Rachel Carson: A Gentle, Strong, Prophetic Voice for the Environment

by Joe ScarryThis summer at St. Luke's, we dug into the prophets - Amos and Hosea, Isaiah and Jeremiah, Elijah and Elisha. (For the background on the "School for Prophets" at St. Luke's,read this amazing sermon by Pastor Erik Christensen!)Now it's fall and we're in the Season of Creation. As we consider the relationship of our faith to Oceans, Fauna, Storm,Cosmos, and more, the call for prophetic witness continues to ring in our ears.This Sunday (September 15, 9 a.m.) we will look at the witness of a modern-day prophet: the scientist and best-selling author Rachel Carson. Rachel Carson shook the world with the publication of her 1962 book, Silent Spring. In language that rivals that of any Old Testament prophet, Carson issued an eerie wake-up call:

There was a strange stillness. The birds, for example -- where had they gone? Many people spoke of them, puzzled and disturbed. . . . It was a spring without voices.

Silent Spring is credited with waking the world up to the threat we humans pose to our environment, and to launching the environmental movement. We'll be looking at how this amazing work was accomplished. (Did Rachel Carson have a "School for Prophets" of her own?)Join us at the St. Luke's "School for Prophets" as we work to uncover God's call for us with the respect to Creation. We'll be continuing this study through September and on the first Sunday in October (October 6), the day we commemorate St. Francis of Assisi and conduct a blessing of the animals at 10:15am."Michigan: Sky, Water, Land" photo courtesy Alanna Huck-Scarry