We extend a warm invitation to pastors, musicians, and other interested church leaders and laypeople to join our community of theologians, activists, and artists for three days of reflection on one of the most urgent concerns of our time—the sustainability of our planet home in the face of environmental damage.

All who rely on water, air, and food for life are endangered by climate change and the other mounting effects of disregard for the well-being of creation. Indeed, no other set of concerns is of such encompassing importance to the future of the world. At this crucial moment in the life of the planet, many Christian congregations are growing in awareness of their own complicity in environmental damage—and many are finding ways to respond to God’s call to care for the earth. 

This conference will lift up the role of Christian congregations in developing faithful ways of life in this time of ecological crisis.  In particular, the conference will consider how some of Christianity’s richest gifts—worship, music, and the arts—inspire, form, and empower diverse local communities in this effort, in a wide range of distinct settings. We shall hear from the leaders of congregations that are doing bold and creative work related to this concern—and we shall provide opportunities for all conference participants to share the questions and contributions emerging in their own contexts. The structure and tone of the conference will be collaborative. The conference is designed to encourage pastors, musicians, and lay leaders to share practical wisdom with one another.

Our time together will be

• Ecumenical, as we gather across a variety of communions and learn from the musical and liturgical gifts of different traditions
• Practical, as we discover what other congregations are doing and reflect on challenges and opportunities in our own communities
• Inspiring, as we worship together, as we share gifts of testimony and discernment, and as we join in a great festival of hymns, participating in the testimony, hope, and endurance embodied in the song of the church
• Renewing, as we lift up liturgical and artistic practices that have enabled communities of faith to bear witness and sustain hope across the generations, tending and cherishing God’s beautiful and fruitful creation.   

We hope that you will join us for these days of reflection and renewal.

Yours,

Martin Jean, Director of the Institute of Sacred Music
Dorothy Bass, Conference Planner

Wednesday, June 13

As we gather, we bring the gifts and concerns of the communities from which we have come, and we lift up the needs of all. 

• 9:00 a.m.     Check-in
• 10:00 a.m.   Morning Prayer led by Maggi Dawn
• 10:30 a.m.   Introduction to the Conference
  • Martin Jean, Welcome
  • Dorothy Bass, Reflections on the Theme
• 11:00 a.m.   Singing God’s Creation: Lament and Doxology, Gift and Task
  • Don Saliers How does the language of scripture, prayer and poetry guide us in seeing, naming and negotiating the terror and the beauty, our love and deep worry for our planet home?
• 12:00 p.m.   Lunch provided
• 1:30 p.m.     Congregations Tell Their Stories Three congregations from different settings and traditions report on their ministries and invite others in attendance to consider their own as well.
  • Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Washington, DC
  • Kingdom Living Temple, Florence, SC
  • United Church of Santa Fe, NM
• 4:00 p.m.     Break
• 4:15 p.m.     Breakout Groups for response and mutual introductions
• 5:30 p.m.     Catered Supper
• 7:30 p.m.     Hymn Festival

We gather in Marquand Chapel for an evening of hymns and meditations, led by organist, composer, and conductor John Ferguson, together with a choir, other musicians, and conference presenters. This event is open to the public.

