Dear friend, What can we do in response to attempts in Washington to roll back 50 years of progress in protecting human health and the environment, a

   
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Dear friend,

What can we do in response to attempts in Washington to roll back 50 years of progress in protecting human health and the environment, and to address climate change? As Arundhati Roy said, "What is happening to our world is almost too colossal for human comprehension to contain...To try and fight it all at once is impossible. The only way to combat it is by fighting specific wars in specific ways."

DC Symposium Group Photo

The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development (ICSD) is responding by mobilizing faith communities for ecological sustainability and human well-being. On March 16, the Symposium on Ecologically Informed Theological Education was held at The Catholic University of America.

Why is this important? The recent election reveals how many religiously-observant Americans have yet to prioritize care for our common home in their voting behavior. In order to influence the debate in American society on climate change and achieve bipartisan political action in Congress, a key shift in relation to climate change and environmental protection needs to occur among the influential voting groups of religiously-observant Americans. A survey by the Public Religion Research Institute and AAR found that "most Americans who attend religious services at least once or twice a month hear little from their clergy leaders about the issue of climate change."

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The Symposium was co-organized by ICSD, the Washington Theological Consortium, the Green Seminary Initiative, and Methodist Theological School in Ohio. 70 people participated, mostly seminary deans and faculty from 10 seminaries and six states in the Mid-Atlantic region.

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Participants explored ways of integrating faith and ecology into their theology curricula. To view incredible pictures from the event, click here. To see a video that captures some of the energy of a similar conference we co-organized at Union Theological Seminary in Manhattan in December, click here.

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In his keynote address on Pope Francis's encyclical Laudato Si' — On Care for Our Common Home, Monsignor Kevin Irwin, dean emeritus of CUA's School of Theology and Religious Studies, underlined the importance of broadly integrating ecological concerns into theological education. The Symposium offered tools to enable administrators and faculty members from theological schools, divinity schools, and seminaries to better educate students on religion and ecology.

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Seminary faculty and deans conducted workshops that explored a number of topics including ways that seminaries can encourage faculty to incorporate ecology teachings into existing courses in theology, the Bible, preaching, and ethics. More about the event can be found by clicking here.

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The Symposium was undertaken based on support from the Julia Burke Foundation and the Henry Luce Foundation. The event was part of the Seminary Environmental Leadership Initiative, which is funded through a grant from the Luce Fund for Theological Education, an initiative of the Henry Luce Foundation’s Theology Program. Based on these two foundation's support, we will partner in co-organizing five additional conferences, including near Columbus, Ohio in October, in Atlanta, Georgia in spring 2018, and then in Dallas, Chicago, and Los Angeles or San Francisco. These follow the successful conference we co-organized in New York City in December, with 65 participants.

Monsignor Irwin and Yonatan Neril

The wisdom of faith traditions must become central in forging a path to a sustainable future. Please support our work by making a US tax-deductible donation by clicking here. Together we can manifest a sustainable future.

Sincerely,
Rabbi Yonatan Neril
Founder and Executive Director
The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development

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