Sewanee conference opens new era in Episcopal ‘green’ activism

As a vermilion sun dropped beyond blue ridgelines surrounding St. Mary’s Center at Sewanee, TN, on the longest day of the year, some 70 souls opened a new era in the history of the National Episcopal Peace Fellowship.

Activists, priests, scholars, artists, musicians, writers, teachers, environmentalists and others from a range of spiritual traditions accomplished much June 21 and 22 as they initiated Peace On and With the Earth, a conference to explore the relationship between peace and the environment.

They blessed, cheered and mourned for creation, personally honored a living legend, launched EPF into a more intense role in the global mission for sustainable living, but most of all, they brought joy and a sense of community to the enterprise of embracing this good, green earth.

As master of ceremonies the Rev. Father Rob Henley said, “We’re here to hang out and have a good time and let the good times roll.”

And so they did, through workshops, speeches, awards, reunions, bread and wine, nature walks, meditations, music and more. A sense of good fortune at simply being among friends high in the Cumberland Mountains suffused the evening and following day.

New members joined EPF, pledged support to land trusts and other worthy causes, sent ideas and statements of commitment home with organizers Jackie Lynn of Chicago, director of the National EPF, and the Rev. Henley of St. Joseph’s Church in Sevierville, TN.

For many, the highlight of the conference came on the opening evening, including a dinner honoring the Rev. Dr. John M. (Jack) Gessell, retired professor of Christian Ethics at the School of Theology at Sewanee, followed by an address by keynoter Kathleen Williams, esteemed director of the Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation, and music by award-winning Indy musicians Sam Hensley of Washington, D.C., and Eliza Lynn, of Nashville.

Standing ovations and spontaneous applause punctuated the evening, starting with Gessell’s recognition. A revered figure to friends, former students and colleagues in attendance, Gessell earned bachelor, masters and doctoral degrees from Yale, served in parishes of Southern Virginia and Massachusetts and had a distinguished 20-year career at Sewanee. He chaired the national EPF from 1980 to 1983. In 1994 he was awarded the John Nevin Sayer award for activities in support of peace.

“Jesus did not say blessed is the peaceful,” said Don Armentrout of Sewanee, by way of introduction. “He said blessed is the peace maker… Peace is not something you wish for, it’s something you make.”

Taking the stage, an obviously moved Dr. Gessell gazed upon those gathered and said, “I had no idea it would be like this. I thought a few friends would gather… My life has been lived in the midst of supportive people like you all here… Their faith, love and help bear me up.”

He went on to recount his life as a maker of peace, starting with the decision to turn conscientious objector rather than serve in the military as a young man, and including years offering counseling and support to Vietnam era resistors, his years with the national EPF, opposition to wars in Iraq and other efforts to wage peace.

Organizer Jim Orr eloquently introduced keynoter Kathleen Williams, my sister, who directs the Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation. She set the tone for the conference with a rousing speech (read in it’s entirety at the end of this column) that included singing, poetry, storytelling, humor, a moving chronicle of her own spiritual journey, and a catalogue of Tennessee’s natural treasures and attributes as a world-class ecosystem running over with rivers, lakes, mountains, valleys and thousands of species of plants and animals that call these rich environs home.

And as a vermilion sun set in picture windows behind her, Williams described a half-dozen state treasures among the many that she and the board of TPGF saved from ruin or unwise economic development.

These include thousands of acres of view-scape surrounding towering Fall Creek Falls, corridors of land adjoining Virgin Falls, which springs from a cave then drops 110 feet to disappear into another cave. They include lands along the banks and bluffs of the mighty Mississippi, and a high cove called Devil Step Hollow, whence the Sequatchie River springs from a cave as a full-blown river on its way to carving a world-class valley, and where glyphs 1,000 years old or older decorate cavern walls, illustrating how previous dwellers worshipped.

She spoke of the importance of connecting preserved lands to build migration corridors and to make sufficient habitat for sustainable living. She noted the need to nurture noninvasive plants, and to refrain from insecticides and other deadly pollutants. She spoke of the deep importance of introducing children to nature, of abstaining from mere pleasure shopping, and of reducing one’s carbon footprint.

