The House of Life: a Quiet Revolution

GREENSBORO Sister Gail Worcelo strolls through the tranquil grounds of Green Mountain Monastery in Greensboro, pointing out walking trails, gardens and their prayer yurt.

When she’s not traveling the world visiting her fellow sisters, she splits her time between prayer and working in these gardens. Those two things are deeply connected, she says.

For her, the monastery is more than a religious space; it’s a working vision of faith-based environmentalism in action.

“The whole thing is the integration of faith and ecology,” she said. “They’re very intertwined. It’s our responsibility to take care of the planet, which is God’s creation.”

The Green Mountain Monastery is an “ecozoic” monastery, a term coined by the late Thomas Berry, a cultural historian and Catholic priest. Sister Gail, Sister Bernadette Bostwick and Father Thomas Berry co-founded the monastery in 1999.

Ecozoicism emphasizes living sustainably and thinking of the earth as a community that needs protecting.

“Ecozoic,” Sister Gail explained, “stems from the Greek eco, house, and zoic, life: a ‘house of life’ for the Earth, rather than its domination.”

“We are at a crossroads,” she said. “We can build a house of life, or a technozoic era that destroys it.”

The monastery has been a lifelong mission for Sister Gail, who always felt a calling to become a nun.

“I was just seven years old on a school ferry trip when I saw a group of sisters walk in and suddenly, I knew. I just knew I was meant to be one of them,” she said.

She was living as a Passionist nun at St. Gabriel’s Monastery in Clark’s Summit, Pa., when she met Thomas Berry. He was a priest and one of the scholars teaching classes. Sister Gail was inspired by his dedication to environmentalism.

Berry wrote in one of his books, “A truly human intimacy with the earth and with the entire natural world is needed. Our children should be properly introduced to the world in which they live.”

In 1983, he gave a speech calling for a religious order devoted not only to humanity but to the Earth itself. Sister Gail was so moved she asked to study with Berry.

In 1994, she helped found the Sisters of the Earth Community, dedicated to the healing and protection of the environment.

“There was never a group founded to meet the needs of the planet to care, tend to the earth, the waters, the air and to speak on behalf of the earth community,” she said.

In 1999, the Sisters of the Earth Community founded the Green Mountain Monastery. She said Vermont was the perfect place for it.“We really wanted to come to a state that we felt was open to care for Earth. There was a huge northeast organic farming association, people dedicated to the land.”

Today, the Sisters of the Earth Community has a network of “co-sisters” and mission partners worldwide, with sisters in Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia and Canada.

Many are involved in biodynamic farming, food security initiatives and “Earth law”; a movement that promotes legal rights for nature itself.

In March, Sister Gail helped stage a theatrical production at the Greensboro United Church of Christ, “The Animal Lawsuit Against Humanity,” based on a 10th-century tale where animals sue humans for exploitation.

The verdict? A call for mutual respect.

“Thomas Berry believed we needed a legal system that recognized the rights of rivers and forests,” she said. “We’re finally beginning to listen.”

Care for the planet is inseparable from spiritual practice, Sister Gail said. With its numerous gardens, a straw-bale hermitage for silent retreats and a walking meditation labyrinth, Green Mountain Monastery embodies that belief.

Stained glass depictions of the story of creation line the walls of the monastery. It ends with an eye to the future looking out into the forest.

Sister Gail sees faith not as a retreat from the world, but a deeper engagement with it. Her community hosts retreats for those seeking stillness, artists looking for inspiration and anyone needing a break from a noisy, tech-driven world.

“Sometimes people just need a place to be quiet. To be heard. To connect with the land,” she said.

Throughout the year, Sister Gail leads meditative nature walks to help people get in touch with themselves and the planet. The Monastery also runs retreats year round, and they have plans to make them more accessible to local residents.

In a world of rising political tensions, climate anxiety and spiritual searching, the community’s vision offers a counter-current, one centered on simplicity, soil and sacredness.

“It’s about remembering this planet is our lifeboat,” she said, “We can’t let it sink.”