religious life Showing off organic produce grown at the Sisters of Providence’s White Violet Center for Eco-Justice in St. Mary-ofthe-Woods, Indiana are Candace Minster (left), education and farm projects manager, and Sister Jean Fuqua, S.P.
Religious communities go green Responding to the call to care for the gift of God’s creation, religious communities are working to be more eco-friendly.
by
Cliff Terry
S
everal years ago the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Monroe, Michigan took a hard look at the condition of their motherhouse—a large building that serves as the community’s headquarters and includes a retirement community of sisters. The beautiful Art Deco building had been completed in 1932, one of the largest private construction projects in the United States during the Depression. Cliff Terry is a Chicago-based freelancer and former writer and critic for the Chicago Tribune. Carol Schuck Scheiber, content editor of VISION, and Joel Schorn, VISION managing editor, also contributed to this article.
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Though engineers told the sisters, “This building is going to be here for another couple of centuries,” most of the infrastructure needed to be replaced. The plumbing was bad, and the only way to cool the building in the summer was by opening windows. “We became convinced,” says Sister Janet Ryan, a member of the I.H.M. leadership council and liaison for the motherhouse project, “that we had to become more attentive to sustainable practice and the non-renewable resources of our world so that those who come in the next generation have these resources, and that we should focus on more renewable energy sources.” To put this commitment into action the community decided to undertake a VISION 2011
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6/14/2010 8:57:45 AM