Striking a note of activism, Williams stated the goal of TPGF as “preserving God’s creation and by doing that, saving life on earth and offering salvation to an over-stressed, disconnected people. I believe God will give you the power to help with this mission if you seek, and will help you to find contentment and the kingdom of heaven on earth by your good works conserving creation and by the heavenly experience of loving creation…”

Music and entertainment by Hensley and Lynn followed, to rousing applause.

The next day’s workshops proceeded on this note of enthusiasm. Following a morning meditation led by Father Henley, the group again broke bread at a hearty breakfast, then watched a short film about “emergent creation,” the notion of a cosmology based on human life springing from nature.

Then we dispersed to several workshops.

Jim Orr presented The Story of the Universe and Our Role Within It, continuing the notion of a new story of creation that takes into account findings from science and philosophy regarding the amazing history, size, shape and variety within the universe and especially on Earth, which gave rise to creatures capable of empathy, spirituality, self-consciousness and that continues to change, along with all life forms on the planet.

Russ Henley led a workshop on the importance of love as the foundation for fruitful and fulfilling activism in defense of the Earth.

Nancy Rickenbach led guided meditations designed to embrace our planet’s suffering, nurture empathy with generations past, present and future, including plants and animals with whom we share the planet, so that we might help heal the Earth with greater understanding, commitment and equanimity.

Katy Hinman presented a workshop on preserving and distributing the earth’s precious water resources more equitably and sustainably.

Joyce Wilding creatively addressed serving up planet-friendly foods.

All served with a sense of mission in keeping with these words from Kathleen Williams:

“To love nature is to love God. The wonders of Nature are God’s living miracles and gifts and confirmation that the Holy Spirit is Real. Thank you God.”

—-

OK, Kathleen’s more overtly religious than I am, but she can sure wind a stem. Here’s a copy of her speech, notes to self and all:

Conserve Tennessee to Glorify God

Opening:

1. To love nature is to love God. The wonders of Nature are God’s living miracles and giftsa and confirmation that the Holy Spirit is Real. Thank you God.
2. Tennessee is God’s Eden. Nowhere is this life more vast and evident and powerful than in beautiful green Tennessee. We Give Thanks.
3. The Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation preserves Tennessee’s natural treasures. We are preserving God’s creation and by doing that saving life on earth and offering salvation to an over-stressed, disconnected people.
And
4. I believe God will give you the power to help with this mission if you seek, and it will help you too find contentment and the kingdom of heaven on earth by your good works conserving creation and by the heavenly experience of loving creation and enjoying it - the fruits of your labor.