Thursday, June 14

• 9:00 a.m.     Morning Prayer
• 9:45 a.m.     How Do We Hymn the Planet in the Anthropocene?
  • Larry Rasmussen How does earth’s transition from the epoch of the late Holocene into a new geological epoch, the early Anthropocene, alter the context of congregations today?   This lecture explores that long, hard transition from one epoch to another and ends by asking how practices such as music and ritual can help congregations negotiate change amid new duties and possibilities.  
• 11:00 a.m.   Break
• 11:15 a.m.   Workshop Session I  (Participants select one of three choices, which will be repeated at 2pm)
  • Rita Ferrone - Laudato Si’ and the Witness of Pope Francis
    Pope Francis’s encyclical letter on the environment, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home, takes its name from Saint Francis of Assisi’s Canticle of the Creatures: “Praise be to you, my Lord!” (“Laudato’ si, mi’ Signore!). Francis also invokes creation’s song of praise in Psalm 148 as a touchstone of justice. What do praise and justice have to do with ecology and care for the earth? Francis’s teaching on care for creation is positioned within the tradition of Catholic social teaching, and he expands it in significant ways. We will unpack some of the key elements of the encyclical in order to discover their theological implications, and explore their consequences for a renewed vision of sacramentality
  • Estrella Sainburg - Developing Multi-Faith Leaders for the Earth: Opportunities to Engage
    For 25 years, GreenFaith has helped diverse faith leaders in the US, and now internationally, find their voices and build skills as religious-environmental leaders.  In this workshop, participants will learn about training and organizing opportunities with GreenFaith through the GreenFaith Fellowship Program, GreenFaith Circles, Living the Change (a new global sustainable lifestyle campaign), and the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative
  • Betty W. Holley - Raising Ecological Consciousness: Scriptures, Worship Liturgies, Historical Voices, Prayers, Poetry and Song
    Members of faith communities need to reposition their human stories within the universe’s story and to choose to become a healing presence on finite earth for the sake of its future.  Through these religious, cultural materials an earth faith or a belief in the interconnectedness of humankind and all that comprises God’s creation can begin this process.  Religious, cultural materials can also be used to enhance worship services or special days designated to lift up Mother Earth and environmental justice awareness.
  • Anne and Jeffery Rowthorn — God’s Good Earth: Shaping Liturgies of Praise and Prayer for Creation
    Faced by unprecedented ecological threats, we believe that nothing short of a transformation of heart and mind can ensure the continuity of life on Earth in all its forms. Using a sampler from our forthcoming book, God’s Good Earth:  Praise and Prayer for Creation, we will address the shaping of liturgies that celebrate God the Creator and God’s glorious universe; the physical universe; the diversity of God’s creation; the human community and its needs; the whole creation groaning in travail (hard topics such as global warming, violence, migrants, poverty, the exploitation of the earth, forgotten people); and hope and the future
• 12:30 p.m.   Lunch provided
• 2:00 p.m.    Workshop Session II (Select a second option)
  • Rita Ferrone — Laudato Si’ and the Witness of Pope Francis
  • Estrella Sainburg — Developing Multi-Faith Leaders for the Earth: Opportunities to Engage
  • Betty W. Holley — Raising Ecological Consciousness: Scriptures, Worship Liturgies, Historical Voices, Prayers, Poetry and Song
  • Anne and Jeffery Rowthorn — God’s Good Earth: Shaping Liturgies of Praise and Prayer for Creation
• 3:15 p.m.    Breakout groups
• 4:15 p.m.    Break
• 4:30 p.m.    Art as Prayer Maggi Dawn and Ted Lytton Hadden in conversation about the processes and theological thinking behind the arts. How do musicians, poets and visual artists practice their arts in the context of worship? Q. and A. to follow.

5:30 p.m.    Adjourn for the day

Friday, June 15

• 9:00 a.m.    Morning Prayer
• 9:45 a.m.    Worshiping God, as Creation Groans
  • Three panelists address the question: What language, what art, what song, what ritual may be life-giving in these times?
  • Teresa Berger
  • Jill Crainshaw
  • Michelle Lewis
  • Dorothy Bass, convener
• 12:00 p.m.  Lunch provided
• 1:15 p.m.    Breakout groups
• 2:15 p.m.    Break
• 2:30 p.m.    For the Journey Home: Reflections, Questions, Insights
  As we prepare to depart, we harvest insights and questions to carry back to our own congregations.
  • Martin Jean, convener
  • Rita Ferrone, facilitator
• 3:30 p.m.    Closing Worship
• 4:00 p.m.    Adjourn

Introduction:

• An introduction to the 2018 conference theme
  by Dorothy Bass, conference planner

Selected Presentations:

• Singing Gods Creation: Psalms, Hymns, Earth
  by Don Saliers (Subject to revision for publication)
• Last Year’s Nest (text)
  Presentation Slideshow
  by Jill Crainshaw
• How do we Hymn the Planet in the Anthropocene?
  by Larry Rasmussen

Student Reflections:

• Prayers Made Flesh: Inspiring Changed Attitudes towards Creation
  by Rosemary Williams (M.A.R. liturgical studies ‘19)

Selected Resources:

• Selected 2018 Conference Resources

• Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Washington, DC Holy Trinity is a Jesuit Catholic parish that welcomes all to accompany one another in Christ, celebrate God’s love, and transform lives.  Holy Trinity is recognized for its excellence in worship and the arts, and committed to fostering care for creation through its social justice ministries.
  
  Sharing the parish’s life and witness in its urban setting are Kate Tromble, Pastoral Associate for Social Justice; Kathleen DeJardin, Director of Music Ministries; and David Pennington, Pastoral Associate for Liturgy.

