Blog
Welcome to the new Yale Forum Blog!
We will be sharing a variety of original content including interviews, reviews, reports from the field, new and enhanced resources on the Forum website, content from our new video podcast series, FORE Spotlights, and much more.
Check back every Tuesday and Thursday for new content.
As we reported a couple of weeks ago, there is significant faith-based activity surrounding COP28, including the pre-COP Global Faith Leaders Summit that occurred in Abu Dhabi. We mentioned at that time the new Faith Pavilion at the meetings, and we're pleased now to bring you more information on this first ever faith pavilion at a world climate conference. We also want to direct you to the new Faith Pavilion website, which has a wealth of information for those attending the gathering, as well as resources for those at a distance....
Last week, our founders and directors, Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, attended a high-level faith leaders meeting in Abu Dhabi, in preparation for the upcoming COP28 meetings in Dubai. The theme of this Global Faith Leaders Summit was “Confluence of Conscience: Uniting Faith Leaders for Planetary Resurgence.” Leaders from across many religious and Indigenous traditions and figures from faith-based environmental organizations gathered there and were greeted by President Sheikh Mohamed, who lauded their work and...
As we shared a few weeks ago, for our 25th anniversary year, the Forum is releasing a collection of rare audio recordings of Thomas Berry in conversation with Brian Thomas Swimme, titled “The Collected Thoughts of Thomas Berry.” We will release one part per month. On the official anniversary of the Forum, we brought you the project Introduction by Mary Evelyn Tucker and Part 1: Where are We and How did We Get Here, with an introduction by John Grim.
And today, for Thomas' birthday, we’re very pleased to bring you Part 2: The...
This past weekend was the Yale Center for Environmental Justice's 5th Annual Conference. The theme this year was “Environmental Joy: Exploring the Transformative Solutions of Environmental Justice Communities.” As many of you are aware, the Forum is now housed at and a part of the YCEJ, and we're extremely pleased to share details about this event, which embodied and evoked what I believe is a very important topic for our work ahead: Joy. In my experience, Joy is often a forgotten element in any non-profit cause work, and is intimately...
A few weeks ago, friend of the Forum, Michael Dowd passed away. We wanted to take a moment here to honor his legacy, and present some of his Post-Doom ideas that align well with our exploratory theme for the year: Hope.
From the Post-Doom website (edited):
Michael Dowd was a bestselling religious naturalist “geologian” and TEDx speaker whose work was featured in The New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Newsweek, Discover, and on...
Today, October 20, 2023, is the 25th Anniversary of the founding of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology!
25 years ago today, Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim convened the first of two culminating conferences in NYC to cap off the two years of the Harvard Religions of the World and Ecology conference series. This 2-day event was titled “Religion and Ecology: Discovering the Common Ground.” The event on October 20 was held at the United Nations, and included a press conference at which the formation of the Forum was announced....
This October marks the 40th anniversary of the Christian environmental justice organization, Creation Justice Ministries. In celebration, they will be holding a special event on Thursday October 26 at 7pm EST. The event will take place in-person, for those in the Washington DC area, but will also be live-streamed. Dr. Ben Chavis will preach and the celebratory service will feature the world premiere of two choral pieces by musicians and composers Ken Medema and Cathy Chamblee: “Sacred Earth” and “Elegy for a Glacier.” The...
Yesterday, on the Feast of St. Francis, the Vatican released the new apostolic exhortation from Pope Francis: “Laudate Deum,” or “Praise God” with the subtitle “To all people of good will on the climate crisis.” This environmental exhortation is a follow-up to his groundbreaking 2015 Laudato Si'. He explains the new title in section 73 by saying “'Praise God' is the title of this letter. For when human beings claim to take God’s place, they become...
Earlier this week, the UN held the Climate Ambition Summit at UN Headquarters in New York. A project of the Secretary General, his goal with this gathering was to “showcase 'first mover and doer' leaders from government, business, finance, local authorities, and civil society who came with credible actions, policies and plans – and not just pledges – to...
A few weeks ago at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago, an important plenary session was held titled “An Urgent Call to Protect the Amazon: An Interfaith Rainforest Initiative Dialogue with Indigenous Peoples.” The event was facilitated by the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative, which aims to be seen as “a shared platform for religious leaders to work shoulder to shoulder with indigenous peoples to protect forests and the...