1. Nature is God’s living miracle and the way for the lost to find God.
That’s how I know God.
To say I was raised up in church is an understatement. My Dad made his living on the radio and in churches as a gospel-singer, soul saver and the best whistler you ever heard. He was famous all over America but mainly in the Eastern United States as part of the duet, Don and Earl – he blasted from border radio XERF his “Just a closer Walk with Thee” – Precious Jesus is my plea, Daily Walking Close to thee, Let It be – dear Lord let it be.” He sang this and other songs for 40 years and I know he led people who were lost to a place where they were found through his ministry.
So around our house growing up – there was plenty of talk of the eternal, of souls saved, and then there was my beautiful, sweet mama. My mama the naturalist, who took us to see treasures in the Spring, gurgling out of the ground, near John’s Bottom land, Oooohh Look, look it’s a maidenhair fern, or Oh children look, we’re here just in time for Jack in the Pulpit. And always we’d dig up some wild thing to transplant into her garden. I’m certain that if you ask her – she’ll tell you that these experiences inspired her to believe… in fact Mom sing a couple of verses of your favorite hymn –“How Great Thou Art.”
We also grew up picking blackberries, and working in the garden and chasing lightening bugs, and eating sun-warmed tomatoes straight off the vine – divine. And mounds of corn on the cob that we’d just picked and husked. And we spent nights all evening in the swing or under the front yard mimosa outside. And you could see the stars and on clear nights the milky way and at certain times of the year watch the meteor shower bring heaven down straight to earth from our back porch.
And we went to Church where I sometimes listened but mainly didn’t – until I grew tired of church and took to the woods with my friends and boyfriends and swam in a spring fed pond and stayed out at night and howled at the moon. And fell in love with life.
And then I became a working adult and like most Tennesseans I moved to the city and there later married and began my family. Now with my work I get to get out of the city to quiet woods. But most people today are more and more disconnected from Earth and the beauty, inspiration and comfort that nature brings. It’s true in my family. It’s hard to experience the divine, living by the Interstate in Nashville or at the bookstore or movies or walking to Hillsboro Village, or in front of the tv or computer – So I worry – I worry about my children. So we took the kids to the woods when we could and to church on most Sundays. I wanted to make sure my kids knew God.
We church-shopped. And Tried them all – we were Episcopal for a while and Catholic and once to the Unitarian – but the hymn “I wish I knew” was a little too vague to give my kids the dose of experiencing God that I wanted them to know. So we ended up at a charismatic Church not much different then how I was raised. Where I know they got it. And I got it again too.
Holding my babies in my arms and later standing with my family, with my sweet husband by my side and his big hand engulfing my smaller one — And the chanting and the singing in the full hour of music and the study in the Word and the real belief in its power, and hands reach out and upward to God and then hands laying on you by perfect strangers – and you feel the healing power and the people sing Tower of Refuge and Strength, Mountains bow down and the Sea will roar at the sound of your name. And you’ve seen strong mountains and you’ve felt the surge of the Sea so vast so wide so deep and you know somewhat the science of the Universe with Towers of Black Holes and billions of galaxies and you feel like Jesus and God are powerful enough to create the Universe trillions of miles across and you feel this strength down to the very fiber of your being – you know it’s real because you feel it.
And we took them to the woods. Where I taught that God resided too – the woods are God’s temple — but you had to pause sometimes amidst the chasing, and splashing, and playing, be quiet now and reverant and listen – shhhhh – meditate – listen - for the voice of God. Because when you seek – you will find.
I believe my kids got it. You can hear it in Rebecca’s poetry and her voice and in Joey’s music as he plays, plays, plays, all day some unknown and new holy tribute on his guitar. I’d like to read you a poem by one of my favorite poets, written at age 17 , by my daughter Rebecca Mooradian who is here with us today, entitled:

God of Sycamores, Golden Rod and of Summer Rain

poem

I love the line: “and gave form to the vastness of life.”
The creation story is here and we can behold it anew with each day’s rising sun.
2. So as the sun rises in Tennessee and gives form to the vastness of life — Know that nowhere is life more vast and evident and powerful than in beautiful Tennessee. Tennessee is so glorious, so lush and green. It has far more going for it than most places on Earth. Turn on the tv and look at dry, sandy Iraq and you realize – we live in paradise. With mile high mountains in the East, the mighty Mississippi in the West, and tens of thousands of miles of sparkling rivers in between, Tennessee is a beautiful green Garden. The Garden is rich and varied and full of magic. We are the caretakers of that garden. This is our Eden.

In fact, Tennessee is the most biologically diverse inland state in North America — the variety and volume of life here is wondrous. This is because the topography of Tennessee is among the most varied in the United States, ranging from wide level river bottoms in the west to high mountain peaks in the east, with valleys, plateaus, basins, and other features in between. Our State covers nine (9) physiographic provinces from the high Unaka mountains to the Mississippi River Valley – each shift in elevation and variance in geologic history and composition provides a unique landscape where new and different life may thrive. And here where we sit on the Cumberland Plateau, that stretches from north to south beyond the length of our state –rising more than 1,000 feet above the Tennessee River Valley to a vast tableland of sandstone and shale dating as far back as 500 million years with unique natural wonders sculpted over eons by weather and water to form canyons and waterfalls and this bluff here outside our window.

