First the announcement: Three-part webinar in May, hosted by Georgia Interfaith Power & Light and led by me, coming up on Wednesdays (May 11, 18, 25), 12:00 noon Eastern. Here
are the parts:

·     
May 11: Rethinking Scripture, Humans, and Creation: Five
perspectives for a creation care ethic grounded in faith.

·     
May 18: Creating Social Movements for Change: Resources
both historical and personal that power our drive to care for creation.

·     
May 25: Shifting to a Flourishing Future: Stories
and signposts for a future of ecological and social prosperity.

Register here.
Find more information and a flyer here.

And now the excuses for my woeful silence
over the past six months and my promise not to go AWOL again:

Excuse one: Two days after my last
post, and three weeks early, my first blood granddaughter was born. And yes,
grandparenting is all it’s cracked up to be. I could watch all day long as she
discovers her hands, examines my face, and laughs at nothing more than the joy
of life. 

Excuse two: Then I went to Kenya
and Tanzania to explore and to teach and preach in congregations of the
Africa Inland

Church. And yes, life in the wild is unspeakably magnificent. I
could spend all day watching a giraffe ramble across the road, or riding a
pikipiki (hired motorcycle) up a country mountainside. Or, for that matter,
planting tree seedlings with fans of Wangari Maathai, as these Christian volunteers are.

Excuse three, full disclosure: I
shouldn’t mention this in an environmental column, but my spouse and I then went to
New Zealand to visit our kids who moved there. But it’s true, we did, and I
have the carbon offsets and guilt to prove it, and also the memories of misty
Milford Sound, the most surreal scenery on earth, unless you count the
iconically conical Mount Ngauruhoe (a.k.a., Middle Earth’s Mount Doom), or the
sulfur-spewing hot mudholes of Rotorua, or the glowing worms dangling from the
Waitomo Caves ceilings, or Oamaru’s steampunk downtown and playground, even
without the penguins, or the haunting earthquake ruins

of Christchurch’s
cathedral. How can two little islands hold so much, and polite people to boot?

Excuse four, and somehow not as
exciting: Three days training to moderate the Social Justice Issues committee
of the upcoming Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly in Portland, and
three days of workshops and Capital Hill visits with Interfaith Power &
Light in D.C.

Then this and that busyness, writing a new energy conservation guide for Hoosier IPL, working on my Isaiah commentary, speaking to the evangelicals, the Presbyterians, the Quakers,
the Catholics, the other Presbyterians, the seminary students, the elderly, the
Methodists, the interfaith community, the political staffers, public radio, fourteen
events in nine cities and more coming up. Being an ex-academic doesn’t pay much
but it sure gets you into interesting conversations in fascinating places. 

And I
still love it when strangers announce that they are enjoying Inhabiting Eden, or when they suddenly
buy five copies of the leader guide. 

I’m suspending recaps of the PEC
conference, will post the webinar recordings when they are completed, as well
as another upcoming radio interview. And I promise to keep up better, yes I really
do.