April 15, 2025 • 36 mins
In this special interim episode, guest host Jessica David sits down with Rev. Dr. Allen Ewing-Merrill, Executive Director of The BTS Center, and Debra Coyman, Chair of The BTS Center's Board of Trustees, to explore what spiritual leadership means in a climate-changed world. Together they unpack critical questions around faith, community action, and ecological responsibility.
Meet Our Guest Host:
Jessica David is a Master of Divinity candidate at Harvard Divinity School, founder of Local Return, and President & CEO of Rhode Island Community Investment Cooperative. With 20 years of experience working at the intersection of people and place, Jessica focuses on the intersection of spirituality and money, supporting community wealth-building and strategic organizational development.
Meet Our Guests:
Rev. Dr. Allen Ewing-Merrill serves as Executive Director of The BTS Center. Ordained in the United Methodist tradition, Allen previously co-pastored HopeGateWay in Portland, Maine, and founded Moral Movement Maine. He has a longstanding commitment to social justice advocacy, faith-based organizing, and progressive Christianity, with extensive experience addressing issues such as climate justice and immigrant solidarity.
Debra Coyman has served on The BTS Center Board since 2017, including roles as Treasurer and Vice Chair. With an extensive background in business strategy and human resources leadership at IDEXX Laboratories, Debra brings significant nonprofit governance experience. She actively volunteers for conservation and animal welfare organizations, serves on multiple boards, and passionately engages in outdoor recreational activities.
Join the Conversation:
What do you think is the most important contribution spiritual leaders can make in responding to climate change?
Share your reflections via email at podcast@thebtscenter.org or leave a voicemail at 207-200-6986.
Climate Changed Podcast is a project of The BTS Center in Portland, Maine. Produced by Peterson Toscano. Visit climatechangedpodcast.org for complete show notes, transcript, and more.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
>> Jessica David (00:00):
Why have we let climate change get this far?
What am I called to do in this time of turmoil
and change? How on earth will
I find time to even do my laundry this week?
I'm Jessica David, a Harvard Divinity School
student. I'm an intern at the BTS
center, which basically means I ask a lot of
(00:22):
questions. I'm really curious about the
BTS Center's mission to cultivate spiritual
leadership for a climate changed world,
because it seems really worthy and
necessary. So I asked a huge question. Can
I take over the podcast for a few months to learn more about
what you do here? And. Well, here we
are.
(00:42):
Welcome to the Climate Change behind
the Scenes edition with me, Jessica
David. I am excited to be here today with two
of the BTS Center's leaders.
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (00:53):
I'm Alan Ewing Merrill. I serve as
executive director of the BTS Center.
I'm also a pastor. I serve churches in
the Methodist tradition in, uh, Maine and
Massachusetts for about 20 years. And over
the years, I've also done a lot of organizing, especially
organizing of faith leaders, and
have been really engaged in advocacy and
(01:16):
activism about a bunch of social justice issues.
>> Debra Coyman (01:19):
And I'm Debra Coyman I'm the board chair of the
BTS center and in my eighth year of service on
the board, I'm a retired business
person.
>> Jessica David (01:28):
Ah.
>> Debra Coyman (01:28):
With a background in strategy, finance and human
resources. And I've done a lot of board service
on a variety of other not for profits. And I'm a lay
leader in my local UCC church.
>> Jessica David (01:40):
What's a fun fact about you that most people
might not know?
>> Debra Coyman (01:44):
I hide this one. The, uh, summer after
my junior year in college, I won the
$10,000 pyramid. Everybody gives
me quite a reaction when they hear that. Of course, now it's
$100,000 pyramid, so
inflation. I used it to buy contact lenses
and pay for my first year of business school.
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (02:03):
Deborah, that's amazing.
>> Jessica David (02:05):
I have to ask, what is the $10,000
Pyramid?
>> Debra Coyman (02:09):
Uh, it's a game show.
>> Jessica David (02:11):
Okay, okay.
>> Debra Coyman (02:13):
TV game show.
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (02:14):
I totally cannot beat that one. Deborah. Um,
um, but one year when I was in
seminary on, uh, New Year's Eve, it happened to be the New
Year's Eve when we transitioned from
1999 to 2000. So that was a big
year. And I was in Times
Square, and I was actually part of the official
New Year's Eve confetti crew. So a bunch of
(02:37):
friends and I spent that evening on the top of
one of the giant buildings in Times Square, and we
through confetti at midnight out over Times
Square from gigantic boxes of confetti.
>> Jessica David (02:48):
That is amazing. What a legacy. I
love that.
Let's dive right in to the discussion.
So the BTS Center's tagline is
spiritual leadership for a climate changed
world. Can I just say first, as
far as taglines go, that packs a lot of
power.
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (03:09):
Mm, yep.
>> Jessica David (03:11):
So we're gonna explore that tagline in this conversation.
And I wanna start with the last phrase,
a climate changed world.
I assume you're using, you're
intentionally using climate change here as an
adjective.
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (03:25):
Absolutely. We say climate changed. We put
a D on, um, climate change on purpose. And
that's because we, we really want to communicate in kind of a
provocative way that climate change is not
scientist prediction of some imagined future. It
is here, it is now. It's a
defining current reality. And, um,
I think if you look around and pay attention, sea level
(03:47):
rise, uh, soaring temperatures,
extreme storms, uh, devastating floods
in some places and equally devastating drought in
other places, uh, fires like the ones we saw
on the west coast recently, species, species
extinction, biodiversity loss. All of this is
a reminder that climate change is real and it's here
(04:08):
and our communities are feeling its effects.
>> Debra Coyman (04:11):
Now, for me, the
phrase captures the urgency of the
situation. We are living amid the effects
of climate change, and like the
proverbial frog in the pot of water, we are not
taking action to jump out of what will
become boiling water.
>> Jessica David (04:30):
I m have to say, it really resonates with me. You all are the
first, first organization I've
encountered that uses climate change. And it
took me a little while to. To figure out what you were
really getting at there, but it's very powerful.
So why spiritual leadership? All
of the things that you just mentioned and talk. Talked
(04:50):
about sound to me a lot like
environmental or scientific problems. What
is the role of faith communities?
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (04:59):
Scientists have been warning us about climate change
for decades, and
so we're always wrestling with this question, how did
we get here? One thing that's
clear is that, you know, the human demand on the natural
world just exceeds, uh, Earth's
regenerative capacity. We call that overshoot.