And plant life and wildlife differs in each province of Tennessee — in the high mountains Northern species remain as remnants of the ice ages called relicts and these can be found especially in north-facing coves where it is moist and cool. Examples of marooned species include yellow birch, sugar maple, and the New England cottontail. And our high mountains are covered with beech-maple and spruce-fir communities with grassy and rhododendron balds occurring above 5500 feet. And the rhododendron framing giant hemlocks in the Cumberland Mountains where we sit today and in the Nashville basin with it’s thin soil atop limestone the garden of a cedar glade that you don’t find other places and horse tails along the Mississippi and massive cypress trees with their knobby knees sticking out of some backwater swamp – so much variety to behold and soooo much more hidden.

In addition to this being a wide state that traverses all these elevations and formation – Tennessee is blessed because we’re located just south of where once the great ice sheets that scraped off all life in ice ages over two million years - stopped just north of us and missed Tennessee. So ancient species that were eliminated in Ohio — still live in Tennessee.

And our rivers - The Tennessee and Cumberland river systems have the highest number of fish, crayfish and mussel species on the continent. They support about half of the freshwater species in the United States, including darters, basses, sunfishes and sturgeons. In just one river—Tennessee’s Duck River—there are more fish species per mile than any other river in North America.

Our caves. We have more cave openings than any state in North America. With vaults and cathedrals to astound. Rumbling Falls Cave – not far from here has a massive chamber - The Rumble Room, 200 feet tall and 5 acres in area. – larger than Nashville’s Arena. Which harbors rare and strange life 20 species found so far – these troglobites – a good name for species that live totally underground –cave fish and cray fish, ghostly pigmentless blind creatures. O

Our trees. Sourwood and sassafras, Buck eyes and basswood, hickories and hemlock — Tennessee has more species of trees than throughout all of Europe with 150 kinds of native trees. Our garden blooms with them in the Spring and blazes with them in the Fall.

And our wildflowers and fishes and salamanders and insects. Our deer, elk, turkeys and fox, black bear, river otters, squirrels that fly and bobcats that prowl.
With more than 300 native Tennessee plants, 72 native mammals. With more than 250 bird species residing in Tennessee. 56 amphibian species include numerous frogs, salamanders, newts, and lizards; 58 reptile species include three types of rattlesnake. And 325 fish species in Tennessee’s lakes and streams. Tennessee has the most diverse crayfish fauna in the US with 77 species. And no telling how many species of insects because no-one yet knows.
Criss-crossed with scenic backroads, with abundant wildlife and dotted with Waterfalls and wildflowers, dragonflies and butterflies and fireflies to give magic to the night.
Tennessee is our Garden, our Eden. And we are stewards of this garden. Thank you, God.

As Genesis states on the 4th day of Creation – Let the waters teem with countless living creatures, and let birds fly over the land across the vault of heaven.” And in Genesis 2:15
And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

Thank you God.

We are the caretakers of the Earth and the Earth takes care of us. The Earth feeds our Spirit and gives us life. God gave us all we need to be sustained. We depend on wild species - to enrich the soil, cleanse the water, pollinate the flowering plants, and create the very air we breathe. We need wild species and conserved land for our food, water and air. Plus, our environment provides us with raw materials for our economic future: for the next important, undiscovered medicines, crops, timbers, fibers, soil-restoring vegetation, petroleum substitutes, and other products.

But we have to act now to conserve Green Tennessee. Because our Garden is at risk:
Climate change and other habitat destruction by humans threatens to destroy ½ the species on earth by the end of this century and as many as ¼ by climate change alone. Sprawl and roads (86,000 miles enough to circle the Earth 3x), population, fragmentation (80,000 acres/year). While we recruit new developments and industry and build new roads, we also timber and mine, killing our forests and poisoning our rivers. Our lawmakers don’t know what we’re losing and they don’t know that Tennesseans care. And many Tennesseans don’t know how special Tennessee is and many don’t care.

But if globally the world will wake up to climate change – a big if but I believe the tide has finally turned – And if we hurry - I believe we can create a Sustainable Tennessee – the key ingredients are already in place and if you help too – with God’s power – we can do anything. So pray for strength and peace and commit to doing some good works to help. Our goal should be to save creation – save all of it, Brothers and Sisters. And Start here at home.

