Grounding Practice

We begin this episode with a reading of the poem “Anthropocene Pastoral” by Catherine Pierce, read by the poet herself. This grounding practice invites us to look directly at the changing world and find our breath amid beauty and loss.

Key Takeaways

• The Power of Naming: Naming our climate grief is not a wall; it is a door. When we name what is true, we move from isolation into a shared reality
• Survival as Legacy: We are all here because our ancestors survived “the end of the world” in various ways. We carry the capacity to move through endings and emerge changed but whole
• Agency in Honesty: Honesty is a spark for connection. In a culture that often encourages looking away, the act of looking directly at climate reality is an act of spiritual agency
• Accompanying vs. Fixing: Spiritual leadership in a climate-changed world involves “walking with” people in their distress rather than trying to resolve the distress for them
• Tending, Mending, Befriending: Shifting away from urgency-based “yelling” toward spiritual care that acknowledges deep overwhelm
• The More-Than-Human World: Exploring our identity as one species among millions and learning survival strategies from the ecological world
• The Sacred Act of Naming: How being honest about our grief and naming the “unknowable” creates a path to communion and hope
• Practicing Freedom: Insights from Autumn’s martial arts practice on how discipline and collaboration create the capacity for spontaneity and choice
• Agency in Care: Reclaiming our biological and spiritual drive to both give and receive care as a fundamental tool for resilience

Next Steps & Practice

Based on the wisdom shared by Rabbi Ora and the follow-up reflections in Episode 4, here are concrete ways you can engage with climate grief in your own community:

1. Practice “Radical Honesty”: Identify one climate-related grief you have been carrying. Share it with a trusted friend or write it down. Notice how the act of naming it shifts your relationship to the feeling.
2. Ancestral Resilience: Reflect on an “ending” your ancestors survived. What qualities did they possess that allowed them to come out on the other side? How can you call upon those qualities today?
3. Create a Space for Naming: Host a small gathering or a “Climate Cafe” where the only goal is to listen. Avoid the urge to offer solutions; focus entirely on the sacred act of accompaniment.
4. Engage with Climate Fiction: As discussed in our follow-up, use stories to help imagine the world on the other side of these end
5. Risk Honesty: Find a setting to let others know what’s on your heart — whether by leading a prayer in your faith community or by writing a letter to your local paper.
6. Mini-Rituals: Create a simple line of acknowledgment or a “closing homily” during a daily task or gathering to ground your actions in a larger purpose.

People and resources mentioned:

• The BTS Center
• Exploring Apocalypse with Rabbi Ora Nitkin-Kaner
• “Anthropocene Pastoral” by Catherine Pierce
• Anthropocene Pastor, a film conceptualized and directed by visual artist Clare Börsch
• How to Survive the End of the World podcast with co-host Autumn Brown
• David Abram: American ecologist and philosopher who coined the term “more than human world”
• Robin Wall Kimmerer: Author noted for the essay comparing monoculture corn to “enslavement”
• Lament with Earth: A BTS Center program involving online gatherings for seasonal naming and grieving
• The Many: Liturgists and musicians who collaborated on the Lament with Earth offerings
• Francis Weller: Psychotherapist and upcoming guest mentioned in relation to “longing for reciprocity”

Connect with us

We would love to hear what reflections are surfacing for you.

• Email: podcast@thebtscenter.org
• Voice Message: 207-200-6986
• Video: Find full-length video episodes and bonus clips on The BTS Center’s YouTube channel.

Blessing: May you know that you are loved, that you are worthy of love, just as you are. And may you know that you are capable of great love.

Meet Our Guest

Rabbi Ora Nitkin-Kaner is a climate change chaplain, educator, and innovative spiritual leader. As the founder of Exploring Apocalypse — a trauma-informed climate chaplaincy practice — she helps individuals and communities across faith traditions explore the spiritual disruptions, invitations, and reorientations of climate change.

Rabbi Ora sees curiosity as an important spiritual posture for living in a time of climate crisis. Her work moves folks from reactivity into responsiveness, and from self-abandonment into vulnerability-inspired care. Prior to her role as a climate change chaplain, Rabbi Ora served as a spiritual leader and pastoral caregiver in prisons, hospitals, and congregations across the United States. A poet, liturgist, and meditation teacher, she holds a BA and MA from the University of Toronto, as well as rabbinic ordination and an MA from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College.

Meet Our Host

Autumn Brown (she/her) is an artist, facilitator, mother, and theologian. The front woman of the eponymously named soul-pop band, AUTUMN, she is a queer, mixed-race Black woman, a gifted facilitator and orator, and a freedom worker who grounds her approach to building movements for liberation in her belief in the innate capacity for healing that emanates from the human heart.

Meet Our Co-Host

Rev. Nicole Diroff (she/her) is ordained in the United Church of Christ. She holds expertise in facilitation, data management, and strategic planning. Nicole is a certified Maine Master Naturalist, serves as Chair of the Spiritual Formation Committee at Williston-Immanuel United Church and is Co-Chair of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Committee for the Scarborough Public School District.

Meet Our Producer

After spending 17 years and over $30,000 on three continents attempting to “de-gay” himself through conversion therapy, Peterson Toscano came out a quirky queer Quaker concerned with human rights. He also produces other podcasts including Citizens Climate Radio, Bubble & Squeak, and the Bible Bash Podcast. Peterson has been featured in People Magazine, The Times of London, the Trya Banks Show, and NPR Morning Edition. He lives in Pretoria, South Africa with his husband, Glen Retief.