We are extracting and we're consuming more
(05:22):
than our biosphere can renew. And
that all of that, of course, is set in motion by
the extraction and burning of fossil
fuels. So we
wrestle with that, and we wrestle with this urgent
question. Why haven't we, you know, we're one
of the wealthiest, maybe the wealthiest country in the
world. Why haven't we mobilized to address
(05:44):
this, this existential threat that we're facing? Why do
we keep doing the Things that so
obviously run against our own survival and
our future flourishing. And so we think a lot about
how the climate crisis is a
symptom. It's a symptom of this bigger set
of systems. You can think about extractive
(06:04):
capitalism, think uh, about the impacts of
colonialism, um, about, about
materialism. It's a symptom of this
set of mindsets, um,
like the objectification of the natural world,
like our, our
interest in growth at all costs, our
(06:24):
separation from our non
human kin. I often
quote this environmentalist named Gus
Beth, um, who says, I, I used to
think that the top environmental problems were
biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and
climate change. And I thought that
with 30 years of good science we could address
(06:46):
those. But he says I was wrong. I
now believe the top environmental problems are
selfishness, greed and
apathy. And he says in order to deal with these,
we need cultural and spiritual
transformation. And then he ends by
saying we scientists don't know how to do
that. This quote resonates for
(07:07):
me because I think about the fact that
selfishness, uh, greed and apathy, or cultural
and spiritual transformation, these may not be within the
purview of the science community, but they ought to be
within the purview of the spiritual
community. These ought to be things that we as faith
leaders are thinking about. So when we say that
(07:28):
the climate crisis requires
spiritual leadership, we need to shift the
way we see the world, rethink notions
of human progress, rethink what it means to, to
live, to live a meaningful life
and commit to living in right relationship
with, with each other, with God and
with our more than human kin, and with the Earth.
(07:50):
Also think about the ways in which the impacts of
climate change show up not just in the
weather or the soil or oceans. They show up in our
communities. People are struggling. They're struggling with
feelings of grief and anxiety and fear.
They're asking big questions like what does this mean for
me or for my family? What's going to
happen in the future?
(08:12):
They're asking like, am I a bad person if I
get in an airplane? Uh, these are
aspects of climate change that, that
transcend science and technology. They raise, they raise
these big spiritual questions
and they require spiritual care.
>> Jessica David (08:30):
Yeah, um, wow, when you put it that
way, Alan, it makes, makes complete sense
to approach this as a spiritual
issue.
Deborah, I'm curious what makes this mission compelling to
you? Be on the board.
>> Debra Coyman (08:46):
I was on the board when we recruited Alan
to take this role as the executive
director, uh, of the center. And at
that point we had spent several years already
Exploring opportunities for our vision and
mission. After ending
the 200 year mission, uh, of
being a degree granting seminary,
(09:09):
the board did a lot of work to bring that chapter to an
end. And I joined the board just after that work
was completed. So we were experimenting with
program design for clergy. There was
a desire to build on the
educational mission that had gone on for several
centuries here in northern New England. Looking at
equipping faith leaders for their roles at a
(09:31):
time when, frankly, church decline was on
everybody's mind. Alan came in and
got his feet wet and found his office in the
bathroom. And then he came to the
board at a, uh, retreat. And I remember at the meeting
he invited the board to consider
focusing our mission on addressing climate change.
He introduced that with that Gus Speth quote
(09:54):
that he just gave you, which I love.
Gus Speth was the head of the forestry school at
Yale. He's a very well respected forester
and scientist. He kind of said, look, this is
beyond science, which I think is a very interesting
place for us to build. So I had an
immediate gut level response to
(10:14):
Alan's suggestion and the importance of that idea
and the, the possibilities associated with
that idea. In the years since Alan, um, I
think it's been five, right? You're in, you're in beginning of
year six here, is that right?
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (10:28):
I'm coming up at the end of six.
>> Debra Coyman (10:30):
Oh my Lord, I've lost a year. M Not surprising.
Um, BTS center really seeks to
help faith leaders engage their
communities in stewardship of God's
creation, at the same time giving spiritual
support for the increasing challenges
that communities are seeing and the
impacts of the attendant physical and
(10:51):
political changes that we're facing. And we
try to do this from an ecosystem perspective.
It's not about us having the answers. It's about
looking for partners, trying to understand the
changing landscape of faith and the
intersections of climate change across so many other
areas of social justice, and looking for the ways
that the BTS center can add unique
(11:13):
value.
Personally, I'm a Christian who finds
the sacred in nature. I experience God
and the divine by spending time
outdoors. And I feel a deep connection to
all of creation. I feel a lot of grief
over the loss of habitat for animals and
plants and the ways human society
(11:34):
tends to overrun and consume everything
willy nilly.
>> Jessica David (11:40):
So how did each of you come to understand
climate change as an existential
threat?
>> Debra Coyman (11:46):
Jessica, that's an interesting question for me because I
hadn't really thought about it before you asked
it, but what came up for me, and maybe
for some of the listeners Is, uh,
that al Gore in 2006 with
his An Inconvenient Truth
tour, uh, opened my eyes to the
problem and uh, I was very
(12:09):
interested in what he had to say. And I thought at
that point that such a clear call to action
from a respected member of world
leadership would produce a response and we'd work
to hold temperatures at the 1 1/2 degrees
C that seemed to be the
stopping point, the desired stopping point, and
thus we'd mitigate the worst of the impact.
(12:32):
In all the years since then, 20 years,
we have discovered that there was no such luck on
that. Al Gore's position
triggered a fight over whether this was real or
a hoax, uh, which hung on for a very long
time even after the scientific consensus was that it was
real. As I thought about that, I was really
led to understand that our economic
(12:54):
drivers and our systems and
institutions are really aligned against
addressing the crisis. Whether it's the
focus on quarterly short term earnings that
our capitalist organizations are driven
by, or whether it's simply that we want to
maintain our lifestyles rather than make the
(13:14):
changes, the difficult changes that are required,
particularly around pumping carbon into the
atmosphere. We see the oil companies
aligned against this, we see the banks, some of the big financial
organizations aligned against this. And now we're
approaching or maybe have already crossed some critical
tipping points. The implications for food
systems, for water, for the oceans and for life itself
(13:37):
are frankly frightening to me.
>> Jessica David (13:39):
I love talking about Al Gore. I was a political
science Undergrad in Washington D.C.
during the end of the Clinton Gore
administration and I had such a crush on him. And then when he came
out with An Inconvenient Truth and he was up there doing
his slideshow, I felt like it was a good moment for
nerds.
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (13:59):
It's interesting to hear your story, Deborah, and I don't think I've ever heard
that. And it's also hard to believe that 2006 was
almost 20 years ago. I'll just say that I'll confess
that my wake up call really wasn't
until really just about six years ago, around the time
that I started at the BTS center when I had a chance to
study with, uh, Dr. Larry Rasmussen, who
(14:19):
for many years taught social ethics at Union Theological
Seminary in New York City. He's one of the world's widely
respected Christian environmental
ethicists. One of the things that Dr. Rasmussen
said that has really stuck with me is that all
social justice is derivative of
climate justice. It's not that one is more important than another,
(14:40):
it's just that social justice derives
from climate justice in the sense that we can
never have human flourishing on a
dying and diminishing planet. So to the extent that
the Earth is in trouble, we're all in trouble. And we're not
in trouble equally because some of us have privilege
and others. Others do not. People
(15:00):
who live in certain parts of the country, people who live in
poverty, some people experience the impacts
disproportionately. But to the extent that the Earth
is in trouble, we're all in trouble.
>> Jessica David (15:11):
That really resonates with me. But I hear you
saying there, Ellen is, or perhaps the way
I'm interpreting it, some of us have had the privilege.
You ignore this because
we haven't had to face it and the impacts of climate
change in as close and personal a way as some
communities.
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (15:30):
Right. Some of us are sheltered from the worst impacts
because of our privilege. But that, to me,
means that we have the responsibility to really be thinking
broadly about the common good and committing not just
to our own prosperity, but to our
collective flourishing.