Accoring to E.O. Wilson – renowned Harvard biologist:There is no solution available except to save Earth’s life forms by preserving natural environments in reserves large enough to maintain wild populations sustainably. (Repeat this)

With God’s help – we can do that in Tennessee.

3. The Mission of the Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation is to preserve Tennessee’s natural treasures. Our vision is to link parks, greenways and wildlife areas together to create corridors of protected land — land that will sustain Tennesseans now and in the future.

Our Strategies:
Conserve Tennessee Treasures. Create Corridor Connections. Conduct conservation education. Advocate for programs and policies that create a sustainable Green Tennessee.

We’re working to Preserve natural treasures and then link them together, along linear land features – like rivers and mountain ranges. These protected corridors/these greenways create networks of preserved forests, farms and rivers that can, create wildlife corridors, and protect water quality and help guide growth to less ecologically important areas. Investments to conserve existing lands and precious waters will stall haphazard fragmentation and sprawl and redirect it to suitable, developable, less significant lands in Tennessee. Meanwhile, our Garden will be conserved.

We know where to invest to conserve the best Tennessee has to offer. By linking existing public and privately conserved lands, the creation of a green infrastructure is closer than you’d think. Tennesseans have conserved 2,146,000 acres in public lands already (with 63% in federal ownership, mainly concentrated in the Appalachian Mountains in East Tennessee). By acquiring 1.2 million acres more of high priority conservation lands, we can link most of these public lands together to create a Sustainable Green Infrastructure. Then existing public lands will function more ecologically and sustainable for wildlife, water quality, and for the environmental and economic health of future generations of Tennesseans. The good news is we are more than 2/3 there. But An additional investment is needed. Our organization advocates for that investment. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Tennessee Division of Forestry and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation have identified approximately 1.2 million acres of lands in 75 project areas that should be acquired. These lands were identified based on their importance as habitat for priority species, for water supply and quality, for their strategic location and their availability. By protecting only 5% more of Tennessee’s 23 million acres, we can create the green infrastructure we need for a sustainable future. This is attainable. We can Green Tennessee.

Besides urging policies to Green Tennessee. We’re doing what we can on the ground as an organization and it’s amazing. Protecting natural treasures. Places to see God. Funding other groups through small grants to build trails and provide more access to inspire people with the miracle of a mountain and the wonder of a waterfall.

Oh, the places we’ve saved. Crawl back, deep into the Earth, into the Underground cavern where a thousand years before a shamen surely crawled into the black vastness, into the womb of the Earth – the pitch empty void. Quiet, close your eyes and you can feel how that feels now.

Or crawl behind the splash of waterfall to the undercut bluff, the rock house and look out to the back-lit lime green ferns and alumroot in the mouth of the sandy low ceilinged room you crouch in and then listen. Water drops, plops, pings, tonk, it lulls you in the dark. Calms you, soothes you. Takes you deep inside where God surely resides. Then re-emerge to the ethereal green, framing the house-sized boulders in front of you. A lone column of water falls from some unseen spring above and splashes at your feet – not even a creek-sized stream from this long fall. The cumberlands are riddled with these and for tens of thousands of years they’ve provided shelter. Tonight my daughter plans that one of these will shelter me, in fact. At places like these life thrives and God is evident.

