Sr. Susan Gatz is a member of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, formerly in community leadership and now serving as the chair of the sisters’ international ecological sustainability committee. Carolyn Cromer is the director of ecological sustainability for the sisters. In this conversation, Sr. Susan and Carolyn reflect on how deep spiritual commitments to caring for Creation play out in the context of communal religious life.

Resources:

Sisters of Charity of Nazareth homepage: https://nazareth.org/

Learn more about the SCN community’s ecological work, with tips for your own efforts: https://nazareth.org/office-of-ecological-sustainability/

Join the SCN family as an Associate member: https://nazareth.org/associates/

Earth & Spirit Center website: https://earthandspiritcenter.org/

Marianne Welch is an avid gardener, a musician, an artist, a philanthropist, and a conservationist, deeply involved in support of the arts and environmental causes. This deep and broad conversation explores creativity and beauty as paths for the flourishing of people and the planet.

Resources:

Documentary on Netflix about interconnection in forest ecosystems: “Fantastic Fungi”

Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts in Your Yard, by Douglas Tallamy. Portland, OR: Timber Press, 2019

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate―Discoveries from A Secret World, by Peter Wohlleben. Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2016

National Resources Defense Council: https://www.nrdc.org/

Earth & Spirit Center Website: www.earthandspiritcenter.org

Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim are a husband and wife team of Senior Lecturers and Research Scholars at Yale University in the School of the Environment, the Divinity School, and the Department of Religious Studies, with specializations in East Asian religions and Indigenous religions. They co-direct the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology and are the creators of the new Coursera series, Religions and Ecology: Restoring the Earth Community. In this episode, Mary Evelyn and John discuss their decades of work at the intersection of ecology and the world’s religions, as informed by their mentor Thomas Berry and with the hopeful, deep-time perspective of our evolving universe.

Resources:

Coursera courses by Mary Evelyn and John:

Religions and Ecology: Restoring the Earth Community

https://www.coursera.org/specializations/religion-ecology

Journey of the Universe: A Story for Our Times

https://www.coursera.org/specializations/journey-of-the-universe

Yale Forum on Ecology and Religion: https://fore.yale.edu/

Journey of the Universe film/book/podcasts: https://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/

Thomas Berry Website: https://thomasberry.org/

United Nations Environment Programme Faith for Earth Initiative:

https://www.unep.org/about-un-environment/faith-earth-initiative

Greenfaith: https://greenfaith.org/

Ecology and Religion, by John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker. Washington DC: Island Press, 2014

The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times, by Jane Goodall and Douglas Abrams. New York: Celadon Books, 2021

Tina Brouwer is the co-founder of Red Oaks Forest School in Eastern Kentucky. Amid the beauty and ecological diversity of the Red River Gorge area, Red Oaks invites youth to connect deeply with the natural world in creative ways and in all sorts of weather. In this episode, Tina shares how interweaving nature and education helps cultivate wonder, curiosity, trust, vulnerability, courage, and mindful groundedness.

Resources:

Red Oaks Forest School:

https://www.redoaksforestschool.org/

https://www.facebook.com/redoaksforestschool

https://www.instagram.com/redoaks_explorers/

[email protected]

Children and Nature Network: https://www.childrenandnature.org/

Natural Start Alliance: https://naturalstart.org/

Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest: https://bernheim.org/

Victoria Loorz is the co-founder of the Wild Church Network and Seminary of the Wild, and she’s the author of a new book, Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred. In this conversation, we explore what it means to reclaim our place in nature as an essential part of spiritual belonging and how to restore the great, necessary conversation between us, the divine, and the more-than-human world.

Resources:

Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred: www.victorialoorz.com/book

Seminary of the Wild: https://www.seminaryofthewild.com/

Wild Church Network: https://www.wildchurchnetwork.com/

Earth & Spirit Center homepage: https://earthandspiritcenter.org/

Dr. Justin Mog, Assistant to the Provost for Sustainability Initiatives at the University of Louisville, describes himself as a “car-free, TV-free, vegetarian, beekeeping, gardening Quaker with a fully solar-powered home.” This conversation explores Justin’s vision of a restored Earth, informed by both his faith and his environmental commitments, and how his radical lifestyle choices are far more about joy than sacrifice.

Justin hosts his own weekly podcast and community radio show called “Sustainability Now!” on Forward Radio 106.5 FM in Louisville. Check it out at https://www.forwardradio.org/sustainabilitynow.

Quaker Earthcare Witness: https://quakerearthcare.org/

Sustainability at University of Louisville: https://louisville.edu/sustainability

Project Drawdown: https://drawdown.org/

Earth & Spirit Center website: www.earthandspiritcenter.org

Halida Hatic is long-term student of the Enneagram, a tool for personal self-understanding and transformation. She serves as the Community Weaver for the nonprofit Enneagram Prison Project, with a mission to help free people on both sides of the bars from prisons of own making. In this episode, Halida reflects on the Enneagram as a key for personal, social, and environmental healing.

Halida’s October 23, 2021 Enneagram workshop (in-person and online):

https://www.earthandspiritcenter.org/class/introduction-to-the-enneagram/

Enneagram Prison Project:

https://enneagramprisonproject.org/

Learn more about the Enneagram:

https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/

Earth & Spirit Center homepage:

www.earthandspiritcenter.org

Anthony Mullin is the founding executive director of the Thomas Berry Place, a non-profit center for spirituality, community empowerment, and ecological stewardship, in New York City. In this conversation, Anthony reflects on the vision and values that guide the work of what he describes as a spiritual startup.

Jeshima Lewis is a percussionist, a music educator, and a spiritual guide. This conversation explores how drumming, one of the most primordial modes of music, can be a path into deeper mindfulness, a greater sense of well-being, and stronger connections to others and the more-than-human world.

www.earthandspiritcenter.org

http://drumsmartllc.com/

Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest is a 16,000-acre non-profit nature preserve near Louisville, Kentucky. This conversation features Bernheim’s executive director Dr. Mark Wourms, and Dr. Kristin Faurest, the director of education, discussing the ecological and cultural significance of forest ecosystems and how creativity, play, spirituality, rigorous science, and nature immersion experiences come together at Bernheim to help forge deeper connections between the human and more-than-human world.

www.earthandspiritcenter.org

www.bernheim.org