anne Lanyon, who describes herself as "Granny Annie" and a longtime Catholic lay worker. 3. The episode asks what faith looks like when biodiversity loss, science, and Catholic spirituality meet. 4. Anne says she grew up in a "very kind of orthodox Irish cabin" in Victoria and was called names for being Catholic. 5. She links her social justice instincts to her Irish background and to her father’s World War II service in the Pacific. 6. She remembers living in the bush, watching river gums, creek lines, night birds, heat, and winter cold in rural Victoria. 7. Anne joins the Columban Mission Institute’s Centre for Peace, Ecology and Justice in 1999 and learns from Father Brian Gore and others working in the Philippines, Latin America, Myanmar, and the Pacific Islands. 8. She says those colleagues helped her see how agribusiness, deforestation, and systems keep poor people poor. 9. Father Charles Roo starts the Faith Ecology Network in Melbourne, and Anne helps launch the original FEN in Sydney around 2002 or 2003. 10. The first FEN event, "Wonder and the Will to Care" at Australian Catholic University in Strathfield, includes Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, a Hindu speaker, and Aboriginal elder Francis Bodkin. 11. Anne remembers Francis Bodkin collecting dew from plants and using it as a water ritual that made her notice sweetness, insects, birds, and interconnectedness. 12. She says wonder is a way of seeing relationships among plants, people, and creatures rather than seeing everything as separate. 13. FEN later uses topics like water, food, soil, and air to bring scientists and faith communities into one room. 14. Anne says presenters are often amazed by what faith traditions contribute, and she highlights the science-language shift from "runoff" to "run in." 15. She describes listening to scientists, First Nations astronomy, and faith traditions as part of an "evolutionary" understanding of God and human consciousness. 16. Anne says Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the earth needing to be listened to, and she applies that warning to koalas, small birds, and extinction on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. 17. She says climate change is a symptom of the way humans are living, while biodiversity work is a positive way for faith communities to support life. 18. Anne describes FEN’s current process as "listen and learn, reflect, contemplate and take action," adapted from Catholic social teaching’s see-judge-act cycle. 19. The interview is reflective, conversational, and grounded in practical examples from church, beaches, gardens, and interfaith gatherings. 20. Listeners interested in ecology, interfaith dialogue, and Catholic spirituality will find this episode useful; listeners wanting a tight doctrinal debate may not.

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