Profiles: Finding a Calling in Creation - Carla Pryne

In December of 1988, the Nestucca oil barge collided with a tugboat and hemorrhaged  over 200,000 gallons of oil into the waters off Washington State. The spill killed thousands of seabirds, spoiled beaches, and outraged the public. It also marked a turning point in the life of Carla Pryne, then a 34-year- old priest at Seattle’s largest Episcopal parish.

“Those pictures of the birds went through my heart like a bolt of lightning. I was trying to figure out: Should I take a trip of several hours there on my day off, or should I go during work time? It hit me that this was my work,” says Pryne, who earned an m.Div. from Yale Divinity School in 1979.

“This was my a-ha! moment.”

A few days later, Pryne put a note in the bulletin of her church, St. mark’s Cathedral, inviting people to attend a week- day evening meeting for those interested in environmental issues. “I knew that I’d struck a nerve when sixty-eight people showed up,” Pryne says. “It was almost an ecstatic home- coming for many of them. my role as priest was simply as a convener. The work was the people.”

In the years that followed, Pryne’s new calling became a full-blown occupation and, eventually, established her as a national figure on issues of faith and environment. first came the founding of a group based at St. mark’s, then followed the launch of the Center for Creation ministry. But, in a telling sign of how much has changed in recent years, that name proved to be highly problematic. “mainline people thought we were fundamentalists  because we had the word ‘creation’ in our name. Some others thought we were New Age pantheists,” she remembers with a chuckle. “That tells you how neglectful mainline denominations had been in talking about God’s creation.”

finally, in 1992, the group that had first gotten together following the Nestucca oil spill incorporated  as a nonprofit under the name Earth ministry. Pryne became the first executive director. Earth ministry, with about 1,500 members, four paid staff, and a host of volunteers, concentrates on helping congregations in the Pacific Northwest organize and network. Earth ministry also publishes Earth Letter, a quarterly journal that circulates nationally and focuses on Christian environmental spirituality and theology.

With two small children and a punishing travel schedule, Pryne stepped down in 1997 to return to pastoral work in the Puget Sound region. Currrently, she is an interim rector at St. Alban’s Church in Edmonds, Washington. She also serves on the national board of the Trust for Public Land, a land conservation organization.

Pryne continues to speak on Earth ministry’s behalf, raise money, and write about environmental issues. It is a passion that, once awakened nearly twenty years ago, she expects to cultivate for the rest of her life.

To a large extent, Pryne credits her Bulgarian-born father with informing her spirituality with a wonder at the marvels of the physical world. “Although he rarely used the word God, this attitude of reverence, humility, and gratitude laid very deep seeds in me as a child,” she says. “He combined scientific curiosity and a passion for observation with a deep sense of awe and wonder that this can’t all be an accident.”

In December of 1988, the Nestucca oil barge collided with a tugboat and hemorrhaged  over 200,000 gallons of oil into the waters off Washington State. The spill killed thousands of seabirds, spoiled beaches, and outraged the public. It also marked a turning point in the life of Carla Pryne, then a 34-year- old priest at Seattle’s largest Episcopal parish.

“Those pictures of the birds went through my heart like a bolt of lightning. I was trying to figure out: Should I take a trip of several hours there on my day off, or should I go during work time? It hit me that this was my work,” says Pryne, who earned an m.Div. from Yale Divinity School in 1979.

“This was my a-ha! moment.”

A few days later, Pryne put a note in the bulletin of her church, St. mark’s Cathedral, inviting people to attend a week- day evening meeting for those interested in environmental issues. “I knew that I’d struck a nerve when sixty-eight people showed up,” Pryne says. “It was almost an ecstatic home- coming for many of them. my role as priest was simply as a convener. The work was the people.”

In the years that followed, Pryne’s new calling became a full-blown occupation and, eventually, established her as a national figure on issues of faith and environment. first came the founding of a group based at St. mark’s, then followed the launch of the Center for Creation ministry. But, in a telling sign of how much has changed in recent years, that name proved to be highly problematic. “mainline people thought we were fundamentalists  because we had the word ‘creation’ in our name. Some others thought we were New Age pantheists,” she remembers with a chuckle. “That tells you how neglectful mainline denominations had been in talking about God’s creation.”

finally, in 1992, the group that had first gotten together following the Nestucca oil spill incorporated  as a nonprofit under the name Earth ministry. Pryne became the first executive director. Earth ministry, with about 1,500 members, four paid staff, and a host of volunteers, concentrates on helping congregations in the Pacific Northwest organize and network. Earth ministry also publishes Earth Letter, a quarterly journal that circulates nationally and focuses on Christian environmental spirituality and theology.

With two small children and a punishing travel schedule, Pryne stepped down in 1997 to return to pastoral work in the Puget Sound region. Currrently, she is an interim rector at St. Alban’s Church in Edmonds, Washington. She also serves on the national board of the Trust for Public Land, a land conservation organization.

Pryne continues to speak on Earth ministry’s behalf, raise money, and write about environmental issues. It is a passion that, once awakened nearly twenty years ago, she expects to cultivate for the rest of her life.

To a large extent, Pryne credits her Bulgarian-born father with informing her spirituality with a wonder at the marvels of the physical world. “Although he rarely used the word God, this attitude of reverence, humility, and gratitude laid very deep seeds in me as a child,” she says. “He combined scientific curiosity and a passion for observation with a deep sense of awe and wonder that this can’t all be an accident.”