“I use the language of ecology all the time in my preaching.”
This interview was a real joy for me and a reunion of sorts. Andi Lloyd was my advisor in college, back when I was a biology major. At the time, she was teaching and doing research as a forest ecologist and professor and later became Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Middlebury College.
However, we discuss how her trajectory in life shifted dramatically. She is now a pastor in the United Church of Christ and has co-authored the book Letters from the Ecotone: Ecology, Theology, and Climate Change with Andrew Nagy-Benson.
Letters from the Ecotone invites readers into an open-hearted dialogue between friends—a scientist and a pastor. In a series of letters written during the pandemic, Lloyd and Nagy-Benson explore the realities of climate change from the perspectives of ecology and Christian theology. The authors seek common ground, where science and religion meet and share a vision of flourishing life on earth. At a time when the climate crisis is quickly emerging as an existential threat, this book charts a journey imbued with the insights of ecological science and the wisdom of the Christian tradition.
Excerpt from Andi’s bio:
I was born in Connecticut, and have lived most of my life in New England. Graduate school in biology & ecology took me west for several years, to Alaska and then Arizona, after which I returned to New England to teach at Middlebury College in Vermont. I was a professor of biology at Middlebury from 1996 until 2020; I served as the Dean of the Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs from 2012 through June, 2019. In my work as an ecologist, I studied the effects of climate change on forests in Alaska and Siberia. I had the great fortune to spend most summers – often with students at my side – in Alaska, studying treeline forests. During my time at Middlebury, I taught classes on plant ecology, evolution, and climate change.
I left Middlebury College in June of 2019 to pursue a call to ordained ministry in the United Church of Christ. That journey took me back to Connecticut, to the Andover Newton Theological Seminary at Yale Divinity School. I graduated in May of 2022, and on June 5, 2022 was ordained to ministry in the United Church of Christ. I am currently serving as the pastor of the Trinitarian Congregational Parish of Castine, Maine.
Although I have left the world of doing science behind, my interest in climate change and creation justice and my passion for ecology continue to inform my understanding of the ministry to which I am called.
Blessing for When the Night Is Long
When the night is long.
When the dark is deep.
When doubt presses in.
When not alone is distant memory and a dream too far.
Then, may this blessing remind you:
morning will come.
You’ll hear it
before you see it;
the soul, too, has a dawn chorus.
So,
get quiet,
incline your ear
eastward, and
listen
for a whisper of grace,
a voice not your own,
saying,
take heart, dear one,
morning
is coming.
Do you hear it?
Let the promise settle upon you,
peace after storm,
and then be still
and
know:
dawn’s tendrils are already
yearning their way toward you —
like dewfall’s caress,
a Presence felt, not listened to,
a sudden assurance,
born not of words
but a bone-deep knowing that has
been there all along,
that you are
not alone, beloved.
Do you feel it?
Mercy, too, comes
just before the dawn.
I can’t explain
what happens next:
that morning will come is a fact,
but
the fact that it does come
still feels like pure and
unabashed
miracle.
Let it come.
Let it bring you, grateful and
unashamed of your need,
to your knees.
Let it break you
wide open —
like cloudburst,
like budbreak,
like the brightly breaking dawn:
this one, right here,
that beckons you,
that calls you
to live,
to breathe,
expand
with
light.(I wrote this on 5/3/2023 – the 8th day of a silent retreat at Eastern Point Retreat House in Gloucester, MA. The last five lines were the ending of a poem fragment written by my grandfather, Norman Lloyd, in the 1960s or 1970s.)
Her Deepest Ecologies is recorded at Jack Straw Cultural Center in Seattle, WA. Thanks to their Artist Support Program and studio engineer Ayesha Ubayatilaka. All episodes are available on Substack, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. For more information or to be considered for a future episode, reach out via email at jessicagigot@gmail.com.
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