IGF045 In Good Faith with Sister Joan Brown, New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light

Sister Maxine  
This is In Good Faith, a conversation about the experience of living faith in everyday life. I'm Sister Maxine, and my guest is Sister Joan Brown, Executive Director of New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light, working with people of faith and conscience in education, action, and policy advocacy around climate change and care of Earth. The organization works from the core belief that the act of care of the natural world is integral to spiritual life and social justice. She has worked on the issue of climate change with many groups such as Union of Concerned Scientists, and the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. Sister Joan is a member of the Sisters of St. Francis in Rochester, Minnesota. She joins me today from Albuquerque, where New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light is based. Welcome, Joan. Thank you for being here.

Sister Joan  
Maxine, it's my delight. Thank you. It's just a joy.

Sister Maxine  
You're the director of New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light. And before we talk a little bit more about the organization and your role, let's talk about the journey that brought you to this point. I understand you grew up in Kansas and you became a sister with Rochester Minnesota Franciscans. And now here you are in New Mexico. If we were to connect the dots on that journey, what would some of the main points be? Were there family members or other influences on the direction that you ultimately took?

Sister Joan  
Yes, thanks for that question. So I grew up in Kansas on a small farm near Olpe, Kansas, in the Bluestem prairieland area. There was always a lot of work on the farm. But I also had a sister, Carol, and she's still with me--she has Down Syndrome--who was very influential in helping me grow in compassion and love. And then, of course, the Catholic school that I went to was taught by Franciscan Sisters from Colorado Springs, and they were wonderful. And after high school, I was accepted into St. Mary College in Leavenworth, Kansas, that was taught by Charity Sisters, and I got scholarships to go there. And that was just a marvelous experience. And actually it rooted me spiritually in a deeper way also. It was there that I met Ed Hays, and Shantivanam was just starting. And so I was introduced to Eastern spirituality and meditation, and the integration of that into Catholic prayer. And that was just wonderful. So at college, I got a degree in English literature and minor in writing and journalism, and theology. And after college, I worked for a newspaper in Kansas City. And it was like there was something missing in my life. And so I found out about volunteers, which are volunteers in diocesan action at that time in southern Colorado, which was a poor diocese, the Pueblo diocese with Bishop Buswell. So I got accepted into that program and worked for a newspaper there, met some wonderful friends, lived in community. And that's where I met the Rochester Minnesota Franciscans. And I was just very moved by their spirituality, their care for the economically poor, for social justice, and their joy of life. Like we'd go camping and we'd have wonderful singing and prayer. And it just moved me and so I decided to see if they would accept me and I ended up entering the Franciscans in Rochester, and I was there for my incorporation. But then I really had loved the wide-open skies of Kansas and the Southwest. So I just headed back to the Southwest afterwards and have been out in the Southwest for decades now, working in a variety of ways. I lived with homeless women in Colorado Springs and worked in resistance community and soup kitchen and writing. I was a campus minister early on, and then I worked on the border also establishing with a couple of other sisters, a project called Tierra Madre, which was a self-help straw bale housing project on the border, realizing that housing was a need, but also that climate change was going to be adversely affecting mostly those who were economically challenged and so energy efficiency housing, etc. And then from there, I went to master's degree at California Institute of Integral Studies, studying with Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry's books that he had mentored, then found my way back to Albuquerque and spirituality ministry here.

Sister Maxine  
As you describe your journey to this point, it has taken many different kinds of turns. For people who may find themselves in the position and that similar position of "Where's God calling me? It seems this direction, and this direction, and this direction." What might you say to somebody who is in the middle of that search right now?

Sister Joan  
In my own life, I found that those different directions are always one direction. And that one direction is into the heart of God, the holy, and expressing love in the world, and to not be discouraged. And when things are difficult to not think that that is the end of everything, or that there's never going to be a light or newness again. But that that light, the love, the direction does come. And that's been the case in my life as well. And what has helped me along the way are deep times of retreat, and retreat actually in the natural world.

