For our final reflection of the 2025 Bike & Hike, Rev. Cindy Davidson shares her thoughts. Cindy is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, a GreenFaith Fellow, and a past Board Chair and member of the Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth. Following a late-in-life call to ministry, she earned her MDiv from the Meadville Lombard Theological School and briefly served two UU congregations in Westchester County, NY. She was also the Executive Director of Massachusetts Interfaith Power & Light from 2022-2024.
Cindy grew up in the Methodist tradition in western Pennsylvania before heading to the Big City to earn a BMusic from the Mannes College of Music. She has been a long-time member of First Parish UU in Lexington, MA where she helped lead the Green Sanctuary committee. She believes in the restorative power of nature and in the creative potential of people of faith working together, within and beyond their congregations, for environmental and climate justice. Cindy recently relocated to Sewickley and relishes visits with her western PA relatives and four geographically dispersed adult children, their partners and her first grandchild.
“Nature is my church!” – ever hear a Unitarian Universalist say that?
Ours is a noncreedal and covenantal faith, practicing freedom of belief and inspired by teachings and traditions of multiple religions. Among our core values are a belief in the inherent worthiness of every person and being, a respect for the interdependent web of existence of which we are a part, and a commitment to justice, equity and inclusion.
PA IPL’s Bike & Hike campaign this year asks us to consider community care and accessibility advocacy as we collectively move through nature. These are familiar touch-points as UUs aspire to cultivate and nourish inclusive communities of care and center our social justice and organizing campaigns around accessibility and inclusion.
Personally, I find my deepest theological grounding as a UU in religious naturalism, a nontheist orientation with a deep reverence for life that is rooted in the natural world. One might say I am moved by all that is sacred, mysterious and emerging in nature. And for that, I am grateful. So grateful that I’d like to see a world where everybody can experience being moved by nature, whatever religious belief they hold. Does it take a hike in the forest or a stroll or ride by the river, lake or oceanside? Maybe, but honestly, strains of “It ain’t necessarily so!” come to mind.
I’m a strong proponent of being able to enjoy nature and wildlife wherever we live, yet 1 in 4 Americans have some sort of disability or are aging and have limited access to outdoor spaces. It bothers me that all kinds of barriers, from the physical to the social, prevent or restrict some’s ability to reap the physical and mental health and social benefits of nature. Morally, how can it be permissible to withhold from anyone nature’s gifts of spiritual inspiration, restoration, rejuvenation, and deeper engagement in this miracle we call life?
I wonder, how does community care in your circles ensure an access to nature so that nobody is left behind? Physically, emotionally, socially, spiritually?
Perhaps it’s by advocating for increased accessibility at neighborhood parks, county recreation centers, state forests, in your community’s public green spaces and community gardens? Or advocating for accessible gardening and horticulture therapy programs in your community’s nature education programs? Or bringing elements of nature into your worship services and programs?
As I age and care for an elderly parent, I’m paying more attention to different ways we can be deeply moved by nature — whether we are physically moving through nature on a pathway or trail or not. Like sensory gardens, therapeutic horticultural therapy, birdwatching, poetry, the art class with natural botanicals as the “subject,” images. Did you know researchers have verified the benefits of viewing a landscape extend to viewing images of landscapes like paintings, photos, documentaries and posters?
Being moved by nature is top of my mind, heart and soul most days, often overshadowed by climate change concerns. We know that people with disabilities are often disproportionately affected by climate change impacts. It’s important to strive for inclusivity in our climate justice work and this means ensuring people with disabilities are involved in climate mitigation and adaptation efforts, represented in groups and forums working on local climate action plans, disaster preparation and response efforts and climate justice organizing in our communities.
Who is at these tables in your community?
How is your community ensuring no body is left behind?