February 24, 2022
Dear Friends,
As I write this, it's a very warm February day here in Maine, with high temperatures expected in the 60s. A couple of days from now, we're anticipating a storm with up to a foot of snow. It's been like this all winter here — wild swings of weather that make it difficult to calibrate body and soul. Even without the changes brought on by our climate crises, this time of year, the movement of one season into another, is full of shifts both internal and external.
When I take a moment to sit with the experience of constant change, I recognize that riding these waves is an opportunity for exploring new perspectives. With the change of seasons from winter to spring (and back to winter), I find myself thinking about new growth, longing for new knowledge and explorations. And though the weather here offers frequent reminders of a rapidly changing planet, I'm feeling buoyed by a number of fresh offerings upcoming at The BTS Center.
On March 8th, we'll welcome interfaith environmental advocate Rabbi Yonatan Neril for a Fireside Chat with our Executive Director, Rev. Allen Ewing-Merrill. Later in March and early April, we'll continue our retreat series with two day-long opportunities to explore themes of imagination and hope. And on March 24th, we're delighted to host a screening of the powerful film Truth Tellers along with a live question and answer session with several of the distinguished artists and activists portrayed in the film.
I hope that you'll join us for one or more of these programs, as a way of navigating the weather (both personal and planetary) and perhaps finding some new perspectives along the way.
With best wishes,
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Rev. Ash Temin
Communications Manager, The BTS Center
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A Fireside Chat
with Rabbi Yonatan Neril
Tuesday, March 8, 2022
12:15-1:00 pm Eastern
via Zoom + Facebook Live
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Recognizing the sobering truth that humanity faces unprecedented challenges to sustainable life on the planet, the Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development (ICSD) works to catalyze a transition to a sustainable, thriving, and spiritually-aware society through the leadership of faith communities. Based in Jerusalem, ICSD unites faith communities, teachers, and leaders to promote co-existence, peace, and sustainability through advocacy, education, and action.
Among others, ICSD projects include The Seminary Faith and Ecology Project, which promotes Christian, Muslim, and Jewish seminary education on faith and ecology, focusing on the formation of the education and values of emerging clergy and faith leaders; and The Women’s Interfaith Ecology Project, which brings together young Christian, Muslim, and Jewish women in Jerusalem through workshops and events aimed at promoting environmental sustainability, strengthening trans-community relations, and overcoming religious differences.
Rabbi Neril has spoken internationally on the connections between religious values and ecology, including at the Fez Climate Summit, at the Parliament of World Religions, and in numerous congregations and conferences. Over the past 15 years, he has co-organized twelve interfaith ecology conferences in Israel and the United States, has spoken at over 50 institutions on four continents, and has authored several books.
Rabbi Neril’s groundbreaking Eco Bible, now available in two volumes, offers an ecological commentary on the Torah — the first five books of the Hebrew Bible — drawing on 3,500 years of religious ethics and teaching to show how the Bible itself and its great scholars embrace right relationship with God’s creation as a fundamental and living message.
Join us, either in the Zoom room or on Facebook Live.
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Truth Tellers — Online Film Screening and Live Q&A
Thursday, March 24, 2022 • 7:00 - 9:00 pm (Eastern)
This event is free, but contributions will be gratefully received to support The Wabanaki Alliance, one of the local efforts spotlighted in the Truth Tellers movie.
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Truth Tellers is a new documentary film about Maine artist and activist Robert Shetterly and his project Americans Who Tell the Truth. In the film, Shetterly uses art to celebrate the voices of courageous past and present activists fighting for racial equity, environmental justice, and indigenous rights. Over the years, Shetterly has painted over 250 portraits of truth-tellers such as Penobscot Nation leaders Sherri Mitchell and Maulian Dana; environmental activists Kelsey Juliana, Bill McKibben and Rev. Lennox Yearwood; and Civil Rights leaders Fannie Lou Hamer, John Lewis, and Martin Luther King, among many others. The film chronicles the work of Shetterly along with nine subjects of these portraits to educate and inspire students around models of moral courage throughout U.S. history. The film premiered in September 2021 at the Camden Film Festival in Maine, and The BTS Center is pleased to offer this public screening.
We invite you to join us for a screening of Truth Tellers followed by a live question and answer session with artist Rob Shetterly and activists Reggie Harris and Maulian Dana, both of whom are featured in the film.
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Creating a New Story
The Role of Imagination and Place in Addressing Our Collective Future
A day-long retreat with Rev. Alison Cornish and Rev. Maria Anderson-Lippert
Thursday, March 24, 2022 • 9:00 am - 4:00 pm (Eastern)
Registration fee: $50/person
The first 50 people to register by March 15 will receive a retreat care package from The BTS Center!
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“Humans are capable of a unique trick, creating realities by first imagining them, but experiencing them in their minds ... As soon as we sense the possibility of a more desirable world, we begin behaving differently, as though that world is starting to come into existence, as though, in our mind's eye, we are already there. The dream becomes an invisible force which pulls us forward. By this process it begins to come true. The act of imagining somehow makes it real ... And what is possible in art becomes thinkable in life.” — Brian Eno
It can be easy to bear witness to the circumstances of our common shared life these days — prolonged pandemic, droughts, wildfires, floods, continued political divide — and experience fear, dread, or despair. There aren't many hopeful stories about what kind of a future we are headed towards. However, the particular challenges of living in a climate-changed world require resilient, grounded, and connected individuals who are able to imagine and articulate a different future, hopeful stories about what might be possible. In other words, the particular challenges of our time require all of us, and all our inherent creativity!
Join us for a spacious, day-long retreat in exercising imagination, grounding us in what could be, and connecting with companions along the way. We’ll engage practices of contemplation and reflection on specific places in our lives, fueling our imaginations and our spirits for telling new stories about what could be, about the future we are headed towards. As this is a day of embodiment, we invite you to come to our day of retreat holding a specific place in your heart and in your mind — perhaps a spot in nature, or your home; maybe a congregational space, or someplace public. Consider coming to our retreat day with a companion, or even a group, all holding the same space in intention and care.
During our day together, Alison and Maria will lead individual and group spiritual practices of connecting to a specific place, and imagining a different future for that place. We’ll be exploring questions such as: What do you observe? What stories do you know about this place? What was it like here … a decade ago? a century? a millennium? Who (in addition to you and God) cares about what happens to and with this place?
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Shining in the Shadows
Leading with Hope in a Time of Despair
A day-long retreat with Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Thursday, April 7, 2022 • 9:00 am - 4:00 pm (Eastern)
Registration fee: $50/person
The first 50 people to register by March 30 will receive a retreat care package from The BTS Center!
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This is a hard time to be hopeful. Climate change, Trumpism, White Supremacy, Covid and world politics wear on us. There's a sense we're nearing collapse. The whole society — including the church and its leaders — is weary and a little depressed. In such times, how do we function as spiritual leaders? How do we lead with hope, and help others find hope, when it looks hopeless, and we ourselves are faltering?
Hope isn't optimism. It's trust in the unseen. A whole universe of life-giving energy flows beneath us, around us and through us — but most of the time we're closed off to it. In this retreat, we'll explore practices to renew our hope. In both gathered activities and in solitude, in online sessions and times apart, we'll engage in some contemplative practices, creative exercises, re-imagining some biblical texts, and small group conversations. We'll explore practices of lament, "divine mindfulness," gratitude, reframing, and reconnecting, to discover trust and courage. Even when times are hard, the future looks bleak, and the air is murky, we can find joy — yes, joy, even! — and shine with light in the shadows, and lead with hope, helping others recover their hope and bear light.
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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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