  Kingdom Living Temple, Florence, SC Kingdom Living Temple is a Christian church that is engaged in ecumenical and interfaith work.  The congregation works with partner organizations on issues of environmental justice, social justice, earth justice, economic equity, and community development.
  
  The pastor, Rev. Leo Woodberry, has long worked to address issues of environmental racism and climate justice, first working with the African American Environmental Justice Action Network in the 1990s to organize community members around mercury contamination in fish and waterways from pollution from coal-burning power plants. Rev. Woodberry has served on the Steering Committee of the Peoples Climate Movement and is nationally recognized as an environmental justice leader in the black church community.

  The United Church of Santa Fe, New Mexico The United Church of Santa Fe strives to “Love God, Love Neighbor, Love Creation.”  The congregation’s Earth-honoring faith includes developing a worship life and spirituality that reflects our home in the desert and our respect for all of creation in all its diversity; modeling institutional practices that sustain and restore resources; and promoting justice for humanity and for the rest of creation through education and outreach to the wider community and through support of governmental laws and policies that insure economic and ecological security.

Rev. Talitha Arnold, senior minister since 1987, is a native of Arizona and a graduate of Yale Divinity School.  Steinway Artist Jacquelyn Helin has been United’s Pianist and Director of Music Ministries since 2004.  Larry Rasmussen, an environmental ethicist who is also one of the speakers at this year’s Congregations Project conference, is a member of the congregation.  Their presentation will explore worship, music, and the arts as a dimension of this congregation’s life and witness in their desert setting.

• Dorothy C. Bass is a practical theologian and church historian.  During twenty-five years as director of the Valparaiso Project on the Education and Formation of People in Faith, a Lilly Endowment project on how greater attention to practices might contribute to the renewal of Christian congregations, theology, and life, she wrote, edited, or coedited more than a dozen books, including Practicing Our Faith, Receiving the Day, and Leading Lives That Matter.  She is now Senior Fellow in the Lilly Fellows Program at Valparaiso University.
• Martin Jean is Professor of Organ and Director of the Institute of Sacred Music. He has performed widely throughout the United States and Europe and is known for his broad repertorial interests. He was awarded first place at the international Grand Prix de Chartres in 1986, and in 1992 at the National Young Artists’ Competition in Organ Performance. 

• John Ferguson is an acclaimed organist, choral conductor, composer and teacher, who retired as Professor Emeritus of Organ and Church Music at St. Olaf College in 2012. Dr. Ferguson has published more than 100 compositions and arrangements, including many based upon existing hymn texts and tunes as well as newly commissioned texts. He has designed and presented hymn festivals for national and regional conventions of the American Guild of Organists and American Choral Directors Association (ACDA).

• Teresa Berger holds doctorates in both liturgical studies and constructive theology. She serves as Professor of Liturgical Studies and Thomas E. Golden Professor of Catholic Theology at Yale Divinity School and the Institute of Sacred Music.  Her most recent book is @Worship: Liturgical Practices in Digital Worlds (Routledge, 2017). An active Roman Catholic, Professor Berger has produced (with MysticWaters Media) a CD-ROM, Ocean Psalms: Meditations, Stories, Prayers, Songs and Blessings from the Sea (2008).
• Jill Y. Crainshaw is Blackburn Professor of Worship and Liturgical Theology at Wake Forest School of Divinity and an ordained teaching elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Her writing and teaching emphasize how Christian worship and leadership arise from and return to human experience. Her newest book, When I in Awesome Wonder: Liturgy Distilled from Everyday Life (The Liturgical Press, 2017), explores how worship’s sacramental elements such as bread, wine, and water are connected to local fields and farmers, waters and artisans.
• Michelle Lewis is the pastor of New Rochelle United Methodist Church and is passionate about the intersection of religion and the environment. She is an award winning filmmaker and hosts a radio show that examines connecting our spirituality with daily life. Michelle is the first woman of color to hold joint Master’s degrees in Religion and the Environment from Yale. You can learn more about Michelle’s work at MichelleEstelleLewis.com

• Larry Rasmussen is considered one of the world’s foremost Christian environmental ethicists. He has mentored a generation of Christians in eco-theology and “green religion.” He is Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics emeritus at Union Theological Seminary and has published more than a dozen books, including the award-winning volumes Earth Community, Earth Ethics and Earth-Honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key. Rasmussen served as co-moderator of the Justice, Peace, Creation unit of the World Council of Churches in the 1990s.
• Don Saliers is William R. Cannon Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Theology and Worship at Emory University, where he also directed the master of sacred music program. An accomplished musician, theologian, and scholar of liturgics, Professor Saliers is the author of 15 books on the relationship between theology and worship practices, as well as more than 150 articles, essays, book chapters, and book reviews. He co-authored A Song to Sing, a Life to Live with his daughter Emily Saliers, a member of the Indigo Girls.