Spiritual leadership sounds so, like, ethereal and
(15:51):
lofty, but just to bring it down to
Earth. You know, we're all spiritual beings. We're
all trying to make meaning of our lives and of
our world. Uh, so it's not just about
religious institutions.
Whether we're talking about traditional faith communities
or beyond. Spiritual leaders
can help to make meaning. They can
(16:13):
craft ritual and tend to ritual. They
can make space for complex emotional
responses and vulnerability. Um, they
nurture community. I would just say, you know, for the
listener, I'm just going to boldly say that by virtue
of the fact that you're listening to this podcast,
you are a spiritual leader. Really want to
define that broadly. Our faith
(16:35):
traditions stored these deep
reservoirs of meaning and practice,
uh, reservoirs of sacred meaning
and resources that we desperately need
in times of crisis and uncertainty,
like the moments we're facing right now. Our faith
traditions grow from these long lineages of ritual
and practice. And my hope is that as
(16:58):
we, as we navigate some of the
really big and, uh,
distressing challenges of our day,
that we might turn again and again to
these ancient resources, to these ancient
traditions, to our, uh, sacred wisdom,
and maybe, maybe see them in fresh ways
(17:18):
and hopefully find that they can help us to
meet this moment with courage and
with creativity.
>> Jessica David (17:28):
It feels almost countercultural to me, Alan, to
hear you say that. I think when we talk about climate
change, we so often talk about technology
and innovation, invention of new
things that are going to save us. And
you're actually suggesting going
backwards and really calling on
Ancient and old wisdom.
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (17:50):
Absolutely.
>> Jessica David (17:51):
So the spiritual leaders that the BTS center
works with, these are not
mostly church workers or ordained
clergy, is that right?
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (18:00):
We do love ordained clergy. And yes, there's a lot
of, uh, clergy who plug into our programs, but we really
want to think of spiritual leadership
broadly. So there are lots of people who are not
ordained, at least not in the formal
traditional sense, lay leaders, people who are
part, uh, of spiritual communities of one kind or
another, including, I want to say, the spiritual but
(18:23):
not religious communities. It's not just the
traditional, you know, world religions, but
thinking really broadly, leadership can be
exercised in so many different ways.
One of the, uh, really quickly growing areas
of our programs is with chaplains. So
these are people who are offering spiritual
(18:43):
care in all the settings you can think of. Hospitals,
prisons, the military, college and
university settings, in workplaces,
in the community, sometimes even in within movements like
activist spaces. We
offer programs that are helping them
to increase their climate consciousness so that when they're
(19:03):
offering care and someone brings a concern about
the climate crisis, that they feel equipped to be able to
respond in that moment. At
some point in life, everyone
needs spiritual care. So really,
anyone who has a meaningful spiritual
practice can be called on to make meaning or, uh, to offer
care.
>> Jessica David (19:24):
When I talk to my family and friends about my internship with the
BTS center, they sometimes look
at me quizzically and tell me it
sounds a little theoretical, theological,
philosophical. So help
me make it a bit more concrete, especially
for my mom and dad.
What difference can spiritual leaders
(19:45):
or faith communities make right now? In this
moment?
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (19:49):
Spiritual leaders have the experience
of tending to grief. They're pretty well
versed in navigating conflict, of bringing
people together, even across lines of division,
for shared purpose and practice.
And often they are within, but kind of
also on the edges of existing
systems. It seems to me this is a moment when we need
(20:12):
to recognize our interdependence, that we're
caught in this inescapable network of mutuality
as, as Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King said, in a
moment when we're called upon to turn toward one
another rather than against each other and really
commit to the common good, to collective flourishing.
It seems like that is the role of spirituality,
(20:32):
of faith or religion, however you conceive of
it, to consider these really big and important
questions. Who are we accountable to? What
does it mean to be alive in this moment that
matters so much? What does it mean to live a good life,
to love our neighbors, to welcome the
stranger? That's a question. I hope that all
spiritual communities are asking because soon
(20:55):
there will be moments, if we haven't already, when we'll be
called upon to welcome climate refugees
from other countries and even from within our own country.
When you think about it that way, it's not abstract, it's
actually very tangible.
>> Debra Coyman (21:08):
I just add that spiritual leaders can
also bear witness to what is true
and what is important. Like the biblical prophets
did. Alan and the BTS
center staff have been talking about how
to use the prophetic voice. I
think if we're going to change or
(21:29):
trade out the systems that have gotten us into
this mess and challenge the status
quo, we are going to need spiritual leaders of
all kinds to speak truths that challenge
powerful interests.
>> Jessica David (21:42):
Great. Yeah. That makes me think too of
what Alan was, was saying about going back to that ancient wisdom
and looking at our history and really calling back
to times where we have
faced existential threats and how
humans have responded in those moments. And
there feels to me like what the BTS center
(22:02):
is suggesting is there's a lot to learn from those
from the past.
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (22:06):
There's a lot to learn, and I think there's a lot to reckon
with too. It's a moment when we really have to think
about our human responsibility
and also our complicity in the systems that
have gotten us to this place.
Climate change is a direct result of our
ways of being over the last several hundred years.
And it's that recent, really. In that quote that I shared
(22:29):
earlier, environmentalist Gus Speth talks
about selfishness, greed and apathy.
And we could probably go, uh, a, uh, layer deeper and think about
what's underneath. Selfishness, greed and
apathy. And also we could go a, uh, layer beyond and
think about how selfishness, greed and apathy
manifest in this pernicious cycle
of domination, extraction and
(22:51):
consumption. That is the cycle that we're in
in our relationship with the Earth. Domination,
extraction, and consumption.
As a Christian, I want to say, especially
as this faith Christianity has been
practiced in white Western contexts, you
know, colonizing worldviews that, that
(23:11):
we actually have some responsibility for this
way of being. So it's a moment when it's important
for us to pay attention to our responsibility and also to
acknowledge our complicity.
>> Jessica David (23:22):
Indeed, the things that you're bringing up, Alan,
which I completely agree with, those are
not easy things for humans to deal with. We are
not great in this country at this
moment at, uh, recognizing our own
complicity and dealing
with the feelings that it brings up, the guilt, the
shame, the complicated
(23:44):
histories we may have individually and
within our communities.
Can you describe how the Work of the BTS center
responds to that.
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (23:54):
Well, I think it's a reminder that this is not something
we can do on our own. Like, if I just get in my
head and I think about all of this, you
know, I'm filled with these heavy emotions, and I'm
wallowing in grief and guilt, that's pretty
paralyzing, it seems to me. This is the work of
community. Whether that's a faith community or
another spiritual community or your neighborhood. Who
(24:17):
are the people with whom you can process, and who are the people
with whom you can imagine better ways of
living, better ways of being, that actually respond to the
moment and actually offer a sense of
hope and reassurance and
comfort?
>> Jessica David (24:31):
That, uh, was lovely. Thank you.
Could you provide a little more detail, Alan,
about the principles or the ideas that guide the
work of the BTS Center?
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (24:42):
There are five themes that show up
again and again through the BTS
center programs. They're kind of through lines, and they kind of
weave their way through most everything we do. And
I'm going to just share those five very briefly.
