Spirituality and Ecological Hope

Spirituality and Ecological Hope was created to provide a forum, a space, for a growing community to reflect on what kind of human beings we will be as we go through the ecological crises that face us in this century.

This can be a grim reflection.  Very little about our lives, how we live here in the U.S. right now, will not be affected in sometimes harsh, very profound and fundamental ways.  Whether this is a bleak scenario or a hope-filled one depends on one’s point of view.

We are one small point of reflection in this large, global movement of peoples.

What are we doing right now?

Well, this website is one answer to that question.  Have a look around.  The site is still new and we are adding to it constantly.  Featured posts appear 2-3 times per week.  Our online Zine will be published quarterly.  Look for the first issue before Thanksgiving!

The live chat room up will be up and running soon, so watch for it.  Our conversation will focus on the central question of this project — a dialogue and reflection on the new way of life, the underlying spirituality, values, frameworks of meaning, that can help shape the answer to that question: what kind of human beings will we be as we go through the ecological crises of this and the next couple of generations?

Other activities:

*  “And God Said It Was Good: Weaving together Science and Spirituality,” a conference at Marquette University, Oct. 17-18.  Our event, organized by an ambitious book-sharing group here in Milwaukee, was very successful, with more than 350 people participating.  The keynote speaker was Michael Dowd, author of Thank God for Evolution.  Several workshop leaders added challenging content to the program, bringing a range of orientations to the weekend’s reflection on the implications of evolutionary science and the new cosmology for our western faith traditions.

Spirituality and Ecological Hope was a proud co-sponsor of the conference.

In the future, we will download video and audio from the conference to this site, so stay tuned.

* Meanwhile, the book I wrote, Living Beyond the ‘End of the World:’ A Spirituality of Hope, has a growing resonance.  Examining the major trends that are catapulting us towards crises, the book pulls from Western Christian traditions the hope and framework of meaning for a way of life that can take us through the crisis to a new, more enriching and sustaining life.

The book has created opportunities for workshops and presentations, and ignited a number of conversations, book discussions, and study in many communities around the country.   I have done several talks here in the Milwaukee area recently, and will be traveling to St. Louis in early December to give at least two presentations there.

* Coming soon: on our “Resources/Workshop” page, we will have materials, outlines, recommended resources that you can use for workshops and faith reflections in your own community.  Look for this beginning in January. Meanwhile, click on the “Resource” tab to find book lists and reviews, and links to other groups and resources of note.

Our program begins modestly, but with great hope of fostering communities of ecological hope, bound together by this Great Work of reinventing how we humans live on this planet, and, in particular, we affluent U.S. Americans (and other affluent societies).  With this project, we are planting yet another seed of hope for our broken, stressed, and distressed planet.  This is a remarkable, precious, even sacred place.  We show our respect for this magnificent creation by seeking to live within its life-nurturing ecosystems with tenderness, humility, unselfishness, an appreciation of our true place within it, and more than anything else, with ecological love.

Stay tuned.

Margaret Swedish