How can we come together to love Earth in a time of unravelling? What does a faith-led response to the climate crisis look like in practice? How can spiritual ecology help us design pragmatic solutions that place care for Earth at the heart? What can we learn from listening to diverse faith, spiritual and non-religious perspectives, about how to live in kinship with creation? Where issues of climate and conflict intersect, how can spiritual ecology point a way forward?
What are the peace and security issues associated with different models of degrowth? How can we root values-led responses in clear-eyed pragmatism, recognising that there are painful moral dilemmas and inevitable trade-offs when it comes to environmental repair, adaptation, and climate risk mitigation? Where do faith and pragmatism meet?
This conference aims to give pragmatic tools for navigating the challenges of our time; inspiration for how to forge communities that can withstand difference; modes of being and seeing that restore deep kinship with Earth; and much more. Please join us for a transformational day that will bring diverse voices together.
This will be a rich, interactive conference with keynotes, workshops, panel discussion and a delicious vegetarian meal. Held at St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace. Restored after a bomb blast, St Ethelburga’s is a symbol of renewal from the ashes.
Check back on this page soon for more details on the programme.
This is an event in our Faith and Moral courage series. By bringing together diverse voices across religious and secular traditions, we’re exploring how faith can uplift courage in a time of unravelling. View other events in the series on our Youtube channel here.
René August is a veteran of the anti-apartheid movement. She is an Anglican priest and a reconciliation trainer with The Warehouse, a worshipping community organisation in Cape Town, South Africa that walks alongside churches as they seek to respond to the issues of poverty, injustice, and division in a city that struggles with some of the worst inequality in the world. René is also an image maker who sees and feels life through her visions and expressions. Her work is about the unseen and the beauty in the undiscovered, harnessing her ability to see both the light and the darkness.
Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee is an Emmy- and Peabody-nominated filmmaker and a Naqshbandi Sufi teacher. He is the founder and executive editor of Emergence Magazine and leads retreats and workshops on sufism and spiritual ecology worldwide. He has directed and produced numerous award-winning films including: Earthrise, Sanctuaries of Silence, The Atomic Tree, Counter Mapping, Marie’s Dictionary, Isle de Jean Charles, Elemental, A Thousand Suns and What Would it Look Like. He lives and teaches in Inverness, California.
Dekila Chungyalpa is the founder and director of the Loka Initiative. She is an accomplished environmental programme director, with 20+ years of experience in designing and implementing global conservation and climate strategies and projects. Dekila Chungyalpa is the founder and director of an award-winning capacity building and outreach programme at the University of Wisconsin–Madison for faith leaders, religious institutions, and culture keepers of Indigenous traditions.
Clare Martin is one of our conference facilitators. Clare is Co-Director of St Ethelburga’s. Previously Development Director, Clare created and led on the Radical Resilience programme and went on to be the strategic lead on our viewpoint diversity work, before stepping up to co-lead the centre alongside Tarot Couzyn. She brings more than 20 years’ experience facilitating groups for the sake of inner enquiry and outer change, and is interested in how contemplative practices can play a role in cultural repair.
A selection of interactive workshops on spiritual ecology and peacemaking. More details coming soon.
A conversation bringing together four very different perspectives on the topic of degrowth. How can we weave spiritual ecology into a practical conversation about what degrowth means? Can we unite across our differences, with a shared love and care for creation, to have an honest conversation about modes of degrowth – their risks, opportunities, and likely outcomes?
“Degrowth is a planned reduction of energy and resource use designed to bring the economy back into balance with the living world in a way that reduces inequality and improves human well-being” (Hickel, 2020).
We want to convene a meeting of worldviews that are often siloed away from each other in our increasingly polarised culture. We believe democracies have stronger immunity against social fragmentation when there are spaces for respectfully listening across differences. Is it possible to have a generative conversation about our common future, despite disagreeing on a great many issues? Can we honour the sacred ecology that connects us – bridging divides and loving earth?
This conference forms part of a longer event series exploring what faith and moral courage look like in an age of polycrisis. Where does extraordinary courage come from? What can we learn from people who’ve risked everything to live up to their values? What forms of courage are especially needed in our age of unravelling, uncertainty and risk? How can we inspire ourselves and each other to grow our capacity to brave our limits? Are there insights from the world’s spiritual and faith traditions that can help us grow our courage?
Mishal Baig is one of our conference facilitators. She helps with visioning and designing conferences and events coalescing from the themes of spiritual ecology, faith and moral courage, viewpoint diversity and bridging divides. She also helps with designing language and imagery for communications put out by the Centre. Her interest is especially attuned to Spiritual Ecology research and uses it as a guide and reference for her creative approach in work. Mishal has been at the Centre since 2018, first as an intern for a year and a bit, and then as a staff member since 2020.
Clare Martin is one of our conference facilitators. Clare is Co-Director of St Ethelburga’s. Previously Development Director, Clare created and led on the Radical Resilience programme and went on to be the strategic lead on our viewpoint diversity work, before stepping up to co-lead the centre alongside Tarot Couzyn. She brings more than 20 years’ experience facilitating groups for the sake of inner enquiry and outer change, and is interested in how contemplative practices can play a role in cultural repair.
supported by:
**we do not want cost to be a barrier for participation in this event, and we do have some bursary places available.
Contact harriet@stethelburgas.org for more information.**