Dear friends:

Today we celebrate the 51st annual Earth Day. Each year since 1970, the year I was born, this day has been set aside to give thanks for this planet, our common home, and to recommit ourselves to a more earth-honoring way of life. The theme for Earth Day 2021 is #RestoreOurEarth.

Earth Day seems like a good opportunity to pause to ask an important question: Is one day enough? Given our complete reliance on the earth for all of life, and given that we are part of the earth — not over and above the earth, but one with and interdependent with all living things and the earth itself — how might we respond with daily gratitude for the mysterious and miraculous ways God has ordered God’s Creation? How might we gracefully and gratefully embrace our responsibility to live faithfully and in right relationship with the earth, with our human siblings, and with our non-human kin, day in and day out? 

In the Genesis account of Creation, after crafting the heavens and the earth, after separating the waters from the dry land, after speaking into existence plants and stars and every living creature, on the sixth day, God creates human beings and instructs them to “have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth” (Genesis 1:28). 

Too often we’ve misunderstood and misapplied that command, at least in white Western contexts. Rather than embracing God’s directive to steward the earth — to care for it, to preserve and protect it, to relate to it in ways that prioritize the common good — instead, in our endless striving for more and bigger and better, we’ve settled into resource-depleting ways of living that are dependent on pernicious cycles of domination, extraction, and consumption. We express our dominion recklessly and without regard for future generations. The consequences of this behavior are devastating — for human beings and for other species with whom we share this fragile planet.

Environmentalist Gus Speth has said, “I used to think that the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and climate change. I thought that thirty years of good science could address these problems. I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed, and apathy, and to deal with these we need a cultural and spiritual transformation.” He concludes: “And we scientists don’t know how to do that.”

Cultural and spiritual transformation may not be within the purview of the scientific community. Cultural and spiritual transformation are, however, solidly within the purview of the faith community. This is a moment when we, people of faith — individuals and faith communities — are called to rise: to reclaim a sense of sacred purpose in turning our attention to these challenges at the root of ecological devastation; to reject selfishness, greed, and apathy in every form; and to embrace a path of faithfulness that is rooted in justice and community and interdependence. 

And of course, as we undertake this work, it is important to apply an intersectional analysis — to look deeply at the ways that issues of injustice intersect, recognizing that interlocking systems of power and privilege benefit some, while interlocking systems of oppression and discrimination marginalize others. 

With roots dating back to 1814, The BTS Center is a private foundation in Portland, Maine, building on the legacy of the former Bangor Theological Seminary. As we orient ourselves to the future that God places before us, we celebrate our place in a long arc that extends back more than two centuries, with gratitude for our roots and appreciation for all who have stewarded and shaped this institution over more than two centuries.

Today The BTS Center seeks to catalyze spiritual imagination, with enduring wisdom, for transformative faith leadership by offering theologically grounded programs of continuing education and spiritual formation, including workshops and retreats, learning cohorts, public conversations, and projects of applied research. 

Inspired by the vision of human hearts renewed, justice established, and creation restored, we are focusing much of our programmatic attention on exploring with faith leaders — clergy and laity alike — the knowledge, skills, mindsets, and practices that are needed for effective and faithful ministry in this moment marked by the dual urgencies of a changing religious landscape and a global climate crisis.

Over the past year, we’ve offered about 30 different programs — workshops and retreats, book groups, learning communities, public conversations, a Summer Arts Series, and our annual Convocation, all online during this pandemic, sometimes in partnership with other organizations — bringing together dozens of leading thinkers, authors, theologians, and practitioners for critically important conversation at the intersection of spiritual leadership and climate devastation.

We’re encouraged by the response: Hundreds and hundreds of you have participated, representing almost every state in the country, plus Washington DC, several Canadian provinces, the UK, and every corner of Maine. Our co-learners include pastors, rabbis, nonprofit leaders, chaplains, spiritual directors, dedicated laypersons, students, university and seminary faculty, and denominational executives, encompassing 16 different Christian denominations, plus members of Jewish, Buddhist, Baha’i, Unitarian Universalist, Quaker, and interfaith traditions. And we’re just getting started!

For the time being you can peruse our Past Programs on this page. We are excited to share that in the coming days we’ll be launching a new Leadership Commons where we’ll share a wealth of resources, like leadership development materials and a video library, in a well-organized and easy-to-access format. Watch for an announcement about this, coming soon. 

At the moment we have about 40 people reading and exploring All We Can Save, a collection of essays, poems, and artwork amplifying feminist voices that help grapple with the existential threats of climate devastation; and about 70 people taking part in “From What Is to What If,” a Community of Practice that's sharing in a series of practices designed to inspire thinking and stretch imagination. 

We look forward to hosting an online event with author Jenny Offill, who will be discussing her novel Weather, on Thursday, May 13, in partnership with Portland Public Library and Print: A Bookstore. We are excited about some additional programs that are brewing for May and June — watch for these announcements in the coming weeks.

At the conclusion of All We Can Save, its brilliant editors, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine Wilkinson, ask the question, “So where do we go from here?” They suggest:

That’s what we want to do: Take a breath. Dream. Grasp ahold of science and community and prayer. Imagine a better future. And every day do something to reel the dream closer to reality. We're grateful to count you as a friend as we undertake this task.

In gratitude and hope,

 Our mission is to catalyze spiritual imagination with enduring wisdom for transformative faith leadership.