• Emilie Casey is the Marquand Liturgical Minister and Chapel Communications Manager at Yale Divinity School. She came to YDS and ISM as a student in 2013, and after graduating with an MDiv (’16) and STM (’17), Emilie started her work in Marquand Chapel. Emilie is passionate about liturgy and worship, homiletics, and collaborative worship planning. Prior to her studies at Yale, Emilie studied music education and clarinet at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Emilie is a member of the ELCA.
• Maggi Dawn is Associate Dean of Marquand Chapel and Associate Professor (Adjunct) of Theology and Literature at Yale Divinity School and the Institute of Sacred Music. After a first career in music, she was a teaching fellow in systematic theology at the University of Cambridge, where she also served as college chaplain. Professor Dawn is an ordained priest in the Church of England and a senior member of King’s College and Robinson College in the University of Cambridge.
• Nathaniel Gumbs was recently appointed as Director of Chapel Music at Yale University, where he works with students, faculty, and guests to coordinate music for the University Church in Battell Chapel and at Yale Divinity School in both Marquand Chapel and at Berkeley Divinity School. He is a frequent guest musician at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, and is organist and clinician for the Hampton University Ministers’ Conference. In 2017 he was named in the “Top 20 Under 30” by Diapason Magazine. Nat expects to complete the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Eastman School of Music in 2018.
• Ted Lyddon Hatten is an artist and a theologian who describes his work as theopoetic and multidisciplinary. As a visual artist, he works with a variety of media, including myrrh, liquefaction, coffee grounds, beeswax (encaustic), dry pigment, egg tempera, grain, gunpowder, glass, sand, and salt. He uses photography as a tool to explore the world and to express his work–particularly installations, dry painting, and other pieces that are inherently ephemeral. Ted is currently the Director of the Wesley Foundation and adjunct professor at drake University. His studio is located in Indianola, Iowa.

• Rita Ferrone is currently the editor of The Yale ISM Review, and a contributing writer at Commonweal magazine. She is a liturgist in the Roman Catholic tradition, and has worked for many years in parishes and diocesan offices, particularly in the ministries of Christian initiation. She is also widely known as an author and conference speaker. A graduate of Yale Divinity School, Rita received their alumni achievement award in congregational ministry in 2007. She lives in Mount Vernon, NY. 
• Estrella Sainburg is the Circle Organizer for GreenFaith. As Circle Organizer, Estrella is working to support interfaith local community organizing for the environment in New Jersey and around the world.  As a native Spanish speaker, she especially hopes to empower Latino communities in the United States to advocate and ensure a healthy living environment and harmonious relationship with the natural environment, as well as see more Latinos speaking about environmental injustices.
• Betty Whitted Holley is Associate Professor at Payne Theological Seminary, where she teaches ecological theology and Christian Education and directs the Master of Divinity Degree Program.  She also serves as a member of the Broader Social Impact Committee (BSIC), for the Smithsonian Institute of Natural History, Washington, DC, and as Presiding Elder of the Columbus-Springfield-Xenia District of the Ohio Conference (Third Episcopal District) of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, superintending thirty churches. She holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Ethics and African American Religious Studies.
• Anne Rowthorn, Ph.D. has written twelve books, among them three collections of ecological writings:  Earth and All the Stars, Feast of the Universe and Song of the Universe. Most recently she compiled and edited The Wisdom of John Muir: 100+ Selections from the Letters, Journals, and Essays of the Great Naturalist (Wilderness Press). 
• Jeffery Rowthorn was one of three founding faculty members of the Institute of Sacred Music and first Chapel Minister of Yale Divinity School. He went on to be elected Suffragan Bishop of The Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut and then served as Bishop of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe.  His hymns have been widely published and he has compiled three hymnals, most recently (with Russell Schulz-Widmar) Sing of the World Made New:  Hymns of Justice, Peace, and Christian Responsibility. 
• Anne and Jeffery’s joint compilation, God’s Good Earth, contains 52 liturgies of praise and prayer for many aspects of creation and will be published by Liturgical Press in the fall of 2018.