Sarah Louise Woodford, Canon for Communications & Media, and Margaret Sipple, Trinity Episcopal Church (Branford)
From my laptop, Margaret Sipple appeared on my screen. A parishioner of Trinity Episcopal Church in Branford, Connecticut, Margaret was Zooming with me from Weld, Maine, a place that has been a large part of her family since she was a child. “It was here that I first encountered and found a connection to nature,” she told me. In a cabin surrounded by pine and birch trees and the hills of Maine, we spoke about “Praying with Creation,” a new project with Province 1.
SW: “Margaret, thank you for joining me today, especially while you are on vacation up in Maine. Could you share with me about the ‘Praying with Creation’ daily devotions? What can a reader expect from them?”
MS: “‘Praying with Creation’ is a collaboration with The Episcopal Path to Creation Justice, the Province One EcoRegion, the Creation Care Ministry Network of ECCT, and the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts. It was a very simple idea that we would pray for a different animal, plant, or tree in Province 1 every day of the week throughout the season of Creation, which starts on September 1 and ends on St. Francis day in October.”
SW: “What do you hope readers will gain from the daily devotions?”
MS: “We really hope that readers will get to know their neighbors in their ecosystem. I love the baptismal prayer that says: ‘Give them an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love you and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works.’ We’re going to find and refine the gift of joy and wonder in God’s works in the world around us. I think the Church, like the rest of our current culture, has become very human-centered and forgetful of the rest of creation that God also loves. If we can bring our hearts back into the loving of that creation, we’ll be able to do a lot more than we’ve done in the past to help preserve it and heal it.”
SW: “How does ‘Praying with Creation help sustain the work of creation advocacy?”
MS: “I think one of the ways is simply by increasing our awareness of creation and what species and environments need in order to survive—to find the food they need, the water they need, the temperature they need. This awareness needs to be responded to with love. We know that Jesus teaches us to love and to view those who suffer with compassion. We need to expand our area of compassion to include our fellow creatures, because creation is groaning. There are actions that will help, and we can take those actions by conserving resources, by refusing to use pesticides in our yard, by reducing our trash, and by taking steps to convert to clean energy to help keep our climate from further warming..”
SW: “Do you find that your prayer life helps to sustain your creation justice work?”
MS: “I do. I really do. I’m always buoyed by gathering with my faith community in Trinity, Branford. We have a great Creation Care Team there and a very supportive Rector. This will be our fourth year of celebrating the Season of Creation. I really receive a lot of support in my faith and my environmental commitments at Trinity. I also have a personal prayer practice of meditation, which helps me be present to the Holy Spirit and to soften my heart to be receptive to the love we know Jesus taught us comes our way when we need to be courageous or persevering.”
SW: “Are there natural spaces in Province 1 where you feel closest to God?”
MS: “I often feel closest to the natural world when I’m here in Maine, in this little town of Weld. There’s a place called Center Hill where we used to go to pick blueberries, and still do when we’re in time. I often picture myself lying down on Center Hill with the sun coming down and warming me—that can very often help me get to the place of receptivity and presence to the Holy Spirit that I find I need. This is also the place where I first saw little tiny strawberries down in the grass, where I first saw the polliwogs swimming in the lake, where I first heard the loons and first saw the great Heron fly over the lake. So, this is a very important place to me.”
Interview has been edited.