Appalachian Voices – A Lament for the Mountains

A Devotional for the Fourth Week of Lent

By Sharman Chapman-Crane

This piece may be used as a litany.

Leader:   Appalachia Cries. Where is our resurrection? 

Voice 1:   Over 500 mountains lost to surface mining.

Voice 2:   Over 2,000 miles of streams buried.

Leader:   Ask the animals, and they will teach you,

Voice 3:   The birds of the air, and they will tell you,

Voice 4:   Speak to the earth and it will instruct you, 

Voice 5:   Even the fish will inform you

Leader:   We have coveted our neighbors’ land,

Voice 1:   Our neighbors’ resources.

Voice 2:   How do we make atonement?

Leader:   Our faith story begins with creation

Voice 2:   …and God saw that it was good.

Voice 3:   Creation was Yahweh’s first gift to us. 

Leader:   Appalachia cries

Voice 1:   For the people –

Mothers:   Living close to mine sites means our babies are 42% more likely to have birth defects.

Fathers:   Surface mining has increased unemployment within the industry by 60%.

Youth:   This region holds the record for depression and our drug abuse statistics are the highest per capita in the nation.

Leader:   Appalachia cries 

Voice 1:   For peace –

Voice 2:   It’s not just the 4 million pounds of explosives set off daily in our mountains, it’s knowing that: 

Parents:   In 2004 in Wise County, Virginia a 3-year-old child was crushed while sleeping in his bed one night.

Everyone:   In 2005 in Hazard, Kentucky some shoppers in WalMart were injured by boulders crashing through the roof.

Couples:   In 2009 in Knott County, Kentucky a couple’s home was destroyed by a boulder the size of a pick-up truck.

Leader:   These are not judgments on these people or on the land. 

Voice 1:   They are evidence of our complicity in sacrificing this gift of creation and our neighbors.

Voice 2:   How do we love our neighbors?

Voice 1:   Where does Appalachia find healing?

Voice 2:   When will we learn what is holy and sacred?

Leader:   Appalachia cries. 

Sharman Chapman-Crane has lived at the feet of Pine and Black Mountains for over 25 years helping her neighbors fight the abuses of coal mining. She developed asthma 8 years ago when surface mining started in her holler above her home. The blasting has cracked the foundation of her home and released methane into her well water.

Click here to download the entire 2013 PEC Lenten Devotional, "From Ashes to Resurrection, From Soot to Hope"!