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December 1-3, 2023 online only on Zoom - The Center for Christogenesis is having its Annual Conference: GOD 2.0: Pantheism and Quantum Reality which will explore "how science, culture, and scripture can help us appreciate a wider, more expansive understanding of God in ways that empower us to creatively contribute to the wholeness we seek." Featured speakers include Ilia Delio, Brandon Ambrosino, Jack Caputo, Bruce Epperly, Rami Shapiro, and Catherine Keller. For more information and registration click here. The cost is $180. All registrants will receive recordings of the events. "God is an incomprehensible mystery and our approach to the mystery is shaped by ways of knowing the real, a type of knowledge that cannot be fixed or located in any one age."

November 16, 2023 at noon PT - Electrify Now! is hosting a webinar: All About Gas Leaks. "From catastrophic well leaks to the daily seepage from our stoves, gas leaks are a major reason why “natural” gas (methane) poses such a threat to our health and climate." "Through the lens of one city that is working to understand its gas leak situation, a panel of experts will explain why gas leaks are a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and the risk to the health of communities, as well as who is accountable for fixing these leaks." Find out more at Ashland Climate Collaborative. Register for this free event by clicking this link or visit Electrifynow.net.

On November 16, 2023, at 6:00 a.m. PT the Institute For The Future is having a Foresight Talk: Dreams and Disruptions: Gamification for the Future with Shermon Cruz, Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists. Register here. 'Games transport us to imaginative scenarios. They empower us to alter future outcomes based on our ability to think ahead and make strategic choices. Please join us when Shermon Cruz, Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists, shares the inner workings of “Dreams and Disruptions,” his newly released scenario-building game. Cruz’s methods are based on about two decades of futures work." "To construct and stress-test unthought-of futures, Cruz incorporates time horizons, emerging issues of change (including sentient AI, food poverty, etc.), indigenous and cultural drivers of change, planetary-wide disruptions (nuclear winter, supervolcanic eruptions, etc.), plus leaders and movements using Sarkar's Law of the Social Cycle." "For the Foresight Talk, Cruz will discuss his efforts to accentuate certain elements in scenario development and futures discourse, including the value of randomness; systems thinking; anti-fragility; and decolonial perspectives. Come learn about Cruz’s mission to create a global network of players sharing and uploading their most spectacular futures imaginings — and more about the game that’s been played more than 100 times around the world. " Speaker bio: Shermon Cruz is the UNESCO Chair on Anticipatory Governance and Regenerative at Northwestern University, Philippines. He holds leadership roles as Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists and The Millennium Project Philippines. Prof. Cruz is the CEO, Founder, and Chief Futurist of the Center for Engaged Foresight, a strategic foresight and futures innovation firm with global operations headquartered in Manila. Additionally, he serves as Adjunct Faculty and Director of the Futures Thinking Program at the Asian Institute of Management. https://engagedforesight.com/ Dreams and Disruptions: https://www.dreamsanddisruptions.com/ Association of Professional Futurists:

Rather than talking about abstract ideas, telling a personal story is a more effective way to communicate on an emotional level to have an impact about something important to you. "Climate Stories Project (CSP) is an educational and artistic forum for sharing stories about personal and community responses to climate change. CSP focuses on personal oral histories, which bring an immediacy to the sometimes abstract nature of climate change communication." You can become a Climate Stories Ambassador with the help of CSP tol: Craft and share your own climate story Receive training and guidance to conduct climate story interviews​ Connect with other Climate Story Ambassadors from around the world Learn valuable environmental communication skills Promote an inclusive and effective movement to confront the climate crisis​ "​As an Ambassador, you'll record 1-3 climate story interviews with people in your own community during a 3-month time span. Following the initial online training, you'll take part in two additional online meetings to discuss your progress with other Ambassadors and learn from each other about using climate storytelling to promote an effective response to the climate crisis." Participation is free and open to all. Ambassadors who submit their own story and at least one interview will receive a certificate of completion of the Climate Stories Ambassadors program. Check out the New Mytos Facebook page of author PJ Manney for a broad perspective on storytelling. She authored "Yucky Gets Yummy: How Speculative Fiction Creates Society"​ and "Empathy in the Time of Technology: How Storytelling is the Key to Empathy,"​ foundational works on the neuropsychology of empathy and media.

