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To mark Earth Day last week, four women and two men stood on a hilltop outside Mount Horeb, Wis., literally praying to Mother Earth. "Sacred Earth Power, bring healing to planet Earth," intoned barefoot Selena Fox, priestess of Circle Sanctuary. Worshipers responded with a crescendo chant, "Clean soil. Clean soil," then pledged to do a variety of ecological good deeds and joined in a hug. Similar nature worship was part of Earth Day festivals from Boston, where the Goddess Gospel singers performed on the waterfront, to Berkeley, where devotees drummed and sang for a crowd.

The ceremonies were part of a...

Quotes of the Day »

RAY KELLY, New York City Police Commissioner, on the arrest of a New Jersey man in one of the nation's most baffling missing-children cases, the disappearance more than three decades ago of 6-year-old Etan Patz.
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