Benedictine
Sisters, Monastery of St. Gertrude, Cottonwood, Idaho
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“Healing the Land”
CommunityJust as the earth is an interwoven set of communities we hope to facilitate connections among people of faith concerned about the earth. This is a place to try and connect with other people from similar places, interests, communities, etc. Share what you are doing in your community or work. Share pictures of your projects and events. Religious CommunitiesParticipants of "Healing the Land: A Contemplative Conference for Women and Men Religious.” July 3-6, 2004
NEWS STORIESThe Spirituality of ForestryBy Sister Carol Ann
Wassmuth, OSB During the past 15 years I have attended numerous conferences, workshops, seminars and field days to help me improve the way I do silviculture on the forestlands that I manage. At these events I have had the opportunity to meet many other private woodland owners and I have come to the conclusion that they are a very special group of people. Oh, yes, we have all written our management plans, calculated projected costs and income, and negotiated easement and logging contracts. We have learned how to do these things because they are a necessary part of managing our forests. But I always sense another level of interest, often not expressed, but, nevertheless, just as real. We love our land with its diversity of life and it gives us great joy to see it healthy, beautiful and brimming with vitality. The happiness we feel in caring for our small piece of this planet is more than that final number in the financial report. There is a sense of connectedness, identity, fulfillment and self-expression in our relationship with this land. This is what I mean by the spirituality of forestry. I am a member of the Idaho Benedictine Sisters, a community of Roman Catholic nuns living near Cottonwood, Idaho. Our monastery overlooks the Camas Prairie, part of the ancient homeland of the Nez Perce Indian Tribe. As a community, our history is closely connected with this land. We own, and therefore are responsible for 1,400 acres, the largest portion of that being forested. The community settled here in 1910 and many of the stories of our early history revolve around the land. Pioneer Sisters talked about tramping through the woods looking for the cows, pinning up their habits and helping to bring in the hay, and spending much of the summer hoeing the orchard and garden. When the present monastery building was built in the 1920s, the stone used in its construction was quarried from the nearby hillside. Many quiet walks, prayerful moments and happy picnics have taken place on these grounds. We see ourselves as a group of women intimately related to this land and we have made a corporate commitment to its care. In 1991 we wrote a Philosophy of Land Use as a way to articulate our common understanding of what it means to own land. In it we express our belief that this earth is a gift from our Creator and through it we receive our life and sustenance. The contemplative environment it provides constantly renews our inner spirits. We experience an interconnectedness with the land and recognize our responsibility to reverence and care for the resources it provides. All decisions that we make concerning our land flow from this philosophy. The guide for life that we follow was written by a man named Benedict who lived in Nursia, Italy, in the 6th century. The very first exhortation he gives his followers is the invitation to listen, not only with ears, but also with the heart. Only by careful listening are we able to deepen our understanding and experience of life. As we walk among our trees and listen carefully we hear the soft whisper of the breeze through the pines, the songs of the birds, the chattering of the tree squirrels, the skittering of small animals in the underbrush. We might also be hearing the sound of a chainsaw being used, we know, in a responsible way. These are all sounds of a healthy ecosystem and we rejoice in the vitality of the forest. As landowners serious about good forest management, we also know how to listen to professional foresters and benefit from their knowledge of silviculture. I have listened carefully and am deeply indebted to the Idaho Department of Lands personnel, the foresters working for the University of Idaho and my consultants from Northwest Management, Inc. in Moscow. They have been my mentors. The wise person knows there is always more to learn. Benedict’s way of life has endured for 15 centuries because he insisted his followers use their common sense. We can achieve a healthy, holistic lifestyle if we know how to find balance. Extremes usually result in disaster. The longer I work in our woods the more I am convinced that balance is also the key to good forest management. We stand in wide-eyed and open-mouthed wonder at the mystery of life expressed in the forest around us even as we use the resources it provides. How essential it is to remember that we are guests on this planet, not owners or renters. Then our response will be to treat everything with reverence and a sense of gratitude. When a woman becomes a member of this Benedictine community, she makes a solemn promise of stability, which means a lifetime commitment to these people and to this place. This results in a deep sense of belonging that would never allow us to cut, destroy and run. What happens to this land and this forest will have a strong impact on us and the ones we love. Walking gently on this planet, living simply and caring for and sharing what we have—this is the Benedictine way. When I speak with other forest landowners at conferences and workshops, I sense that they share these convictions. It is obvious that they love their land with all its inhabitants and feel a responsibility to do their best in caring for it. This work leaves them with a feeling of peace and purposeful accomplishment. Maybe we use different words, but the reality is the same. Deep down they know what I mean by the spirituality of forestry. Posted on Monday July 26, 2004 GOING GREEN IN LOS GATOSBy Connie Skipitares, San Jose Mercury News