Beyond my work in chaplaincy, spiritual direction, workshops, and retreats, I am the co-founder and co-coordinator of EcoPhilly, an initiative that works together with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia to establish “creation care teams” in parishes, schools, and other institutions in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Climate change and biodiversity loss are intertwined threads of the greatest existential threat of our time. They represent a demand for action in all sectors, including the religious sector, even as they also represent an opportunity to reconfigure our spiritual relationships — to the earth, to one another, to the economy, and to the divine.

If you are interested in exploring your own response, personal or communal, to the climate and biodiversity crises, please be in touch.

Recommended Reading

Active Hope, by Joanna Macy. A meditation on what Buddhist ecophilosopher Joanna Macy calls “the Work that Reconnects”: a transformational journey of resilience that recognizes hope and action as mutually necessary.

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate, by Naomi Klein. A magisterial examination of the idea that the only way to save the planet from catastrophic climate change is to undo the system of runaway capitalism that is producing it — and that the climate crisis also represents an opportunity to remake the world economy in a humane and sustainable way.

Green Sisters: A Spiritual Ecology, by Sarah McFarland-Taylor. An intriguing look at the leadership of Roman Catholic religious sisters in cultivating new forms of religious life and ministry — “sod-busting the manicured lawns around their motherhouses to create community-supported organic gardens; building alternative housing structures and hermitages from renewable materials; adopting the green technology of composting toilets, solar panels, fluorescent lighting, and hybrid vehicles; turning their community properties into land trusts with wildlife sanctuaries” and more — that can be an inspiration to all communities of faith.

And if helpful to those whose field of action may include their community of faith, here is a brief video meditation on what Dr. Valerie Miles-Tribble calls “change-agent churches” in her book Change Agent Church in Black Lives Matter Times: