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October 12, 2022
Dear friends:
This week we are rejoicing and giving thanks for Convocation 2022 — an inspiring, challenging, energizing time of learning, community, and respite that many of us shared last week. Thank you to all who participated in The BTS Center's annual Convocation, a tradition 117 years in the making!
A Convocation participant shared these words of gratitude:
"Thank you for bringing into being this wonderful blend of ministry and preaching, prayers and songs, opportunities for deep dives and for reflection in small groups. Thanks and gratitude to Veronice Miles, Cole Arthur Riley, Ched Myers, Reggie Harris, Rob Hopkins, Keisha McKenzie, Shanon Shah, the BTS facilitators and all who made this possible. The synergy between the individual presenters and Convocation leaders / facilitators and participants was wonderful. I look forward to revisiting the recordings of the main sessions, and to immersing myself in the recordings of the deep dives."
This week the gratitude is flowing in both directions!
Beginning Thursday afternoon and continuing through Friday afternoon, we led seven different sessions — worship, preaching, communal song, speakers, workshops, affinity groups, and even a live recording of a podcast session — with 164 people registered and somewhere around 100 people engaging with each session. From start to finish, Convocation 2022 included profound sharing from scholars and activists and artists and authors and musicians and organizers and spiritual leaders.
The participants' page is still available here at this link, and we encourage you to make use of it. It contains recordings of all of the sessions, along with musician Reggie Harris' Convocation songbook, bios of our presenters, Lilace Mellin Guignard's commissioned poem "The Great Re-Imagining," and additional resources.
Here are links to a couple of videos that we shared during Convocation:
Convocation 2022 may have come and gone, but without missing a beat, we are jumping into full swing in our planning for some exciting fall programming, including:
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The Intersectional Environmentalist Book Study — a five-week book study on Tuesdays (5:00-6:15 pm Eastern) beginning October 18, exploring The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People and Planet, in which author Leah Thomas explores the ways in which climate change affects different groups disproportionately and offers ideas and actions toward a more inclusive vision of ecological justice. Click here to watch a video of Maya Williams, Portland's poet laureate, reading a poem she wrote specifically for this book study
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EcoPreacher Cohort — a year-long cohort for preachers, meeting once a month, November 2022 – November 2023, designed to support, educate, and engage preachers in the integration of climate consciousness into their preaching
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Lament With Earth — five seasonal events, online on Thursday evenings, honoring the pain of loss through the liturgical year
Watch for more details about each of these programs in the coming days, and please go ahead and register for any that grab your interest!
Thank you for coming alongside The BTS Center as we seek to nurture "spiritual leadership for a climate-changed world," guided by the vision of human hearts renewed, justice established, and creation restored. We are grateful for you, our supporters and friends, and we hope our paths will cross again soon.
With deep gratitude and burgeoning hope,
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