“What Does It Mean to Be Spiritually Sustained in Times Like These?”: Karenna Gore and Rev. Jen Bailey in Conversation at Climate Reality Training
On May 2, CEE Executive Director Karenna Gore joined Reverend Jen Bailey for “Invoking Spirit: How Faith and Wisdom Traditions Can Inspire Climate Action,” a session at The Climate Reality Project’s 20th Anniversary Flagship Training in Nashville, Tennessee. Convened by former Vice President Al Gore to mark two decades of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps, the training brought together a new cohort of climate leaders for two days of science, education and action.
Gore welcomed participants with a grounding exercise, inviting them to remember their connection to the wider community of life. “Our bodies are made of the elements that are of the Earth,” she said. “Iron in our blood, calcium in our bones. We have about the same percentage of water in our bodies as in the body of the Earth.”
Our bodies are made of the elements that are of the Earth. Iron in our blood, calcium in our bones. We have about the same percentage of water in our bodies as in the body of the Earth.
The conversation that followed centered the moral and spiritual dimensions of the climate crisis. Reverend Bailey is an ordained minister, public theologian and executive director of the Dan and Margaret Maddox Fund, a Middle Tennessee foundation that envisions “a world in which people and planet flourish together in regenerative systems free from harm and threat.”
Asked what those values look like on the ground, she spoke about what the principles of justice, liberation and shared flourishing mean in practice throughout her work:
Justice really means that nothing in the community of life—notice, I don't say people there, but the community of life—is disposable. No community is written off. No child is told that their future doesn't matter because of where they're born. Justice asks us to tell the truth about the conditions of the world that we see. If justice calls us to tell the truth, liberation invites us to imagine a dream beyond it. Liberation is freedom from, but also freedom for. Freedom for cleaner air, freedom for sacred belonging, freedom for economies that actually serve the community of life.
Gore noted the resonance between this statement and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s famous aphorism that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Ongoing environmental justice struggles around the globe illustrate this principle every day.
Bailey also founded Faith Matters Network, a woman-led organization that accompanies community organizers, faith leaders and activists on the journey of what she calls “spiritual sustainability.” When asked what it means to be spiritually sustained in times like these, she reflected on what it means to stay rooted, even when living through difficult and uncomfortable emotions.
Grief, fear, anger, guilt, exhaustion—all of those things make sense to me. In fact, they're not a sign of failure. They're signs that we're awake, that we're really paying attention. And I've learned through the years that grief is what love looks like when something we love is under threat.
She warned against leaving these emotions unattended—unprocessed grief can become numbness, anger can become bitterness, and fear can come to rule us—but cautioned against turning this into an individualistic self-improvement project. Rather, she emphasized the need for collective spaces to hold and transmute these difficult emotions: “When we process this work in community, when we are a part of communities that we know love us, then grief starts to look something like tenderness. Anger can help us embrace courage. Fear starts to look a whole lot like clarity.”
Closing the session, Bailey offered a benediction she had written for the work ahead:
May you be sustained for the long road.
May your grief remain tethered to love.
May your anger be guided by wisdom.
May your communities make you brave.
May you rest when needed and rise when called.
May future generations be blessed because of what you choose today.
Read the full transcript here.
