Every Thursday at noon, a sacred experience begins in Springfield, Ky.
At 11:45 a.m., I leave my office and walk to the public library, where our local Rotary Club meets weekly to share a meal, discuss our local service projects and/or hear from a guest speaker from our community.
To be clear, Rotary International is not a religious group, nor is the nonprofit for which I work, New Pioneers for a Sustainable Future. And yet, the simple act of gathering in community, listening to each other and sharing a meal feels sacred — especially in a rural community where connections, like cornbread recipes, run deep.
New Pioneers for a Sustainable Future is a nonprofit promoting sustainability through education and advocacy in central Kentucky. We’re building a grassroots movement to live lightly on the Earth — a mission that deeply aligns with the Archdiocese of Louisville Creation Care Team and the call of Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si’.”
Like many things in rural towns, the root of this work lies in community. Here, relationships are formed over Cattleman’s cookouts and church picnics. The mundane becomes meaningful when community comes together.
In his Lenten message, Pope Leo XIV calls us to listening, fasting and togetherness. During a time when our world is deeply divided, our communities are in crisis, and our environment is suffering at an unprecedented rate, this invitation to “find renewal in our faith and keep our hearts from being consumed by the anxieties and distractions of daily life” is welcome. If only it could be easy!
When I sit for lunch on Thursdays at noon, I enter a space that feels sacred because of the people around the table, the rituals being performed and the deep care for community shared by all. As someone who does not hail from a rural community, this is something I’ve come to love about life here: The ease in which daily interactions become special, even sacred. When I know the farmer raising my food and the workers preparing each ingredient, my connection goes far beyond one meal.
It is from this context that New Pioneers works to promote sustainability. We recognize that people want to protect and care for that which they love and understand, and this begins with fostering connections with our natural world and each other.
When we feel deeply rooted to our land and community, we can see beyond differences to the heart of people. This commitment to “togetherness” requires us to listen, learn and speak words of peace as we come to understand one another. It all begins with connection.
There is a thread underpinning relationships in rural communities that acknowledges that we are all in this together. We need each other — oftentimes relying on our neighbors for rides in the snow, favors to help mend a fence or even for chicken eggs.
My experience may not represent that of everyone living in a rural community, but I have found that promoting sustainability in rural spaces offers a beautiful vision of how we can come together; a path forward from the instability and insecurity so rampant in our world.
This Lent, may we embrace Pope Leo’s invitation by paying attention: Keeping our eyes and ears open to the needs of those around us, including the Earth. May we fast from unkind words as we see all species as connected, and may we allow this connection to challenge our lifestyles and habits so that we can truly support our communities and ecosystems.
And may we start soon, by getting out and sharing a meal this afternoon.
Julia Gerwe-Nicholson is executive director of New Pioneers for a Sustainable Future, working to promote sustainability in the rural central Kentucky counties of Nelson, Marion and Washington. She is an associate member of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth and lives in Danville, Ky., with her husband and cat.
