January 6, 2022

Dear friends,

As we celebrate Epiphany and emerge from the holiday season into a new calendar year, The BTS Center staff is emerging, also, from our December Pause. As many of you know, we have been experimenting with the work rhythms of our small organization, and as part of this work in ecological imagination, we chose to pause public programming during the month of December.

In stepping back from public programming, we had more time to spend with one another in deep conversation about the work of the past two years and the shape of our work to come. We had one-on-one and group conversations, shared in creative exercises (led by our fearless co-facilitators, Rev. Alison Cornish and Dr. Rebecca Kneale Gould), and had space for outdoor time and time for play, including a delightful Solstice fire pit gathering with poetry, song, and marshmallows. Our time was rich and creative, and as we begin the work of integrating our learnings internally and externally, we look forward to sharing more of what we explored together and how these explorations will shape our work in the months and years to come.

As we move back into a time of public programming, we invite you to join us for one or more of our upcoming offerings:

• On Monday, January 16, we'll hold our annual online Committed to Listen event in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. We are so pleased to offer this public reading of Dr. King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" in partnership with the Maine Council of Churches, and it promises to be a powerful gathering.
• On Thursday, February 2, we will host our next Lament with Earth event.
• And please join us on Thursday, February 16 for a very special event with Debra Rienstra, author of Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth.

We hope that this new year brings you abundance and grace, and we look forward to seeing you soon!

With best wishes,

A Word of Gratitude

We recently bid farewell to two members of our Board of Trustees, who have completed their service to The BTS Center as they take on new responsibilities.

Rabbi Erica Asch has been a member of our Board of Trustees since 2019, and she concludes her service in order to step into a new role as President of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR). Erica is the fourth woman and the youngest person ever to lead the 130-year-old professional organization of over 2,200 Reform rabbis who serve more than two million Jews worldwide. Rabbi Asch continues to serve as the rabbi of Temple Beth El in Augusta, Maine, and as the Senior Program Associate at the Center for Small Town Jewish Life.

Dr. Natasha DeJarnett joined our Board of Trustees in 2021. In November 2022 she began a one-year position at the White House, bringing the expertise that she holds around climate change and public health to the Biden-Harris Administration. She has taken a year leave of absence from her faculty position at University of Louisville, Division of Environmental Medicine, and is now serving as Deputy Director for Environmental Justice Data and Evaluation, a position with the Council on Environmental Quality within the Executive Office of the President.

We are incredibly grateful for the gifts that both Rabbi Asch and Dr. DeJarnett have shared with The BTS Center during their tenures on this Board of Trustees. Both have contributed significantly to the work of this organization, and we will miss them.

Join us for these Upcoming Programs in the New Year!

• Committed to Listen: MLK Day 2023
• Monday, January 16 • 12.15pm (Eastern) • Online

• Lament with Earth
• Thursday, February 2 • 7.30 - 8.30pm (Eastern) • Online

• Refugia Faith: An Evening with Debra Rienstra
• Thursday, February 16 • 7.00 - 8.30pm (Eastern) • Online

What we're reading, listening to, and engaging:

• We're reading Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth by Debra Rienstra

• We're listening to "A Matter of Degrees: How to Cope with All the Climate Feels"

• We're pondering the ways in which the wisdom gleaned in our December Pause will continue to unfold in the coming months

The BTS Center | 207.774.5212 | info@thebtscenter.org | www.thebtscenter.org

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