Our Times Call for Wisdom: CEE visits Adrian Dominican Sisters in Michigan
November 29, 2017, Adrian, Michigan – In our time of ecological crisis, human beings are called to transform the way they view creation and to become more deeply connected to creation, one another, and themselves. This was the urgent message of a panel of speakers from the Center for Earth Ethics, who spoke at Weber Center November 27.
“The Vision: Sustained Well-Being of People and Planet,” was presented by Karenna Gore, Director of the Center for Earth Ethics; Geraldine Ann Patrick Encina, scholar-in-residence; and Mindahi Crescencio Bastida Muñoz, Director of the Center’s Original Caretakers Initiative. The talk was sponsored by the Adrian Dominican Sisters and Siena Heights University.
The Center for Earth Ethics, located at Union Theological Seminary in New York, works toward a vision of “a world where value is measured according to the sustained well-being of all people and our planet.” Its mission is carried out through four programs: Eco-ministry; Environmental Justice and Civic Engagement; Original Caretakers, supporting the learning from Indigenous peoples; and Sustainability and Global Affairs.
Sister Sharon Weber, OP, Vice President of Academic Affairs at Siena Heights University, facilitated the evening. She introduced Sister Anele Heiges, OP, a member of the Center for Earth Ethic’s Board, who invited the panel to speak on the Adrian Dominican campus. Sister Anele noted that the Center was begun in 2015 – a year before the Congregation’s General Chapter, which has called for the Congregation to “sacrifice to mitigate significantly our impact on climate change and ecological degradation.”
“We’re kind of beginning together to carry forward on what we said,” Sister Anele said. “The question that we’re all asking is, ‘Can we come to understand true systemic change and can we renew the original thinking of Earth and universe to get to a whole new way of being?’ We have to get there.”
Karenna picked up on that theme in her talk. She spoke of “moments in history where humanity faces moral crises, and there are prophetic voices and … people willing to put their whole lives on the line to listen to the call to what is moral and right. We at Union now feel that we’re in such a time.”