Green Sister

"We are part of creation, and not meant to have dominion over it."

by Bruce Schimmel

Bruce Schimmel Earth Angel: Sister Mary Elizabeth Clark. "We are part of creation, and not meant to have dominion over it."

As a nice Jewish boy, I've never asked a nun to be my rabbi. But as oil spreads from the Gulf, I find myself sliding into despair. So if someone can steady my soul, I don't care about their creds.

Fortunately, Sister Mary Elizabeth Clark has great experience ministering to those with environmental angst — that sick feeling of being a powerless accomplice in the planet's destruction.

Mary Elizabeth practices her earthcare (as she puts it) at the newly refurbished Sisters of St. Joseph (SSJ) Earth Center, on the campus of Chestnut Hill College. The center is housed in a small stone chapel that's a replica of the legendary Holy House of Loreto. Its soaring Doric pillars double as downspouts that sluice water to a rain cistern. And, as Mary Elizabeth proudly explains, it's heated and cooled geothermally.

Here, Mary Elizabeth collaborates with all sorts of religions and tribes: Presbyterians, Quakers, Jews and the Lenape. A former Washington lobbyist for social justice, she connects sustainability with spirituality in an ecumenical way, scrubbed of dogma.

Hers is a worldly order, in many senses. Like many Sisters of St. Joseph, Mary Elizabeth dresses in street clothes. These women also have (one might say) a habit of independence, having recently been chastised for their public support of the healthcare bill.

The SSJ women, along with other "women religious" congregations, also profess a special affinity for the earth that's earned them the honorific of "Green Sisters" (from Sarah McFarland Taylor's 2007 book of the same name). Others in the Roman Catholic Church, however, accuse them of pantheism.

"Human beings are part of creation," she explains. "We are one with the earth, and so we're not meant to have dominion over it."

As we talk, my angst begins to make sense. "Human beings are the Earth reflecting on itself," Mary Elizabeth says, paraphrasing cultural historian Thomas Berry. I see: So, if you accept that the planet reveals itself in human consciousness, then destroying the world would feel like murder.

"We still have time," she believes, "to prevent the massive destruction of the Earth. I'm an optimist. But I have waves of grief."

I know what she's talking about.

(bruce@schimmel.com)

The SSJ Earth Center will co-sponsor a free Interfaith Green Fair Sun., May 16, 1-5 p.m. at Mishkan Shalom, 4101 Freeland Ave., 215-508-0226, mishkan.org. The SSJ Earth Center will host the"Sacred Earth: Spirituality and Sustainability" conference at Chestnut Hill College June 11-13. Call 215-248-7171 or visit ssjearthcenter.com for registration, schedule and pricing.