Anna Shine is an Episcopal parish priest in Boone, North Carolina. Her focus, both during her education and now in her work, has been ‘creation care,’ which is theologically motivated environmentalism. She sees food security and climate change as intrinsically Christian issues, with representation and instruction present in scripture. And she’s not alone. Other church leaders in the South—who continue to hold sway that clergy in less religious parts of the country may not—are also renewing their commitment to environmental issues. In Black churches, where the connections between ecology and religion have been severed by the history of slavery, those conversations are particularly important and, some leaders say, timely.
This episode was reported and produced by Irina Zhorov.
Thank you to Blue Dot Sessions for the music used to score this episode. Tracks include:
“Valantis”—Cauldron
“Rambling”—Calumet
“Idle Ways”—Duck Lake
“Eleven”—The Nocturne
Photo, top: Anna Shine is a priest in the Episcopal Church. She makes Creation Care, a theologically driven environmentalism, a core of her practice that includes teaching and acting on responsible food production and climate change responses. Photo by Irina Zhorov.