On Sunday, November 12, 2023 many Indians around the world will be celebrating Diwali, the Indian festival of lights that Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists traditionally observe. Diwali represents the symbolic victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, and good over evil Diwali is primarily a Hindu festival, but variations of Diwali are also celebrated by adherents of other faiths. According to Pew Research Center Diwali is celebrated by 85% of all adults in India, Which includes the vast majority of Jains (98%), Hindus (95%), and Sikhs (90%), as well as most Buddhists (79%) and large minorities of Christians (31%) and Muslims (20%). Hindus commemorate Diwali as being the day Rama returned to his kingdom in Ayodhya with his wife Sita and his brother Lakshmana after defeating the demon king Ravana. Hindus of Eastern India and Bangladesh generally celebrate Diwali by worshipping the goddess Kali. Jains observe their own Diwali which marks the final liberation of Mahavira. Sikhs celebrate Bandi Chhor Divas to mark the release of Guru Hargobind from a Mughal prison. Newar Buddhists, unlike other Buddhists, celebrate Diwali by worshipping Lakshmi. "The five-day celebration is observed every year in early autumn after the conclusion of the summer harvest... In the lead-up to Diwali, celebrants prepare by cleaning, renovating, and decorating their homes and workplaces with oil lamps and colorful art circle patterns. During Diwali, people wear their finest clothes; illuminate the interior and exterior of their homes with earthen lamps; diyas and rangoli, perform worship ceremonies of Lakshmi (the goddess of prosperity and wealth); light fireworks; and partake in family feasts, where sweets, dried fruit, nuts and gifts are shared." [from Wikipedia] India is the most populous country in the world with one-sixth of the world's population. With over 1.4 billion people, India overtook China to become the most populous country at the end of April 2023.

Wayne Teasdale, in chapter 7 of his 2001 book The Mystic Heart, writes about embodying and empowering the prophetic voice for justice, compassion, and world transformation. "The prophetic voice vigorously acknowledges the unjust events and policies that cause enormous tension, misery, and dislocation in the lives of countless numbers of people. Wars; the plight of refugees (most of whom are women and children); unjust economic, social, and political conditions that enrich a small class of rulers while oppressing the masses; threats to the environment - all are matters that should evoke the moral voice and our willingness to respond." ProSocial Spirituality expresses it this way: "The function of the prophetic voice is to be willing to speak truth to power - to call out social and cultural structures, institutions, and systems that create and perpetuate suffering through injustice and oppression. It is to name, bear witness to, and engage in the struggle to change these systems wherever they exist." "The prophetic voice is the dimension and expression of compassion that seeks not only to alleviate existing suffering but address the systemic causes of suffering and transform them. Wayne Teasdale tells us that this prophetic function is “the awakened and utterly necessary function of leadership in the area of justice.” "As our realization of our inextricable interconnectedness grows, we recognize, as Dr. King pointed out, that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” And so we are called by conscience and compelled by our vision of the inherent unity of life to work for justice not only for all human beings but, increasingly, all living beings, including animals, living ecosystems, and the earth itself. We understand, again in the words of Dr. King, that “we are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” “True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It is not haphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice that produces beggars needs restructuring.” ~ Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr "Just as with the many ways we can express compassion and selfless service, the prophetic voice can be expressed and supported in many ways, depending on our own gifts, abilities, talents, and skills. What it asks of all of us, regardless of how we express it, is that we acknowledge and claim our power to be an agent of positive change in the world." "Courageous acts of personal witness to deep inner truth can begin to stir in others the same profound longing to bring their inner values and outer actions and lives into greater congruence. Because the decision to live in a way that is aligned with our inner values and truth may go against the grain of existing structures and prevalent ways of thinking, we may become discouraged trying to explain ourselves to family and friends who don’t share or understand our views. We need kindred spirits to accompany us in embodying and empowering the prophetic voice for social justice and transformative change." “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.” ~ Archbishop Desmond Tutu Humanity is facing two global threats to life as we know it: climate change and nuclear war. Both are within our ability as a species to solve with appropriate policy actions for the common good. People must insist that world leaders take immediate action to solve the looming climate crisis. Make your voices heard. It is past time for a cease-fire in Gaza! There are dirty hands on both sides. Hamas' atrocities are inexcusable, but Israel's retaliatory response with huge civilian casualties is not proportional to self-protection. Evolutionary leaders are calling for peace.

The N2 Conference - The Noosphere at 100: The Future of Human Collective Consciousness is meeting this week November 17-19, 2023 in Berkeley CA, and I am looking forward to attending in person, having been immersed in Human Energy Project's 10-week Science of the Noosphere Master Class this past summer. From the event website: "N2 is an international, interdisciplinary conference fostering creative collaboration for intentionally and ethically steering the future evolution of global consciousness. Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the identification of the noosphere, “N2” signals the exponential pace of the evolution of the noosphere and the reality that the next century will far exceed the last in rapid and radical change to the global mind. “N2” also suggests how the noosphere amplifies our access to human understanding - beyond the individual “n of 1.” Click here for an overview of the N2 Conference. Plenary speakers are Terrance Deacon, Robert Lawernce Kuhn, Ilia Delio, Jaron Lanier, Ben Goertzel, Clément Vidal, Kevin Kelley, Gregory Stock, Elizabeth Lee, Francis Heylighen, David Sloan Wilson, Robert Wright, and Brian Thomas Swimme. There will also be break-out group meetings and other presenters. Click here for the detailed Conference schedule. N2 is an in-person conference with opportunities for remote participation. Keynotes and selected featured presentations will be live-streamed for open access. Virtual registration will allow remote attendees not only to view the live stream but also to submit questions to the keynote and selected featured presentations and will include a PDF program of all presentation abstracts. Online participation is free. Register here for the Zoom link.

