The modern environmental movement has its roots in the idea that we humans have obligations not just to other people, but to the earth itself.
In the United States that thinking goes back to the early part of the last century with the writings of conservationist Aldo Leopold.
Now that the effects of global climate change are showing themselves more clearly, a new group of people are arguing that the environmental movement needs to reclaim its spiritual roots in order to succeed.
One of those voices belongs to Steve Blackmer, an Episcopal priest and founder of a spiritual community based in Canterbury, New Hampshire. It’s called Kairos Earth and it ties together spirituality, caring for the environment, and spending time in nature.
Blackmer has had an unusual path to the priesthood. For 30 years he worked as a conservationist in the woods of northern New England. Then he decided there was a more powerful way to get people to connect with the earth.
"Because in the end, science is value-neutral," he told WCAI. "It tells us what’s going on, how things work, but it doesn’t tell us, by itself, why they matter."
Kairos Earth started holding worship services in the woods of New Hampshire about a year ago, and so far, about a thousand people have participated.