| A self-sufficient project
of the Kentucky Dominican Sisters, Crystal Spring
is located
on forty-two acres of predominantly wooded land
between the southern coast of New England and the
Bristol
lowlands. While rooted in the Catholic Dominican
tradition, Crystal Spring is an attempt to learn,
live, and teach the “new story,” the
epic of the unfolding Universe as revealed by contemporary
science. Seeking to create a culture more in tune
with this “new cosmology,” Crystal
Spring endeavors to model a sustainable, bioregionally
appropriate way of life that reflects and honors
the interconnectedness of all things. With education
as its main goal, Crystal Spring offers a variety
of programs about such topics as: organic gardening,
cooking, ecology, cosmology, spiritual reflection,
ecofeminism, and creative arts. In addition to
weekly classes and single-session programs, Crystal
Spring also offers longer retreats, seasonal Earth
festivals, internships for college students, and
a summer day camp for children. Although it once
had a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program
of its own, Crystal Spring now partners with Heirloom
Harvest CSA in Westboro, serving as a pick-up site
for approximately fifty families. A variety of
children’s
and adult books pertaining to ecology, spirituality,
and sustainability are sold on site at The Book
Nook, and Streams, the Crystal Spring’s
Earth Literacy newsletter, is circulated quarterly.
In addition to its on-site projects and facilities,
Crystal Spring has recently initiated the Religious
Lands Conservancy Project, which assists communities
of religious women throughout the state in the
preservation and protection of their lands. |
Christianity
(Roman Catholic) |
United States of America
(Plainville, Massachusetts) |
| 1991–Present |
In 1949, the Toner
family of Watertown, Massachusetts, donated sixty-four
acres of land in Plainville to the
Dominican Sisters of Kentucky to be used for
educational
purposes. At that time, Crystal Spring was a
working farm. Under the Dominican Sisters, the
farm has
undergone a series of transformations, serving
first as a primary and secondary school from
the 1950s to the 1970s, and then becoming a Women’s
Retreat Center in the 1980s. At the end of the
1980s, Chris Loughlin, current Director of
Crystal Spring, encountered the writings of geologian
Thomas
Berry and met Miriam Therese MacGillis, Director
of Genesis Farm. Deeply moved and inspired by
the cosmological vision articulated by these
two figures,
she invited MacGillis to speak to the Congregational
Chapter in 1992, which led to the expression
of an emerging ecological awareness in the Congregational
Vision Statements. In 1991, four Sisters attained
permission from their congregation to start an
eco-spirituality center on the Plainville site.
Recovering its original name, Crystal Spring,
the
Sisters set out to restore the farm, even though
twenty-two acres of the original parcel had been
sold several years before. Right away, they started
an organic
garden and began offering educational programs.
From the mid-1990s to 2001, Crystal Spring fostered
a small Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
program. At the December 2001 Chapter meeting,
the Congregation
adopted a land ethic articulating their commitment
to steward their land and then formed a Land
Use Committee to oversee the implementation of
this
commitment.
Currently, the Sisters are working on protecting
and preserving not only this particular piece
of land, but land held by other congregations
of
religious women as well. In 2002–2003,
Crystal Spring launched the Religious Lands Conservancy
Project,
which brings together congregations of
religious women in Massachusetts with land conservation
groups
to facilitate economically-viable and ecologically-sensitive
stewardship strategies. Crystal Spring is also
part of the Dominican Alliance Eco-Justice Group,
a nine-congregation committee, which meets twice
a year to discuss how best to influence both
congregations and the Dominican Leadership Council
in the area
of land conservation and care.
|
| “To become a living embodiment of a bioregionally
appropriate culture in all respects.” |
The Dominican Alliance
Massachusetts
Coalition of Land Trusts
Natural Resources Land
Trust of
Plainville
Sisters of Earth
Stonehill College
Wheaton College
EarthLight |
| None Listed |
| None Listed |
| None Listed |
Crystal Spring
76 Everett Skinner Road
Plainville, MA 02762
Ph: 508.699.7167
Email: cryspr@attbi.com |