Terra, the Sustainability Pavilion in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf. The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) will take place November 30- December 12, 2023 at Expo City in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. View the COP 28 UAE thematic program. The overview schedule of the conference is now available; the detailed calendar of events will be published daily throughout the conference. Nov. 30 - Opening Ceremony Dec. 1 - Opening World Climate Action Summit Dec. 2 - G77 & China Summit Dec. 3 - Health/relief, recovery and peace Dec. 4 - Finance/trade/gender equality/accountability Dec. 5 - Energy, industry, and just transition Dec. 6 - Multilevel action, urbanization, and built environment/transport Dec. 8 - Youth, children, education and skills Dec. 9 - Nature, land use, and oceans Dec. 10 - Food, agriculture, and water "In his Pre-COP opening speech On October 30, 2023, Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, the COP28 President, called for unity, action, and multilateralism. Addressing the 70 Ministers and over 100 country delegates present, Dr Sultan was clear: the world needs to do more and seize the opportunity of COP28 to take action and keep 1.5 within reach."

This blog aggregates and draws attention to examples of how various faith traditions see the climate crisis as an important moral issue. Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology has links to Climate Change Statements from World Religions. Pew Research on November 17, 2022, published an article How Religion Intersects With Americans’ Views on the Environment that found "while responsibility for the Earth is part of many U.S. Christians’ beliefs... so is skepticism about climate change." A 2018 article published in the National Library of Medicine "argues that religious beliefs significantly influence a community’s understanding and experience of climate change adaptation, indicating the need for the inclusion of such information in climate change adaptation education." The authors found that "community members who regard themselves as religious fall under two groups: Religious determinists or fatalists see climate as a natural process that is governed by God, or Religious participants who deny this ‘naturalness’ and acknowledge humans’ impact on the climate." This finding was expanded In Religion and Climate Change Views in the Pacific Northwest, a 2021 Masters thesis by Alexis R. James: "Those identifying as Judeo-Christians and Evangelical were significantly less likely to respond that climate change was caused mostly by human activities, while those identifying as Atheist/Agnostic were significantly more likely to do so." "Higher levels of religiosity (i.e., self-reported church attendance, prayer frequency, and importance of religion) were also associated with lower levels of belief that climate change is caused mostly by human activities." "At the same time, political ideology proved even more important in shaping beliefs about climate change... with those identifying as politically conservative significantly less likely to respond that climate change was caused mostly by human activities and those identifying as politically liberal significantly more likely to do so." Pew Research found that the primary reason why religious Americans tend to be less concerned about climate change is that "the main driver of U.S. public opinion about the climate is political party, not religion." "Highly religious Americans are more inclined than others to identify with or lean toward the Republican Party, and Republicans tend to be much less likely than Democrats to believe that human activity (such as burning fossil fuels) is warming the Earth or to consider climate change a serious problem." Global Affairs affirms Republicans and Democrats in Different Worlds on Climate Change: "Large majorities of Democrats think the United States should play a leading role in limiting climate change (81%) and consider it to be a critical threat (82%). By contrast, only 31% of Republicans support a leading U.S. role in limiting climate change, and just 16% consider it a critical threat." Brian McLaren, in an October 28, 2023 The Work of The People reel, illuminates an important distinction between conservative and liberal Christian responses to the climate emergency and weakness on both sides. Pew Research also found that climate change may be a generational issue with "Younger evangelicals in the U.S. are more concerned than their elders about climate change." Religious affiliation declines with each younger generation. Millennials [born between 1981 and 1996] are much less likely than their elders to hold some religious beliefs connected to the environment. Data from the 2022 Chicago Council Survey reveal that "Six in 10 each of Millennials and Gen Z see climate change as a critical threat to US interests (59%), compared to just about half each of Gen X (52%), Boomers (51%), and the Silent Generation (49%)."

