Mother Earth's sisters: more and more orders of religious women are "going green," renewing the earth while also revitalizing their communities.

Bright yellow daffodils (or jonquils, as they're called in these parts) brighten the hillsides every spring on the 700-acre home of the Dominican Sisters of St. Catharine, Kentucky. Bluebirds and wild canaries flit from branch to branch in the nearby woods while a herd of cows grazes on fenced-in pastureland. Meals invariably include homegrown vegetables from the on-site organic garden.

For these religious women God's creation is not some thing only to be read about in Genesis, it is right in their own backyard. And now it's something they're working to preserve for generations to come.

"As a congregation that's always responded to human needs, we now have realized an even deeper need--to respond to the needs of our suffering planet," says Sister Chris Loughlin, O.P., director of the Dominicans' Earth Learning Center in Crystal Spring, Massachusetts. "There's a new understanding that all of life plays a vital role in the system, and we have to begin to have a new relationship with that community of life."

Just as previous generations of women's religious orders focused on teaching or health care to respond to the needs of their time, a number of communities have begun to see environmental activism as part of their charism. Inspired by a new cosmology that reveals the ongoing creation of the world, and by theological reflection and creation spirituality that flows from that new story, many of these sisters have traded their habits for overalls and gotten their hands dirty--literally--in trying to save the planet.

Franciscans at Michaela Farm near Oldenburg, Indiana are restoring farmland and the prairie. Adrian Dominicans are preserving seedlines and publishing ecofeminist and ecospirituality books at Santuario Sisterfarm in San Antonio, Texas. Sisters of St. Joseph are using nature walks to help heal victims of domestic violence cared for in their shelter in Denver. And in Vermont two Passionist sisters have created a new Green Mountain Monastery specifically to focus on environmental education, spirituality, and justice.

Sarah McFarland Taylor, an assistant professor of religious studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illniois, has been studying what she calls the "green sisters movement" for a decade.

"There's a lot of talk about women's communities dying, but the green sisters movement demonstrates a countertrend of revitalization," she says. "These orders are experiencing a renewal in the most organic sense of the word."

Some are even attracting younger members from so-called "Generation Green," which places a high value on environmentalism. The sisters' eco-friendly lifestyle in some ways resembles the older monastic traditions, says McFarland Taylor, who explores the trend in her forthcoming book Green Sisters: Cultivating Earth Ministry, Ecojustice, and the Ecozoic Era (Harvard University Press).

"These women are real role models," she says. "It's fairly difficult to live light on the land, using as few of the earth's resources as possible--fasting from driving and using fossil fuels, growing your own food, using as little water as possible. It's not just an ethical choice, it's a spiritual choice. It permeates every aspect of life."

Like many other religious communities, the Kentucky Dominicans have long been active in other social justice movements, so environmental justice seemed like a natural extension of their ministry to the poor. McFarland Taylor notes that "green sisters" lack the elitist attitude of some environmental activists.

"This is not a break with what they've always been doing because it's the poorest of the poor who are suffering with dirty air and water," she says. "For these women, this is very much a movement for life and for ecojustice."

The Kentucky Dominicans began adding environmental justice to their list of concerns in the 1980s and '90s by creating environmental learning centers to educate their own members as well as others from the community.

At the motherhouse property in St. Catharine, a bright yellow and green sign with nine jonquils representing the founders of the congregation welcomes visitors to "Jonquil Ridge," seven acres of former pastureland now set aside to model simple and sustainable living. Two ecological retreat cabins there feature compost toilets, solar panels, and wood stoves and are available for visitors.

The ecological education center includes 150 acres of woodland complete with walking trails, 170 acres of water-conserving pastureland, and several acres of organic gardens, which provide fresh produce for a local farmer's market. The Dominicans also donated 15 acres to a state conservation program. It goes without saying that the sisters recycle.

"Here in Kentucky there is a growing awareness about the use of pesticides and what's in our air and water," says Sister Rose Marie Cummins, director of the Earth Center in St. Catharine. "As an American society we're consuming and exploiting natural resources in a way that's not sustainable. We need to find ways to restore health to the planet."

Outreach to the community is a part of the programs both in Kentucky and Massachusetts. At Crystal Spring an "Earth Passion" retreat during Holy Week always draws a crowd, as do the summer activities for children. A local beekeeper tends to the sisters' hives, which are critical for pollinating the wildflowers. And the nuns grow vegetables for themselves in a house garden and contribute to a community farm a few miles down the road.

This task is fitting for an order dedicated to preaching the truth, says Loughlin. "That's where the challenge comes in for us because we can no longer preach the old perceptions about our relationship to the earth," she says.

Not only are these women trying to be good stewards of the land during their own lifetimes, they're also taking steps to protect that land from the threats of sub urbanization, sprawl, and development in the future.

Women's religious communities own some of the most pristine land in the country, although many sold off property during the 1960s and '70s. Now dealing with declining numbers and aging members, many face the very real temptation to sell their land to developers.

To encourage religious communities to resist that urge, the Dominicans at Crystal Springs have formed the Religious Lands Conservancy Project by partnering with a statewide land conservation group.

"Aware that some of the most biodiverse lands are in the hands of religious congregations, we're attempting to bring together religious orders and land conservation groups to find a way to protect that land," says Loughlin, who is encouraging other orders to form similar partnerships.

"These congregations have held this land in sacred trust for many years," she says. "We hope to continue to do that in the future."

HEIDI SCHLUMPF, managing editor of U.S. CATHOLIC.