http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/9244479.htm?1c High in the hills above Los Gatos, a center for retreats run by an order of nuns is pushing environmentally friendly architecture to its edge as it builds a new "green model'' dining complex and Welcoming Center in the redwoods. The 12,000-square-foot facility that the Presentation Center is building on Bear Creek Road not only uses recycled materials, but innovative elements such as compacted straw for walls, recycled newspaper for roof insulation and a roof planted with greenery to prevent runoff and keep the building cool. The hall and center, when finished in November, will be one of the most ambitious structures using the green-building concept in California. "It's the most challenging one I've ever worked on because it's not just using one or two green features but combining a number of them,'' said Berkeley architect Dan Smith, who designed the project and has been doing green buildings for more than a decade. "It's an excellent model for how efficient buildings can be.'' When completed, the $6 million structure will use 40 to 50 percent less energy and at least 30 percent less water than non-green structures its size. Going green adds about 10 to 15 percent to construction costs. But over time, it will yield savings through lower energy and water bills and healthier workers who are exposed to more natural light and less use of toxic paints and adhesives. "We decided that it's completely worth it,'' said Sister Patricia Marie Mulpeters, director of the Presentation Center. "We have a gift up here among nature, and we see building this project this way as our commitment to sustaining the Earth. We're not going green just to go green. We look at it as a requisite for living in a place like this.'' The new green facility will act as a "teaching building,'' said Mulpeters, "where people can learn about our environment here and how to appreciate the larger environment around us.'' When finished, it will look like a conventional building, but its structure will be anything but. In about six weeks, tightly compacted straw bales, which are non-combustible, will be delivered to the mountain retreat and will become walls for the building. When the roof goes up, native succulents will be planted on it to keep in heat during the winter and cool air in the summer. Special non-toxic paints also will be used throughout, as well as recycled glass, tile and plastics in showers and bathrooms. Furniture will be made of recycled materials. Solar thermal heating will be collected through roof panels so the structure won't require conventional heating or air conditioning. Solar collectors also will transform the sun's heat into electricity. Green building is not new, but it's still not all that common. The Presentation Center project is one of the few in the United States that is going all-out in executing green building according to standards set by the U.S. Green Building Council. The non-profit council, based in Washington, D.C., has created a voluntary rating system, which is quickly becoming the standard used to certify environmentally sustainable architecture across the country. The Presentation Center will earn the Green Building Council's "gold'' rating, which means the building is considered one of the country's top examples of green building. A handful of cities across the country, including San Jose, are requiring that all new government buildings larger than 10,000 square feet adhere to Green Building Council standards for environmentally friendly structures. San Jose's first green-certified building -- the West Valley branch of the San Jose Public Library -- opened in 2003. So far, only framing is up on the Presentation Center's new complex as construction crews work toward a November completion date. The building is oriented toward the south for best utilization of the sun for heating and light. Mulpeters said several trees that toppled in a winter storm two years ago are being milled into lumber, which is being used in the construction. Design plans also include eliminating a central parking lot and placing visitor cars on the perimeter of the property. Bicycles and golf carts will be encouraged. A recharging station for electric and hybrid cars will be built. An organic garden and compost system is planned that will be run by the University of California Agricultural Center's master gardeners program to grow food for the center and its guests, and to convert food waste to soil. The non-profit Presentation Center, run by the Sisters of the Presentation based in San Francisco, hosts a range of groups for retreats and conferences at its rustic 67-acre campus, from religious groups to arts and law-enforcement associations to inner-city school children and charter schools. The campus was built as a private school for boys in 1910. It closed in 1955, and from 1957 to 1970 it was a novitiate for nuns run by the Sisters of the Presentation. It has been run as a conference center since 1970 with the ability to host up to 150 people for overnight retreats and day programs. The new dining hall and Welcoming Center will be able to host 200 people.
From Sojourners Magazine Nov/Dec 2003 Blue Nuns Go GreenCompiled by Rose Marie Berger and Kate Bowman Nicknamed the "Blue Nuns" for the blue habits they used to wear, the Catholic sisters of the Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary have renovated their motherhouse and campus in Monroe, Michigan, into a showpiece of ecologically sustainable development. The project recently earned national awards from the Environmental Protection Agency and the American Institute of Architects. It features the largest privately funded geothermal field in the country and ranks as one of the nation's largest residential sustainable renovations registered with the U.S. Green Building Council. "We've always been committed to social justice and advocacy for the abandoned and the poor," said Sister Janet Ryan. "In this century, we've come to understand the earth is abandoned in many ways. We consider sustainability a moral mandate for the 21st century." |
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