Claiming Your Call: Navigating Spiritual Leadership in a Climate-Changed World
What does it mean to have a calling in a climate-changed world?
In this episode, Jessica David is joined by Alison Cornish and Allen Ewing-Merrill from The BTS Center team to explore the idea of “calling.” How do we know what our deepest purpose is, especially when the world is shifting beneath our feet? Through personal stories, reflections on chaplaincy, congregational life, and ecological crisis, this conversation models how calling is not just a destination — it’s an ongoing dialogue between joy and need, self and world, spirit and action.
“My calling is to be an agent of God’s love, healing, justice, and peace in the world.” — Allen Ewing-Merrill
“My specific calling really came when I heard the earth calling directly.” — Alison Cornish
Highlights from the Episode
- Alison and Allen reflect on their personal callings — from a childhood love of carpentry to a life of teaching and pastoring
- The BTS Center’s unique framing of vocational discernment: spiritual leadership for a climate-changed world
- A theological and interfaith understanding of calling as active, evolving, and collective
- How congregations and chaplains are responding to climate change in ways that are embodied, compassionate, and spiritually grounded
- An invitation to discern not just what you are called to do, but who you are called to be
Resources Mentioned in the Episode
- Frederick Buechner’s Definition of Calling: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
- Refugia Faith by Debra Rienstra — framing congregations as spiritual refugia in a climate-changed world.
- Claiming Your Call for a Climate-Changed World — a program led by The BTS Center in collaboration with Creation Justice Ministries and Anabaptist Climate Collaborative.
- Chaplaincy Innovation Lab — (partners with The BTS Center on climate chaplaincy programming)
Join the Conversation
Share your experience with us:
Email us: podcast@thebtscenter.org
Leave a voice message: 207-200-6986
About the Podcast
Climate Changed is a project of The BTS Center, a spiritual leadership organization based in Portland, Maine.
Produced by Peterson Toscano. Music by EpidemicSound.com.
Find more episodes and transcripts at climatechangedpodcast.org
Meet Our Host
Jessica David is a Master of Divinity candidate at Harvard Divinity School, founder of Local Return, and President & CEO of Rhode Island Community Investment Cooperative. With 20 years of experience working at the intersection of people and place, Jessica focuses on the intersection of spirituality and money, supporting community wealth-building and strategic organizational development.
Meet Our Guests
Rev. Alison Cornish coordinates The BTS Center’s Chaplaincy Initiative and has long practiced ecological theology and interfaith facilitation. She draws from traditions such as Joanna Macy’s The Work That Reconnects and community grief rituals to support climate spiritual care.
Rev. Dr. Allen Ewing-Merrill serves as Executive Director of The BTS Center. Ordained in the United Methodist tradition, Allen previously co-pastored HopeGateWay in Portland, Maine, and founded Moral Movement Maine. He has a longstanding commitment to social justice advocacy, faith-based organizing, and progressive Christianity, with extensive experience addressing issues such as climate justice and immigrant solidarity.