Also at the more than dozen places we’ve campaigned to save – Go see and when you do say Thank you Lord.
Thank you Lord for Stillhouse Hollow Falls, 75 foot tall – it falls there now – and harbors rare life. Located in a canyon south of Nashville – hidden in a holler in the Higland Rim it falls there now . I swam in it once and explored it all and you can too because we protected it and it is now part of our state parks.
And thank you for Black Mountain. Climb the field of boulders avoiding the rare dainty flower the pipsissywa - that clings to life along the top. Stand on the top of 230 million year old – ocean washed bluffs and see down into the Sequatchiee Valley. See down into the area known as Devilstep Hollow.
Devilstep Hollow Cave. With 22 art drawings, a thousand years old bearing evidence to earlier mans pursuit of God in these underground cathedrals. A wolfy dog and death mask grin, a woodpecker being with braided forelock, a maze dripping blood. A long slow belly-crawl to get there where you enter the Earth’s womb, from whence we came. Then re-emerge guloo goolaa to bright of day to a lush ferny greenness, to life everlasting. Re-emerge.
And head for the life giving waters of the Head of Sequatchie Spring, located on the same piece of ground. Peak your head into the Spring – the mouth of the river long, 200 miles long to form the Sequatchiee River valley. A rare phenomenon this rift valley – visible from outer space.
And thank you God for America’s Great River on the western end of Tennessee. There we’re saving the Mississippi River’s Randolph Bluff. Stand on Chickasaw Bluff and realize that you’re not the first to tread to where you stand. Remember those Chickasaw and a thousand years before, those indigenous peoples who lived on these lands that surround you. On a million buffalo that crossed the valley below. See the Mighty Mississippi in the distance a luminous, glistening ribbon of glass. And you so small and the river and the sky so big. The mighty waters will recreate, revise, reinvigorate your very soul.
And thank you God for Scott’s Gulf where the Caney Fork Flows. 55,000 acres is a lot of land conserved around Fall Creek Falls, Scott’s Gulf and Bledsoe State Forest. Last week we bought 689 acres there with three miles of bluff line overlooking the Caney Fork Gorge. And last year 1990 acres in this same wide gorge – this canyon - How long, how wide, how deep.
Go see.
Wash away your cares and get baptized in the holy waters of the Caney Fork you are sure to re-emerge reborn.
3. Then, decide what you will do.
For as 1 Corinthians 3:6 says: You are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells within you.
You can draw on this spirit for your power to create change and to save creation.
Save all the creation you can by helping conserve land and near to land already set aside and save the best.
Call your politicians and tell them you vote for politicians that protect Tennessee and that we need more money to preserve God’s creation.
And while you’re at it – tell them about Cumberland City – The USA emits 25% of the World’s carbon dioxide – coal fired power plants are the worst offenders and number 12 worst in America is right here in Tenn at the Cumberland City plant on the Cumberland River – west of Nashville. Tell the Governor and TVA – we got to do something about Cumberland City.
And also do these things:
Be wary of pesticides. Do not diminish the insect world. E. O. Wilson, the famous Harvard biologist says that by 2006, there were cataloged 900,000 species and he estimates that 10 million exist – The mass of insects is immense – as many as 10 thousand trillion alive at any moment. Ants alone have more weight than the 6.5 billion humans and they are rivaled by copepods (minute sea crustaceons), mites, and worms – with millions of species, making up 4/5ths of all animals on Earth. People need bugs to live but bugs don’t need people.
Teach your children well. Give children a natural connection to God by giving them an adventure. Get them to collect in one half hour as many different life forms as they can. Get a microscope and a drop of water. Take them to the zoo or to the aquarium. Douse them in a waterfall. And Let them disturb nature a little so they’ll love it.
Go Native. Invasive species are the second ranking cause of extinction of native species, after habitat destruction by humans.
Stop shopping for fun. Don’t squander our precious natural resources by buying things you don’t need. Live more simply so others may simply live. We’re using up our children’s assets and killing creation in the process. You’ll be happier for it. Where your treasure is there your heart will be also.
Reduce your carbon footprint – but enjoy life. Change out your light bulbs – that’s easy. And if you can invest in green power though your utility company like we can in Nashville – do that – those things are easy.
Do good work, pray, and then rest.

Know you can do God’s work by conserving Tennessee. And then pray with a heart of gratitude so first give thanks and then Jesus says to “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.

Pray for things out of your control. Pray for our world leaders. Pray for strength and power to do good. And finally rest in his arms. Jesus taught us to rest and not worry. In Matthew 6:10 he instructs us to say, “thy will be done.”
And in verse 34: Jesus says, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
Glorify God and Conserve Tennessee. I would like to ask that you consider as a tithe a gift to this cause, if not to the Tennessee Parks and greenways Foundation then to some other. And I would like to ask that you support our work today by becoming a member.
Thank you.

“Thank you God for most this amazing. For the true blue dream of sky. For the leaping greenly spirits – for the spirit of trees.

I’m doing all I can. So please dear God, do your part.”

Prayer