Join us for a webinar on September 4th from 12-2pm EST hosted by Kinship Plot and the EDEN Network of CCDA!
What happens when we expand our understanding of community to include not only people, but the land, water, plants, animals, and ecosystems that sustain our shared life?
As part of the global Season of Creation, we are joining Christians around the world—including groups such as the World Council of Churches (WCC) and Creation Justice Ministries—in a season of prayer, reflection, and action centered on care for God’s creation. This year’s theme, Living Water, draws from Ezekiel’s vision of a river that brings healing and life wherever it flows.
Climate change and environmental injustice are often treated as stand-alone issues, but in reality they are deeply interconnected with the social, economic, and ecological challenges facing our communities. As climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe puts it, they are “the hole in all our buckets.” Environmental wounds impact housing, food access, health, economic opportunity, and the wellbeing of our neighborhoods. In this webinar, we’ll explore how embracing our interdependence with the rest of creation—and cultivating practices of earth justice and ecological attentiveness—can strengthen the resilience and flourishing of the communities we serve.
Why Join Us?
Community development has long focused on people and neighborhoods. Yet the places we seek to strengthen are part of a much wider community of creation. We are not separate from creation or above it—we are part of it. The flourishing of people is inseparable from the flourishing of the land, water, plants, and animals that sustain our shared life. This webinar invites us to expand our understanding of community and practice justice in ways that honor the relationships that connect all of creation.
Together, we’ll explore the theological foundations of ecological discipleship and hear from practitioners integrating earth justice, creation care, and ecological wisdom into their ministries, neighborhoods, and community development work. Through worship, reflection, learning, and conversation, we’ll consider practical ways to care for creation as an expression of loving God through doing justice, loving mercy, walking humbly, and seeking the flourishing of our neighbors and the whole creation.
This is an opportunity to learn from peers working across a wide range of contexts, including church-based ministry, affordable housing, watershed restoration, community gardens, food justice, and other neighborhood-based initiatives. Together, we’ll explore lessons learned, challenges encountered, sources of hope, and practical applications with, from, and for community development practitioners.
What to Expect
Join Christians around the world in this Season of Creation for a time of worship, prayer, learning, reflection, and action. Whether you’re already integrating creation justice into your work or simply curious about how a deeper relationship with creation can shape your ministry, neighborhood, or community development practice, this gathering is for you.
A two-hour online gathering featuring:
- Opening worship and reflection for the Season of Creation
- A keynote address by Rev. Dr. Ben Lowe
- A practitioner panel discussion
- Live Q&A opportunities
Meet the Speaker
Rev. Dr. Ben Lowe
Executive Director, A Rocha USA
Rev. Dr. Ben Lowe is Executive Director of A Rocha USA and a leading voice in ecological discipleship and creation care. His keynote will explore why care for creation belongs at the heart of Christian discipleship and how ecological renewal is deeply connected to the work of justice, reconciliation, and community flourishing.
Meet the Panelists
Dr. Ruth Padilla DeBorst
A theologian, missiologist, and educator who has spent decades equipping leaders for integral mission, justice, and the flourishing of creation. Ruth will offer a global theological perspective on faithful discipleship, community, and the interconnectedness of people, places, and the wider creation.
Rev. Dr. Ambrose Carroll
Founder of Green The Church, Dr. Carroll is a pastor and practical theologian whose work mobilizes Black churches around creation care, climate justice, and sustainable community transformation. He brings a powerful perspective on the intersection of faith, ecology, and justice.
Plaster Creek Stewards
Sharing lessons from years of watershed restoration, ecological repair, and community partnership, Plaster Creek Stewards demonstrate how caring for local waterways can become a catalyst for neighborhood renewal and reconciliation.
About Kinship Plot
Through affordable housing, ecological design, community gardens, and place-based ministry, Kinship Plot is exploring what it means to cultivate kinship with people, place, and the whole community of creation.
About the EDEN Network
The EDEN Network within CCDA envisions community development practitioners designing their work in ways that honor the whole community of creation. By cultivating beloved community and transformative kinship among people, places, and the wider ecological community, EDEN seeks to help practitioners integrate ecological discipleship and earth justice into the everyday work of community development.