Sister Maxine  
When you say the retreat in the natural world, what kind of gift does that give you in terms of the insight that you need to move forward, or maybe the consolation?

Sister Joan  
It offers a time for deep listening to other wisdom and that quiet, almost imperceivable voice of the Holy, that speaks to every single element in the entire planet and world. So one very formative retreat was a camping retreat that I made for a month, right before I made final vows in Colorado. And there was a moment that I had there with the aspen trees, and I was just seeking directions, and what is my life, my real direction to be? And the aspen trees spoke to me, and they said, "You are to care for the world, for this earth, which is precious, and you are our voice and our heart for action." And then, at another point in my life, when I was just really, really in a dark place and wondering, "Where am I to use my gifts? What am I to do?" I made a two-month retreat in a hermitage at the Forest of Peace outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma. And during that retreat, I was smelling fire all the time. And I was just like, rather alarmed. I thought, "What is this?" And when I'd walk, go for a walk, I thought, "Well, did I leave a candle lit? Did my hermitage burn down?" But I'd go back, and everything was fine. And I would just meditate and walk and listen to the earth and pray with the community. And then one day, after meditation, I was asking for what is my essence. And that was the only question of the retreat for two whole months. And the word came to me hearth, h e a r t h. Well, I thought this is really a strange word. I mean, nobody even uses that word anymore. But as I sat with it, it was my call to be this hearth, a loving fire for the earth. And in that word is ear and hear and earth and heart. And the fire that I kept smelling was a speaking of climate change. And that while I had already been working in that area, and with concern, that I needed to somehow go deeper, and learn how that was to be, and how I could be this heart, and this hearth for love and change in our world. So those are just two examples. And then, on this path in working with climate change, there are also some very stark moments that even moved me farther and more deeply into that spiritual path of action.

Sister Maxine  
When was it that you sensed that God was calling you to Interfaith Power and Light as part of being that hearth?

Sister Joan  
After I got my master's degree, and it was really a studying with Brian Swimme, and Joanna Macy, and some of those folks and others who had been influenced by Thomas Berry, who has been a great mentor in my life, through his writings and a retreat that I made with him, getting that master's degree in religion and cosmology. It was during that time that I just felt I had to deepen this work with climate change. So when I came back to New Mexico after that master's degree, there was nothing established, no institution or place for me, but I did know that religious traditions were not taking climate change seriously. And so I, with some other folks, began a nonprofit called Partnership for Earth Spirituality to help people of spiritual traditions longing to have expression of that, and also to be engaged more deeply in these great Earth challenges that we have. And then from there, what evolved is Sally Bingham, who started Interfaith Power and Light, made a call to an Episcopal minister in New Mexico, saying, "We have to start this in New Mexico." I was already part of a little group of Earth spirituality that was ecumenical. And so we just started a steering committee and began setting out to do this work.

Sister Maxine  
Why was it so significant for this to be an interfaith endeavor?

Sister Joan  
In my living as a Catholic, I realize I know deeply--and it's a heartache to me, actually--that most Catholic parishes, Catholic leaders up until Pope Francis, were not taking care of the earth seriously. This was sort of like a side kind of thing; we have all this direct service to do, we don't get engaged in public policy advocacy. And the earth, certainly we don't advocate with that; we have all these issues of poverty and immigration and all these things to take care of. So there was never in the Catholic tradition, that urgency, that sense in some of the other faith traditions that already was existing. And so it just seemed like, we're in a moment where we're moving into a new way of understanding religion, religious traditions, that we all have to work together at this greatest ethical moral crisis of our time, which is climate change. So it just made sense that we have to be doing this as one people, one humanity on the planet.

Sister Maxine  
As part of that, calling, describe how you got from there into New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light.

Sister Joan  
We have a steering committee. And as I said, Sally Bingham, who was the foundress of Interfaith Power and Light, called us and so we began working. And I already had connections, because in the civic society, there was already an understanding that religious traditions had a great part to play in addressing climate change, even though the churches themselves did not see this. So I had been doing some contract work with Union of Concerned Scientists and some other groups. So I had these connections already, after having been here in this region for so many years, as well, with faith people and faith communities. We began using those connections and getting some congregations engaged and focusing the work with people in educating and inspiring them more, having events, and inviting people to be engaged in public policy. That's how it began. And also having people tell their stories of why they love the Earth, why they love New Mexico. And what is it that they didn't want to see lost?