The first is kinship. And this is kind of
pushing back on the idea that human beings
are the pinnacle of creation, you know,
(25:04):
and instead kind of acknowledging our interdependence, that
we're not separate from nature, we're actually part of
nature. So that's kinship. The second is around
imagination. Our mission actually begins with
this phrase to catalyze spiritual
imagination. We're living in a time
of imaginative decline, and there are reasons for
that. What kind of world do we
(25:27):
want to live in, and how do we get
there? Through our programs, we're really trying to
foster collective imagination.
The third is around ecological grief. This is
attending to climate emotions, to use the
fancy term, the psychosocial spiritual
dimensions of the climate crisis. Ecological grief,
(25:47):
climate anxiety, the emotions that come up when
we. When we reckon with this moment we're in.
The fourth is a concept that we have received
from a wonderful author and scholar, Deborah
Reenstra. And that is the concept of
refugia. This is a term that
actually comes from biology, scientific
concept, around pockets of shelter
(26:08):
that emerge where life is preserved in times of
devastation and from which life
regenerates. So we think about how spiritual
communities can be refugia in a
time of great challenge. And then the
last of those five areas of focus is the common
good. We live in this world that is
(26:29):
preoccupied with the individual. Think about individual
liberty or individual prosperity,
individual success, even individual salvation.
And we want to make sure that our programs are always
pointing toward and Fostering collective
flourishing. So these are five themes that are
central to the work of spiritual leadership for a
(26:49):
climate change world.
>> Debra Coyman (26:51):
Across those five themes that Alan has referred
to, we are also trying to widen the
conversation and bring in perspectives that go
beyond strictly white, middle class Western
worldviews. One example is that
the staff has really worked to establish
relationships with the Wabanaki spiritual
leaders who share indigenous traditions
(27:13):
of kinship, their experiences of
ecological grief, and their
economic system for living in community, which is very
different from what we have come to know.
And so we invite Indigenous perspectives and we engage
with black leaders and other people of color
as we facilitate conversation about how to live
(27:33):
in right relationship with the world. And as a board
member, this feels important to me because it
demonstrates our organizational value of
integrity as well as deepening the
conversation.
>> Jessica David (27:45):
I love these themes and I love how they really push
back against some of the things we were talking about earlier in
terms of the notion of growth
at all costs and
individualism, um, and profit above everything
else.
Deborah, I know you've participated in BTS
programs. Can you tell me about a
(28:07):
particularly meaningful experience you've had?
>> Debra Coyman (28:10):
I'm, ah, an avid attender of programs. It's one of
the benefits of being on the board is you get to go to
whichever ones you really want to. And all of
the programs I've participated in have been
meaningful in subject matter, in
design, creative, uh, in delivery.
I definitely recommend to listeners to try out
a few different kinds of programs and see which ones you
(28:33):
like the best. But the one I want to highlight today
happens to be one I attended just last night, which
is titled Lament with Earth.
It's a program of worship experiences, online
worship experiences so over zoom that
have been offered over the last three years. I
think, uh, they've been aligned with the seasons.
(28:54):
So one for spring, one for summer, one for fall, et
cetera. And also with Earth's Elements,
Water, Fire, Dirt, Air. We
have been in partnership with a very talented group of
artists and musicians who call themselves
the Many, also other eco justice
organizations in presenting these
(29:15):
programs. And what the programs
do really is give you space
in community, but it's your own space
for lamentation. So when you're
carrying that eco grief that Alan was
referring to, you have some time to
contemplate. With original music and
with stunning visual
(29:37):
accompaniment, you have an opportunity
to express and acknowledge your grief and
pain. So I've mentioned that I have a lot of
pain about climate change, but um, I have
difficulty expressing those feelings because
I've been brought up and my professional Career has been
a place where my intellect was always
first, and so I'm used to stuffing down the emotion,
(29:59):
and then sometimes it never comes back up. This
program opens me in a way that
I can find the grief and get it
out. And I am invariably in tears by the time
I'm done with, you know, by the time the hour is up. But
I kind of see them as necessary tears and as a
release of the grief. Uh, the program always
ends with a reminder of the hope that we
(30:22):
carry of new life amid, uh, suffering. The
strength that we can find in community both when
we are in pain, but also as we
try to work towards new life,
reminds me that I am not alone in the feelings that I'm
having.
>> Jessica David (30:37):
My last question,
my favorite question. I saved it for last.
What do you each want to be different
as a result of the BTS Center's work?
>> Debra Coyman (30:51):
Well, as a lay leader in a local church, I
look forward to my church integrating climate
concerns into our community in meaningful
ways. And I think the BTS center will help
make that reality by preparing pastors and
lay leaders with theology, with
practical programming and tools, and
with peer support in community.
(31:14):
How can we help spiritual leaders prepare
to support their communities as conditions worsen?
And how can we remain connected and move
towards new models of community? How can spiritual
communities show the way forward?
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (31:28):
That's great, Deborah. Yeah. And I really want to
widen the conversation so that
increasingly faith leaders and faith communities
are understanding that climate is not
some other mission project, but it is the very context in
which all ministry and all mission are
happening. And one of the things that I hope will be
different is that individuals and communities will
(31:51):
have greater clarity about their vocation. What
is my work to do? What is our work to do?
What is the place to which God is calling me or
us? And growing confidence about
the unique role that spiritual leaders
and faith communities can play in this. I just really believe
that God is inviting us to wake up, like, to see
(32:11):
clearly, to expand our worldview, take
stock of our resources, including our spiritual
resources. Ultimately, if I want to
dream really big, my hope is that we can be a part
of a, uh, kind of a new reformation. I really believe
that in this moment God is doing something
new. There's this invitation to tap
(32:32):
into it. If we do this has the
potential to transform spiritual
communities and help our world live into new ways
of being.
>> Jessica David (32:41):
That's beautiful. I love both of those responses and
visions. I also want to add in the truth
telling because I think in order to get there,
it feels to me that something very critical the
BTS center does is bear witness
to what is happening, what it brings up for people and makes
people experience.
Thank you so much, Deborah and Alan, for such a
(33:03):
rich and engaging conversation. I'm so grateful
to have you two as my first guests
on this behind the Scenes with the BTS
center version of the podcast.
>> Debra Coyman (33:15):
Thanks, uh, Jessica, it's been fun
for me. It was a great opportunity to engage, uh, with
Alan in trying to understand what we should say in
response to your deep questions. So thank you for that
opportunity.
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (33:27):
And now I know that you were a game show winner.
>> Debra Coyman (33:31):
I've outed my own self there. Yeah, money's
long gone, confetti thrower
listeners.
>> Jessica David (33:38):
Now it's your turn. What is the most important
thing you think spiritual leaders can bring to our
climate changed world? I hope you'll share
with us by emailing
podcasthebtscenter.org
or leave us a voicemail at
207-200-6986.
(33:59):
I'll share that information again in just a
moment. Thank you for listening to the Climate
Change Podcast behind the Scenes Edition with
me, Jessica David. Coming up in
our next episode, we're going to talk about
Hope It's
Complicated. I would love to
hear from you. Please feel free to contact
(34:21):
me about this episode or any questions or
feedback you want to share. You can call,
text or email. Leave a voice message
at
207-200-6986.
