It was Saturday evening, April 22, 1967. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and his aide, Andrew Young, stepped off a plane at the T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, R.I., and were met by six-year-old John Crockett and his father, Larrimore “Larry” Crockett, a chaplain at Brown University. John remembers shaking King's hand, and the full attention King gave to this unknown little boy.
They all came back to the Brown campus, where King preached the following morning. Thus did John and Larry meet the great civil rights leader. Now, fifty years later to the day, which is also Earth Day, the two will present a dialogue on Eco-Spiritual Revolution - the need for a change of heart and mind to restore balance in our relationships with the Earth.
All interested persons are invited to join in this event, which will be held at Hallelujah Farm in Chesterfield, N.H., on Saturday, April 22, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to a news release.
Martin Luther King arrived that Saturday in 1967 surrounded by controversy. Three weeks earlier, he had spoken at Riverside Church in New York City, where for the first time, he had publicly condemned the Vietnam War and set off a firestorm of criticism even from his supporters.
He called then for “this madness to cease,” and for America to undergo, “a radical revolution of values.”
King also said, “It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality.”
Building on that ecological truth, John and Larry Crockett will share their perspectives and draw participants into the dialogue.
John Crockett is a writer, musician, and nature-sound recordist who is inspired by the voices of the Earth. He has studied the communications of humpback whales, songbirds, and gray seals, incorporating their songs into music he has created with his partner, Cynthia Hughes; the two perform together as Coracle.
He has also been engaged in contemplative and meditative practice for more than 35 years. In recent years, he has written extensively on the ongoing planetary crisis and its relation to our spiritual lives. Many of his essays can be found at The Natural Contemplative website at www.naturalcontemplative.com.
Larry Crockett is best known locally as a former assistant pastor with his late wife, Shirley, at the Guilford Community Church, and as a singer in various choral groups, including the Hallowell Singers. Earlier in his life he had a career as a biblical scholar and a teacher of ethics. He draws on this background as he seeks to re-interpret his faith in the face of an urgent ecological crisis.
Both John and Larry see the need for a spiritual revolution in our time, and they will explore aspects of this during the day. Participants should be prepared for serious discussion, times of silence and, weather permitting, intense outdoor listening.