Ecopsychology

Continuing my research this morning. Found an interesting article on Ecology and Spirituality shown below:

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/csrc/PDFs%20and%20Jpgs/eco-spirit-proposal.pdf

Vanderbilt University started a three year program to look into how religion and culture impacts nature.

This got me thinking about a college degree in Ecospirituality and I found something at Naropa University on Ecopsychology and linked the webpage below. Bear with me as I do this investigating. Finding my calling...

http://www.naropa.edu/academics/gsp/grad/ecopsychology-ma/index.php

Off I go to take my son rock climbing. Will have to resume this thinking later...

Faith and Ecology

Been thinking about what class I am going to offer at my UU church this fall in the area of environmental justice. Spent some time on the UU Ministry for Earth website and came across a few interesting directions. First of all, I discovered that a woman named Barbara Ford is offering workshops called Gaia Workshops which are very similar to those that  Joanna Macy runs. Barbara's website can be found at:

http://www.gaiaworkshops.net/

Also discovered a new curriculum on environmental justice called "Our Place in the Web" which looks incredibly interesting and one I'd like to check into. Further information can be found at:

http://uuministryforearth.org/EJ-Curriculum

Lastly, the UU Ministry for Earth site has a great reference book called "Earth and Spirit, Bringing Ecology into Adult Religious Education" which can be ordered from the site below. This guide offers a sample curriculum for adult RE which looks interesting.

http://uuministryforearth.org/Resources%20Publications

The UU Ministry for Earth site can be found here:

http://uuministryforearth.org/

Will spend some time tomorrow working on the direction I'd like to go with this for the fall semester. Looking forward to where this will take me.

With a bit more research, I found another fascinating website I will need to check out. Not enough time in the day to pursue what interests me.

David Korten's website:

http://livingeconomiesforum.org/great-turning

Discussion Guide info for David Korten's book, "The Great Turning"

http://livingeconomiesforum.org/sites/files/images/TGT_Guide2.pdf

Active Hope

Attended my second Heart & Soul meeting, a subcommittee of Transition Town Media, and loved the thoughtful introspection offered by everyone there. We are reading and discussing Joanna Macy's book Active Hope which talks about ways to face the destruction that is facing the planet and how to go forth into the world and work toward changing harmful habits. At one point in the meeting, I talked about my lack of hope for the planet, that I thought we just didn't have time to turn things around. That too much damage had taken place to right things. After I spoke, a man spoke of a video clip he had seen which offered hope against all odds that humanity is on the right track. This video clip can be found at the link below and is well worth the five minutes it takes to watch it. It convinced me that rather than face our struggles with doom and gloom, lets face them with hope. Enjoy!