Original art by Rick Bonetti from a photo of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. In Andrew M. Davis and Phiip Clayton's 2018 book how I found GOD in everyone and everywhere, lia Delio recounts her spiritual journey from a Ph.D. neuroscientist to Carmelite nun and then to become a Franciscan Sister and theologian "specializing in the area of science and religion, with interests in evolution, physics and neuroscience and the import of these for theology." Ilia Delio is the founder of the Center for Christogenesis, whose mission is "to deepen Teilhard de Chardin’s integration of science and spirituality by providing insights and practices to enkindle awareness of love at the heart of reality." "Science and religion are areas have yet to find a way together to address some of the major problems of our age." ~ Ilia Delio In her September 13, 2023 article Science Without Religion is Like an Ocean Without Water she writes "Scientific research is a form of mysticism, a constant exploration into the infinite potential of matter in search of its secret life.... the mystical act involves the synthesizing work of the mind as it gathers facts and strives to form them into a wider synthesis..." proposing that "science is the basis of philosophy and, in turn, theology." Further on, Delio says "We need to retrieve the integral relationship between science and religion in order to make sense of our rapidly evolving world." She points to Piere Teilhard de Chardin who thought that "science and religion are two phases of the one and the same complete act of knowledge; that is, knowing matter in its depth, breadth and organization is an integral act of knowing on the levels of both science and religion." Teilhard saw the insufficiency of science by itself to bring about a new type of superconsciousness or a higher level of thought on the level of interconnected, planetary life. In her Rebirthing Religion blog post, she says: "Religion is as important to the flow of evolution as are the mechanisms of Darwinian evolution. Matter is bifacial and religion and science are two aspects of the same whole grounded in an irresistible power of love." But she is not just talking about institutional religion; she is quick to point out that "religion has not kept pace with the rapid rise of technology and the impact of technology on human personhood and society." "It is the power of the mind that pushes evolution forward toward greater complexity and unity, but it is the power of love that draws life onward toward more unitive life." ~ Ilia Delio Alfred North Whitehead concluded: “Religion must face change in the same spirit as science. Its principles may be eternal, but the expression of religious principles requires continual development.” "Theology has fallen so far behind [in fact, all monotheistic religions] that it will take a seismic shift – a revolution – to get theology on the same train with science and technology." ~ Ilia Delio In this rebirthing process, Delio thinks. "We should abandon the language of science and religion and reframe these areas of knowledge within a new integral paradigm of "relational holism." The Human Energy Project is promoting a Third Story of the Universe." Worldviews participating in this "Third Story" logic are just beginning to develop. They put forward the emergence of the Noosphere as a promising and motivating Third Story vision." Their Science of the Noosphere examines these topics from a scientific, evolutionary perspective: The formation of the universe. The origin of life. Major transitions in the scale of biological organisms. The origin of humans. Increase in the scale of societies in human history, leading up to the present. The future of humanity in the Internet Age.

From the organization name Interfaith Alliance, one might infer that its purpose is to promote multi-faith dialogue, but its mission specifically is to "celebrate religious freedom by championing individual rights, promoting policies that protect both religion and democracy and uniting diverse voices to challenge extremism." While Interfaith Alliance believes that "religious and cultural diversity is essential in building vibrant communities. they also stress that "no one has the right to impose their beliefs on others and that "religious and political extremists are a threat to individual liberty and democracy." Listen to State of Belief host Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, who talks with Dr. David P. Gushee about his new book, Defending Democracy from its Christian Enemies. What Gushee sees as a threat to American democracy he calls 'white Christian nationalism" or 'authoritarian, reactionary Christianity." He sees "Christians claiming to act in the name of Jesus Christ and his supposed representative on earth, Donald Trump at the forefront of the January 6, 2021 storming of the nation's Capitol." Gushee makes a robust case for a renewed commitment to democracy on the part of Christians - "not by succumbing to secular liberalism, but by drawing on our own best traditions." The ABC News series Democracy in Peril examines the distorted belief that "God is on their side in a divinely inspired fight against evil." ABC News writer Oren Oppenheim, in a November 7, 2022 article entitled "Christian nationalism' threatens democracy, some experts say" quotes Rev. Meriah Tigner, who speaks against 'religious nationalism' in terms of how it contradicts her faith and her identity as an American: "Through compassionate conversations with people you disagree with, you may actually find middle ground about things, and maybe actually able to have enough humility in the conversation, to hear a new perspective and to change your beliefs," I believe that open, thoughtful, interspiritual, understanding is necessary both to preserve our democracy and to effectively address our global environmental challenges. The belief that "God is on our side" can often be very dangerous. I support the work of Interfaith Alliance. Do you?

Rogue Basin Partnership and many of their partner organizations gathered on May 19, 2023, for the first annual Network of Networks(NxN). They are organized into working groups who "share professional expertise, a common focus and coordinate restoration efforts across the Rogue Basin for the greatest possible benefits" such as fish passage and instream flow; riparian restoration; monitoring; urban and stormwater management; Rogue native plant partnership; and cooperative weed management areas. Their website has many links, including one to the U. S. Drought Monitor.