That's
207-2006-986
(34:41):
plus one. If you are calling from outside the U.S.
you can also text that number,
207-200-6986.
If you prefer, you can email me. The
email is
podcastbtscenter.org
that's podcastbtscenter
(35:02):
uh.org
visit climate changed
podcast.org for show notes, a
transcript, and more.
That website again is
climatechangedpodcast.org
Many thanks to my guests Alan Ewing Mero
and Deborah Coyman Also thanks to
(35:25):
producer Peterson Toscano for producing this
episode and Nicole Deroff for your
assistance and support. Climate Changed
Podcast is a project of the BTS center
in beautiful Portland, Maine.
Learn about the many resources we offer along with
our in person and online programs.
(35:45):
Visit our
website@thebtscenter.org
that's
thebtscenter.org
Goodbye for now. I am, um, off to do my
laundry.
Why have we let climate change get this far?
What am I called to do in this time of turmoil
and change? How on earth will
I find time to even do my laundry this week?
I'm Jessica David, a Harvard Divinity School
student. I'm an intern at the BTS
center, which basically means I ask a lot of
(00:22):
questions. I'm really curious about the
BTS Center's mission to cultivate spiritual
leadership for a climate changed world,
because it seems really worthy and
necessary. So I asked a huge question. Can
I take over the podcast for a few months to learn more about
what you do here? And. Well, here we
are.
(00:42):
Welcome to the Climate Change behind
the Scenes edition with me, Jessica
David. I am excited to be here today with two
of the BTS Center's leaders.
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (00:53):
I'm Alan Ewing Merrill. I serve as
executive director of the BTS Center.
I'm also a pastor. I serve churches in
the Methodist tradition in, uh, Maine and
Massachusetts for about 20 years. And over
the years, I've also done a lot of organizing, especially
organizing of faith leaders, and
have been really engaged in advocacy and
(01:16):
activism about a bunch of social justice issues.
>> Debra Coyman (01:19):
And I'm Debra Coyman I'm the board chair of the
BTS center and in my eighth year of service on
the board, I'm a retired business
person.
>> Jessica David (01:28):
Ah.
>> Debra Coyman (01:28):
With a background in strategy, finance and human
resources. And I've done a lot of board service
on a variety of other not for profits. And I'm a lay
leader in my local UCC church.
>> Jessica David (01:40):
What's a fun fact about you that most people
might not know?
>> Debra Coyman (01:44):
I hide this one. The, uh, summer after
my junior year in college, I won the
$10,000 pyramid. Everybody gives
me quite a reaction when they hear that. Of course, now it's
$100,000 pyramid, so
inflation. I used it to buy contact lenses
and pay for my first year of business school.
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (02:03):
Deborah, that's amazing.
>> Jessica David (02:05):
I have to ask, what is the $10,000
Pyramid?
>> Debra Coyman (02:09):
Uh, it's a game show.
>> Jessica David (02:11):
Okay, okay.
>> Debra Coyman (02:13):
TV game show.
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (02:14):
I totally cannot beat that one. Deborah. Um,
um, but one year when I was in
seminary on, uh, New Year's Eve, it happened to be the New
Year's Eve when we transitioned from
1999 to 2000. So that was a big
year. And I was in Times
Square, and I was actually part of the official
New Year's Eve confetti crew. So a bunch of
(02:37):
friends and I spent that evening on the top of
one of the giant buildings in Times Square, and we
through confetti at midnight out over Times
Square from gigantic boxes of confetti.
>> Jessica David (02:48):
That is amazing. What a legacy. I
love that.
Let's dive right in to the discussion.
So the BTS Center's tagline is
spiritual leadership for a climate changed
world. Can I just say first, as
far as taglines go, that packs a lot of
power.
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (03:09):
Mm, yep.
>> Jessica David (03:11):
So we're gonna explore that tagline in this conversation.
And I wanna start with the last phrase,
a climate changed world.
I assume you're using, you're
intentionally using climate change here as an
adjective.
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (03:25):
Absolutely. We say climate changed. We put
a D on, um, climate change on purpose. And
that's because we, we really want to communicate in kind of a
provocative way that climate change is not
scientist prediction of some imagined future. It
is here, it is now. It's a
defining current reality. And, um,
I think if you look around and pay attention, sea level
(03:47):
rise, uh, soaring temperatures,
extreme storms, uh, devastating floods
in some places and equally devastating drought in
other places, uh, fires like the ones we saw
on the west coast recently, species, species
extinction, biodiversity loss. All of this is
a reminder that climate change is real and it's here
(04:08):
and our communities are feeling its effects.
>> Debra Coyman (04:11):
Now, for me, the
phrase captures the urgency of the
situation. We are living amid the effects
of climate change, and like the
proverbial frog in the pot of water, we are not
taking action to jump out of what will
become boiling water.
>> Jessica David (04:30):
I m have to say, it really resonates with me. You all are the
first, first organization I've
encountered that uses climate change. And it
took me a little while to. To figure out what you were
really getting at there, but it's very powerful.
So why spiritual leadership? All
of the things that you just mentioned and talk. Talked
(04:50):
about sound to me a lot like
environmental or scientific problems. What
is the role of faith communities?
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (04:59):
Scientists have been warning us about climate change
for decades, and
so we're always wrestling with this question, how did
we get here? One thing that's
clear is that, you know, the human demand on the natural
world just exceeds, uh, Earth's
regenerative capacity. We call that overshoot.
We are extracting and we're consuming more
(05:22):
than our biosphere can renew. And
that all of that, of course, is set in motion by
the extraction and burning of fossil
fuels. So we
wrestle with that, and we wrestle with this urgent
question. Why haven't we, you know, we're one
of the wealthiest, maybe the wealthiest country in the
world. Why haven't we mobilized to address
(05:44):
this, this existential threat that we're facing? Why do
we keep doing the Things that so
obviously run against our own survival and
our future flourishing. And so we think a lot about
how the climate crisis is a
symptom. It's a symptom of this bigger set
of systems. You can think about extractive
(06:04):
capitalism, think uh, about the impacts of
colonialism, um, about, about
materialism. It's a symptom of this
set of mindsets, um,
like the objectification of the natural world,
like our, our
interest in growth at all costs, our
(06:24):
separation from our non
human kin. I often
quote this environmentalist named Gus
Beth, um, who says, I, I used to
think that the top environmental problems were
biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and
climate change. And I thought that
with 30 years of good science we could address
(06:46):
those. But he says I was wrong. I
now believe the top environmental problems are
selfishness, greed and
apathy. And he says in order to deal with these,
we need cultural and spiritual
transformation. And then he ends by
saying we scientists don't know how to do
that. This quote resonates for
(07:07):
me because I think about the fact that
selfishness, uh, greed and apathy, or cultural
and spiritual transformation, these may not be within the
purview of the science community, but they ought to be
within the purview of the spiritual
community. These ought to be things that we as faith
leaders are thinking about. So when we say that
(07:28):
the climate crisis requires
spiritual leadership, we need to shift the
way we see the world, rethink notions
of human progress, rethink what it means to, to
live, to live a meaningful life
and commit to living in right relationship
with, with each other, with God and
with our more than human kin, and with the Earth.
