Homemaker to Episcopal Priest and Environmental Activist
 |
| © Photograph by Alex Harris |
I think the seeds of what I do today were sown out of my strong sense of protecting what I really love, which is the beauty and awe of nature. I grew up in the country, and I learned about the web of life by watching the birds eat the worms, watching eggs hatch, and animals being born. As a young child, I came to understand that we are part of this web._
I started asking clergy why the religious community was silent on something that was so important. How can you profess a love for God and pray for a reverence for the earth, then drive away in your Hummer? There was a disconnect between how people were thinking and praying…and their behavior.
Along the way, one of these clergy suggested that I go to seminary…That appealed to me. I started filling out forms. One of the first questions right up front is, “Where did you go to college?” I hadn’t gone to college. I had been raising a family. I got married right out of high school, and I had three children…
After graduation, I took a year off and then went back and said, “I’m ready to go to seminary now.” And they said, “Why seminary?”
The reason was the same as earlier…I understood that we should be leading this movement. It just didn’t make sense to me that we weren’t. Religion led the civil rights movement, the abolition of slavery, the opening of educational opportunities for women and children.
Read Sally’s full story in Encore »
