As spiritual care providers, faith leaders, and as members of the human species, the moral implications and opportunities for sacred activism and spiritual practice loom large.  This course invites our courage and curiosity as we ask ourselves, “What is a ‘right response’ to the human-caused climate emergency?” and, “In what ways can we best pastor one another and Earth?”   For 3 days, we will invoke our deepest ways of knowing while we practicing un-learning our anthropocentric, extractive ways and re-membering who we are as members in the much larger, more-than-human family of relationships.  There is some pre-reading required for this course.

Instructors: Rev Lauren Van Ham and guests: Della Duncan and Gopal Dayaneni

Gopal Dayaneni: Gopal has been involved in fighting for social, economic, environmental, and racial justice through organizing & campaigning, teaching, writing, speaking, and direct action since the late 1980s. He is a co-founder of Movement Generation: Justice and Ecology Project, which inspires and engages in transformative action towards the liberation and restoration of land, labor, and culture.

Della Duncan: Della is a Regenerative Economist who facilitates transformative workshops and retreats, and hosts the Upstream Podcast challenging traditional economic thinking through radio documentaries and interviews. Della is also a Senior Fellow of Social and Economic Equity at the International Inequalities Institute in the London School of Economics, a former faculty member of Ecological Economics at Schumacher College, and uses these approaches, along with Joanna Macy’s Work that Reconnects in her work as a Right Livelihood Coach.

Rev Lauren Van Ham, MA: Lauren has served as an interfaith chaplain in healthcare and corporate settings, as well as at ChI where she was Dean from 2010-2019.  In 2007, she renewed her ordination vows and professed herself an “Ecochaplain.”Her passion for spirituality, art, and Earth’s teachings infuse her focus in grief & loss, creativity & courage, and responding to our climate crisis. Today, Lauren serves as Climate Action Coordinator for the United Religions Initiative. She is a spiritual director and guest faculty for several schools in the Bay Area.

1.5 credit hours