Sister Maxine  
When you say having people tell their stories about the earth, what kinds of stories have you heard?

Sister Joan  
I still remember poignantly, this one story of a farmer in southern New Mexico, and here in New Mexico, because we're so arid, we use irrigation water for farming. And so her story was that she loves New Mexico, and she loves farming. One spring, they walked down to the Rio Grande River, her and her brother, and she said, "The only water I saw were the tears in my eyes." Because the Rio Grande--grand, big river--was sandy and dry. And young people were playing volleyball in the riverbed. That story really spoke to me. And so actually, this work has been one of really listening to and gathering lots and lots of stories. When I went to the UN climate meeting in 2009 in Copenhagen, again, that was a pivotal point for me to even deepen this commitment. I was so moved by the women from Africa saying that they used to know seasons, they could grow their food. And most of the farmers there are women, or the majority. But they couldn't anymore. And they were hungry, and they just wanted their seasons back. And the story of a woman from Bangladesh, who had been through two major typhoons, the death of her husband, and now homelessness, and not having a family even to embrace her. And with her children saying, "There's no place to live. Everything is underwater. Where am I going to live?" So I felt my own life is just very privileged and to hear again and again, these stories and many, many others--it's a joy and a grace to be able to work with people, and to try to shift our worldviews and our consciousness. This isn't just an issue. This is a whole shift of humanity and how we have to move forward.

Sister Maxine  
At New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light, how are you helping that shift to occur? You had mentioned earlier some of the events that take place, and I did visit the event page on your website. And it looks like there's some really marvelous things. And I would encourage listeners to go check that out. We'll put the links, of course, to the website on the shownotes of the podcast, but what are some of the recent activities that you've done that speak to the need to assist with climate change, but to also assist with that internal transformation that is needed, that you've spoken of, the transformation of the heart?

Sister Joan  
It is a transformation of the heart, and then how we live--and a lot of healing has to happen in that. Just some events have happened. Representative Deb Haaland, the first indigenous woman, first indigenous person is now a cabinet member, and the Secretary of Interior. And I have to say that it's not an event, but it's working with diverse peoples and populations in this state, including one of our board members who is Native American, and who knows Deb very well, that are part of what we do. And that part of that is healing. And it's healing past wounds of colonization, and the doctrine of discovery. And so it's a ministry of healing and repairing, of listening to the people of this state, listening to the Pueblo women as they dance barefoot on the earth, at their ceremonies, at their prayers, and all of that, to me, it's really interesting. It echoes St. Francis and St. Clare, that everybody and everything is brother and kin. And so that spills out into our programs. And what we do is that deep spirituality of healing and seeing everything as kin.

Sister Maxine  
We're going to pause for a brief break. This is In Good Faith, a program of A Nun's Life Ministry. We want to thank our sponsors, and individual donors like you, whose support makes the In Good Faith program possible. Please visit anunslife.org to make a donation or to become a sponsor of the ministry. We'll be right back.

Welcome back, this is Sister Maxine of A Nun's Life Ministry and my guest, Sister Joan Brown, Executive Director of New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light, working with people of faith and conscience in education, action, and policy advocacy around climate change, and care of Earth. Joan, before the break, you spoke about the spirituality of healing and how at New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light, that infuses everything you do. Could you describe more of what that means, how that looks in terms of your programming?

