“A preliminary survey of how Christian churches in North America are offering creative responses to climate change as it is experienced both as a physical phenomenon and as a worldview crisis (i.e., the “anthropocene”). ”
A series of multi-week site visits to Christian congregations where the leadership has expressed concern around the reality of climate change, comparing [A] congregations that demonstrate a high sense of agency and are doing remarkable work versus [B] congregations that are low agency, that is those that seem stuck, frustrated, anxious, and/or despairing. Using the “Anthropocene” discourse as a reference, case studies that fit one or more of the following themes: [1] solidarity with non-human creation, [2] intergenerational reconciliation, [3] resiliency, especially refugee resettlement & disaster preparedness, [4] democracy: embodied, local & networked, and [5] radical carbon reductions. To assist in this, a questionnaire will be developed to facilitate the identification of relevant case studies and gather other interesting data.
Among the deliverables, at least one major piece of “ethnographic journalism” suitable for publication will be produced, in order to disseminate and inspire context-appropriate best practices among the community of church leaders and creation care activists. A presentation/workshop for church leaders will also be developed for use in conferences and other gatherings.