‘Sacred Earth’ Website Launched: Finding Hope in Ecologically Challenging Times

St. Mark's Episcopal Church, San Marcos, TX
Posted Feb 3, 2021

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, San Marcos, TX, has launched “Sacred Earth,” a new website exploring the interplay of spirituality and nature. The site is an outgrowth of the Sacred Earth Symposium that was scheduled for April 2020 but postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It can be found at https://www.sacred-earth.net

Feeding the mind, discerning intentions, and developing practices that nourish the individual while enhancing the life of the community—these are some of the aims of Sacred Earth. Through stories, interviews, book reviews, and videos about people living in environmentally sustainable ways, this site is an attempt to help users navigate the current ecological crisis with hope, faith, and the knowledge that they are not alone. Also included on the site are Celebrate Earth! an adult spiritual formation process, links to a wide range of faith-based environmental organizations, information on environmental justice, and a bibliography on the paradigm shift required for living wisely on the Earth.

Brandon Beck, co-chair of the Sacred Earth planning committee, explains how this project has intersected with his own life. “When I was 13,” he recalls, “I asked Mom to take me to Austin for an animal rights activism training. I remember my joy in connecting with others who openly and actively celebrated our human responsibility to the island home we call Earth. I remember their commitment to our non-human siblings even as we walk in Love and continuously learn to live responsibly within our human species. The Sacred Earth project and website are a way station on a journey I started 30 years ago at that training. I have made connections, again, with people of like mind, intention, and practice.”

Sacred Earth will help people engage with the natural world in ways that nurture both the individual and the Earth. Topics range from the theological underpinnings of creation care, to very practical ways of living an ecologically responsible life. As the pandemic continues, and isolation becomes more burdensome, individuals and families are increasingly turning to nature for psychological, spiritual, and physical sustenance. Sacred Earth offers them resources they can use in this endeavor.

Contact Person: Susan Hanson
Email: skhanson@gmail.com