Spiritual Wayfinding in a Changing Climate
Occurred on November 15, 2023
In the rolling catastrophe of the climate crisis, people of faith must face the ongoing ending of worlds and invent a spirituality of God-finding in the ruins. Chaplains are uniquely situated to help in this journey, as we spend much of our time at the end of one world or another, ministering in the ruins of people’s lives. What can we learn from personal and communal grief work that can translate to ecological grief work? What can we learn about human tenacity? What can we find out about faith?
We explored these and other questions about chaplaincy in a climate-changed world in an hour-long online seminar with Talitha Amadea Aho and J.D. Mechelke, co-hosted by The BTS Center and Chaplaincy Innovation Lab.
As a special promotion, save 25% on In Deep Waters: Spiritual Care for Young People in a Climate Crisis by Talitha Amadea Aho! Use code CILBTS25 at checkout at FortressPress.com. Promotion available for domestic orders only; expires November 30, 2023, at 11:59 pm CT.
View the seminar, recorded on November 15, 2023 below:
Meet Our Presenters
Talitha Amadea Aho is the author of In Deep Waters: Spiritual Care for Young People in a Climate Crisis. She is a chaplain at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland and a minister member of the Presbytery of San Francisco. Recently, she served as a pastor at Montclair Presbyterian Church in Oakland, where she was responsible for children and youth programs. She has been in ministry to the young since she was old enough to qualify as a chaperone — both at church camps and churches on the East coast, and with the nonprofit organization Children of Uganda.
J.D. Mechelke is a Ph.D. student at Drew University in the division of Theological and Philosophical Studies in Religion. His research centers around political theology, vocation, and ecology in the Anthropocene. He holds an M.A. from Luther Seminary and a B.A. from Augsburg University. J.D. is a nomad on public lands with his dog Gus.
Meet Our Hosts
The Rev. Alison Cornish serves as the Coordinator of the Chaplaincy Initiative at the BTS Center. Alison spent the first half of her professional life working as an historic preservationist and architectural historian, primarily in New England and on Long Island, NY. After 20 years of work with museums, municipalities and nonprofit organizations, 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 in the Unitarian Universalist tradition, Alison served congregations on Long Island while also embarking on studies with the Buddhist teacher Joanna Macy and Dominican sister Miriam McGillis. Alison became a GreenFaith Fellow in 2013, and a Climate Reality Project presenter in 2017.
Michael Skaggs, PhD is Director of Programs of the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab, overseeing the Lab’s education and networking initiatives as well as public relations. He is the host and producer of the Lab’s webinar series and editor of the Lab’s eBook series and newsletter.
Trained at the University of Notre Dame as a historian of American religion, Michael has a particular interest in interfaith dialogue and has served in innovative theological education programs. His work has appeared in Sociology of Religion, International Journal of Maritime History, American Catholic Studies, U.S. Catholic Historian, Books & Culture, and elsewhere. He previously served as Communications Director for Transforming Chaplaincy.