I promised last week to share a little bit about the Prairie Group’s topic of scholarship, “Theologies of Climate Resistance.” 

Five papers were presented over the course of three days, and they moved us into discussion about these general themes:

• new language to describe the emotions we feel as we absorb and learn to live with the understanding that we’ve changed our climate in ways that will end lives and ways of living;
• stories from various faith traditions about the beginning of the world and ending(s) of humanity, to ground us as we create our own current story;
• how queer theory can help us think beyond human exceptionalism and narratives of vertical evolution  and “progress;”
• how we might learn from the indigenous wisdom we’ve ignored for so long; and
• how our theologies can be applied to both grieving the losses we’ve induced and mobilizing to deal with the consequences of climate change. 

The grounding idea is that “apocalypse,” as we discussed it, means the revelation that comes as the world as we know it ends.  And so our reflections and conversations moved us toward developing practices and strategies for dealing with the mess we’ve made- grounded in Unitarian Universalist theology.  Heavy stuff, yes, but necessary for us ministers as leaders, and for all of us as people of faith, moving into the “new normal” of these times.

In faith and love,

Karen

11/23/22