Sister Joan  
Recently, we planted some trees, and this is part of our Forest of Bliss Project to assist climate change. But in this instance, it was bringing together in prayer and this planting this whole year of COVID. And we planted these trees in remembrance of people who had died this year--from COVID, but also from the racial injustice, from poverty from health inequity. Our Navajo people in our state were among the largest percentage-wise of people that died from COVID because of lack of water and electricity. And so this particular project, the Forest of Bliss, brings together all of those social justice concerns, and also is directed towards climate change. And it's a very hands-on thing. So that's one thing that we did. It really is very much in line with integral ecology, and connecting the dots and seeing everything as one, that Pope Francis speaks of. We also have done a lot of energy efficiency in houses of worship and installation of solar. That's ongoing with our Cool Congregations Program and encouraging Green Teams.

Sister Maxine  
Talk a little bit more about that. What are some of the ways that you work with churches to do that? What are some of the projects you've done?

Sister Joan  
We encourage our congregations to have Green Teams that then incorporate the earth and spirituality into their worship services. Like in the month of April, we work with the National IPL to have a month of faith and climate action, where there are sermons and prayers. And then there are films. And there's usually a postcard action--this year, it's around agriculture--that is a simple way for people to get engaged in public policy advocacy. So these green teams and the folks in the different faith congregations are involved in that. We've had a number of congregations put up solar. One that I just love is the Norbertine community here. And they did a Pope Francis solar field, and I just love the picture that they have of them doing this. That's another area that the big communities get engaged in. And then, of course, the legislative session here in New Mexico, there have been so many people of faith here, doing public policy advocacy, trying to get some bills through our state legislature on solar, on pollution, that needs to be addressed, because in many ways, we're a sacrifice zone state. We have the legacy issues of uranium mining. And right now we have the Permian Basin--we're number three in oil and gas production in the country and emission of methane. So with that, we've also worked with faith leaders in the southeast part of the state to initiate and grow a group called Citizens Caring for the Future, that really is looking at the effects of health and on workers and the environment, on oil and gas, and how do we begin to transition our economy and have a just transition where all voices in local frontline communities are engaged.

Sister Maxine  
And I'm going to ask you a little bit more about the Permian Basin, in particular, in just a moment. But to go back to the churches and the people of faith that you work with, what faith traditions are part of this work?

Sister Joan  
Yeah, it is so rich, it is every tradition. We have folks who are Buddhist and Baha’i and indigenous and Catholics and the Protestant denominations, and Jewish and Muslim, I mean, all of those traditions. On our board, we have representatives from most of those traditions. So that's been very rich, and in terms of learning about each spiritual tradition, but also working together in a collective way, where often we see religious traditions in conflict. And some of our wars throughout the world are because of conflicts with religious traditions. So this is setting also a model of healing in the process of our work together.

Sister Maxine  
As we're talking, I can't help but think, with the work of climate change, it's climate in a big way. It is climate, the climate in our world, how we are with each other, is connected with how we are with the earth.

Sister Joan  
Yes, that is very true. And you know what I say, Maxine? I say the biggest climate change that has to happen is a climate change of the heart, a climate change of our souls, a climate change of how we work together. And so this very drastic situation that we find ourselves in, where people are suffering all over the planet, and are continuing to, and will be more by the droughts, the fires, the floods--it's also a call to us for a transformation and for deeper loving and deeper working together. And that is a climate change of the heart.

Sister Maxine  
You had mentioned earlier, Tierra Madre, the straw bale project for housing, and I thought how very creative and how unconventional. Do you think that projects like Tierra Madre are part of what helped people believe that there are ways of addressing problems of climate different ways in the past?

Sister Joan  
I do, Maxine, and there is so much creativity out there. Another project that actually I was in the initial ground of starting, which is just an inspiration, is another creative project on the Navajo Nation--the lands--there are some 40,000 households that have no electricity. Because of that they don't have ability to cool medicines like diabetic medicine, and there's no running water. So I was with several women, and these were interfaith women, Buddhist, Catholic, Methodist. And we were together to be with Jane Goodall a number of years ago, when she came to Albuquerque, and we were invited to a special event. And she planted this tree, and she had all the children kiss the leaves of the tree. After this, we were so moved. And we were talking, and we said, "We have to do something about more solar in our state." From that was birthed Gallup Solar with these women who knew nothing about solar. And it now is training, working with Navajo--and the Navajo are the leaders--for these small solar units to help people, especially elders, have electricity for their medicines, and to have some light and to make their life a little bit more easy as they live in a traditional way. And that's just one of many creative kinds of initiatives that are coming forth.

