International Collaborators to Launch Climate Pastoral Care Course
The climate crisis is creating a worldwide emergency that impacts communities mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. International collaborators Waterspirit (USA) and Jessica Morthorpe (Australia) have created a new 13-module course that teaches pastoral care for the climate crisis. This online course intends to equip church leaders and communities with the tools they need to understand eco-anxiety, climate grief and other climate emotions in order to become more effective caregivers.
This comprehensive course takes a deep dive into culturally-sensitive pastoral care, explores what it means to be a good pastor to climate-anxious people, and makes recommendations for particular groups, including activists, scientists and children. It also makes recommendations for how to address congregational conflict and ecophobia theologies.
This new course will be launched with an informative webinar featuring several experts in the field: Dr. Sally Gillespie, Rev. James Bhagwan, Rev. Talitha Amadea Aho and Rev. Douglas Kaufman. This launch event will be co-sponsored by Waterspirit and Common Grace, an Australian nonprofit. It will take place on Friday, October 28, at 8 p.m. EDT (US)/Saturday, October 29, at 11 a.m. AEDT (AUS).