July 20, 2023

Dear friends,

In a recent conversation with our staff and consultants, we touched upon the notion of relational fracturing as both a cause of and a result of the climate crisis. At The BTS Center, we've been discussing the fractured relationship between humanity and the more-than-human world as a cause of climate change for some time, but the increasing frequency of extreme weather is reinforcing the strain that climate change is placing even on strong relationships.

Because we understand our work to be deeply relational, this is an area we will continue to explore with you. And also, understanding healthy relationships as both essential to climate justice work and also vulnerable to the challenges of these times, leads us to recognize the deep need for communal conversation, ritual, and connection.

With this in mind, we offer you a heartfelt invitation to join us for Convocation 2023 this September in Hallowell, Maine. Our theme — Kinship: Re-Weaving the Great Web of Belonging — speaks to the work of healing our connections with one another and with all species on this Earth, our common home.

We hope you'll join us for two days of talks, meals, contemplative practice, music, and spiritual exploration — opportunities for nurturing robust relationship in these uncertain times. We know that an in-person Convocation is not geographically accessible for all, so if you are interested in an Online Companion program for Convocation, we ask you to please fill out this survey by July 26. Your input will allow us to craft an online offering that is most aligned with the needs and desires of our community. Thank you to all of you who have already responded!

Finally, this August we hope you'll join us for the final session of our Summer Fiction Book Club — an opportunity to gather online and discuss The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. Also in August, we'll offer another installment of our Wonder and Wander Farm Series at Tir na nOg Farm in Pownal, Maine, which will center on the Celtic feast of Lughnasadh, bringing the ancient stories into the modern context of a working farm.

We look forward to seeing you in person or online in the near future!

With best wishes,

Join us for these Upcoming Programs!

Summer Fiction Book Club

• One final session: Thursday, August 24 • 11.00am - 12.15pm (Eastern) • Online
• Discussing The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
• Read the novel ahead of time and come to discuss!

Wonder and Wander at Tir na nOg Farm

• Saturday, August 5 and Friday, October 27 • 9.30am - 4pm (Eastern)
• In person at Tir na nOg Farm in Pownal, Maine

Convocation 2023

• Thursday & Friday, September 28 & 29
• In person at Maple Hill Inn and Conference Center (Hallowell, Maine)
• Confirmed speakers include Victoria Loorz, author of Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us Into the Sacred; and John Bear Mitchell, citizen of the Penobscot Nation from Indian Island in Maine, musician, storyteller, and lecturer in Wabanaki Studies and Multicultural Studies at the University of Maine.
• Our Convocation musician is Rev. Liz Fulmer, a queer pastor, recording artist, and musical storyteller serving Grandview Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
• A preliminary Convocation schedule, presenter bios, and other details are now available at Convocation2023.org. Check back regularly for more!

Please take our Convocation Online Companions Survey!

We are grateful that throughout the Covid pandemic we were able to continue the tradition of Convocation, held annually since 1905, by gathering online. We worked hard to make three consecutive online Convocations special for participants who attended the sessions via Zoom. This year, we will gather for an in-person Convocation.

We realize, though, that those of you who live some distance from Maine may not be able to travel to attend Convocation. With this in mind, we are considering offering an Online Companions track, curated by Peterson Toscano, producer of The BTS Center’s Climate Changed podcast.

If you would consider being part of an online Convocation community, please complete the following questionnaire by Wednesday, July 26.

This questionnaire should take you no more than 3-4 minutes, and your responses will be incredibly valuable to us in creating the most meaningful experience for you and other participants.

“We appear so discrete, so unitary, but we are not. If we could see our interconnectedness, I imagine it would look like a fabric: threads running between each of us and every person on whom our lives depend; threads tracing the path from each of us to each nonhuman creature that interacts with our life — the food on our table, that tree that we smile at every morning, the birds that sing us awake; still more threads traveling from each of those creatures to all of the creatures on which they depend — their pollinators, their food, the earthworms that till the soil in which they grow. And finally, there are the shimmering, gossamer threads, spun of some gorgeous hue, running from each creature and each human to God.”

— Rev. Andi Lloyd, PhD, biologist and United Church of Christ pastor serving in Castine, Maine. Andi will be joining us as one of our Creative / Contemplative Immersion leaders at Convocation 2023

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

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