Sister Maxine  
You had mentioned earlier to about the national Interfaith Power and Light. Can you say more about that at the national level, and how you in New Mexico are connected?

Sister Joan  
Yes, so national Interfaith Power and Light, there are about 40 state affiliates. And what I love about Interfaith Power and Light, is there is the national and there are some national programs that we work with, like I had mentioned the month of faith and climate action. We have someone in Washington working at the federal level, on climate change issues, and that feeds into us. So we're informed and can act in that way. And some other programs like carbon calculators and things like that. So the 40 state affiliates have this help from the national, but we have the freedom to do what we need to do in our states, because every state, every region, is so unique. So it's a really good balance of national and local engagement. And so New Mexico is one of the 40 state affiliates, and we have been for about 15 years now. And it's just been a great relationship. And we've engaged a number of people who are inspired and now active.

Sister Maxine  
When you say that it allows that kind of a structure, then every area has some of its own unique needs. And you were talking earlier about some of those in New Mexico, some of the legacy issues. As you deal with some of those issues, especially I think, around the Permian Basin--not only because it's a huge source of oil and gas, but also employment in the area--how do you approach advocacy around some of those issues, with legislators, in particular, who are concerned about their constituencies?

Sister Joan  
Maxine, you've hit on a huge challenge we're facing in this state. We have to be very sensitive to the workers and to the people in the area. And so our stance in this is really an ethical moral stance, and that we have to hold all of those complexities together. And as we do that, we listen to the frontline communities in the Permian Basin, and work with them and their concerns. So we're starting with the health concerns, with the worker concerns. And they too are concerned about climate change, the faith people and faith leaders down there. But it's working with the environment along with the human impacts. And so then trying to work in our state, coming up with creative ideas, working with our legislators, saying we need to have a just transition and economic diversity. We have to figure this out as we go. But no one is demonized, and cannot be demonized. So we take a slightly different path sometimes than some of the environmental groups, because we're trying to hold this and saying that we're all in this together, and I am the oil worker in the fields in the Permian. I'm just trying to make a living for my family. How do we do this transition and change policy and change actual lives of people so that every person has dignity, as well as caring for the earth and our neighbors who are thousands of miles away on island nations or in Bangladesh or in Africa?

Sister Maxine  
May I ask if you have friends or family who work in gas and oil, and does that affect your relationship?

Sister Joan  
I did have a niece and her husband did work in the oil field in Kansas, but he doesn't any longer. I have to say, I love my family no matter what, and I love my niece no matter what. And actually, that really is a hard lesson in how to move forward with this. In the Permian Basin, I have become such dear friends with these folks from Citizens Caring for the Future that we work with. So whenever I'm working, I always sort of frame what I'm doing and saying in their reality, and how for them even to speak out down there takes a lot of courage. And so those kinds of relationships influence how I speak and act and how I work with our New Mexico network of folks and how we're present at hearings and meetings, and try to come from this ethical and spiritual perspective that holds everyone as brother and sister and the earth as part of our kin.

Sister Maxine  
That is a wonderful thing, that it is not, by its nature, oppositional. Bringing people together, and recognizing there are people trying to make a living, and honoring that, as part of as part of the conversation.

Sister Joan  
Yeah, and we have to be, but it is not easy. And it requires a lot of discernment and soul searching and saying, "Oh, I made a mistake there," or "We need to address it in this way." But it kind of goes back to when I started doing this ministry here in New Mexico. What kept coming to me always was that no matter what the work was, the whole ministry was one of healing. And in everything that we do, that is underlying. It's healing and love. Because this state, you know, there's been so much colonization and so much abuse of the land, taking advantage of people--we're not going to move into the future unless we also heal these wounds of the past and be part of an evolutionary love in the work that we do. In the hard work, and it is hard work.

