The first thing I have to share is that this project went on a major “pause” during January, as I caught my first bout of COVID and spent most of the month isolated in our attic, fighting the disease. My gosh I’m glad to be through it, and even more grateful that isolation kept my husband and son from getting sick.
That being said, there is so much to share!
I have created two short videos (one that’s 1.30 minutes and one that is 3:30 minutes) that introduce the project. I made them at the request of our Oshkosh group — but they are generic enough to be useful other places, and I hope that if you find one useful in your context you will share one or both of them! You can find them linked to the research website page on hosting workshops.
Plans are underway for a February 17th workshop in Oshkosh (January 20th had to be postponed due to my illness) and there is a poster you can share if you happen to live in proximity to Oshkosh, WI and can think of people who might want to participate. The church there — First Congregational — welcomes others to come.
March will be busy, with workshops here in the Catholic context (St. Francis Cabrini is doing two, March 9 and March 16) and plans are afoot for at least one workshop in South Dakota (likely Sioux Falls) during April.
I continue to look for hosting congregations that draw on communities that have different perspectives on what it means to care for Creation. Please let me know if you have ideas of congregations or other organizations that might be a good host. You can also share the basic website info with them: earth.storyingfaith.org
As always, I want to share some of the new resources that have come across my desk this past month:
(1) A song by Julia Cooper, “Echo,” with cinematography by Stephen Prokter. It’s a beautiful meditation that can be heard as an invitation from the Divine to engage the beauty of the earth
(2) A site for K12 settings packed full of curricular and other resources around eco-literacy
(3) A new book — Beloved Economies — by Jess Rimington and Joanna Cea that explores projects all across the country that are finding new possibilities for changing the way we work, and thus prioritizing well-being, meaning, connection and resilience. They also have a YouTube channel of short stories, audio recordings, of people sharing ideas about a different way to imagine a “beloved economy”