EcoFaith Recovery’s internship program has had over 40 different projects in different parts of the country. The Practicum is similar to past EcoFaith internships in that each intern will have a project, chosen by them, which fits their community. Interns will engage the Practices for Awakening Leadership while working on their congregational Internship Project engaging their diverse congregations in their own project or campaign.
EcoFaith Recovery is partnering with communities around Portland to host Electrify Everything Events. Local leaders come to do presentations and tell you how you can start electrifying our homes, our buildings and our cars.
They’ll also present about induction ranges, electric vehicles, community solar, options for renters, and newly available federal and local resources to help cover up-front costs. To learn more or plan your own event in your community sign up here!
EcoFaith Recovery seeks to deepen education and understanding of the ways in which we continue to shadow our history of harm and genocide. There are many ways that you and your community can engage and more deeply understand the land on which you live as well as the first peoples who lived on these lands, the displacements and traumas colonial powers inflicted upon them, and the living members of these communities who still live on these lands today. In seeking to engage in themes of relationship and repair, EcoFaith Recovery has many options of ways we can engage and educate our communities over the year to come. More here!
Our Lenten Devotional A Grounded Faith was born as a companion of Randy Woodley’s Becoming Rooted. This is designed to ground you in the place you are now and repent from destructive ways of living. Learn more about the devotional here.
Join EcoFaith Recovery, by recorded video, for a three-part workshop series drawing on Marshall Ganz’s Public Narrative format by creating a story of Self – Us – Now. You’ll learn the craft of storytelling for organizing, have the space and opportunity to write your story with the support of experienced mentors, and have ample one-on-one practice in sharing your story. The original event took place in June, 2020. We invite you to use this resource.
Although, Practice #4: Mentoring One Another, often involves one volunteer leader mentoring another, sometimes working with a paid Coach can be helpful when starting your own EcoFaith group. The coaches within our community are actively organizing their communities and engaging in The Seven Practices. These coaches are also active in our weekly Awakening Leadership meetings. To learn more please reach out to Pastor Robyn or come join us at one of our Awakening Leadership meetings!
Carbon Gardens are natural spaces designed to facilitate the work of soil-dwelling creatures, plants and trees to pull excess carbon dioxide out of the air in order to draw carbon back into the ground. Carbon Gardens vary widely. But all are designed to help rebalance the carbon cycle by working with earth’s natural processes to reduce excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which is destabilizing the climate and bring carbon back into the ground where it is needed to enrich depleted soil.
To learn about our carbon garden’s initiatives here!
Becoming Rooted: One Hundred Days of Reconnecting with Sacred Earth by Randy Woodley is a way to ground yourself more deeply in your natural surroundings. Through EcoFaith’s partnership with Eloheh Indigenous Center for Earth Justice, EcoFaith was able to engage many communities around the country. It is not too late for you and your community to participate in this important and timely adventure! Gather your group or organize your community to begin the 100 day journey today. Learn more here!
River’s Lament Ritual Walk was first sponsored by the EcoFaith Recovery under the leadership of Ms. Trista Jolly, Rev. Solveig Nilsen-Goodin and Dr. Ruth Nickodemus in the spring of 2011. Therefore, EcoFaith Recovery partners with the Care for Creation Trainings, the Oregon Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, and Lutherans Restoring Creation for the purpose of training congregations interested in the grounding process of gracefully greening every area of their ministries. Wilderness Way Community and EcoFaith Recovery Leaders have continued to offer this ritual to other groups of interested people.
GreenSpirit Recovery is an initiative that allows us to reflect and deep our understanding of our unsustainable consumer culture. We share our experience, strength, and hope as we work the 12 Steps of Ecological Spirituality which reveal to us the root causes of our dysfunctional relationship with ourselves, other people, other species, and all the life systems of planet Earth. Learn more here.
The EcoFaith Leadership Core Team sponsored occasional Table Talks on topics related to how human beings can recover a more sustainable way of life. More can be found on Table Talks here.
Designed to grow a tree of life in these challenging times.
In March of 2023 EcoFaith Recovery sponsored a Table Talk with Victoria Loorz author of “Church of the Wild” in which members of the community were invited to ask questions and learn more about connection with God and nature.
Cities all over the world are taking the lead in responding to climate change. In the United States over 1,000 mayors (including Portland’s) have signed the Mayor’s Climate Protection Agreement. Since the election, it is obvious that we cannot expect the federal government to act on climate issues. The measure is an opportunity for Portland to become a national model for taking proactive measures to fight climate change while providing major new economic opportunities for low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Learn more about this initiative here.
Organizing in the BioCommons was an expanding community of progressive faith leaders and those of other faith traditions who are together exploring:
- The root causes underlying our crisis of economy and ecology,
- The impact of this crisis on our families, congregations, institutions and planet,
- How to build power to create opportunities within the double
eco-crisis (ecology and economy).
The vast theological and spiritual resources available to inspire and ground this great work of our time.
Simply In Season Leadership Training equipped new leaders to form small food faith and fellowship groups using the Simply in Season cookbook published by the Mennonite Church. Leaders prepared healthy/sustainable meals, shared food in community, experimenting in new spiritual practices, and learning how the food we eat impacts our bodies, our communities and the larger web of life. Find out more here.
University extension agents offer low or no-cost resources to communities (originally farmers and agricultural communities) as a public service. For instance, an agricultural extension agent might consult with farmers on how to manage certain pests, or offer low cost soil analysis. In November 2015, the EcoFaith Recovery Core Team engaged in conversation about what it might mean for faith communities to have similar access to faith based extension agents, particularly around congregation education and consulting around eco-literacy and biblical imagination. Learn more here!
A “Carbon Fast” is a way for individuals and communities to engage in a conscientious and earth-honoring spiritual practice. It was originally developed by the Church of England in 2008. Since then it has been adopted by congregations of many different denominations around the world as a spiritual practice which helps individuals and communities turn away from actions that release climate disrupting carbon into the atmosphere and turn back to a way of life that honors God’s call to love the whole world and care for the most vulnerable. Find out more here.
Faith communities of many denominations marked the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation in 2017. Only a dynamic upsurge of thinking and doing to change the Church for the sake of the world will now honor the Reformers’ passion. Learn more.
Grounding for Action was an initiative to move beyond fossil fuels and engage together in The Practices for Awakening Leadership to connect to a larger community in creating a more sustainable future. Learn more here!
Leadership Retreats EcoFaith Recovery offers Leadership Retreats. These retreats allow us to spend the day embodying some of EcoFaith Recovery’s core practices leadership development, spiritual grounding and relational practices. More on these retreats can be found here.
In 2023, EcoFaith also sponsored The Seven Deadly Sins of White Christian Nationalism book group committed to starting each their own book groups! Learn more here.
Youth Camp was an initiative in partnership with Central Lutheran Church in 2014 who hosted EcoFaith Youth Project. The Youth Camp was 6 days packed with exciting activities for high school youth.