Sister Maxine  
What are some of the other more local issues, let's say in the Albuquerque area, or in that region, that New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light has worked with fairly recently?

Sister Joan  
One that is ongoing, and it really pollutes the whole state. But there's kind of a special focus here in Albuquerque, because the Rio Grande River runs through our city, is water. We are right now--90% of the state--is in exceptional drought. That's a new category created a few years ago, because the drought was going beyond extreme. With climate change, we will be suffering more of these droughts. And so we're one of a unity base part of looking at a Middle Rio Grande Water Plan. We have invited several other faith communities to be part of this. The Mennonite Church has a program called Watershed Way that they've been working on, sort of re envisioning themselves as watershed people. So they're part of these conversations and creating some policies and a way forward. Also the Unitarians, I invited to be part of this, because part of the Rio Grande they have been caring for, they've adopted part of the river and the bosque, or the forest area right by the river, and help clean that and take out invasive species, and other faith communities have joined them in doing that as well. So I have to say right now, in our state, one of the major, major concerns is water. And climate change is just impacting us and creating this to be more of a challenge into the future. So that's one of the immediate things that we're focusing on right now, as well. And I have to say, through COVID, we've also just been very aware of and engaged in this work in more racial justice, economic equity and justice, and incorporating that even more strongly into our work. And so that's been a focus, as well. And because of COVID, everything has had to be online. It's a stretch to us, so that we have been creating different videos of prayers and issues, and our program here is being heard on Earth Day. You can find this particular video on the website, focusing around a World Water Day, that was March 22. So we've been doing some of those kinds of things as well.

Sister Maxine  

It sounds like you definitely stay busy on several significant issues. And earlier you had talked about climate change and its relationship to poverty. Could you say more about that?

Sister Joan  

With climate change, those who are most economically poor are going to be, and are, affected the most. And so for instance, in our state, some of those people are people based with the land, and growing some of their food and working that way. And as we have less water and more drought, that food production becomes more challenging. The years can become leaner, our native peoples have traditionally gathered food and healing herbs from the land, and some of those they can no longer find. So there's a direct link with poverty, and then also with immigration. So we really do try to work with this integral ecology. And for years now, we've been making the connections or connecting the dots, because we're a border state. So with immigration, and why all of these folks are coming here to us, especially from Central America. And also now beginning to from Africa as well. And it's political unrest, but a lot of that political unrest is exacerbated because of climate change. Another story that sticks with me is, during one of the waves of huge numbers, hundreds of migrants coming from Central America several years ago, I went to the border to volunteer, and I talked with a farmer that was there, a campesino with his little daughter. And I said, "Why did you come? It's a difficult, dangerous journey." He said, "We had no choice. I've not been able to grow any food. For three years, my family is starving." And so we have to make these links, these connections. It isn't just a direct service. It isn't just economic poverty. It's systems. It's systems that are all kind of imploding on one another right now. And we do need to see that and then, in our own ways, act for change.

Sister Maxine  
As you talk about the systems imploding, and the implications, I can imagine this only growing in scale. We all live in this climate, and we all will be affected--some of us more profoundly, at least initially, than others. So the importance of this is--I mean, I think that touches everyone's life.

Sister Joan  
It does. And I think with this message, I think it's important for people to recognize that, you know, many people see these challenges, and they watch the news, and they hear about this, and they either feel great sorrow in their heart, and try to figure out what to do next--or they say, "It's too big, I can't go there." I talked to some young adults once and I said, "Do your friends, do you, talk about climate change, or these things?" They say, "Oh, no, we don't do that. That's a bummer of a day. We talk about movies and all these things." And yet there are some other young adults that we're working with who want to face this.

Sister Maxine  
What kinds of activities do you do with young adults to bring them along spiritually and to bring them along experientially and intellectually?

