Conversation Circle
Chaplaincy and the Environment

June – December 2023 • Online

This first round of Conversation Circles welcomed 8 – 12 participants, free of charge and selected by application.

The BTS Center, in collaboration with the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab, created an opportunity for chaplains committed to working at the intersection of the environment, climate change, and spiritual care to be in ongoing conversation with one another, sharing experiences, offering support, and seeking inspiration for their ongoing work. 

This Conversation Circle was open to chaplains who are seeking to engage with one another about the work of spiritual care in a supportive environment. We intend this group to offer support for personal well-being and community-building in the midst of multiple, and intersecting, challenging realities in today’s world. 

For this inaugural session of Conversation Circles, participants were chosen based on a number of factors in order to create a group reflecting demographic and sector diversity.

The Conversation Circle, comprised of participants from diverse settings and two trained chaplain facilitators, met 12 times over the course of 6 months. Each session was 75 minutes, and met on the Zoom video-conferencing platform.

Circle One Participants' Page
Circle Two Participants' Page

Meet Our Facilitators

The Rev. Alison Cornish serves as a Program Consultant at the BTS Center. A Unitarian Universalist minister, Alison attended Andover Newton Theological Seminary in response to a felt sense of call directly from Earth to address what is it that we are doing in our daily lives and habits that is destroying the planet that we inhabit. Following CPE, field education in interfaith work and parish ministry, and ordination, and while serving congregations on Long Island, Alison also embarked on studies with the Buddhist teacher Joanna Macy and Dominican sister Miriam McGillis of Genesis Farm, and became a GreenFaith Fellow. She served as Senior Director of Programs at Partners for Sacred Places, Executive Director of Pennsylvania Interfaith Power & Light, and Director of Seminary and Congregational Initiatives at Interfaith Philadelphia. Alison’s facilitation work includes offerings of the Work That Reconnects, training trainers for Civil Conversations, group practice of Nonviolent Communication, and teaching the curriculum “Healthy Congregations.” As a Program Consultant for the BTS Center, her work is focused on ecological and climate grief, religious imagination, and chaplaincy in a climate-changed world. Alison lives in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts, on the unceded lands of the Nipmuc peoples, in the watershed of the Connecticut River.

Gabrielle Gelderman is a hospital and movement chaplain based on Treaty 6 territory in amiswaciwaskahikan / Edmonton, AB, Canada. Raised in a tight-knit setter community of Dutch Christian Reformed farmers, and a family of avid hikers, growing up, Gabrielle encountered God in the surrounding fields, mountains, and lakes of Alberta. 
 
As a young adult, Gabrielle spent as much time outside as possible, working as a trip guide, park interpreter, and environmental educator. Her love of the land also led her in 2017 to become a co-founder and organizer with Climate Justice Edmonton, a grassroots, volunteer-led organization working for environmental, economic, and racial justice. 
 
Eventually, Gabrielle decided to return to school to become a chaplain. In 2021, she completed her 2nd CPE unit and graduated with her MTS, writing her thesis on group healing and climate grief in young climate organizers. Since then, Gabrielle has offered 1:1 spiritual direction and facilitated regular, drop-in grief circles on the topic of climate and political grief. 
 
In addition to her formal CPE chaplaincy training and her Master of Theological Studies, Gabrielle has training in the contemplative Christian tradition through The Living School, in the embodied healing tradition through Somatic Experiencing, and in movement chaplaincy through the Faith Matters Network. 
 
She is excited about the emerging field of environmental chaplaincy and thrilled to support and learn from others doing similar work. You can learn more about Gabrielle’s work on her website gabriellegelderman.squarespace.com, and on her Instagram at @theclimatechaplain.