By Gloria Stravelli
RUMSON – Waterspirit, an ecological and spiritual ministry based at the First Presbyterian Church on River Road, continues to offer a full schedule of programming by hosting virtual events, including the Global Climate Strike, as well as workshops, meetings, even meditation sessions, effectively handling the social distancing constraints imposed by the pandemic.
“The Waterspirit community is more open and accessible than ever,” said Blair Nelsen, executive director of Waterspirit. “For the time being, we’re operating online so people can tune in from their homes, connect with the cycles of the Earth and with each other.
“Once we’re hosting in person, everybody is invited to Rumson.”
According to the website, Waterspirit’s mission is to inform, inspire and enable “all people to deepen their consciousness of the sacredness and interdependence of all creation with a focus on water as critical in sustaining all life.”
Social distancing mandates are not a barrier to Waterspirit’s full schedule of programs, workshops, learning and reflection that have continued to take place virtually.
Nelsen led Waterspirit’s participation in the digital Global Climate Strike March 19; a virtual Spring Equinox Celebration was held March 20; and World Water Day was observed virtually March 22. In addition, multiple recurring meetings were hosted virtually.
According to the website, waterspirit.org, Waterspirit “is an ecology and spirituality program which, through education, reflection, action and celebration, deepens appreciation of water and its place in the community of life, increases understanding of water issues, and empowers people to participate in the protection and preservation of water.”
Sister Suzanne Golas, who founded the ministry, envisioned its mission as providing “a center of ecology and spirituality that informs, inspires and enables all people to deepen their consciousness of the sacredness and interdependence of all creation with a focus on water as critical in sustaining all life.”
Nelsen has wholeheartedly taken up the work of her predecessor, a member of the Roman Catholic Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, which founded Waterspirit in 1998 at Stella Maris Retreat Center in Elberon.
Golas, who is now retired, proposed the order establish an environmental center focused on the ocean. She thought it would foster understanding of the interdependence of all creation and the importance of water and coastal environmental issues and empower action on those issues.
A few years after Stella Maris sustained damage during Super Storm Sandy in 2012, the religious order decided to sell the property. First Presbyterian Church welcomed Waterspirit to its new home on River Road, near the Navesink River, in 2017.
“I am grateful to my predecessor, Sr. Suzanne, for being in the vanguard of this movement,” said Nelsen, who came to Waterspirit in 2019. “I get to build on a long and beautiful legacy before me.”
According to Nelsen, converging emergencies make this a crucial time to address climate issues.
“The world is primed to address the climate emergency in a way that it wasn’t even 10 years ago,” she said. “Because we are in a climate emergency and in the midst of a COVID emergency, we recognize the need.
“The two aren’t separate – both are urgent. Much of the reactions to both of them are similar: anxiety, grief, post-traumatic stress.
“I do think that we have a number of solutions for addressing the climate crisis on hand. We’re in a moment of particular change, there’s real hope in it,” she said. “We need solutions now. We are in a long walk together.”
An Atlantic Highlands resident, Nelsen said she derives a sense of hope for the future from the growing awareness that the oceans have a profound influence on climate.
“It’s crucial to the way forward,” she said. “Last February I was at a preliminary conference for the United Nations Ocean Conference … and a number of countries were working in the awareness that ocean water is life and the oceans will play a major role in facing this climate emergency only if oceans are integrated into what we do on land. Ecological thinking is what’s going to get us through this.
She noted that the climate crisis is intertwined with other social issues, including racism and classism.
“When we’re doing this work, we are touching on all the aspects of the problem at once,” she said. “And because we are facing massive systemic problems it is really easy to feel overwhelmed, really easy to fall into despair, to feel climate grief, eco-anxiety.
“What gives me hope,” she said, “is so many people are doing the work. It is not an empty optimism. We can sit with this, knowing everybody is doing everything they can.”
Waterspirit offers programs to address the need for personal and systemic transformation, Nelsen explained, including educational programs for schools on ocean pollution, microplastics and programs for Christian audiences about the pope’s encyclical about climate change.
“For people looking for community and a different way of connecting with the Earth we offer ‘Mediation for Earth’ on YouTube, equinox and solstice (celebrations) through YouTube and Zoom that used to happen in the sanctuary. We have a book club.”
Nelsen graduated Brown University with a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies, with training in both environmental and religious studies, and earned a master’s degree at Yale Divinity School. In between, she spent time in Brazil and was, she said, deeply impacted by the ecology of the Amazon.
When Golas was retiring, Nelsen was job hunting.
“I was looking around for where could I apply these skills now that I’d graduated and Sr. Suzanne was going to retire at Waterspirit,” she said. “They were advertising for her position and in a work of divine synchronicity it appeared just at the right time and I’m so honored that I get to carry on this work.”
According to Nelsen, persevering in the face of overwhelming systemic problems such as the pandemic, requires personal consistency.
“Use a daily practice of prayer, gratitude, dancing and walking in the woods and do it every single day,” she said. “It’s communicating, daily recharging through that spiritual practice and from there identify your particular gifts.
“Ultimately we are working from a place of love for each other and for the planet… the Earth heals us, as we heal her in turn. Of course she’s going to take care of you, just as we have to take care of her.”
According to Nelsen, remembering you are not alone in the fight for this change can help keep overwhelming feelings at bay. “At every step, it is stronger in community,” she said.
“Water is life, water is scared, it connects us all to each other throughout time on this planet. This work of protecting clean, safe water for all is work everybody should be able to get behind. It is the basic element of life and we all have a responsibility to protect it in order to safeguard our future,” Nelsen said.
The article originally appeared in the March 25 – 31, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.
