EcoPreacher Cohort

 During the last year I have been engaging in a monthly educational webinar with other pastors called the EcoPreacher Cohort. Through a variety of presenters, reflection, reading assignments, and small group discussions, we have explored how to integrate our concern for the environment with long-standing Christian theological beliefs, liturgical practices, and decisions that affect church life more generally. Before her life took a vastly different turn, Jennifer McCullough was in the cohort also, offering me a great local sounding board after our monthly webinars. It has been a very worthwhile commitment and next month will mark the end of the yearlong Cohort. 

 

The EcoPreacher Cohort is produced by a cooperation between The BTS Center and Creation Justice Ministries (CJM). The BTS Center was formerly a seminary, Bangor Theological Seminary, affiliated with the United Church of Christ, which closed in 2013. While it does not award degrees, the BTS Center provides ongoing Christian education and spiritual formation, like the webinar I took. Creation Justice Ministries was formerly the National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Program, and continues to work across many Christian denominations for racial, economic, and environmental justice. Together, the BTS Center and CJM have provided a marvelous reflective and educational opportunity for me to think and feel more deeply what it means to live responsibly on and in harmony with the earth, within a tradition that begins with a creation story that calls each part of creation “good.” 

 

“Thinking more deeply” about things is what I’m comfortable with, even though education is largely a process of challenging former certainties in order to live into new awareness. “Feeling more deeply” is not as easy for me, but when it comes to the environment is it absolutely essential. It has been widely recognized that “climate anxiety” can be a debilitating condition that people suffer when they look honestly at climate change, rising sea levels, losses of species and habitats, air quality, overstuffed landfills, toxic wastes, and so forth. For millennia, people imagined that the earth was simply capable of absorbing our habits and that there was always somewhere “out there” where we could store our leftovers. To some extent, “climate anxiety” is a step forward from “climate apathy,” which continues that presumption, as well as “climate arrogance,” which assumes that human ingenuity will solve the problem before it becomes too acute. The fragility of the eco-system on which we depend for living, as well as the awareness that other life forms are suffering because human ingenuity is typically anthropocentric, are behind much of our “climate anxiety.” At least “climate anxiety” acknowledges the problems we face and the severity of them.  

 

For the Christian believer, it matters how we encounter “climate anxiety” with, among other things, our doctrine of hope. For that reason, I want to share an opportunity with you that The BTS Center is co-creating. It is called Lament with Earth, five hour-long seasonal events beginning in November and ending in June 2024, each of which is on a Wednesday from 4:30-5:30pm. Drawing on the tradition of lament, these events will enable participants to name the loss and pain of environmental destruction honestly, within a context of hope. These events are hosted by The BTS Center as well as the creative and justice-building music group, The Many. You can find more information by visiting here. 

 

In peace, 

Mark of St. Mark