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Programs like this are ultimately useless unless a critical mass of society recognizes the necessity to shift our visions and values to make substantial if not drastic changes in the ways we live. This refers especially to our consumerist culture.
Environmental education has existed in its current form since the early 1970's. But 50 years of environmental education in the United States did not prevent election of a President and Congress in 2024 who are avowedly opposed to environmental regulation and consider climate change to be a hoax.
Why did decades of environmental education fail to influence cultural values toward environmental protection? Perhaps it has worked on the wrong assumption. A mantra in environmental education, to the point of being accepted as a truism, is that "If people know about nature, they will love it, and if they love it they will take care of it." That sounded nice for decades, but seems not to have been effective.
We suggest that what is missing is an emphasis that socio-environmental systems work on the basis of certain natural processes and laws, and bad things happen when we break those rules. We accept that constraint in regard to economics, so we carefully monitor the economic system to try to avoid negative effects.
Most of the environmental programs and resources below operate without a clear understanding of how humans must behave in order to live on Earth. That's a problem we fail to face at our peril.
Some faith-based schools have found their Nature Explore Classroom to be an excellent environment for exploring religious values and traditions. In the Nursery School at Temple Shalom in Newton, Massachusetts, teachers and children make Jewish spirituality visible through projects in the outdoor classroom, and indoors. Although the projects are based on Jewish traditions, the values they teach are universal. In this post, we’ll learn how children celebrate Tu B’Shevat or “Birthday of the Trees.”
Some faith-based schools have found their Nature Explore Classroom to be an excellent environment for exploring religious values and traditions. In the Nursery School at Temple Shalom in Newton, Massachusetts, teachers and children make Jewish spirituality visible through projects in the outdoor classroom, and indoors. Although the projects are based on Jewish traditions, the values they teach are universal. In this post, we’ll learn how children celebrate Tu B’Shevat or “Birthday of the Trees.”
TOOLS & RESOURCES
This collection of free toolkits, reports, infographics and advocacy tools is designed to help you or your organization connect children, families and communities to nature.
The purpose of Learning from Water is to inspire us be self-directed learners for life-long, life-wide, life-deep learning, including finding ways to seek wisdom and a deep spirituality from water.
The site has links to relevant websites plus information on activities, concepts, and equipment that have help us use oceans, estuaries, rivers, lakes, and wetlands to learn science, arts, skills, and personal development.
The site has links to relevant websites plus information on activities, concepts, and equipment that have help us use oceans, estuaries, rivers, lakes, and wetlands to learn science, arts, skills, and personal development.
Celebrate Earth Second Edition.pdfCelebrate Earth
Celebrate Earth
Celebrate Earth! is an adult spiritual formation process that helps us develop a heart-level relationship with Earth, our island home. It builds on the concept that Knowledge + Love = Wisdom1. Love is expressed as a tangible relationship developed via “The Way of Love” and Wisdom is defined as the ability to live sustainably within Creation (Proverbs 8:22-36). Celebrate Earth! draws on scripture and tradition, science, contemplation/meditation, and action to help us recognize our island home as God’s creation and that we are its stewards, not its owners.
Click here to download the book.
The Bangor Theological Seminary served for almost 200 years. Its assets and commitment to Christian service were reconceived into the The BTS Center. Its vision, mission, and values are:
Our VISION: the future we are working towards
Human hearts renewed, justice established, and creation restored
Our MISSION: what we will do to achieve the future we envision
Catalyze spiritual imagination with enduring wisdom for transformative faith leadership
The BTS Center seeks to honor the work of God in the world by committing to these VALUES:
Courage: honestly engaging our changing religious landscape
Resilience: Cultivating the ability to adapt
Collaboration: Doing more together
Generosity: Readily giving of ourselves and our resources
Integrity: Holding ourselves to high standards in all we do
The Leadership Commons at The BTS Center offers free use of a rich variety of videos and other learning materials that we can use for various study groups. More
"Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology
The Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology is an international multireligious project contributing to a new academic field and an engaged moral force of religious environmentalism. With its conferences, publications, monthly newsletter, and website, it explores religious worldviews, texts, and ethics in order to contribute to environmental solutions along with science, policy, law, economics, and appropriate technology.
The Forum is pleased to provide a wealth of resources for those interested in engaging further with the field of religion and ecology. From a sampling of multimedia offerings for those just becoming famliar with this work to updated listings for students and job-seekers, there is much to explore. We hope that even those already actively working in the field will find something here to help deepen their level of engagement."
🌎 The Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology offers six online courses that you can audit for free.
The Episcopal Church offers program resources in four areas:
Celebrate the Season of Creation!
The Season of Creation, September 1st through October 4th, is celebrated by Christians around the world as a time for renewing, repairing and restoring our relationship to God, one another, and all of creation. The Episcopal Church joins this international effort for prayer and action culminating in the Feast of St. Francis on October 4th.
Loving Formation
Loving Formation
For God’s sake, we will grow our love for the Earth and all of life through preaching, teaching, storytelling, and prayer.
Liberating Advocacy
Liberating Advocacy
For God’s sake, standing alongside marginalized, vulnerable peoples, we will advocate and act to repair Creation and seek the liberation and flourishing of all people.
Life-Giving Conservation
Life-Giving Conservation
For God’s sake, we will adopt practical ways of reducing our climate impact and living more humbly and gently on Earth as individuals, households, congregations, institutions, and dioceses.
The Creation Justice Ministries website is an offshoot of the National Council of Churches. It contains a plethora of resources, divided into Policy Action and Theological Education.
This site contains selected quotations from Thomas Berry's books The Dream of the Earth, The Great Work, The Universe Story, and Evening Thoughts. Each quotation is worthy of deep thought and discussion and this collection can carry you far into the wisdom of Thomas Berry. However, it is best for you to read the books themselves!
"Thomas Berry (1914–2009) was one of the twentieth century’s most prescient and profound thinkers. As a cultural historian, he sought a broader perspective on humanity’s relationship to the Earth in order to respond to the ecological and social challenges of our times. The first biography of Berry, this book illuminates his remarkable vision and its continuing relevance for achieving transformative social change and environmental renewal."
From Thomas Berry: A Biography, Mary Evelyn Tucker, John Grim, and Andrew Angyal. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2019.
Woodbrooke Quaker Learning and Research Center
Woodbrooke, in the UK, offers a good variety of relevant courses, especially related to community resilience and food production. The courses meet at specific times via Zoom. The courses are free, but donations are accepted as "Pay as Led."
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