Lament with Earth
Five seasonal events honoring the pain of loss through the liturgical year
“We know and feel in our bones that something primal is amiss. Our extended home is being eroded. It is essential that we stop and recognize these losses...to respond with sorrow, outrage and apology at these places touched by so much loss.”
— Francis Weller
So many of us know this truth voiced by Francis Weller. And yet, we have so few opportunities to express our sorrow, fear, sadness and yes, even despair about a future of life in a climate-changed world. It takes courage to touch the places inside ourselves where these truths live — those thoughts and feelings that likely keep many of us up at night, but are too often held inside us, in a space both alone, and lonely.
To create space for these feelings, The BTS Center — together with The Many, an extraordinary group of songwriters, spoken word artists and liturgists — has created Lament with Earth — five seasonal events featuring original music, poetry, rituals, images, scripture and videos to reflect different seasons of loss through the liturgical year. These events are interactive, inviting you to pray and sing along. You are invited to bring your own sense of loss and sadness. We lament together, and also share that which has been a balm to our grief, strengthening us for the work we know awaits us.
Dates:
7:30 pm - 8:30 pm (Eastern) • Online
October 23, 2024
December 4, 2024
February 5, 2025
April 2, 2025
June 4, 2025
An Invitation to Support Hurricane Relief Efforts in Western North Carolina through our partner, Creation Care Alliance
NEXT EVENT:
April 2, 2025
7:30 pm - 8:30 pm (Eastern) • Online
Spring Event: Via Transformativa, with the Element of Water
Event Partner: Waterspirit
The shattered water made a misty din.
Great waves looked over others coming in,
And thought of doing something to the shore
That water never did to land before.
— Robert Frost, Once by the Pacific
Spring in the northern hemisphere is filled with holidays that draw us into the forces of transformation: the resurrection of Easter, the liberation of Passover, and Beltane, the ancient springtime festival of optimism and fertility. In Matthew Fox's words, "these are the prophetic moments in our lives when we are called to use our talents and gifts with the hurting, fractured, dysfunctional aspects of our society." What better element to guide us through the themes of transformation than water, itself a shape-shifter? Water, in all its varied forms, stirs our imaginations even as it gives — and takes away — life. Water is intimately connected to our climate-changed world — as storm and drought, as acidification of the ocean and rain, as sea level rise and rising saline levels of fresh water sources. And, water moves turbines, grows food hydroponically, cools desert-like air, and bears life into the future.
Together, we lament, and celebrate, the transformative power of water, holding space for mourning and discovery, sorrow and inspiration.
UPCOMING EVENTS:
June 4, 2025
7:30 pm - 8:30 pm (Eastern) • Online
The Season of Via Positiva, featuring All Beings
Event Partner: The Center for Spirituality in Nature
“In a healthy environment, our first spiritual moments are moments of awe and wonder, and delight. The mystics call this the Via Positiva. When we allow these gifts to penetrate our souls the organic response includes: gratitude, reverence, and joy.”
— Matthew Fox
As days lengthen and temperatures warm, many of us are drawn outside to first-hand experiences of awe and wonder, and delight — the characteristics of creation spirituality's via positiva. Our creatureliness awakens and is enlivened by the blooming, burgeoning, bountiful world. Yet the more we are aware and alive, the more keenly we feel the threats to our fellow beings — the extinction of species, their loss of habitat, and the despoiling of dwelling places by powerful forces which threaten the extraordinarily diverse and resplendent world which we share with all that lives and breathes along with us. We welcomed you to join us as we celebrated and mourned, awakened and grieved, loved and despaired. Coming to be together, to share these feelings, thoughts, and sadnesses is the key to moving towards life.
Meet our Co-Creators
The Many is a unique creative collective making music, spoken word and communal gatherings that embrace faith and doubt, hope and lament. The songs The Many give us, with lyrics born from scriptures, from headlines, and from their own experiences, are not head-in-the-clouds “worship songs.” These are not songs about a God who only loves some of us. These are feet-on-the-ground, heart-in-hands, scars-revealed, wild and holy songs of resistance and restoration.
The Many – with lead singers Darren Calhoun, Christa Sangster and Kristina Sinks, along with musician/producer Gary Rand and wordsmith Lenora Rand – all come together around their shared love of music and commitment to honest expressions of faith, peace-making, racial, economic and climate justice, and LGBTQ+ inclusion.
More than anything, The Many are here to remind us that we aren’t alone, that God so loves every one of us, and we all belong here.
TheManyAreHere.com
@themanyarehere
With roots dating back to 1814, The BTS Center is a private foundation in Portland, Maine, building on the legacy of the former Bangor Theological Seminary.
Today The BTS Center seeks to catalyze spiritual imagination, with enduring wisdom, for transformative faith leadership by offering theologically grounded programs of continuing education and spiritual formation, including workshops and retreats, learning cohorts, public conversations, and projects of applied research, all focused around spiritual leadership in a climate-changed world.
