"The Spirit of Place" with Author and Ornithologist J. Drew Lanham
On May 30, renowned writer, poet, ornithologist, and public intellectual J. Drew Lanham will be the keynote speaker for "The Spirit of Place," a conference co-hosted by CRE and St. Mary's Sewanee. Dr. Lanham is Alumni Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology at Clemson University and a 2022 MacArthur fellow and award-winning author. In addition to Dr. Lanham, the conference will feature time on the domain and reflection with Sewanee faculty and community members. More information will be available soon!
CRE, Roberson, and SIPE Collaborate with Diocese of Western LA for Environmental Justice
Together with the Roberson Project on Slavery, Race and Reconciliation and the Sewanee Integrated Program in the Environment (SIPE), CRE is collaborating with the Diocese of Western Louisiana to support environmental justice in central and northeastern Louisiana. Working from the Roberson Project's "Founding Funders" map, the group is cultivating partnerships with organizations working for social and environmental justice in communities to whom we are connected by the University's historical connections with slaveholders.
Click the link to see CRE director Andrew Thompson's 2024 lecture about this collaboration at the SUMMA Theological Debate Camp.
Webinar: Churches and Climate Change after Helene
Hurricane Helene has changed how many people think about the effects of climate change. On October 23, 2024, CRE director Andy Thompson facilitated a discussion with Bishop Brian Cole and Sara McIntyre of Sewanee's Office of Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability about the damage the storm caused in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina, the shifting calculus of climate resilience, and what churches and communities can do to respond.
Learning to Lead from the Land
On September 14-16, the Center for Religion and Environment, together with the Diocese of East Tennessee and Good News Gardens, hosted a 3-day event for environmental leaders from dioceses in the Southeast titled "Learning to Lead from the Land". Participants visited the University Farm and the University Art Gallery, and walked Sewanee's Black History Trail and hiked in Lost Cove. CRE advisor Jemonde Taylor led a workshop on environmental justice and listening to the land. The group closed with Eucharist, where Sister Hannah of the Community of St. Mary preached about Hildegard of Bingen.
"Learning to Lead from the Land" was part of the larger "Field Days" project supported by an Episcopal Church grant.
The Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton Lectures on Postcolonial Theology
On March 1, the School of Theology hosted the Rev. Melissa Kean, T'19, Memorial Lecture which was held by the Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton. As a Shackan member of the First Nation, Taber-Hamilton represents the Episcopal Church on the board of the Anglican Indigenous Network and is the Rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Everett, WA. A recording of her lecture entitled “ The Barbie & Pocahontas Dialogues: Healing the Cultural Divide Between Indigenous Episcopalians and the Church,” is available for viewing.
The Rev. John Burress to Speak About Creation Care
The Rev. John Burress, Rector of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Birmingham, Alabama, will speak about his church's environmental stewardship and creation care ministries. Sponsored by the School of Theology Creation Care Committee, this event is at 3:00 in Hamilton Hall's Hargrove Auditorium on November 16, and is open to everyone!
The Rev. Jemonde Taylor Receives Award for Environmental Justice
At the 2022 School of Theology Alumni Lectures, The Rev. Robert Jemonde Taylor received the Service Award in recognition of his environmental justice work at St. Ambrose Episcopal Church in Raleigh, North Carolina.
