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June 13, 2024
Dear friends,
This time of year holds so much for us — from the flurry of graduations and transitions for some, to the anxiety over dangerous levels of heat and the anticipation of wildfires for many. We are offered, and must metabolize, so much information each moment of our waking hours. At times, we may move into overdrive, just trying to manage it all day to day.
Softening ourselves may seem counterintuitive when there is so much to do and when the many heartbreaks of the world demand urgent action. Yet softening — allowing ourselves to slow, to feel, to attend to ourselves and the world with a contemplative gaze — offers a respite and space for our grief which can fortify us for the work ahead. In these days leading up to the summer solstice, we invite you to find ways of softening in your own lives. We hope that our summer offerings will help facilitate those spaces where you can slow down and feel nourished amidst your commitments.
Starting in just a couple of weeks, we are excited to offer the second year of our Summer Fiction Book Club. Take a look at our selections, read on your own, and join us for some fantastic conversations with guests and staff. And though we are delighted to be enjoying summer, it is certainly not too early to be thinking about September — registration is now live for both in person Convocation and the Online Companions Track. We hope you'll join us for this rich time together!
The applications for our next cohort of the Small Church Leadership Community are now live! This is an amazing opportunity for congregational teams from small churches to be in a facilitated community of practice, with online meetings and in-person retreat days over the course of ten months. If you are a part of a small church in Northern New England that wants to lean into creativity and the strengths of being small, we invite you to apply! Applications for this cohort are due by June 30.
We are thrilled by the already robust response to our 2024-2025 EcoPreacher Cohort — the application is now live. We hope you'll consider joining us for this year-long, online cohort of monthly gatherings for learning, companionship, and exploration, offered in partnership with Lexington Theological Seminary and Creation Justice Ministries.
And there is still time for the young people in your life to register for Climate Justice Camp, a new and unique offering at Pilgrim Lodge on beautiful Lake Cobbosseecontee in West Gardiner, Maine in late July. Please let any high-schoolers (or high school parents) in your circles know about this special opportunity for fellowship, community, and fun!
We wish you all the blessings of spring!
With best wishes,
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Join us for these Upcoming Online Programs:
Summer Fiction Book Club
- Tuesdays: June 25 • July 23 • August 27 • 12.00 - 1.15pm (Eastern) • Online
- Read the novel beforehand and then come for a discussion and conversation with a facilitator and guest conversationalist
- Come to one, two, or all three sessions!
EcoPreacher Cohort
Join Us for these Upcoming In-Person Programs:
Cultivating Refugia: Building the Resilient Church — A Small Church Leadership Community
- September 2024 - June 2025
- Applications are now live and will close on June 30
- A ten month community of practice for congregational teams of 4 - 5 from Northern New England churches
- Online meetings and in person retreat days
Climate Justice Camp at Pilgrim Lodge
- Sunday to Saturday • July 21 - 27, 2024
- At Pilgrim Lodge, a ministry of the Maine Conference, United Church of Christ, on beautiful Lake Cobbosseecontee in West Gardiner, Maine
- For campers entering grades 9-12 and new high school graduates
Convocation 2024: Hope in Small Places: Becoming a People of Refugia Faith
- Thursday & Friday, September 26-27, 2024
- In Person at Maple Hill Farm Inn in Hallowell, Maine — or Online Companions Track
- With Keynote Speaker Debra Rienstra, Opening Preacher Rev. Mariama White-Hammond, and Musician Joshua Long
- Registration is now open!
Opportunities and Offerings from Our Partners:
Summer Book Study: Earth & Soul
Certificate in Climate Justice and Faith
Scapegoat Garden presents Liturgy⎪Order⎪Bridge
- Performances on June 20, 21, 22 at Mechanic's Hall, Portland, Maine
- Presented by SPACE Gallery
- a dance performance and ritual that calls upon Black church traditions and secular performance modalities within a visual and aural landscape that pushes and pulls ideas of faith, nature, fashion, and experimentation
Summer Reads Series
- Offered by our friends at Creation Justice Ministries
- Read a non-fiction book and then join an online discussion
Craigville Theological Colliquy
- July 8–12, 2024 • Craigville Retreat Center, Cape Cod, MA
- An ecumenical gathering of pastors, teachers, seminarians, and lay leaders
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2024 Theme: Ecotheology: Christian Responses to the Global Climate Crisis
- Our own Executive Director, Rev. Dr. Allen Ewing-Merrill, is the keynote speaker!
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Introducing our Homiletician in Residence for the EcoPreacher Initiative! | |
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Rev. Dr. Carolyn J. Sharp, professor of homiletics at Yale Divinity School, has been appointed as Homiletician in Residence for Year One of a grant project with Lexington Theological Seminary, in partnership with The BTS Center and Creation Justice Ministries, entitled “Compelling Preaching for a Climate-Changed World.”
The project is being funded by a $1.25 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. as part of their Compelling Preaching Initiative. LTS is partnering with The BTS Center and Creation Justice Ministries on the initiative, which aims to equip preachers with training, resources, support networks, and research for addressing the urgency of the climate crisis and other environmental issues. The purpose of the initiative is to foster and support preaching that better inspires, encourages, and guides people to come to know and love God and to live out their Christian faith more fully. Read More
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Twelve New England Churches selected to participate in Claiming Your Call Retreat
Teams from twelve New England congregations will take part in an upcoming retreat and community of practice, entitled “Claiming Your Call for a Climate-Changed World,” organized and hosted collaboratively by The BTS Center, Creation Justice Ministries, and Anabaptist Climate Collaborative.
Fully funded by The BTS Center, “Claiming Your Call for a Climate-Changed World” will begin with a three-day retreat, June 20-22, 2024, at the Schoodic Institute in Acadia National Park, Maine, where congregational teams will share deep conversation with theologians, scientists, and indigenous scholars about how climate change will impact the communities where they live and what a spiritually-grounded, justice-seeking response could look like for their churches. At the conclusion of the retreat, teams will integrate what they’ve learned by participating in Vocational Discernment groups and undertaking a “small experiment with radical intent” in the context of a supportive community of practice. Read the full announcement.
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What We're Reading, Listening To, and Wondering:
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We're reading North Woods by Daniel Mason in preparation for the first session of our Summer Fiction Book Club!
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We're wondering: How are you finding moments of softness in your days?
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A final word for your reflection:
"War begins when we harden our hearts, and we harden them easily — in minor ways and then in quite serious, major ways, such as hatred and prejudice — whenever we feel uncomfortable. It's so sad, really, because our motivation in hardening our hearts is to find some kind of ease, some kind of freedom from the distress that we're feeling.
"Someone once gave me a poem with a line in it that offers a good definition of peace: 'Softening what is rigid in our hearts.' We can talk about ending war and we can march for ending war, we can do everything in our power, but war is never going to end as long as our hearts are hardened against each other."
— Pema Chödrön, Practicing Peace in Times of War
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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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