February – August 2024
Online meeting every other week for six months
Facilitators: Rev. Alison Cornish, Rabbi Ora Nitkin-Kaner, Gabrielle Gelderman, and Rev.
Stephen Blackmer
The BTS Center, in collaboration with the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab, offers four new
opportunities for chaplains committed to working at the intersection of Earth, climate change,
and spiritual care to be in ongoing conversation with one another, sharing experiences, offering
support, and seeking inspiration for their ongoing work.
These Conversation Circles are open to chaplains who are seeking to engage with one another
about the work of spiritual care in a supportive environment. We intend for these groups to
offer support for personal well-being and community-building in the midst of all the ways in
which long-held practices, worldviews, and intertwining crises — materialism, colonialism,
racism, and radical individualism, to name just a few — have given rise to a climate-changed
world where humans, disconnected from the sources of Earth’s sacredness and generativity,
have created the conditions for Earth’s desecration and destruction. We welcome chaplains of
all levels of experience, and particularly invite spiritual caregivers serving in settings where the
effects of a climate-changed world are already being experienced.
Conversation Circles will be comprised of participants from diverse sectors and geographic
locations, and are guided by two trained chaplain facilitators. Circles meet 12 times over the
course of 6 months. Sessions are offered on the Zoom video-conferencing platform.
The cost of the program is $300, with a limited number of half-scholarships available. Please
contact Alison Cornish at alison@thebtscenter.org with any questions about scholarships or
about this program.