The world gathered in mourning and gratitude as the funeral of legendary conservationist Dr. Jane Goodall took place at Washington National Cathedral.
Presided over by Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde, the service celebrated Goodall’s extraordinary life — one defined by courage, compassion, and an unwavering dedication to protecting the natural world.
In her emotional homily, Reverend Budde reflected on Jane’s spiritual journey and her belief in the deep connection between humanity and all living beings. She urged those present to carry forward Jane’s mission, reminding the world that honoring her legacy means acting now to save the planet.
00:00As your days, so shall your strength be. May I speak to you in the name of God. Amen. Please be seated.
00:12My name is Mary Ann Buddy and I add my welcome to that of Dean Hollerith to all who've come to pray and to celebrate Dr. Goodall's life.
00:22And let me begin by expressing the collective gratitude of all gathered here and those who are with us online to you, Jane's family, and close circle of friends and beloved colleagues.
00:37In your personal grief, you have once again shared Jane with the world.
00:43She often spoke of herself as the personal Jane and the global icon Jane.
00:49She knew the difference, although one of her many gifts was to make all of us feel equally prized in her presence.
00:59Yet you were the ones who knew and loved her best and whom she loved so dearly.
01:06Thanks as well to the tributes and readings and musical offerings and prayers that in this service beautifully express the breadth and depth of Jane's spirit that lives on.
01:21A spirit that lives on through the lives she touched.
01:26One of the earliest Christian leaders was a bishop named Irenaeus.
01:36In searching for words to describe the mystery of Christ, he wrote,
01:41The glory of God is a human being fully alive.
01:46And it's a phrase that went viral in a second century sort of way.
01:53And it's often quoted still as a way to describe the miracle of any human being fully alive.
02:04And as we know and have so wondrously heard today, Jane Goodall was a fully alive human being.
02:12And she cherished her relationships with other fully alive beings, some of which were human.
02:21And she dedicated her fully alive life in service to all life and to the care of planet Earth upon which our lives depend.
02:36And as we know and have heard today, she also experienced mystical encounters with the mystery we call God.
02:47At pivotal moments, she felt summoned to particular and enormous tasks, which she sometimes spoke of in biblical terms.
03:00The still, small voice speaking to her at the depths of her being.
03:06Her road to Damascus moment.
03:09When, like the Apostle Paul, her life seemingly turned on a dime.
03:15And she went from naturalist to global advocate.
03:21And as the one called upon here to speak to the spiritual dimensions of Jane's life and the promise of life beyond death that she anticipated so confidently,
03:33I find myself wanting simply to read to you some of her own words.
03:40Some you know well, but surely we can all hear them again.
03:47Of her early years in Tanzania, she wrote,
03:50All the time I was getting closer to animals and nature, I was, as a result, getting closer to myself and more and more in tune with the spiritual power that I felt all around.
04:07For those who have experienced the joy of being alone with nature, there's really little need for me to say much more.
04:15For those who have not, no words, no words of mine can describe the powerful, mystical knowledge of beauty and eternity that come suddenly and unaware.
04:28The beauty has always, the beauty is always there, but moments of true awareness are rare.
04:40They would come unannounced.
04:42Perhaps as I was watching the pale flush preceding dawn, or looking up through the rustling leaves of some giant forest tree into the green and browns and black shadows and the occasionally ensnared bright fleck of blue sky.
05:00Or when I stood as darkness fell, with one hand on the still warm trunk of a tree and looked at the sparkling of an early moon on the never still softly sighing water of Lake Tanganyika.
05:17Decade later, during what she described in her understated way as an emotionally trying period, she had the opportunity to go to Paris.
05:36And as we heard, while she was there, she visited the Cathedral of Notre Dame with enormous questions stirring in her heart.
05:45Questions like, was there a guiding force in the universe, a creator of matter and thus of life itself?
05:53Was there a purpose to life on planet Earth?
05:56And if so, what role were we humans supposed to play in the overall picture?
06:04And in particular, what was my role to be?
06:09She later wrote, little did I know how important that visit would be, for that was where I had an experience of ecstasy.
