Creation Consciousness as a Spiritual Discipline

Outdoors was always my favorite place to be when I was growing up.  My neighborhood had about 20kids who played basketball, rode bikes, caught fireflies, climbed trees.  We were free to roam withoutany worries or restrictions.  On Saturdays, I tagged along when my dad got his exercise by walking 4miles in a large, wooded park.  Having grown up on a farm, he was rejuvenated whenever he could getoutdoors.  We never thought about “the environment” in those days.  Outdoors was just there.I had something of a conversion experience in the 1980s when I was in seminary. One of my classesencouraged me to see “the outdoors” as “the Creation.”  A conversion may start in your head as an idea,but it moves to your heart and eventually you find yourself called to a different way of being in theworld. I began to recycle.  Thirty years ago, there was no curbside recycling pickup.  I bought largegarbage cans to hold paper, glass and aluminum.  Every couple of months, I loaded up my daughters andmy recycling cans and drove to the Coke building where the three of us put our recycling into the binsprovided there.After a year or so, I discovered a young woman who owned a company called Southern Recycling.  Shedrove her truck around to various customers who paid her to pick up their recycling.  One of hercustomers was the office at the Diocese of Atlanta.  My ten-year-old daughter, Catherine, was especiallyinterested in Mary Grace who had her own business and was saving the planet.  Catherine wouldeventually get her Masters in Environmental Science.During this period of conversion, I also started to pay attention to my quarter acre yard.  I studied whatplants needed sun or shade, asked for flower pots for my birthday, started to grow herbs. My childrenand I noticed the creatures that inhabited our garden—birds, squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, snakes anda turtle, cohabited with our dogs, cat and rabbits.  Once, we even had a very lost coyote passed throughearly one morning that drove the dog crazy.  All this wildlife in a small, neglected urban garden in an oldneighborhood with lots of trees.There were plenty of books to support this idea of caring for the environment as a spiritual endeavor.  Iwas drawn to the writing of Matthew Fox (Creation Spirituality), Sally McFague (The Body of God),Wendell Berry (The Dream of the Earth),  and discovered the Celtic Spiritual tradition through the writingof Philip Newell, and fell in love with the poetry of Mary Oliver.Other folks were making changes in their lives on behalf of the environment.  A friend decided to leavethe practice of corporate law and began The Southern Environmental Law Center.  We supported thisinfant law practice that has grown in 30 years to have offices across the South and has protected theenvironment from those who would destroy it for the sake of their own profit.In 1994, Mary & Martha’s Place was founded as an ecumenical center where women could studytheology and where we created celebrations for the Winter and Summer Solstices.  When I published anarticle in the AJC about our first Summer Solstice celebration, I got several scolding phone calls accusingme of being a pagan.  Apparently, giving thanks for the Creation with psalms, poetry and songs was notChristian.  For several years, Mary & Martha’s Place partnered with The Institute for Servant Leadershipin Asheville, NC, to lead pilgrimages to Wales, Iona, and Ireland, where we immersed ourselves in thehistory and practice of Celtic Christian tradition.  We always celebrated the Eucharist outdoors in theruins of an abbey, a small church and in a graveyard on a small island in the Atlantic Ocean.Sally Bingham, a priest on the staff Grace Cathedral, San Francisco made a commitment to the creationwhen in 2001 she started Episcopal Power and Light which soon became an interfaith movement (IPL).In 2003, the Rev. Woody Bartlett and Carol Bartlett began Georgia Interfaith Power and Light (GIPL) thatcalls upon faith communities to be stewards of Creation and provides practical information to helpreduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.In the 30 years, public opinion about environmental issues has swirled from ignorance to denial,concern, frustration, anger, fear, and grief.  GIPL is here to support congregations as they becomestewards of Creation and to raise awareness that environmental issues are spiritual issues.Guest blog post by:Rev. Maggie Harney is an Episcopal priest and founder of Mary & Martha’s Place, a spirituality center inNorthwest Atlanta.