(07:50):
Also think about the ways in which the impacts of
climate change show up not just in the
weather or the soil or oceans. They show up in our
communities. People are struggling. They're struggling with
feelings of grief and anxiety and fear.
They're asking big questions like what does this mean for
me or for my family? What's going to
happen in the future?
(08:12):
They're asking like, am I a bad person if I
get in an airplane? Uh, these are
aspects of climate change that, that
transcend science and technology. They raise, they raise
these big spiritual questions
and they require spiritual care.
>> Jessica David (08:30):
Yeah, um, wow, when you put it that
way, Alan, it makes, makes complete sense
to approach this as a spiritual
issue.
Deborah, I'm curious what makes this mission compelling to
you? Be on the board.
>> Debra Coyman (08:46):
I was on the board when we recruited Alan
to take this role as the executive
director, uh, of the center. And at
that point we had spent several years already
Exploring opportunities for our vision and
mission. After ending
the 200 year mission, uh, of
being a degree granting seminary,
(09:09):
the board did a lot of work to bring that chapter to an
end. And I joined the board just after that work
was completed. So we were experimenting with
program design for clergy. There was
a desire to build on the
educational mission that had gone on for several
centuries here in northern New England. Looking at
equipping faith leaders for their roles at a
(09:31):
time when, frankly, church decline was on
everybody's mind. Alan came in and
got his feet wet and found his office in the
bathroom. And then he came to the
board at a, uh, retreat. And I remember at the meeting
he invited the board to consider
focusing our mission on addressing climate change.
He introduced that with that Gus Speth quote
(09:54):
that he just gave you, which I love.
Gus Speth was the head of the forestry school at
Yale. He's a very well respected forester
and scientist. He kind of said, look, this is
beyond science, which I think is a very interesting
place for us to build. So I had an
immediate gut level response to
(10:14):
Alan's suggestion and the importance of that idea
and the, the possibilities associated with
that idea. In the years since Alan, um, I
think it's been five, right? You're in, you're in beginning of
year six here, is that right?
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (10:28):
I'm coming up at the end of six.
>> Debra Coyman (10:30):
Oh my Lord, I've lost a year. M Not surprising.
Um, BTS center really seeks to
help faith leaders engage their
communities in stewardship of God's
creation, at the same time giving spiritual
support for the increasing challenges
that communities are seeing and the
impacts of the attendant physical and
(10:51):
political changes that we're facing. And we
try to do this from an ecosystem perspective.
It's not about us having the answers. It's about
looking for partners, trying to understand the
changing landscape of faith and the
intersections of climate change across so many other
areas of social justice, and looking for the ways
that the BTS center can add unique
(11:13):
value.
Personally, I'm a Christian who finds
the sacred in nature. I experience God
and the divine by spending time
outdoors. And I feel a deep connection to
all of creation. I feel a lot of grief
over the loss of habitat for animals and
plants and the ways human society
(11:34):
tends to overrun and consume everything
willy nilly.
>> Jessica David (11:40):
So how did each of you come to understand
climate change as an existential
threat?
>> Debra Coyman (11:46):
Jessica, that's an interesting question for me because I
hadn't really thought about it before you asked
it, but what came up for me, and maybe
for some of the listeners Is, uh,
that al Gore in 2006 with
his An Inconvenient Truth
tour, uh, opened my eyes to the
problem and uh, I was very
(12:09):
interested in what he had to say. And I thought at
that point that such a clear call to action
from a respected member of world
leadership would produce a response and we'd work
to hold temperatures at the 1 1/2 degrees
C that seemed to be the
stopping point, the desired stopping point, and
thus we'd mitigate the worst of the impact.
(12:32):
In all the years since then, 20 years,
we have discovered that there was no such luck on
that. Al Gore's position
triggered a fight over whether this was real or
a hoax, uh, which hung on for a very long
time even after the scientific consensus was that it was
real. As I thought about that, I was really
led to understand that our economic
(12:54):
drivers and our systems and
institutions are really aligned against
addressing the crisis. Whether it's the
focus on quarterly short term earnings that
our capitalist organizations are driven
by, or whether it's simply that we want to
maintain our lifestyles rather than make the
(13:14):
changes, the difficult changes that are required,
particularly around pumping carbon into the
atmosphere. We see the oil companies
aligned against this, we see the banks, some of the big financial
organizations aligned against this. And now we're
approaching or maybe have already crossed some critical
tipping points. The implications for food
systems, for water, for the oceans and for life itself
(13:37):
are frankly frightening to me.
>> Jessica David (13:39):
I love talking about Al Gore. I was a political
science Undergrad in Washington D.C.
during the end of the Clinton Gore
administration and I had such a crush on him. And then when he came
out with An Inconvenient Truth and he was up there doing
his slideshow, I felt like it was a good moment for
nerds.
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (13:59):
It's interesting to hear your story, Deborah, and I don't think I've ever heard
that. And it's also hard to believe that 2006 was
almost 20 years ago. I'll just say that I'll confess
that my wake up call really wasn't
until really just about six years ago, around the time
that I started at the BTS center when I had a chance to
study with, uh, Dr. Larry Rasmussen, who
(14:19):
for many years taught social ethics at Union Theological
Seminary in New York City. He's one of the world's widely
respected Christian environmental
ethicists. One of the things that Dr. Rasmussen
said that has really stuck with me is that all
social justice is derivative of
climate justice. It's not that one is more important than another,
(14:40):
it's just that social justice derives
from climate justice in the sense that we can
never have human flourishing on a
dying and diminishing planet. So to the extent that
the Earth is in trouble, we're all in trouble. And we're not
in trouble equally because some of us have privilege
and others. Others do not. People
(15:00):
who live in certain parts of the country, people who live in
poverty, some people experience the impacts
disproportionately. But to the extent that the Earth
is in trouble, we're all in trouble.
>> Jessica David (15:11):
That really resonates with me. But I hear you
saying there, Ellen is, or perhaps the way
I'm interpreting it, some of us have had the privilege.
You ignore this because
we haven't had to face it and the impacts of climate
change in as close and personal a way as some
communities.
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (15:30):
Right. Some of us are sheltered from the worst impacts
because of our privilege. But that, to me,
means that we have the responsibility to really be thinking
broadly about the common good and committing not just
to our own prosperity, but to our
collective flourishing.
Spiritual leadership sounds so, like, ethereal and
(15:51):
lofty, but just to bring it down to
Earth. You know, we're all spiritual beings. We're
all trying to make meaning of our lives and of
our world. Uh, so it's not just about
religious institutions.
Whether we're talking about traditional faith communities
or beyond. Spiritual leaders
can help to make meaning. They can
(16:13):
craft ritual and tend to ritual. They
can make space for complex emotional
responses and vulnerability. Um, they
nurture community. I would just say, you know, for the
listener, I'm just going to boldly say that by virtue
of the fact that you're listening to this podcast,
you are a spiritual leader. Really want to
define that broadly. Our faith
(16:35):
traditions stored these deep
reservoirs of meaning and practice,
uh, reservoirs of sacred meaning
and resources that we desperately need
in times of crisis and uncertainty,
like the moments we're facing right now. Our faith
traditions grow from these long lineages of ritual
and practice. And my hope is that as
(16:58):
we, as we navigate some of the
really big and, uh,
distressing challenges of our day,
that we might turn again and again to
these ancient resources, to these ancient
traditions, to our, uh, sacred wisdom,
and maybe, maybe see them in fresh ways
(17:18):
and hopefully find that they can help us to
meet this moment with courage and
with creativity.