Community Compost Coalition, a member of Southern Oregon Food Solutions (SOFS), will be making a presentation on October 24, 2023. at the Medford Library about Community Compost. The Rogue Valley Food System Network council meeting is at 3 p.m. and the presentation will start at 4 p.m. PDT. Flavia Franco is working to get Community Compost scaled up in Ashland, Talent, and Medford, and has been working with Pam Allister to start citizen action on climate change in Central Point, OR. "To have a more self-sufficient, sustainable community, and to minimize food waste that causes greenhouse gas emissions, the SOFS mission is to educate and inspire action for food production, usage, and disposal."

On Friday, October 20, 2023, at 9 a.m. PDT, ProSocial Commons is sponsoring a webinar with Denise Hearn on Competition or Collaboration for a Sustainable Economy? This seminar will cover the new report: Antitrust and Sustainability: A Landscape Analysis by the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment and the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Register here. "Competition policy is a central component of a regulatory framework that supports national and global sustainability goals. It answers questions of whether and how economic actors can or should collaborate, and toward what end. Answers to those questions are rigorously contested and not well understood. On one hand, for instance, increased market concentration and power can stifle innovation and undermine democratic governance. On the other hand, industry collaboration can accelerate technical and financial efforts to address sustainability challenges." ‍ "While there are real and challenging questions related to how competition policy should support sustainability goals, competition law, and policy are also being used manipulatively by political operatives to challenge climate alliances in a transparent effort to chill climate action." ‍Check out the ProSocial calendar for other events. Sign up for notifications about news and events. ProSocial believes that "to catalyze rapid, positive cultural change we need to recognize our interconnectedness and continuously improve the relationships we have with ourselves, each other, and the planet." About the Speaker: Denise Hearn is a writer and applied researcher who advises governments, financial institutions, companies, and nonprofits on antitrust, economic policy, and new economic thinking. She is currently a Resident Senior Fellow at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, a joint center of Columbia University Law School and Columbia Climate School. Denise co-authored The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition – named one of the Financial Times’ Best Books of 2018. Her writing has been translated into 9 languages and featured in major publications globally. She currently authors the Embodied Economics newsletter. Denise has an MBA from the Oxford Saïd Business School and a BA in International Studies from Baylor University.

Southern Oregon Climate Action Now (SOCAN) is having its Grateful Americana Benefit Bash fundraiser on November 11, 2023, at 6 p.m. PT at the Bellevue Grange, 1050 Tolman Creek Rd, Ashland, OR. There will be two bands, wine, and appetizers for a fun social time with friends and climate activists. There is no charge for admission, but a donation is suggested. No reply is required. "What about living in Southern Oregon makes us grateful? For some it’s the beautiful forests, for some the rivers and lakes, for some the fishing or the coastal wonders, and for some the winter recreation or world-class wines. All these local delights are threatened by climate change. It’s time to support your friends in as they combat the threat through their campaign: ‘SOCAN: Reaching a new level of Climate Action.’ "Steve Lavering and Mountaintop Sound open the evening with Americana, folk, and a hint of 'grass.' Then, Steve Schein and Shine On round it out with Grateful Dead covers and more Americana. Senator Jeff Golden will join SOCAN to say a few words. SOCAN thanks the bands, plus the following wineries: Troon, South Stage Cellars, the Urban Cork, and Wooldridge Creek for making this event possible. SOCAN has been fighting, and often winning, for Oregon and the planet for over 11 years! How will you show your appreciation?

"Catholics care about climate change. It;s time to take action together."~ Catholic Climate Covenant. The 2023 Laudato Si’ and the U.S. Catholic Church national conference was held virtually over a series of evenings starting on June 14th and concluding on July 27th. The biennial conference series was co-sponsored by Creighton University and Catholic Climate Covenant. The hyperlinks below are to YouTube videos of the Opening Session and Laudato Si’ Action Platform’s seven goals: Opening Session June 14, 2023, featured Christiana Figueres, former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) who brokered the Paris Agreement. Session #2 - Response to the Cry of the Poor “is a call to protect our common home for the wellbeing of all, as we equitably address the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and ecological sustainability.” Session #3 - Ecological Economics - "More than 130 years of Catholic social teaching directly challenges core pillars of mainstream capitalism which celebrates unbridled exploitation of non-human nature and externalizes ecological costs like pollution from business calculations. Panelists shared how such a perspective is incongruent with the Laudato Si' Action Platform's goal and fidelity to Catholic social teaching." Session #4 - Adoption of Sustainable Lifestyles is "grounded in the idea of sufficiency and promoting sobriety in the use of resources and energy". Session #5 - Ecological Education aims to "re-think and re-design curricular and institutional reform in the spirit of integral ecology in order to foster ecological awareness and transformative action." Session #7 - Community Resilience Empowerment "envisages a synodal journey of community engagement and participatory action at various levels". Session #8 - Response to the Cry of the Earth "is a call to protect our common home for the wellbeing of all, as we equitably address the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and ecological sustainability".

