Collective Honesty and Complicated Hope
An Evening with Katharine Hayhoe, Climate Scientist
Occurred on Wednesday, May 22, 2024
Now more than ever before, we see the impacts of climate change in our local communities, from devastating flooding to wildfires to the shifting of seasons and the impact on local food systems. Science tells us it’s too late to avoid all of the impacts of climate change, but science also tells us that it is not too late to avoid the most serious and dangerous impacts — and our collective choices will determine how we experience these changes now and in the future.
Understanding who and how we wish to be in this changing world requires collective honesty — supporting one another as we honestly reckon with the realities of our present moment; embracing a theologically rich and nuanced understanding of hope in a climate-changed world; and grounding ourselves in community to nourish the challenging and necessary work of these times.
Thank you to those who joined us for a special evening event with renowned climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, author of Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Call for Hope and Healing in a Divided World, and a leading voice in connecting the data of climate change with faithful and meaningful responses. Dr. Hayhoe was joined by a panel of wise conversationalists who engaged with one another around how we face with honesty what is happening, how we hold faith and climate science in conversation with one another, and how we embody complicated hope as we respond to the intersecting crises of our day.
View the conversation below, recorded on May 22, 2024:
Meet Katharine Hayhoe
Katharine Hayhoe is an accomplished atmospheric scientist who studies climate change and why it matters to us here and now. She is also a remarkable communicator who has received the American Geophysical Union’s climate communication prize, the Stephen Schneider Climate Communication award, the United Nations Champion of the Earth award, and been named to a number of lists including Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People, Foreign Policy’s 100 Leading Thinkers, and FORTUNE magazine’s World’s Greatest Leaders. Her TED talk, “The most important thing you can do to fight climate change: talk about it” has more than 4 million views and her most recent book is Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World.
Katharine serves as Chief Scientist for The Nature Conservancy and a Paul W. Horn Distinguished Professor and the Political Science Endowed Professor in Public Policy and Public Law at Texas Tech University. She has a B.Sc. in Physics from the University of Toronto and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Illinois, is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the American Scientific Affiliation, and has been awarded honorary doctorates from Colgate University, Trinity College, and Victoria University and Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto.
Learn more at katharinehayhoe.com
Meet our Conversationalists
Rev. Dr. Jim Antal is a denominational leader, climate activist, author, and public theologian. Hundreds of churches are reading his book, Climate Church, Climate World: How People of Faith Must Work for Change (2018, revised and updated in 2023). Jim is a graduate of Princeton University and Yale Divinity School. He has preached on climate change since 1988 in over 400 settings and has engaged in non-violent civil disobedience on numerous occasions. In 2018 he retired as the leader of the 350 UCC churches in Massachusetts. He currently serves as Special Advisor on Climate Justice to the General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ, and he is a cherished member of The BTS Center’s Program Advisory Committee.
Rabbi Laura Bellows is an educator and movement builder, serving as Director of Spiritual Activism and Education at Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action. She works to support diverse American Jewish communities to live and take action with integrity, spiritual courage, and active hope, deeply rooted in Torah, justice, music, and creativity. An experienced Jewish educator and climate activist, Laura previously directed Teen Learning at Hebrew College, Genesis and BIMArts programs at Brandeis, and served as Director of Congregational and Community programs at Teva, a leading Jewish environmental education center. Laura received ordination and her M.A. from Hebrew College, a B.A. from Oberlin College, and is a graduate of the M² Senior Educators Cohort. In addition to her work with Dayenu, Laura finds delight in connecting people to Torah as a soferet (scribe), artist, and ritual officiant, singing in community, and hiking the Blue Hills near her home on Massachusett Wampanoag land in Boston, USA.
William Morris (he/him) is a climate activist located by a refinery in Torrance, CA. He holds his degree in environmental science with an emphasis on ecological restoration and a minor in watershed management from Humboldt State University. William is a Faith Organizer with GreenFaith working on the People vs. Fossil Fuels campaign. He also works with Young Evangelicals for Climate Action (YECA) serving first as a field organizer and is now Chair of the steering committee. He volunteers with The Climate Reality Project, is the founder and chair of the Los Angeles chapter’s Faith-based Communities Committee, sits on the steering committee of California Interfaith Power and Light, is founder and chair of the creation care committee at Faith United Methodist Church, is part of the leadership team with Faiths4Future, and a member of the board at Circle Faith Future. William also has worked with faith organizations abroad spending time in Kenya, Chad, and Indonesia. He spends his time engaging with faith communities, schools, universities, and organizations around the topics of faith-based climate justice and education. His work has been featured in Rolling Stone Magazine, ABC News, and the BBC.
Meet our Event Musician
Rev. Liz Fulmer (she/her) is a queer pastor and musical storyteller serving Grandview Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Trained as a songwriter and vocal principle at Berklee College of Music and spiritually formed through the care and teaching of Lancaster Theological Seminary, Fulmer is passionate about facilitating divine encounter through the blending of breath, music, word, and community. A multi-instrumentalist, she has 3 albums of original music: Heaven Knows (2016), Ellipsis (2018), and The Bible Tells Me So (2023). Liz has been a guest lecturer at Millersville University and Lancaster Theological Seminary, teaching on the craft of songwriting and how to effectively combine music and visuals to create accessible and meaningful worship experiences. She was ordained in 2020 by the Movement of Inclusive Methodists. Liz feels called to the work of sacred space-making, particularly for those who have been made to feel unworthy or unacceptable in the eyes of the Christian Church for any reason.
About The BTS Center
With roots more than 200 years deep, The BTS Center is a 501(c)(3) private operating foundation in Portland, Maine, building on the legacy of the former Bangor Theological Seminary. With a mission to catalyze spiritual imagination with enduring wisdom for transformative faith leadership, The BTS Center offers programs of spiritual and vocational formation — workshops and retreats, learning communities, courses, public conversations, and projects of applied research —that aim to cultivate and nurture spiritual leadership for a climate-changed world.
About One Home One Future
One Home One Future is a seven-year multi-faith campaign led by denominations and multifaith organizations throughout the United States, together encouraging visible and collective creation care and climate action. We believe this is a moment when spiritual leaders and faith communities everywhere must unite in pursuing meaningful and just climate solutions at the local, regional, and national level. One Home One Future is designed to offer fulfilling, positive, and accessible pathways for education, engagement, and action on creation care and just and equitable climate solutions, whether you are just getting started or you’re already deeply engaged. The BTS Center is a proud member of the One Home One Future coalition.
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