>> Jessica David (17:28):
It feels almost countercultural to me, Alan, to
hear you say that. I think when we talk about climate
change, we so often talk about technology
and innovation, invention of new
things that are going to save us. And
you're actually suggesting going
backwards and really calling on
Ancient and old wisdom.
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (17:50):
Absolutely.
>> Jessica David (17:51):
So the spiritual leaders that the BTS center
works with, these are not
mostly church workers or ordained
clergy, is that right?
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (18:00):
We do love ordained clergy. And yes, there's a lot
of, uh, clergy who plug into our programs, but we really
want to think of spiritual leadership
broadly. So there are lots of people who are not
ordained, at least not in the formal
traditional sense, lay leaders, people who are
part, uh, of spiritual communities of one kind or
another, including, I want to say, the spiritual but
(18:23):
not religious communities. It's not just the
traditional, you know, world religions, but
thinking really broadly, leadership can be
exercised in so many different ways.
One of the, uh, really quickly growing areas
of our programs is with chaplains. So
these are people who are offering spiritual
(18:43):
care in all the settings you can think of. Hospitals,
prisons, the military, college and
university settings, in workplaces,
in the community, sometimes even in within movements like
activist spaces. We
offer programs that are helping them
to increase their climate consciousness so that when they're
(19:03):
offering care and someone brings a concern about
the climate crisis, that they feel equipped to be able to
respond in that moment. At
some point in life, everyone
needs spiritual care. So really,
anyone who has a meaningful spiritual
practice can be called on to make meaning or, uh, to offer
care.
>> Jessica David (19:24):
When I talk to my family and friends about my internship with the
BTS center, they sometimes look
at me quizzically and tell me it
sounds a little theoretical, theological,
philosophical. So help
me make it a bit more concrete, especially
for my mom and dad.
What difference can spiritual leaders
(19:45):
or faith communities make right now? In this
moment?
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (19:49):
Spiritual leaders have the experience
of tending to grief. They're pretty well
versed in navigating conflict, of bringing
people together, even across lines of division,
for shared purpose and practice.
And often they are within, but kind of
also on the edges of existing
systems. It seems to me this is a moment when we need
(20:12):
to recognize our interdependence, that we're
caught in this inescapable network of mutuality
as, as Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King said, in a
moment when we're called upon to turn toward one
another rather than against each other and really
commit to the common good, to collective flourishing.
It seems like that is the role of spirituality,
(20:32):
of faith or religion, however you conceive of
it, to consider these really big and important
questions. Who are we accountable to? What
does it mean to be alive in this moment that
matters so much? What does it mean to live a good life,
to love our neighbors, to welcome the
stranger? That's a question. I hope that all
spiritual communities are asking because soon
(20:55):
there will be moments, if we haven't already, when we'll be
called upon to welcome climate refugees
from other countries and even from within our own country.
When you think about it that way, it's not abstract, it's
actually very tangible.
>> Debra Coyman (21:08):
I just add that spiritual leaders can
also bear witness to what is true
and what is important. Like the biblical prophets
did. Alan and the BTS
center staff have been talking about how
to use the prophetic voice. I
think if we're going to change or
(21:29):
trade out the systems that have gotten us into
this mess and challenge the status
quo, we are going to need spiritual leaders of
all kinds to speak truths that challenge
powerful interests.
>> Jessica David (21:42):
Great. Yeah. That makes me think too of
what Alan was, was saying about going back to that ancient wisdom
and looking at our history and really calling back
to times where we have
faced existential threats and how
humans have responded in those moments. And
there feels to me like what the BTS center
(22:02):
is suggesting is there's a lot to learn from those
from the past.
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (22:06):
There's a lot to learn, and I think there's a lot to reckon
with too. It's a moment when we really have to think
about our human responsibility
and also our complicity in the systems that
have gotten us to this place.
Climate change is a direct result of our
ways of being over the last several hundred years.
And it's that recent, really. In that quote that I shared
(22:29):
earlier, environmentalist Gus Speth talks
about selfishness, greed and apathy.
And we could probably go, uh, a, uh, layer deeper and think about
what's underneath. Selfishness, greed and
apathy. And also we could go a, uh, layer beyond and
think about how selfishness, greed and apathy
manifest in this pernicious cycle
of domination, extraction and
(22:51):
consumption. That is the cycle that we're in
in our relationship with the Earth. Domination,
extraction, and consumption.
As a Christian, I want to say, especially
as this faith Christianity has been
practiced in white Western contexts, you
know, colonizing worldviews that, that
(23:11):
we actually have some responsibility for this
way of being. So it's a moment when it's important
for us to pay attention to our responsibility and also to
acknowledge our complicity.
>> Jessica David (23:22):
Indeed, the things that you're bringing up, Alan,
which I completely agree with, those are
not easy things for humans to deal with. We are
not great in this country at this
moment at, uh, recognizing our own
complicity and dealing
with the feelings that it brings up, the guilt, the
shame, the complicated
(23:44):
histories we may have individually and
within our communities.
Can you describe how the Work of the BTS center
responds to that.
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (23:54):
Well, I think it's a reminder that this is not something
we can do on our own. Like, if I just get in my
head and I think about all of this, you
know, I'm filled with these heavy emotions, and I'm
wallowing in grief and guilt, that's pretty
paralyzing, it seems to me. This is the work of
community. Whether that's a faith community or
another spiritual community or your neighborhood. Who
(24:17):
are the people with whom you can process, and who are the people
with whom you can imagine better ways of
living, better ways of being, that actually respond to the
moment and actually offer a sense of
hope and reassurance and
comfort?
>> Jessica David (24:31):
That, uh, was lovely. Thank you.
Could you provide a little more detail, Alan,
about the principles or the ideas that guide the
work of the BTS Center?
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (24:42):
There are five themes that show up
again and again through the BTS
center programs. They're kind of through lines, and they kind of
weave their way through most everything we do. And
I'm going to just share those five very briefly.
The first is kinship. And this is kind of
pushing back on the idea that human beings
are the pinnacle of creation, you know,
(25:04):
and instead kind of acknowledging our interdependence, that
we're not separate from nature, we're actually part of
nature. So that's kinship. The second is around
imagination. Our mission actually begins with
this phrase to catalyze spiritual
imagination. We're living in a time
of imaginative decline, and there are reasons for
that. What kind of world do we
(25:27):
want to live in, and how do we get
there? Through our programs, we're really trying to
foster collective imagination.
The third is around ecological grief. This is
attending to climate emotions, to use the
fancy term, the psychosocial spiritual
dimensions of the climate crisis. Ecological grief,
(25:47):
climate anxiety, the emotions that come up when
we. When we reckon with this moment we're in.
