Making Peace with the Land: Reconcilers Weekend 2012 at Duke[/caption] A couple months ago I had the privilege of attending the week-long Summer Institute hosted by Duke Divinity School’s Center for Reconciliation. I attended the ‘Making Peace with the Land‘ seminar with Norman Wirzba and Fred Bahnson which was based on their book of the same name. As Christians we understand that we must be reconciled to GOD through Jesus but do we understand that our covenant relationship with our Creator must also transform all of our other relationships – including our relationship to His Creation in which He has placed us as caretakers and cultivators? If you are a Christian and are interested in issues related to food and agriculture I hope you will be able to make it out to the Center for Reconciliation’s ‘Reconciler’s Weekend’ with the theme again being focused on ‘Making Peace with the Land: Embracing God’s Call to Reconcile with Creation’. Take a look:
“Making Peace with the Land: Embracing God’s Call to Reconcile with Creation Duke Divinity School September 21-22, 2012 ________________________________ We invite you to join us for the Center for Reconciliation’s sixth annual Reconcilers Weekend, co-hosted by the Center for Environmental Leadership. As Christians, we sometimes have a hard time imagining that God desires all creatures to be reconciled with each other and with God. But the long arc of God’s redemptive love is not confined to humans. The promise that “all things” have a place in God’s reconciling and redeeming love through Christ encompasses land, food, and the environment. As creatures whose very existence is interdependent with the rest of creation, entering into God’s work of reconciliation begins with, and continually returns to, reconciliation with the land. Yet we find ourselves living in an increasingly degraded world, often with little direct relationship to the plants, animals, soil, and water sources that sustain our lives. Join us for a weekend to explore why reconciliation with creation is an essential part of God’s work of redemption, the connections between care for the land and just relationships among people, and practices for faith communities seeking a reconciled relationship with creation. The Duke Center for Reconciliation believes that forming Christian leaders in the theology and practice of reconciliation requires a close relationship with living signs of hope, the faithful witnesses throughout the global church that embody deep wisdom about the ministry of reconciliation. Reconcilers Weekend is an annual event that brings together leading practitioners and leading theologians dedicated to a life of Christian reconciliation to share their stories and wisdom at Duke Divinity School. The program is designed to provide theological and ministry formation to students, pastors, lay Christians, and other ministry practitioners.”Read more about this event including speakers, schedule and registration information. If you can make it let us know. I plan on attending and our friend and fellow Sustainable Traditions blogger Ragan Sutterfield will also be there. Also – there is a free public event on Friday evening: “Dr. Norman Wirzba and Dr. Norm Christensen: Environmental Ethics and a Holistic Christian Vision of Reconciliation.” We’ll see you there! (video: Fred Bahnson reading from the book ‘Making Peace with the Land’)]]>