Here is a partial list of some activities in Rogue Valley and online that may be of interest to spiritual communities and others with eco-sustainability concerns. October 2, 2023, from 6-8 p.m. PT - Join the upcoming Testify to Electrify Workshop at the Ashland Public Library | 410 Siskiyou Blvd, Ashland, OR. This workshop is hosted by Ashland Youth for Electrification to learn more about the policy and prepare testimony in support of the Climate and Clean Air Ordinance. Sign up for the workshop October 3, 2023, at 9:30 a.m. PT online - The BTS Center is starting five Tuesday Book Groups to study: Who Do We Choose to Be: Facing Reality, Claiming Leadership, Restoring Sanity by Margaret J. Wheatley. The dates are October 3, 17, and 31, and November 14 and 28. Plus there will be an online Author Event with Margaret Wheatley on Tuesday, October 24th at 4 p.m. PT Click here for more information and to register. October 4, 2023, at 4 p.m. is the online national launch of Blessed Americas's One Home One Future movement. One Home One Future is "a multifaith campaign to strengthen vitality, relevance, and community connection across generations in local congregations nationwide. It is a coalition effort of American faith denominations and organizations working for visible and collective climate action by faith leaders." Register here. One Home One Future offers seven inspiring pathways to engage: Build Thriving Congregations Support Leaders and Youth Engage & Strengthen Local Communities Work Toward Justice Restore Healthy Creation Strengthen Preparedness Allocate for Climate October 5, 2023, at 1 p.m. PM - Global Kinship presents JD Stillwater on Nature’s Scripture: The Interfaith Promise of Science. "JD’s full-time mission is to lead the wider culture toward a worldview that is more aligned with how reality works. The currently dominant worldview of separation and exploitation only offers imminent planetary catastrophe. To be effective in creating more sustainable systems, we must change the way we think. Global Kinship meets on the first Thursday of the month. Register here. October 7, 2023, from 2-4 p.m. PT - SOCAN has organized a Climate Change Panel presentation at Grants Pass Museum of Art, 229 SW G Street. Presenters will include Ann Chadwick Reed, Natalie Niblack, and Alan Journet. October 9, 2023, at 6 p.m. PT - Global Kinship Meditations - Members of Creation Spirituality's Global Kinship community meet on Monday evening after each webinar for 20 minutes for meditation, turning attention to the emerging Noosphere to allow the focus and vision of our presenter to enter our own consciousness, thereby expanding the Noosphere through our meditation." Register here to receive your personal perpetual link. October 9, 2023 - David Sloan Wilson has created a reading group centered around his novel, Atlas Hugged, starting on October 9th. Atlas Hugged is a fictional portrayal of events that can take place in the real world—the rapid cultural evolution of worldwide cooperation. Admission is free, but a commitment is required to write reflections on the themes of the book, and to share your thoughts with others as part of a scientific research project on worldview evolution. The group will meet weekly online for four 90-minute sessions, starting Monday, October 9, at 6:00 p.m. PT. Learn more and apply here. October 10, 2023 - OLLI at SOU is having a 3-session, weekly, online class taught by Anita Dygert Gearheart on Making Sense of the Climate Crisis. Registration for unlimited OLLI classes for the next three semesters is $150 Learn more here. October 11, 2023, at 10 a.m. PT - Brooks Berndt will moderate a Creation Justice Webinar, with a multi-faith panel of climate leaders that will reflect upon Pope Francis' updated plea for climate action (a "second part" of his encyclical on the climate crisis and inequality on the October 4th feast day of Francis of Assisi,.) Panelists will include: Dan Misleh, Founder, Catholic Climate Covenant Rev. Susan Hendershot, President, Interfaith Power & Light Joelle Novey, Director, Interfaith Power & Light (DC.MD.NoVA) Imam Saffet Catovic, Director, United Nations Operations for Justice For All Even if you cannot make the webinar at its scheduled time on October 11th still sign-up, and we will send you a link to a recording of it. Register now! October 12, 2023, at 4:30 p..m. PT - The SOCAN Climate Action Team in Central Point is meeting at the Central Point Public Library to share ideas (like composting, resilience hubs, energy saving, and creating community awareness) for our planet. RSVP: Pam@socan.eco October 15, 2023, from 3-6 p.m. PT - Rogue Climate is celebrating its 10th Anniversary Block Party & Fundraiser for Climate Justice at its office and parking lot, 205 N. Phoenix Ave., Phoenix, OR. They celebrate the community's accomplishments: "from stopping Jordan Cove LNG, to organizing fire relief efforts, passing