Sister Joan  
We do quite a bit of mentoring, I have to say, but it's not with lots of young adults, it's with a few. We work with them to have programs where they can talk to one another. We have one talking about elections and why voting is a spiritual practice, and integrating spirituality into their concerns, the conversations. We're working on having something using some of the tools of Joanna Macy, and coming back to life and addressing fear, or huge questions and sorrow with the state of the world. I think that's real important. Another story comes to me, a dear young woman that I work with, and she's a dear friend now. We had an event and it was with one of Joanna Macy's pieces, where you go to a quadrant and pick up an object, and she picked up an object and she said, "This object reminds me of fear. And the greatest fear I have is that I won't know how to act, or have enough courage to be with all the suffering that I'm going to see in my life as climate change affects us more." That really has stayed with me and put me with--in my small little imagination--what young people are feeling and how can we offer spiritual tools and a spiritual bedrock and grounding to not only walk through the days ahead, but how to be creative elements of change, of compassion, of community and creating community.

Sister Maxine  
We'll pause for a brief break. This is In Good Faith, a program of A Nun's Life Ministry. We want to thank our sponsors and individual donors like you, whose support makes the In Good Faith program possible. Please visit anunslife.org to make a donation or to become a sponsor of the ministry. We'll be right back.

Welcome back, you are listening to Sister Maxine of A Nun's Life Ministry and my guest, Sister Joan Brown, Executive Director of New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light. You can hear previous episodes of In Good Faith on our website at anunlife.org. And you can subscribe to all our podcasts in all the places where you get your podcasts. Joan, before the break, you talked about how given the scope of climate issues and their implications for poverty and hunger, there's not only a need to work on the issues themselves, but also to inspire hope, and to encourage others--including young people--along the way. That sounds like a big part of the work that you do

Sister Joan  
It is, and giving people some of those tools, like having events that help teach people. We've done a Just Faith event on sacred land, sacred farming, and food. And we've been using the book Braiding Sweetgrass, which is a marvelous book I would recommend to the listeners if they have not explored that, of trying to help people understand their oneness with all of creation and with one another, and reflecting in these deep spiritual ways. So that's a program that's really helped people, and then moves into the practical of growing food, of eating local food. The actions that we do are important, and everybody, I think, is inundated with, you know, try to buy local, to grow a little bit of your food, if not all of it, recycling. But I think what is underlying--these are not issues. We have to have these as spiritual practices of how we live, and that growing as a spiritual person, in this moment, is the most important thing. But that that is not just an individual spirituality; it is communal, with the earth, and with everyone on the planet, with my neighbors. And that's a challenge. Some days, I just feel overwhelmed. And I walk every morning by the irrigation ditches, and I see the mountains on one side to the east, the sun rising, and to the west, I see the volcanoes that created this valley. One morning as I was walking--I often chant this song, "Wherever you go, there is the face of God." And I just and I love trees, and I just kept thinking as I saw the trees, "Trees, you know what you're doing! You photosynthesize every day and create oxygen for everybody. What am I supposed to do?" And as the sun was rising, and I was taking in that light, I realized in a new way that my call was to photosynthesize the light of God of all this beauty, this gift that I've given each day, into love, and that I'm photosynthesizing love. And that love takes form in the work that I do, my hands in the soil and the food that I grow, in the phone calls that I make, in the events that I plan with people, in talking to legislators at our legislative session--whatever it is. I'm called in a deep, amazing way to photosynthesize love, and that is the oxygen, the transformation that I am to be about, that we humans are to be about on our common home.

Sister Maxine  
Do you think that is the capacity that every person can tap into?

Sister Joan  
I totally know that that is what we're called to, every one of us as human beings. People say, "Well, you know, climate change is so horrible. The Earth can go on without us." Yes and no. We have been part of this evolutionary process of the whole cosmos and of this very special precious planet, our common home the earth, and we have a place in this. And this whole earth, and the planet and the creatures and everyone, would be very sad if we were no longer here. And what is our role? And I think that this crisis that we're in is calling us to dig deeper, reflect what is my place as a human being on this planet right now. And I do believe it is, ultimately, to be love, to grow in love, in this holy love. And to put that in action for caring for one another, creating community, and transforming some of these challenges that we have.