The fourth is a concept that we have received
from a wonderful author and scholar, Deborah
Reenstra. And that is the concept of
refugia. This is a term that
actually comes from biology, scientific
concept, around pockets of shelter
(26:08):
that emerge where life is preserved in times of
devastation and from which life
regenerates. So we think about how spiritual
communities can be refugia in a
time of great challenge. And then the
last of those five areas of focus is the common
good. We live in this world that is
(26:29):
preoccupied with the individual. Think about individual
liberty or individual prosperity,
individual success, even individual salvation.
And we want to make sure that our programs are always
pointing toward and Fostering collective
flourishing. So these are five themes that are
central to the work of spiritual leadership for a
(26:49):
climate change world.
>> Debra Coyman (26:51):
Across those five themes that Alan has referred
to, we are also trying to widen the
conversation and bring in perspectives that go
beyond strictly white, middle class Western
worldviews. One example is that
the staff has really worked to establish
relationships with the Wabanaki spiritual
leaders who share indigenous traditions
(27:13):
of kinship, their experiences of
ecological grief, and their
economic system for living in community, which is very
different from what we have come to know.
And so we invite Indigenous perspectives and we engage
with black leaders and other people of color
as we facilitate conversation about how to live
(27:33):
in right relationship with the world. And as a board
member, this feels important to me because it
demonstrates our organizational value of
integrity as well as deepening the
conversation.
>> Jessica David (27:45):
I love these themes and I love how they really push
back against some of the things we were talking about earlier in
terms of the notion of growth
at all costs and
individualism, um, and profit above everything
else.
Deborah, I know you've participated in BTS
programs. Can you tell me about a
(28:07):
particularly meaningful experience you've had?
>> Debra Coyman (28:10):
I'm, ah, an avid attender of programs. It's one of
the benefits of being on the board is you get to go to
whichever ones you really want to. And all of
the programs I've participated in have been
meaningful in subject matter, in
design, creative, uh, in delivery.
I definitely recommend to listeners to try out
a few different kinds of programs and see which ones you
(28:33):
like the best. But the one I want to highlight today
happens to be one I attended just last night, which
is titled Lament with Earth.
It's a program of worship experiences, online
worship experiences so over zoom that
have been offered over the last three years. I
think, uh, they've been aligned with the seasons.
(28:54):
So one for spring, one for summer, one for fall, et
cetera. And also with Earth's Elements,
Water, Fire, Dirt, Air. We
have been in partnership with a very talented group of
artists and musicians who call themselves
the Many, also other eco justice
organizations in presenting these
(29:15):
programs. And what the programs
do really is give you space
in community, but it's your own space
for lamentation. So when you're
carrying that eco grief that Alan was
referring to, you have some time to
contemplate. With original music and
with stunning visual
(29:37):
accompaniment, you have an opportunity
to express and acknowledge your grief and
pain. So I've mentioned that I have a lot of
pain about climate change, but um, I have
difficulty expressing those feelings because
I've been brought up and my professional Career has been
a place where my intellect was always
first, and so I'm used to stuffing down the emotion,
(29:59):
and then sometimes it never comes back up. This
program opens me in a way that
I can find the grief and get it
out. And I am invariably in tears by the time
I'm done with, you know, by the time the hour is up. But
I kind of see them as necessary tears and as a
release of the grief. Uh, the program always
ends with a reminder of the hope that we
(30:22):
carry of new life amid, uh, suffering. The
strength that we can find in community both when
we are in pain, but also as we
try to work towards new life,
reminds me that I am not alone in the feelings that I'm
having.
>> Jessica David (30:37):
My last question,
my favorite question. I saved it for last.
What do you each want to be different
as a result of the BTS Center's work?
>> Debra Coyman (30:51):
Well, as a lay leader in a local church, I
look forward to my church integrating climate
concerns into our community in meaningful
ways. And I think the BTS center will help
make that reality by preparing pastors and
lay leaders with theology, with
practical programming and tools, and
with peer support in community.
(31:14):
How can we help spiritual leaders prepare
to support their communities as conditions worsen?
And how can we remain connected and move
towards new models of community? How can spiritual
communities show the way forward?
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (31:28):
That's great, Deborah. Yeah. And I really want to
widen the conversation so that
increasingly faith leaders and faith communities
are understanding that climate is not
some other mission project, but it is the very context in
which all ministry and all mission are
happening. And one of the things that I hope will be
different is that individuals and communities will
(31:51):
have greater clarity about their vocation. What
is my work to do? What is our work to do?
What is the place to which God is calling me or
us? And growing confidence about
the unique role that spiritual leaders
and faith communities can play in this. I just really believe
that God is inviting us to wake up, like, to see
(32:11):
clearly, to expand our worldview, take
stock of our resources, including our spiritual
resources. Ultimately, if I want to
dream really big, my hope is that we can be a part
of a, uh, kind of a new reformation. I really believe
that in this moment God is doing something
new. There's this invitation to tap
(32:32):
into it. If we do this has the
potential to transform spiritual
communities and help our world live into new ways
of being.
>> Jessica David (32:41):
That's beautiful. I love both of those responses and
visions. I also want to add in the truth
telling because I think in order to get there,
it feels to me that something very critical the
BTS center does is bear witness
to what is happening, what it brings up for people and makes
people experience.
Thank you so much, Deborah and Alan, for such a
(33:03):
rich and engaging conversation. I'm so grateful
to have you two as my first guests
on this behind the Scenes with the BTS
center version of the podcast.
>> Debra Coyman (33:15):
Thanks, uh, Jessica, it's been fun
for me. It was a great opportunity to engage, uh, with
Alan in trying to understand what we should say in
response to your deep questions. So thank you for that
opportunity.
>> Alan Ewing Merrill (33:27):
And now I know that you were a game show winner.
>> Debra Coyman (33:31):
I've outed my own self there. Yeah, money's
long gone, confetti thrower
listeners.
>> Jessica David (33:38):
Now it's your turn. What is the most important
thing you think spiritual leaders can bring to our
climate changed world? I hope you'll share
with us by emailing
podcasthebtscenter.org
or leave us a voicemail at
207-200-6986.
(33:59):
I'll share that information again in just a
moment. Thank you for listening to the Climate
Change Podcast behind the Scenes Edition with
me, Jessica David. Coming up in
our next episode, we're going to talk about
Hope It's
Complicated. I would love to
hear from you. Please feel free to contact
(34:21):
me about this episode or any questions or
feedback you want to share. You can call,
text or email. Leave a voice message
at
207-200-6986.
That's
207-2006-986
(34:41):
plus one. If you are calling from outside the U.S.
you can also text that number,
207-200-6986.
If you prefer, you can email me. The
email is
podcastbtscenter.org
that's podcastbtscenter
(35:02):
uh.org
visit climate changed
podcast.org for show notes, a
transcript, and more.
That website again is
climatechangedpodcast.org
Many thanks to my guests Alan Ewing Mero
and Deborah Coyman Also thanks to
(35:25):
producer Peterson Toscano for producing this
episode and Nicole Deroff for your
assistance and support. Climate Changed
Podcast is a project of the BTS center
in beautiful Portland, Maine.
Learn about the many resources we offer along with
our in person and online programs.
(35:45):
Visit our
website@thebtscenter.org
that's
thebtscenter.org
Goodbye for now. I am, um, off to do my
laundry.
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