As Jesus walked in Galilee, an area of natural beauty, there was a place on the other side of the world, unknown to his followers that was also a place of wild beauty. We now know it as the Galilee Basin.
Image: Amira A ‘Walking on Water- the sea of Galilee, Flickr
From their reading of the New Testament, Christians know Galilee as the place in which Jesus travelled and ministered. Referred to in Mark, Luke and John as the Sea of Galilee, Christians hold images of a large body of water framed by mountains, along whose shores Jesus gathered his followers. It was where he healed, taught and inspired people from the many surrounding villages and settlements about what God is like. From scripture we hold images of Jesus interacting in his natural Galilean surroundings: the hillsides, the rocky shores, the wild seas, the wilderness, the wheat fields, the gardens. We have him relating parables using natural images of seeds, flowers, trees, birds, animals, food, water, wine.
The other Galilee, the Galilee Basin in Central Queensland, is a geological basin of the Permian period (299 -251 million years ago). It makes up part of the Great Artesian Basin, the primary source of water for much of inland Australia. It is home to a large proportion of Queensland’s pastoral and agricultural sectors. The Galilee Basin has rich biodiversity - it is home to the Brigalow belt of ecological systems, an area of ecological significance which contains acacia forests. We wrote about acacia forests in ‘The Grace of Forests’ resource (http://bit.ly/1Htwevo). This area is an Australian Government designated biodiversity ‘hotspot’ - meaning its ecological diversity is threatened with destruction. http://bit.ly/1dj23uh
The Galilee Basin is also estimated to contain about 247, 000 sq km of coal. As a result of this, governments and the powerful mining industry have prioritised potential economic gain from resource extraction over all other vital services. If new proposals for a ‘mega coal mine’ in the basin go ahead, not only will the local bioregion be negatively impacted by land degradation, water contamination and biodiversity loss, global greenhouse gas emissions will also skyrocket, worsening climate change impacts particularly in vulnerable nations like Kiribati. http://bit.ly/1RMPGWS.
Image credit: http://bit.ly/1Hgk7MX Lock the Gate Alliance Flickr
STOP!
It’s time the first Galilee story informed the second.
Jesus, God enfleshed in the world in his Galilean environment, was teaching about God’s loving embrace of the world and all in it. He was asking us as the human part of it to be responsible in our relationships with all life, to respect and promote life. Queensland’s Galilee Basin - which even includes the town of Jericho - should be a place where this happens. Instead, what is being planned is an attack on life: an attack on communities, forests, species, soil, water and air quality and of course, global carbon emissions.
How can we better embody Jesus’ message today and be protectors of our own Galilee?
- Become informed of the stories of those affected and find ways to meet with people of the Galilee Basin community
- Learn more about the ecological significance of the Galilee Basin and the Brigalow bioregion
- Use the Columban Mission Institute’s ‘Grace of Acacia Forests’ resource available on our website
By Anne Lanyon
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