Learning Tools
Some faith-based schools have found their Nature Explore Classroom to be an excellent environment for exploring religious values and traditions. In the Nursery School at Temple Shalom in Newton, Massachusetts, teachers and children make Jewish spirituality visible through projects in the outdoor classroom, and indoors. Although the projects are based on Jewish traditions, the values they teach are universal. In this post, we’ll learn how children celebrate Tu B’Shevat or “Birthday of the Trees.”
TOOLS & RESOURCES
This collection of free toolkits, reports, infographics and advocacy tools is designed to help you or your organization connect children, families and communities to nature.
The purpose of Learning from Water is to inspire us be self-directed learners for life-long, life-wide, life-deep learning, including finding ways to seek wisdom and a deep spirituality from water.
The site has links to relevant websites plus information on activities, concepts, and equipment that have help us use oceans, estuaries, rivers, lakes, and wetlands to learn science, arts, skills, and personal development.
Celebrate Earth Second Edition.pdfCelebrate Earth
Celebrate Earth! is an adult spiritual formation process that helps us develop a heart-level relationship with Earth, our island home. It builds on the concept that Knowledge + Love = Wisdom1. Love is expressed as a tangible relationship developed via “The Way of Love” and Wisdom is defined as the ability to live sustainably within Creation (Proverbs 8:22-36). Celebrate Earth! draws on scripture and tradition, science, contemplation/meditation, and action to help us recognize our island home as God’s creation and that we are its stewards, not its owners.
To view a larger version, click on the arrow in the upper right corner. There you will have the option to download the book.
The Bangor Theological Seminary served for almost 200 years. Its assets and commitment to Christian service were reconceived into the The BTS Center. Its vision, mission, and values are:
Our VISION: the future we are working towards
Human hearts renewed, justice established, and creation restored
Our MISSION: what we will do to achieve the future we envision
Catalyze spiritual imagination with enduring wisdom for transformative faith leadership
The BTS Center seeks to honor the work of God in the world by committing to these VALUES:
Courage: honestly engaging our changing religious landscape
Resilience: Cultivating the ability to adapt
Collaboration: Doing more together
Generosity: Readily giving of ourselves and our resources
Integrity: Holding ourselves to high standards in all we do
The Leadership Commons at The BTS Center offers free use of a rich variety of videos and other learning materials that we can use for various study groups. More
"The Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology is an international multireligious project contributing to a new academic field and an engaged moral force of religious environmentalism. With its conferences, publications, monthly newsletter, and website, it explores religious worldviews, texts, and ethics in order to contribute to environmental solutions along with science, policy, law, economics, and appropriate technology.
The Forum is pleased to provide a wealth of resources for those interested in engaging further with the field of religion and ecology. From a sampling of multimedia offerings for those just becoming famliar with this work to updated listings for students and job-seekers, there is much to explore. We hope that even those already actively working in the field will find something here to help deepen their level of engagement."
The Episcopal Church offers program resources in four areas:
Celebrate the Season of Creation!
The Season of Creation, September 1st through October 4th, is celebrated by Christians around the world as a time for renewing, repairing and restoring our relationship to God, one another, and all of creation. The Episcopal Church joins this international effort for prayer and action culminating in the Feast of St. Francis on October 4th.
Loving Formation
For God’s sake, we will grow our love for the Earth and all of life through preaching, teaching, storytelling, and prayer.
Liberating Advocacy
For God’s sake, standing alongside marginalized, vulnerable peoples, we will advocate and act to repair Creation and seek the liberation and flourishing of all people.
Life-Giving Conservation
For God’s sake, we will adopt practical ways of reducing our climate impact and living more humbly and gently on Earth as individuals, households, congregations, institutions, and dioceses.