legislation to work towards transitioning away from fossil fuels, empowering youth climate leadership, and more." Registration is on a sliding scale from $5 to $150. October 16, 2023, the start date for four, online, Mondays at Noon, - ProSocial World and Charter for Compassion present Becoming Creatures of Boundless Love - a month-long journey through Wayne Teasdale’s Nine Interspiritual Elements, led by Diane Berke, Kate Sheehan Roach, and Susan Soleil. Leaders will "engage in dialogue, contemplative inquiry, and spiritual practice in a way that leaves these nine attributes emblazoned on your own mystic heart." Cost: $40. Register here. October 18, 2023 - A two-year program toward a new EcoSpiritual Direction certificate is starting October 18th and ending June 2025. This unique, first-of-its-kind program "combines the powerful eco-spirituality experiential program of Seminary of the Wild Earth with the leading spiritual direction training center out of California called STILLPOINT, which has been training people to companion others in their lives of faith, spiritual practice and action for forty years." Click here for more information and registration. October 18, 2023 from 6-7:30 p.m. PT and October 26, 2023, from 12:00=1;30 p.m. PT - The City of Ashland OR has scheduled two public engagement meetings at Council Chambers, 1175 East Main Street, for residents to give testimony regarding developing the ordinance to protect our indoor air quality by creating an emissions standard for HVACs and water heaters in new construction. . Earlier in September, the Ashland Youth for Electrification campaign held a Rally for Climate & Clean Air and demanded that the city quickly move forward to develop an ordinance. Sign up to give testimony at this link. October 19, 2023, at 2 p.m. PT on Zoom - IRAS will present a free webinar with Bradley S. Artson, Friends or Enemies? Science and Judaism As Partners In Wonder. "Rather than assuming science and religion are adversaries, we will explore how science and religion, properly understood, can offer complimentary pathways to enhance our humanity, augment our sense of wonder at the world and all it contains, and advance a human commitment to expand knowledge, foster healing, and repair the world." Register here. October 19, 2023, to November 9, 2023 - Bioneers is offering The Rights of Nature - Training on how to draft, adopt, and enforce Rights of Nature laws in cities, towns, and counties. Learn more and register here. October 21, 2023, at 4-5:30 p.m. PT - Michael Dowd (Post Doom, No Gloom) is offering a free, 8-week book discussion on Terry LePage's book "Eye of the Storm: Facing Climate and Social Chaos with Calm and Courage with Zoom calls on Tuesdays or Saturdays, starting October 21 and 24. This is a collaborative event of the Deep Adaptation Forum (DAF) and Post Doom. Click HERE for details and to register and receive the Zoom link. October 28, 2023 from 10:00 am - 11:30 am PT - Sustaining Climate Activists hosts monthly gatherings with social time, resilience tool education, and sharing. During the summer months, they meet in person at Blue Heron Park, Phoenix, OR. October 31, 2023, at 6 p.m. PT - SOCAN monthly meeting November 1-5, 2023, online - The Work That Reconnects Network is organizing its first-ever Gaian Gathering. The event is online and features a curated mix of world-renowned keynote speakers, skill-building workshops, and live practices of the Work That Reconnects. We’ll also have spaces to express our creativity through art and music, and find community through networking designed for meaningful connections. Registration opens soon. Click here to sign up to receive a reminder when registration goes live! November, 2023, IRAS will present a webinar with Frank Schaeffer, artist & theologian, TBD November 14, 2023 - Bioneers Learning is presenting a 4-week course Honoring Your Emotional Ecosystem on Tuesdays starting November 14th through December 5, 2023, from 11 a.m. - to 12:30 p,m., PT led by author, researcher, and emotions-and-empathy expert Karla McLaren, M.Ed., Register here. November 17-19 2023 - Human Energy presents the N2 Conference – The Noosphere at 100: The Future of Human Collective Consciousness at the International House, University of California, 2299 Piedmont Ave., Berkeley, CA 94720. The 3-day conference, features thought leaders, scholars across fields, and eminent scientists, including Philip Beesley, Johan Bollen, Anne Clin, John Cressler, Terrence Deacon, Ilia Delio, Ben Goertzel, Francis Heylighten, Kevin Kelly, Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Jaron Lanier, Wolfgang Leidhold, Raphael Liogier, Louis Savary, Gregory Stock, Brian Thomas Swimme, David Sloan Wilson, and others. The program includes plenary and concurrent sessions featuring invited and selected presentations and a selected poster exhibit. The early-bird Registration deadline is October 7th.

