Lament with Earth
Five seasonal events honoring the pain of loss through the liturgical year
Thursday, October 28
7:30-8:30 pm (Eastern) • via Zoom
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“We know and feel in our bones that something primal is amiss. Our extended home is being eroded. It is essential that we stop and recognize these losses... to respond with sorrow, outrage and apology at these places touched by so much loss.”
— Francis Weller
So many of us know this truth voiced by Francis Weller. And yet, we have so few opportunities to express our sorrow, fear, sadness, and yes, even despair about a future of life in a climate-changed world.
It takes courage to touch the places inside ourselves where these truths live — those thoughts and feelings that likely keep many of us up at night, but are too often held inside us, in a space both alone, and lonely.
To create space for these feelings, The BTS Center has teamed up with The Many, an extraordinary group of songwriters, spoken word artists, and liturgists, to create Lament with Earth — five seasonal online events which will include original music, poetry, rituals, images, scripture and videos to reflect different seasons of loss through the liturgical year. These events will be interactive, inviting you to pray and sing along.
Join us on Thursday, October 28 at 7:30 pm (Eastern) — online via Zoom or on Facebook Live. You are invited to bring your own sense of loss and sadness. We will lament together, and also share that which has been a balm to our grief, strengthening us for the work we know awaits us.
Future seasonal Lament with Earth events (dates to be confirmed):
- December 9
- February 10
- April 20
- June 23
This event series is free, but contributions will be gratefully received to support The BTS Center's partnership with The Many and ongoing eco-grief programming.
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Meet The Many
The Many is "an uncommon, intentionally diverse collective making music for people to sing together about peace and justice and a world where all belong."
Drawing on indie pop and gospel influences, The Many makes music to help give voice to faith and doubt, questions and fears, laments and longings, music that speaks to a non-violent God, a Jesus who is with us and for us, and to a Spirit that can't be easily defined or controlled.
It's music for a movement of resistance to hatred and division, for reconciliation and restoration, and music that always reminds us "we are on this earth to love."
Lead singers Darren Calhoun, Leslie Michelle and Hannah Rand came together around their shared love of music and commitment to honest expressions of faith, peace-making, economic and racial justice, and LGBTQ+ inclusion.
The Many are equally at home at a house concert, festival, conference or a faith-and-justice-grounded gathering of any kind. They do more than simply concerts — they create experiences in which they weave together music, words, images and liturgy into an engaging, participatory, transformational event.
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UPCOMING PROGRAMS
focusing on Ecological Grief
This fall, much of our programming focuses on the topic of ecological grief. As we move through this second year of a global pandemic and all the losses that it has brought, and as we see the impacts of the climate crisis intensifying, we turn our attention to personal and communal grief and offer faith-rooted spaces for this kind of exploration.
We invite you to consider taking part in one or both of these upcoming programs:
Book Study Group: Words for a Dying World
Four Mondays in November • 12:45-2:00 pm (Eastern)
Stillpoint: weekly, facilitated online groups
Six sessions on Wednesdays beginning Nov. 3 • 4:30-5:15 pm (Eastern)
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Our mission is to catalyze spiritual imagination with enduring wisdom for transformative faith leadership. We offer theologically grounded programs of continuing education and spiritual formation, including workshops and retreats, learning cohorts, public conversations, and projects of applied research.
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