06:20Or so it seemed to me, a moment of eternity.
06:27I realized that my experiences in the forest, my understanding of the champion's ease, had given me a new perspective.
06:36I personally was utterly convinced that there was a great spiritual power that we call God, Allah, Brahma.
06:46Although I knew equally certain that my finite mind could never comprehend its form or nature.
06:55And I think my experience in Notre Dame was a sort of call to action.
07:01I think I heard, in a form suitable for mortal ears, the voice of God.
07:08And while Jane felt singularly and distinctly called to live fully the life God had given her,
07:20as you well know, part of her life's mission was to persuade all of us to live such lives ourselves.
07:28As iconic as she knew herself to be, and as she accepted that role,
07:34she still didn't want to be put on a pedestal.
07:37In this way, she reminds me a bit of Dorothy Day, the Roman Catholic laywoman, lifelong pacifist,
07:45committed to voluntary poverty, along destitute men and women living at the margins of our affluence.
07:52Don't call me a saint, Dorothy Day would say.
07:55I don't want to be dismissed that easily.
07:58Well, in God's sense of humor, as it turns out, Dorothy Day is, in fact, on her path towards canonization, as a saint.
08:17And Jane herself once wrote,
08:21We all have to evolve, all and all of us, from ordinary every human beings into saints.
08:31Ordinary people, like you and me, will have to become saints, or at least mini-saints.
08:38The great saints and the masters were not supernatural beings.
08:43They were mortals like us, made of flesh and blood.
08:47They, like us, needed air to breathe and food and drink.
08:52And they believed in a spiritual power in God that enabled them to tap into that great energy.
08:59And we must strive, each of them, each of us, to join them.
09:03And then she said this,
09:05I imagined them, I imagined them standing as though on a bridge suspended between God and Earth.
09:20And she has taken her place on that bridge now.
09:24And before she died, she wanted to speak to us from there.
09:33Looking straight into that camera, as if into our own eyes, she said,
09:41In the place where I am now, I want to make sure that you understand.
09:50I want you to understand that each of you has a role to play.
09:55And I want you to know whether or not you find that role, your life does matter.
10:02I want you to understand that we are part of the natural world.
10:08And even where the planet is dark, there is still hope.
10:12Don't lose hope.
10:14If you lose hope, you become apathetic and do nothing.
10:21I just hope you understand that this life on planet Earth isn't the end.
10:28I believe, and now I know, that there is life beyond death, that consciousness survives.
10:38You have it in your power to make a difference.
10:43Don't give up.
10:44There is a future for you.
10:48Do your best while you are still on this beautiful planet Earth that I look down upon from where I am now.
10:58God bless you all.
10:59So one final word about blessing, the blessing Jane leaves us with, the blessing of which Jesus spoke at the beginning of his most consequential sermon.
11:15To receive a blessing, in Jesus' understanding, and certainly in Jane's, is not a passive experience.
11:24Though we might be tempted to hear it that way, you know, blessed are the poor, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
11:35But in Jesus' mother tongue of Aramaic, the word we translate blessed is an active verb, meaning in some way to set yourself on the right way for the right goal.
11:51A Palestinian Arab-Israeli theologian, Elias Chakur, suggests that we suggest we should translate Jesus' word, blessed, something like, get up, go ahead, do something, move.
12:08And he says, while I understand Jesus' words in Aramaic, we should translate like this, get up, go ahead, do something, you who are hungry and thirsty for justice.
12:21For then you shall be satisfied, get up, go ahead, do something, move, you peacemakers, and you shall be called children of God.
12:33It's as if Jesus is saying, get your hands dirty to build a human society for human beings, he wrote.
12:41Christianity is not passive, it is active, alive, going on, going beyond despair.
12:47So get up, go ahead, do something, move, Jesus said to his disciples, and surely Jane would say the same.
12:57God bless you all, now go get up, go ahead, do something to preserve our beautiful planet for all living beings.
13:07And as your days, so may your strength be.
13:18Amen.
13:37God bless you all, now go ahead.
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