Sister Maxine  
As you were describing what brought you to that realization, it occurs to me that there's been a pattern also in your life of incredible mindfulness, about the world around you. Do you think that is an essential ingredient, so that if people want to have that relationship with Earth as a spiritual practice, that mindfulness would be a way to do that? Just as you were saying, going for walks and just taking care to notice the world around us?

Sister Joan  
Yes, absolutely, Maxine, and I think we're living in a moment where we're invited into that more deeply, and this past year with COVID-19 has been a big part of that also. But we're also in a world with many, many distractions--you know, the cell phone all the time, or scrolling through the phone for Facebook, or whatever. Those are tools that can help us, but they can also distract us away from learning about ourselves, learning about ourselves in communion with others. And that mindfulness. Just to--like you're saying--go for a walk without a phone. So a story I'm reminded me of again, is my sister, Carol, who, because of her Down Syndrome, doesn't have real good vocal expression. So we were with family one day and we were talking, talking, and she kept saying something. Nobody was listening. Finally, she was pounding me on the shoulder, and she said, "Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me. You're not listening to me." And I think our souls are probably tapping us on the shoulder and saying, “You're not listening to the beauty around you. You're not listening to the world, you're not listening to who you can become, without so many distractions.” So absolutely mindfulness, sitting meditation, or even just sitting in the sunshine and being still an allowing whatever to speak to one's heart.

Sister Maxine  
April is the 20th anniversary of the National Interfaith Power and Light. As being connected to that group, what do you celebrate about 20 years of Interfaith Power and Light? What to you is one of the greatest celebrations of that?

Sister Joan  
I think it's just sort of a miracle that it happened. Sally Bingham, who began Interfaith Power and Light, was just an ordinary mother. And she wondered why her Episcopal Church wasn't caring for creation or even having sermons about this. She went to her pastor, he said, "Well, why don't you go to school and learn?" She had to get a bachelor's degree, then a master's degree. And she went back to him, and she says, "Well, this is why." He said, "Well, maybe you need to be ordained now." So she became ordained, and her ministry was what became Interfaith Power and Light. But she began it as getting solar energy for churches. And so that's why we have this interesting name, Interfaith Power and Light--you can play with those words quite a bit. But then from that, just in California, there was such a thirst and seeing a need for this, other states said, "Could we be part of this?" And that was never her intent. And isn't that what happens to us on this holy journey that each of us is on? We're just little human beings, but we have souls that can be so large, if we're listening to the creativity flowing through us, the light and love flowing through us, that these kinds of things can happen. So Interfaith Power and Light is all over the country. It's made lots of impacts, putting solar on houses of worship, inspiring people, advocating for policy change. So I think just the miracle of how things like this begin with each of us.

Sister Maxine  
As you consider New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light, and your work there in the work of so many other people, if you were to look, let's say 10 or 20 years into the future, what would you love to see in that? To say, "You know what, I am glad that all of us were part of making that happen."

Sister Joan  
Actually, that's a very moving question. I find tears sort of welling up as you ask it. Looking into that future, I guess I would like to see so much more diversity, all kinds of people caring for this beautiful place of New Mexico. That there are less people being taken advantage of by corporate interests and pollution. And I see young people, people who are young people now, and who are growing and including other young people in this sacred journey. And many of those are not part of religious traditions. And so I see that into the future as well. But I see them creating spiritual communities in new ways that then are transforming society and creating justice and healing in very creative ways.

Sister Maxine  
Thank you so much, Joan, for this conversation today. I so appreciate the ministry that you do, and the great care you bring for people and the earth.

Sister Joan  
Maxine, thank you. This has just been a very humbling honor to be with you. And I just pray that maybe even if two words for your listeners touch their hearts and help move them to a new place of love and beauty, resilience and action, it's worth it. So thank you so much.

Sister Maxine  
In Good Faith is a production of A Nun's Life Ministry, helping people discover and grow in their vocation by engaging questions about God, faith and religious life. This program is made possible through the grace of God and the support of the sponsors of A Nun's Life Ministry, and you, our listeners. Visit us at anunslife.org. God bless.