Cherry Hill Seminary & University of SC Team Up to Address Climate Change

For Immediate Release

Bron Taylor_ Keynote Speaker

Rabbi Arthur O. Waskow

Jonathan Leader_ University of South Carolina

Wendy Griffin_ Cherry HIll Seminary

Will Moreau Goins_ Chief_ Eastern Cherokee _ Southern Iroquois United Tribes of S.C.

February 4, 2015

COLUMBIA - Cherry Hill Seminary and the University of South Carolina will collaborate once more to offer a symposium and workshop on April 1-3, 2016, The Greening of Religion: Hope in the Eye of the Storm.

Increasingly, voices from a variety of religious and spiritual traditions are bringing the link between religion and climate change to national and international notice, from the Green Seminary Movement, the Pagan Statement on the Environment and the 2015 Papal encyclical, to conferences ranging from the purely academic to interfaith meetings such as the World Parliament of Religions, and to the growing social activist emphasis on environmental justice, and the historic Paris Agreement of 2015.

Academic Dean Wendy Griffin said, "Concern for the environment has become so acute that a recent president [Laurie Zoliff] of the prestigious American Academy of Religion used her annual address to call on all religious groups, seminaries and people of faith to step forward in the fight against climate change, calling it the "greatest moral issue of our time."

The keynote address will be given by scholar Bron Taylor, author of Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future. In addition to keynoter Taylor and paper presenters, special speakers include Wendy Griffin, Ph.D., Academic Dean of Cherry Hill Seminary, Jonathan Leader, Ph.D., University of South Carolina Department of Archaeology and Anthropology and Head of the S.C. Office of the State Archaeologist, Will Moreau Goins, Ph.D., Chief, Eastern Cherokee and Southern Iroquois of S.C., and Rabbi Arthur Waskow, founder and director of The Shalom Center.

Special guest Will Moreau Goins, Chief of the Eastern Cherokee and Southern Iroquois United Tribes of S.C., will open the conference with a ceremony at 9:00 AM on Friday, and lead drumming at 5:15 PM on Saturday.

Executive Director Holli Emore pointed out the interfaith approach of the conference, saying, "Greening will probe the ways that our society is changing because of the environment. Papers represent an array of religious frameworks, including Theravadan Buddhist, Druid, Jewish, Hindu, Christian and others." Emore also applauded her USC collaborator, Jonathan Leader: "Our partnership with USC allows enrichment for university students and faculty from several departments - anthropology, religious studies, environmental studies and more. Dr. Leader's strongly supportive role has made possible both the upcoming conference and our 2013 symposium, Sacred Lands and Spiritual Landscapes."

Friday and Saturday of Greening will be devoted to speakers and paper presenters. Sunday Dr. Griffin will teach a half-day workshop. The program, consisting of short presentations, discussions, exercises, and videos, will address how to dialogue with climate change deniers, changing our language to achieve change, inventory of personal and community assets and identification of a selected strategy and steps for implementation after returning home from conference.

Registration for Greening is now open at http://cherryhillseminary.org/. $125 fee includes box lunches on both Friday and Saturday. Travel, local accommodations, restaurant and tourist information are all found at the same link.
Cherry Hill Seminary is the leading provider of education and practical training in leadership, ministry, and personal growth in Pagan and Nature-Based spiritualities. The Greening of Religions will be held on the historic campus of the University of South Carolina, just in time to enjoy the spring display of azaleas, dogwoods and warm weather in this 225-year-old state capital. USC is home to more than 200 years of history and tradition.

For more information, visit www.cherryhillseminary.org, or contact CHS@cherryhillseminary.org.