Faith Communities at the Heart of the Environmental Movement

Within an interactive setting we come together to talk about faith and the environment, hear stories of resiliency, transformation and hope in the midst of our environmental and social challenges. Along with our amazing conversation partners you will explore a bit about Climate Science, preaching, the connections between ecological injustice and our environmental movement and some Good news about how faith communities are engaging on the greatest challenges of our time.

Our Conversation Partners are

Rev. Nannette Banks, McCormick Theological Seminary
Rev. Leah Schade, Preaching Professor at Lexington Theological Seminary
Deke Arndt- Climate Scientist
Rev. Scott Hardin-Nieri, Director of Creation Care Alliance
Susannah Tuttle, Director of North Carolina Interfaith Power and Light .

Scott Hardin-Nieri

Scott Hardin-Nieri is partner, dad, spiritual director, pastor, and sojourner. He is the Director of the Creation Care Alliance of Western North Carolina and Associate Minister of Green Chalice of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Prior to living in North Carolina, Scott and his family served in the vulnerable cloud forest of Monteverde, Costa Rica. There he learned to how to climb Fig Strangler trees, spot Two-toed Sloths, call like a Mot Mot, and listen to people and nature in a new way. Scott is an ordained pastor with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and enjoys accompanying people during transformative experiences, whether during hikes, spiritual direction, wilderness quests, shared stories, service learning trips, live music concerts, camps or retreats. He continues to be reminded of his true self most clearly in the forests, oceans and deserts and seeks to invite others, particularly faith communities into conversations regarding creation.

www.Creationcarealliance.org

Nannette Banks

Rev. Nannette Banks is a world traveler, people and poetry lover who believes in the power of worship and the sacraments to liberate and set free all who are marginalized and oppressed –for the table was set in the presence of (my)the enemy! She is also the voice of This is what happens Wild Goose Video.

Currently, she is an itinerant preacher and serves as the Director of Alumni/ae and Church Relations at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago.

Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade

The Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade is the Assistant Professor of Preaching and Worship at Lexington Theological Seminary in Lexington, Kentucky. An ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) for 16 years, Leah has served congregations in rural, urban, and suburban settings. She earned both her MDiv and PhD degrees from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, and completed her dissertation focusing on homiletics (preaching) and ecological theology (caring for God’s creation). Her book Creation-Crisis Preaching: Ecological Theology and Homiletics (Chalice Press, 2015) is available at www.chalicepress.com. Leah has served as an anti-fracking and climate activist, community organizer, and advocate for environmental justice issues, and is a trained workshop leader for Lutherans Restoring Creation, a grassroots movement helping congregations learn how to “go green.” Samples of her ecologically-themed essays, articles, sermons, book and film reviews, and other writings can be found on her Patheos blog: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/ecopreacher/.

www.creationcrisispreaching.com

Deke Arndt

Deke Arndt is a climate scientist based in Asheville, North Carolina. For the past seven years, he has served as a lead editor of the State of the Climate report, published annually in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. The report is the “annual physical” of the climate system, from the bottom of the ocean to the top of the atmosphere. More than 400 scientists from 50 countries contribute. He is currently the Chief of Climate Monitoring at Asheville’s National Centers for Environmental Information. He is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma School of Meteorology and a member of St. Eugene’s Catholic Church in Asheville.

Susannah Tuttle

Susannah Tuttle is director of NC Interfaith Power & Light (NCIPL), a program of the NC Council of Churches (NCCC). She is grateful to have found her life’s purpose in Creation Care with great hope to inspire others to find meaning and joy in this faithful practice.

Session ID [123]