Archive for ‘Father Francis Kline’ Category

Regional Cultures of Conservation Program in SC Works with Faith-Based Communities

Regional Cultures of Conservation,

April 14th, 2010

CHN’s South Carolina Regional Cultures of Conservation program has teamed with Audubon-SC to sponsor two forums promoting better stewardship of the Earth among South Carolina’s Faith Communities.

The first forum is: Caring for Creation: A Forum for Religious Education Leaders, and it will be held on May 20, 2010, in cooperation with Mepkin Abbey, a Trappist Monastery in Moncks Corner, SC.  This forum will focus on providing religious education leaders with information and ideas to use in their places of worship.  The discussion will center on the theological basis of creation-care education and provide practical advice  on both making houses of worship less consumptive and congregants better stewards of the Earth.  The forum’s keynote speaker and leader is Sister Paul Gonzalez, Sisters of Charity, Cincinnati, OH and co-founder of Ohio Power and Light.

The second forum is: God’s Wonderful World: Creation Care for the Lowcountry Faith Community.  It will be hosted by John Wesley United Methodist Church, Charleston on May 21-22 and is aimed at a regional, ecumenical audience.  Sister Paula Gonzalez and Rudy Mancke, a well-known Southeastern US naturalist, will give plenary and keynote addresses respectively. In addition, Sister Paula will conduct an energy-resources-use audit of the host facility and report her findings.  Workshops will be offered on green construction, energy stewardship, sustainable landscaping and religious education for the Earth. The forum will conclude with presentations from local faith communities on what they have done to promote sound environmental practices, as well as the challenges and opportunities ahead.

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2nd Annual Father Francis Kline Memorial Lectures held at Mepkin Abbey

Regional Cultures of Conservation,

April 24th, 2009

CHN, along with Mepkin Abbey, the Penn Center and the Gullah Heritage Institute sponsored the second series of Father Francis Kline Memorial Lectures at Mepkin Abbey. The first day of presentations and discussions, entitled “Ecumenical Views on the Environment,” brought together a group of approximately 30 people for discussions of our shared ethical responsibility toward the earth and our dependence upon the environment. The speakers were drawn from Roman Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, and evangelical Christian traditions. The second day’s events, presented under the title “Reflections of the Gullah Community: Work, the Environment, and Spirituality,” engaged the relationship of the Gullah people to the environment. Speakers from the Gullah Community spoke of the importance of the natural world to the Gullah people and their dependence upon it for both inspiration and their livelihood. Approximately one hundred people attended this event that included demonstrations by a Gullah basket maker, storyteller, and net maker. Click here to download a summary of the day’s presentations.

Before his death in 2008, Dr. Strachan Donnelley, Founding President of CHN established the Father Francis Kline Memorial Lecture Series as a means of honoring the life and work of the late Abbot of Mepkin, the first series taking place at Mepkin Abbey, near Moncks Corner, South Carolina in April 2008, only a short time before Dr. Donnelley’s death later that year.

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CHN and Mepkin Abbey host Inaugural Father Francis Kline Memorial Lecture Series

Regional Cultures of Conservation,

April 11th, 2008

The Center for Humans and Nature and Mepkin Abbey hosted the first Father Francis Kline Memorial Lecture Series on April 10-11, 2008, at Mepkin Abbey in Moncks Corner, South Carolina.

April 10: Care of Creation: The Environmental Ethics of Monastic Spirituality

Father Francis Kline, Mepkin Abbey’s abbot from 1990 until his death in 2006, saw monks as people who chose to live on the social fringe and who were, therefore, called to think and work beyond the comfortable boundaries of conventional wisdom. Dr. Strachan Donnelley, the President of the Center for Humans and Nature and Fr. Kline’s close friend, saw CHN as operating in a similar fashion in carrying out its mission “To explore and promote moral and civic responsibilities to human communities and to natural ecosystems and landscapes.” This first day of the series brought together approximately two dozen philosophers, theologians, and civic leaders to study the monastic commitment to the environment and its implications beyond the monastery’s walls.

April 11: Gullah History, Spirituality and the Environment

Under the leadership of Emory Campbell, President of the Gullah Heritage Foundation the focus of this event was on the connections among Gullah religious traditions, spirituality and the natural world of the Sea Islands. The visual arts, creative writing, rites, beliefs and customs were of special interest, along with a discussion of the closeness of the people to the land. The conference was led by members of the Gullah community and experts on Gullah history and traditions.

Click here to download a summary of the meeting series.

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