Article August 25, 2003 Issue

GOD'S CONTROL of the environment

Rachel Crandell talks about some of the ways in which people of faith can contribute to the healing of our planet.

By Kim Shippey Senior Writer

ENVIRONMENTALIST, TEACHER, AUTHOR, and photographer Rachel Crandell likes to quote something once said by Felix Houphouët-Boigny, former president of Ivory Coast: "Man has gone to the moon, but he does not yet know how to make a flower, a tree, or a bird song. Let us keep our dear countries free from irreversible mistakes which would lead us in the future to long for the same birds and trees."

"People of faith have much to contribute to the healing of our planet," says Ms. Crandell. "If we are to retain control of our natural resources, the world has need of our prayers. I love to think of prayer as spiritualizing my thinking about whatever presents itself as out of whack, unwise, diseased, violent, polluted, unjust—and seeing through the problem to the truth of being."

We chatted informally on the phone while Crandell was waiting at a small airport in Alaska to board a bush plane that would fly her to Arctic Village, Alaska, where she was due to meet with the Gwich'in people.

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