by Josh Haner/The New York Times

Joseph Huff-Hannon emailed me a few weeks ago regarding an article he had just written for the New York Times about an order of Episcopal nuns who are building what will be the first “eco-convent” in New York City.  Well – I couldn’t let that one go by without checking it out, now could I?

It was about 10 years ago that the Episcopal sisters of the Community of the Holy Spirit began to discuss a mission to care for the environment. Their religion, they say, was their bridge to a green life and have proved this by applying their ecological principles at St. Hilda’s. They compost food scraps, recycle bottles and cans, use energy-efficient light bulbs and eat organic produce, most of it from an upstate farm. Sister Faith Margaret, Sister Claire Joy and Sister Leslie speak at conferences and gatherings about “how to green your life.”

One sister in particular, Helena Marie, had been a pioneer in prodding the nuns to make a priority of the environment in both their ministry and their way of life. Although Sister Helena Marie now lives with three other nuns at the community’s convent in Brewster, where the sisters run an organic operation called Bluestone Farm, her influence remains.

As with any community seeking to change old ways, transformation did not take place overnight.

“When she first started bringing it up,” Sister Faith Margaret said of Sister Helena Marie’s concerns, “some of us would roll our eyes. But she was very persistent. And at some point she broke through in a way that got us to think differently, and we started to do little bits at a time.”

Sister Helena Marie concurred.

“Let’s just say it didn’t go over too well at first,” she said from Bluestone Farm. “I think they thought it was too fluffy, and too crazy. And when I was pushing this idea — 10 years ago, 15 years ago — it wasn’t the thing to do.

“There was a big split in the community between people who wanted to have our ministry focus on healing the earth, and those who wanted to focus on healing people,” she added. “But for us, focusing on healing the earth is part of caring for people.”

Top: Josh Haner/The New York Times; bottom: BKSK Architects

Gradually, the sisters got greener. A few years ago, they sold their minivan and joined Zipcar, the car-sharing company. They began serving fair trade coffee to guests and growing vegetables in their backyard. Sister Faith Margaret and Sister Leslie began leading spiritual retreats around the country that offered a mix of prayer, silence and discussions about the environment.

In setting out to construct an environmentally advanced building to replace the trio of connected brownstones that they now call home, the sisters were taking a giant step in their decade-long journey to weave ecological concerns into their daily ministry. While they have long tried to reduce their carbon footprint at 113th Street, the new convent, for which construction will begin this month, will help them be green from the ground up.

The project is being handled by BKSK Architects who ultimately wooed them with a plan that features rooftop gardens, water heated by solar power, rainwater collection, natural light and ventilation and the use of environmentally sensitive materials throughout. BKSK is no stranger to this field; the firm has also designed a new green building at the Queens Botanical Garden and is drawing up plans for what will potentially be a new “eco-synagogue,” the Sephardic Synagogue, in Gravesend, Brooklyn.

The new structure will be a modern, four-story light-gray brick building. One of the two rooftop gardens, where vegetables and other plants will be grown, sits directly above the nuns’ bedrooms, or cells, helping to cool them in summer. Many of the internal surfaces will be made of recycled concrete and glass, and the two-story chapel, which is set off in the back of the building, will have clear glass skylights to allow abundant sunshine to filter in.

The order’s longest-standing member, the 87-year-old Sister Elise has lived in the community for more than 55 years. But she is not overly emotional at the prospect of moving to a new, greener home.

“I really don’t have my roots set down here in this house — I’ll be happy to live anywhere,” she said. “I already have a reservation in another place.

The full article “Praise the Lord and Green the Roof” can be read in it’s entirety here