FULL : The Ground Where You Stand Is Holy

Workshop number: 
12
Christine M.
Greenland
Cathy L.
Draine
Audience
Who may register: 
Open to All (adult & high school)
part time-attenders welcome
Time breakdown
Worship/worship-sharing: 
25%
Lecture: 
15%
Discussion: 
25%
Experiential Activities: 
35%
Description
Leader Experience: 

Christine studied Arctic-alpine and mountain ecosystems of her native Colorado with graduate work on wetland ecosystems in Wisconsin and Canada which included vegetation history and climatology. Her scientific understanding is augmented by studies of the Bible and diversity of religious experience. She has taught various age levels in botany/field biology and facilitated a course on the Psalms at Pendle Hill.

Cathy’s creative work in cultural activism included work with children after Hurricane Katrina. Her talents in writing, poetry and theater were also used during her sojourn at Pendle Hill, after which she was a graduate student in Cultural Production at Brandeis University. She is the founder and artistic director of Imagine Me Theatre Works in Cambridge MA and is a student at Emerson College in the department of Theatre Education.

Christine and Cathy are both familiar with Scripture from childhood, drawing on their respective family and cultural understandings. Their combined experiences with the Psalms included praise, petition, lament and argument.

Short Description: 

Explore Scripture and other writings that increase awareness of the natural world from a wealth of cultural perspectives.
Bring a Bible, sketch book, journal, and your creativity! Each session will emphasize interactions with the natural world from varied experiences. Prepare to spend time each day outdoors.

Long Description: 

Who will find peace with the lands? The future of humankind lies waiting for those who will come to understand their lives and take up their responsibilities to all living things. Who will listen to the trees, the animals and birds, the voices of the places of the land? – Vine Deloria, Jr.

From biblical times, humankind was reminded of its place in the universe… only to forget. This workshop offers an opportunity for exploration of what it means to be human in the midst of amazing biological diversity. In the past decade, Bible scholarship has grown through meditations and liturgies of praise to the Creator for the diversity of life and an appreciation of natural forces common in Scripture.

Creative gifts possible in cross-cultural dialogue will stretch our understandings as we meditate on the natural world, listen to each others’ stories, praise, and renew commitments to each other and to the planet we call home. We hope to reestablish being connected across cultures, ways of worship, to renew our appreciation of the whole of creation. Each day will include outdoor meditations.

We encourage stories from participants’ experiences. We will include time for meditations, the joys of a New England summer, hearing stories from the Bible, and writings from Friends of an earlier time and contemporary authors.

Although this workshop is open to part-time participation, we encourage full-time participants to hold the heart of our experiences together.

Readings will include selections from:

Wangari Maathai (Kenya)

John Greenleaf Whittier (US 19th century) – A Tent on the Beach

Aldo Leopold (US) – A Sand County Almanac

Toni Morrison (US) – excerpts from Beloved

Norman Habel (Australia) – Seasons of Creation
http://seasonofcreation.com/

Vine Deloria God is Red: A Native View of Religion

Background

Cathy Draine and Christine Greenland met in a Psalms class at Pendle Hill in 2007 that used a cross-cultural approach; several young adults participated. Cathy's lecture at Pendle Hill in 2009 began with God’s direction to Moses: Take off your shoes, the ground where you stand is holy.

This workshop will explore how different cultures relate to the natural world by observation and through the lenses of Scripture and contemporary literature. We hope to deepen our appreciation of our responsibility to care for the earth and all creatures within it .

We welcome those who can only come part-time, but would hope for a commitment of at least 2-3 sessions.

The percentage of time for activities is approximate, and will be flexible depending on the ages and stages present in the group as a whole.

 Worship/Meditation ~30 minutes
 Reading text: ~40 minutes
 Interactive work with the environment/texts/dramatization: ~40 minutes
 Shared Reflections and closing worship. ~30 minutes

Cathy and Christine hope to have elders and to balance our understandings in our choice of elders from varied cultures and traditions.