Dear friends:

There is an oak tree in the woods near my house who I visit when I have big questions to ponder and big quandaries to navigate. Like this one: Compared to the overwhelming earth-sized crisis we face, do our personal efforts and endeavors matter? I went to the woods this past weekend to be near the oak, and to ponder out loud. Watch the video below to hear where I've landed.

I am curious to know if you concur, and I would love to continue the conversation with you in either of the two communities of learning and transformation that we will be offering in early 2022:

Wildness & Spirituality for the Common Good, in partnership with the School of Global Citizenry • January 15-February 18, 2022

A five-week, online course for folks who want to deepen their relationship with the elements of wild nature, and consider how that relationship might sustain and enrich their work in the world.

Spiritual Leadership for a Climate-Changed World, in partnership with the Maine School of Ministry • February-May 2022

A four-month, online course for ministers and other spiritual leaders who want to deepen their understanding of what is necessary to guide our communities toward reclaiming a right relationship with the earth and our collective future.

With thanks,

Aram Mitchell

Director of Partnerships and Formation

“I used to think the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that with 30 years of good science we could address those problems. But I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy... and to deal with those we need a spiritual and cultural transformation...” — James “Gus” Speth

Climate change is no longer the science community’s prediction for the future — we are now living in a climate-changed world. This reality raises provocative questions, challenges, and responsibilities, especially for people whose worldview has been formed by a Western perspective, and in particular for spiritual leaders. We are pleased to be offering this course in partnership with the Maine School of Ministry as an opportunity for spiritual leaders in the Global North to engage those questions, navigate those challenges, and embrace those responsibilities in their particular contexts.

Over the course of four months, students will engage assigned readings and other multimedia resources, form and share personal reflections, participate in four day-long facilitated sessions featuring guest presenters, and complete a final project. This course is designed for self-directed students whose learning needs are related to their professional roles as ministers — ordained and non-ordained, clergy and laypersons, leaders of traditional religious communities and other communities of practice.

Our present reality is a tumultuous reality. While we may not be able to smooth out the complications, this course will provide accompaniment and a community of mutual learning to form and inform how leaders might embody their vocation of spiritual leadership for a climate-changed world.

As Susan Griffin writes in Woman and Nature: “We are nature. We are nature seeing nature. We are nature with a concept of nature. Nature weeping. Nature speaking of nature to nature.” With that conviction in mind, this course offers the opportunity to consider how a thoughtful relationship with wild nature bolsters our ability to do good work in the world.

Throughout this five-week online course in partnership with the School of Global Citizenry, we will examine ideas of wilderness, experiment with ways of connecting with wild nature, and explore the integration of these insights and practices into your personal and professional context. That means that you, as an expert in your life and work, are a key part of this curriculum.

In order to journey together in the shared project of building a global culture of compassion, we must each show up with our own creative commitments. After all, it takes a host of efforts to make a beautiful world. That’s why we begin with the assumption that each learner is a vital part of the ecology of justice, eager and willing to contribute to the common good.

This course is ideal for social and civic leaders, clergy, laity, and seminarians seeking continuing education units or valuable and relevant professional development credits. Others who benefit from this course include chaplains, nurses, therapists, coaches, consultants, small group leaders, directors, and educators. Two CEUs are available upon completion.

“The holidays... invite us not so much to dispel the darkness with light, but to enter the darkness with whatever light our consciousness brings. It is there in the darkness, as frightening as that might be, where we truly meet our spiritual selves. It is within the darkness, the unknown, that our creativity and our hope and our promise take root and have their home.” (Charles Blustein Ortman)

Festivals are times of miracles. Both the Christian story of the birth of Jesus and the Hanukkah story of the oil for the lamp point to unanticipated, and unplanned, miracles. And so many of the festivals involve candles or lights of some kind. How might we, even in our lament, make room for the inbreaking of the miraculous? What is illuminated differently by the candles of the advent wreath, or menorahs, or by solstice bonfires?

This is the second of five events we have planned with The Many. You can view the video of the first event here.

On Thursday, December 16, we invite you to join us in a conversation with Words for a Dying World: Stories of Grief and Courage from the Global Church editor Hannah Malcolm and contributor Anupama Ranawana. This anthology weaves together a rich tapestry of diverse experience, all focused around the question of how we grapple with ecological grief in a way that is particular to our location and moment.

As we come to terms with what it means, and will mean, to live in a climate-changed world, many of us are just beginning to understand our ecological grief and its connection to our places and our privileges. It takes practice and patience to meet our own grief and the grief of others with courage and compassion. And understanding these griefs through a theological lens will inform our spiritual leadership now and in the days to come.

This event is part of The BTS Center’s ongoing season of programming around ecological grief, which has included a book study of Words for a Dying World during the month of November. All are welcome, regardless of participation in other programs.

We hope you will be part of this vital conversation around ecological grief and its role in our faith communities.

 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.