A Personal Letter from

Rev. Dr. Ambrose F. Carroll, Sr. 

Hi, my name is Ambrose Carroll, and over the years I have found myself more and more called to work on issues of the Environment and Sustainability. As a clergy person, I understand that this thing of being called by God for some might sound a bit strange in 2021. I am not necessarily speaking of an audible calling like Noah in a movie about the Bible, but I am talking about a set or sets of circumstances that continue to render me and my life at the foot of the cross, or at the crossroad that always leads me back to being an advocate for the health and safety of the planet on which we live.

Now when I became a minister, my chief aim was to be an effective and efficient pastor of an inner-city African American Church. This was the language of my resume that I penned while attended my father's alma mater, The Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta GA back in the early 1990's. This language stayed with me through ordination and through interns and through long periods of working as a youth pastor. My goal was the local parish and through Doctorate programs and MBA programs my chief aim was the local church. I've learned a lot and I thank God for my journey, but the call of God is in and of itself a real trip!

In every bastion of ministry, in every up and every down, what is divine has been preparing me to do environmental work. From the first time that I heard Rev. Julie Tusus, a white United Methodist minister at the ITC teach us that littering was not a Christian virtue. I laughed at the brief sermonette but after that, I always found myself picking up trash on the ground and always taking the time to find a trashcan or to recycle. I remember when I served as a youth pastor in the Fillmore district of San Francisco, CA, that one day in April the big house across the street from the church will filled with a rainbow of students who were channeling love children of the sixties. They had a giant poster of the Earth and they invited me in as they gave speeches and talk about it being Earth Day!

These moments spent on the periphery of Church were moments for me of sacred calling. Like a turtle born in water coming out into the open air, it has been a peculiar calling! It has not been for me a trumpet but rather a still small voice. I don’t know what it is like for you. Perhaps a career move, or perhaps an alignment of some skill set. I don’t know what it is that has even prompted you to continue to take the time to read this letter, but what I do know is that we live on this planet and that, scientifically speaking, it is a closed system. I know that in the beginning we were together in the mind of God and all things will ultimately rest eternal with God whatever and however you think of what is divine. What I know is that the earth heals herself, and that we can either be the cancer that she will ultimately root out, or we can be healing agents in the Master's hand!

Welcome to Green The Church,
Rev. Dr. Ambrose F. Carroll, Sr.