September 21, 2023, is the United Nations International Day of Peace. "Each year the International Day of Peace is observed around the world on 21 September. The UN General Assembly has declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, through observing 24 hours of non-violence and cease-fire." The 2023 theme is Actions for Peace: Our Ambition for the #GlobalGoals. "It is a call to action that recognizes our individual and collective responsibility to foster peace. Fostering peace contributes to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals will create a culture of peace for all.

John Dorhauer's 2015 book Beyond Resistance: The Institutional Church Meets the Postmodern World was a call to the institutional church to adapt to a postmodern world - "out of a modality of denial and into a perspective of hope; out of a paradigm of scarcity and into a world of possibility with a growing multiplicity of options and allies." It was a call beyond "church 2.0" (post-reformation) into an emerging, but still undefined "church 3.0" (non-traditional, more mobile, more decentralized, more flexible, less structural, less institutionalized, less organized communities of faith/spirituality, transforming lives for the common good.) Here are a few examples of spiritual groups coming together: Cosmic Mass At the recent 2023 World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, they celebrated Matthew Fox's “Cosmic Mass” with about 700 people. They replaced sitting in pews and reading prayers and being read to with dancing (a spiral dance and DJ dancing) with images (VJ). Matthew Fox has laid out six principles for renewing ritual in a Progressing Spirit post and in the final chapter of his 1995 book The Reinvention of Work called “The Reenchantment of Ritual.” Christophany Groups Ilia Delio founded the Center for Christogenesis with the "holistic vision of integrating spirituality, science, and contemplation– open to all faith traditions. The Center created Christophany Groups "to transform lives and heal our world through communal reflection and collective spiritual practice based on the insights of Teilhard de Chardin and Ilia Delio, who interprets Teilhard through a distinctive Franciscan lens. Christophany Groups are communities that are committed to meeting regularly via Zoom or in-person to discuss articles or books or develop contemplative practices together." Click here for the process of how to start a group. Center for Christogenesis also has an online magazine New Creation dedicated to exploring the theology and spirituality of the Christogenesis worldview.; Monthly Zoom Webinars with Ilia Delio and other spiritual leaders for Center for Christogenesis participants; Hunger for Wholeness Podcasts; and Annual Conferences to bring our international community together to “Explore Love at the Heart of the Universe.” Creation Spirituality Communities CSC is "a network of individuals and communities who experience our own spiritual paths in connection to the evolving paradigms of the universe." Powered by Mighty Networks and Zoom, CSC meets with "those who seek to unify sacred earth and human existence" with live, weekly interfaith worship experiences, monthly Global Kinship webinars, and individual certification classes. They also have biennial gatherings, Immersion Retreats, and Small Group Gatherings. Spiritualigilious Portland-based Rabbi Brian serves a worldwide, internet-based congregation of over 1,000, that is "Spiritualigilious" - "the quality of being Spiritual + Religious, without the baggage." Rabbi Brian has an online (Religion Outside The Box) ROTB Clubhouse, online Saturday Services at 9 a.m. PT, a 77% Weekly Newsletter, a Facebook Page, and active Instagram and TikTok accounts, but video content is stored on their YouTube Channel or Twitch.tv. ServiceSpacePods I first met Brian Zachery Mayer, (aka Rabbi Brian) online through Eric Elnes who is now interim minister at Niantic Community Church. Earlier this week on September 10, 2023 Eric started a global 21-day Interfaith Compassion Challenge on the ServiceSpacePod platform "For more than two decades, ServiceSpace, an all-volunteer global ecosystem that touches millions, has been hosting circles and sacred spaces to "change ourselves, change the world." Through deepening relationships and awareness, these circles aim to awaken a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts. That "hands, head, heart" process – consisting of personal practices, peer learning, group reflections, and design thinking – is now offered on a gifted basis via our innovative "Pod Platform". What started as an unsuspecting experiment during the 2020 pandemic has now mushroomed into a wide range of offerings that await your participation!" Although registration is now closed, here's how the 21-day Interfaith Compassion Challenge works: Register here: https://pod.servicespace.org/apply/interfaith Daily Prompts: For each of the 21 days of the challenge, you'll be emailed a thoughtfully crafted prompt from a unique faith or tradition -- with "heart" music, "head" reading, and "hands" compassion-in-action practice. 21 days, 21 faith traditions, 21 practices. Your Reflections: For each of the daily prompts, you are invited to submit an online reflection, and once you share your reflection, you can read and interact online with the reflections of other global participants. Sunday Zoom Calls: Every Sunday of the challenge (starting Sep 10th, 8:00 AM PDT) will feature a group call with poetry readings, songs, inspiration from a wide range of luminaries, and peer-to-peer sharing.