You are invited:
Convocation Reimagined
ENGAGED HOPE
Grounded Leadership in an Era of Ecological Emergency
September 24-25, 2020
Online + Offline components
We are so excited to invite you to Convocation Reimagined — the 2020 edition of The BTS Center's annual Convocation, for the first time ever in digital space, coming up September 24-25.
Our theme for this year's Convocation — "Engaged Hope: Grounded Leadership in an Era of Ecological Emergency" — will invite us to acknowledge and reflect on the realities of global climate devastation.
And it's a timely topic. The West Coast is on fire. Sea levels are rising. Surface temperatures are climbing. Storms are becoming more intense. Glaciers are melting. Habitats are shrinking. Swirling masses of plastics fill our oceans. And in distressing ways, these intensifying climate concerns intersect with every social justice issue: racial justice economic justice, immigrant justice, and all the rest.
What does it mean to practice our faith and to lead faith communities in this era of ecological emergency? How is God calling us to respond?
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Registration deadline has been extended to September 20. But please don't delay. |
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Introducing The BTS Box
coming soon to a mailbox near you!
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Staff and volunteers have been hard at work — one at a time, physically distanced, of course — packaging and assembling boxes that we will be mailing this week to everyone who has registered for Convocation.
We're pretty excited about this component of our event. Each box will contain supplies and surprises that we'll invite you to open at different points during our two days together, and we hope this will enhance the Convocation experience and help to foster a sense of community.
How do you make sure there's a box with your name on it? Well, there's only one way. Don't delay. Register today.
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Convocation grows from roots dating back more than 100 years — a highlight of the year for our predecessor, Bangor Theological Seminary, since 1905, and still today a highlight! — but this year, following public health guidance, we’re moving online. Over the course of two days in September, we’ll gather for online sessions, and we’ll log off for some intentional, self-guided, offline sessions, returning to digital space for continued learning and reflection. We look forward to this blend of online and offline experiences, which will weave together to facilitate learning, nurture respite, and deepen community.
Convocation 2020 invites spiritual leaders, faith communities, and change-makers to embrace a transformative response to the current climate crisis. If anything, COVID-19 has revealed even more clearly the ways in which “business as usual” threatens the sustainability of the planet and the health and well-being of all life. This global pandemic and the broader challenges of global climate devastation call for spiritually grounded leaders who adopt an intentional, embodied practice of hope — leaders who dismiss the paths of denial and despair and choose to live in a state of active engagement. This kind of hope is deeper than passive optimism — it is a way of being in the world, rooted in faith, expressed in action, and sustained by contemplative practice.
A gifted line-up of presenters — ecological innovators, spiritual guides, and ministry practitioners — will confront the flawed values of Western culture that prioritize individualism, consumerism, and unrestrained growth, while calling us to just and sustainable practices that protect the common good and honor the sacredness of our planetary home. Incorporating music, the arts, and contemplative practice, Convocation Reimagined will lead participants to a deeper, more spiritually grounded engagement with God’s Creation.
Plans are coming together for a really meaningful gathering — a mixture of online and offline components that we hope will be intellectually stimulating, spiritually enriching, and community-building. We hope you will set aside both days — see the schedule here — and plan to participate fully.
And to add to the fun, for all who register by September 14, we will be mailing a "BTS Box" with supplies and surprises to unwrap along the way, which we hope will enrich the Convocation experience.
Please help us spread the word by forwarding this message to a friend, a family member, or a colleague who might be interested. And please register today!
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Convocation is an annual gathering sponsored by The BTS Center, the missional successor to the former Bangor Theological Seminary. With roots dating back to 1814, The BTS Center exists today to catalyze spiritual imagination with enduring wisdom for transformative faith leadership.
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Allen Ewing-Merrill
Executive Director
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Nicole Diroff
Program Director
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Our mission is to catalyze spiritual imagination with enduring wisdom for transformative faith leadership.
We equip and support faith leaders for theologically grounded and effective 21st-century ministries.
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