Earth Pledge, included in a Catholic textbook for the Cleveland Diocese by Sister Louise Marie Prochaska (1983), illustrated by Sister Miriam MacGillis for Global Education Associates (1984)

Contributor(s):

Unknown and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Shared on:

22 April 2024 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

Earth, our Collective Home & Life-Support System, 🌐 Earth Day (22 April)

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., ABCB rhyming scheme, earth pledges, eco-conscious, eco-feminism, universalist

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	I pledge allegiance to the earth and all its sacred parts, its water, land, and living things, and all its human hearts.
	I pledge allegiance to all life and promise I shall care to live and cherish all its gifts with people everywhere.

This earth pledge appears without attribution in a justice, peace, and environmentally conscious Catholic textbook, Peace through Justice (Diocese of Cleveland, 1983) by Louise Marie Prochaska. Sister Prochaska, however, does not recall composing it and it may have been circulating for some time in newsletters or other ephemeral works beforehand. On the page following the quoted pledge, the curricular resource recommends contacting the Union of Concerned Scientists for more information, but that recommendation may have more to do with the pedagogical theme of the section that included the text of the pledge. Among the earth pledges, it is unique. Instead of following the form of Bellamy’s Pledge of Allegiance, it uses an ABCB rhyme scheme.

The pledge also appears in an illustration for the Spring 1984 issue of Global Education Associates’ Breakthrough Newsletter. Neither Pat Mische (co-founder of Global Education Associates) nor Sister Miriam MacGillis (inventor of the Cosmic Walk, founder of Genesis Farm, and illustrator of the pledge) recall with certainty composing the pledge, although both think that it is quite possible. Although the GEA illustration postdates Prochaska’s publication, it’s possible, even likely, that this earth pledge was circulating in 1883 or earlier in other ephemeral works produced by the GEA, the Union of Concerned Scientists, or others.

More research is needed. I am currently researching back issues of periodicals published by Global Education Associates in the 1970s and early 1980s to determine once and for all, when it was originally published and hopefully, by whom, the pledge was written. –Aharon Varady

Source(s)

Earth Pledge (Global Education Associates, Breakthrough Newsletter, Spring 1984)

Peace through Justice – Earth Pledge (Louise Marie Prochaska 1983), p. 277

Peace through Justice – Earth Pledge (Louise Marie Prochaska 1983), pp. 278-279

Unknown

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Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

Stable Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=55559

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Earth Pledge (Global Education Associates, Breakthrough Newsletter, Spring 1984)

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." (Psalms 90:17)