The Eco-Stewards Program, started as a partnership between the Presbyterian Church Camp and Conference Association and Presbyterians for Earth Care, has announced plans for its 2010 program for young adults (~ages 20-30).
Download Eco-Stewards Application and more information (Word document)
Download Eco-Stewards Application and more information (PDF)
Description for the Eco-Stewards Program:
Are you a young adult (~20-30) searching for a way to connect your faith and environmental calling? Join us for the 2010 Eco-Stewards Program, as we delve into the complex environmental issues surrounding mountains, coal, land use, and sustainability in southern West Virginia. We will consider how these issues invite us to deepen our relationship with God and with each other — to live more simply, to consume less, and to join in a dynamic Christian movement to care for the earth.
This weeklong program will examine the faith response to environmental degradation in the West Virginia context. We will explore some of the complexities surrounding mountaintop removal coal mining. We’ll listen to stories of the people and the land as we participate in a local restoration project; visit a mountaintop removal site with those who are dedicating their lives to protecting the mountains; join with local pastors in a blessing of the mountains; and converse with Yale Divinity School ethicist and professor Willis Jenkins about the theological underpinnings of land stewardship. We will also take time to breath deeply and recognize the beauty and wonder of God’s Creation as we walk in the woods, float down the New River, and learn about West Virginia’s traditions of living with and from the land.
Our week will conclude with a Christian Community Gathering at Bluestone Camp & Retreaton the banks of Bluestone Lake. Here we will synthesize and share what we have learned and be commissioned for future eco-stewardship service. This community gathering will allow us to gain strength from and give energy to the Christian earth care movement. Sustainable farmer Joel Salatin (featured in Michael Pollan’s best-selling book The Omnivore’s Dilemma & Robert Kenner’s documentary Food, Inc.) will be the keynote speaker for this event. Salatin, a self-proclaimed Christian environmentalist, will share his principles and practices of land stewardship for his Polyface Inc. farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.
The 2010 Eco-Stewards Program will provide an opportunity to meet people who are listening to the Spirit at work on this planet and within the landscape of West Virginia. You will also have a chance to share your own passions and sense of vocational call to environmental stewardship. Come, join us for the week or maybe, for the full summer as an intern with one of our partner organizations. Or perhaps, these hills will call you home for longer…