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Message from SFU’s Earth Chaplain
Friends, this term begins a wonderful experiment. With a partnership between the Multifaith Centre and the Faculty of Environment, we have started an Ecological Chaplaincy Pilot Project. The project invites students, faculty, staff and community members into a more open conversation about how it feels to live through an ecological predicament.
As Climate grief activist Laura Schmidt suggests in How to Live in a Chaotic Climate (2023), problems can be solved, but predicaments are “things that must constantly be dealt with, won’t be solved, and won’t go away.” For many of us, the ecological crises are more than just technical problems, they are symptomatic of a deeper cultural crisis in our globalized Western civilization that is as much spiritual as it is technological or political.
For this reason, we have decided to use a chaplaincy approach. What is a chaplain you ask? Well, I am glad you asked, and didn’t just keep scrolling! First, I have no relation to silent film star Charlie Chaplain, and I have no affiliation with traditional religious institutions. Rather, a chaplaincy approach is one that explores the existential, emotional, and transcendental dimension of the climate crisis. We need science, data, journalism, policy, movement building, sustainable land care, decolonization, and justice. But we also need time to recharge, reflect, and even, be silent. As Nigerian psychologist and post-activist Bayo Akomolafe writes, “The times are urgent; let us slow down.”
Thank you to those who attended the January 29th project launch. Our next event will be our first Climate Café, a safe and reflective space that welcomes our community to chat about feelings and worries about the emerging crisis. I hope to see you there and am looking forward to building a diverse community of tender-hearted soul activists for the coming age.
Yours,
Jason B.