Musical group, The Many, to lead 2022 Howie Center Events

On October 6, 2022, The Many will be on the Richmond campus to lead the Howie Center Events. The Many is an uncommon, intentionally diverse collective making music for people to sing together about peace and justice and a world where all belong. Open to the public, The Many will lead workshops and worship centered around eco-justice and climate change.

Schedule At-A-Glance, Thursday, October 6

• WORKSHOP, 4:00-5:30 P.M. (Free event, yet registration is required)
• EVENING MEAL (optional), 5:30 P.M. ($15 per person)
• WORSHIP WITH THE MANY, 6:30 – 8:00 P.M.

TO REGISTER FOR THESE EVENTS, CLICK HERE.

Workshop Description, Thursday, October 6, 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.

The workshop will explore how the church can address and engage ecological and climate concerns, whether through education, worship, or other means. Workshop participants will select one of two break-out sessions to attend.

Loving Earth As We Love Ourselves: How we can be the church in a climate-changed world

Air. Soil. Water. Animals. Plants. Humans. Our whole planet is suffering–and yes, dying–from the way God’s creation has been used and abused. We often feel like exiles on our own planet, weeping by the waters of Babylon, longing to be in a different place.

Most people of faith think we have a responsibility to care for God’s creation. Most are worried about how climate change is destroying our planet and all the life on it. And many are aware of how the effects of climate change hurt the poor and marginalized most. But how can we respond as a church? How can we actually make a difference?

This workshop will begin as one group for a brief overview of where we are as a planet and as the church. Following this group time, each participant will have the option of attending one of two different sessions:

Session 1: What can my church really do about our dying planet?

Sometimes we feel powerless as a local church to take on the issue of eco-justice. In this breakout session, participants will discuss learning, developing, and sharing practical tools for pushing our churches forward on environmental issues.

Ideas will also be shared on how to integrate environmental education into the life of the church, as well as what it could look like to address climate issues directly and work for the healing and restoration of creation, both locally and globally.

Session 2: How can we create worship that helps heal our planet? 

Too often, the church hasn’t provided the holy ground to acknowledge our grief, confess our complicity, and find hope for our climate-devastated world.

It takes imagination, creativity, and courage to create worship in the midst of the environmental disaster our planet has become. In this breakout session, practical and inspirational guidance will be offered that is drawn from personal experience in planning and leading worship that acknowledges the realities in which we are living and also offers a way toward healing.

Thursday Evening Worship with The Many, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. 

An eco-justice worship-themed service will follow to create a space for prayer, reflection, lament, and singing.

Title: Is This How the World Ends?

A wild and holy rite of resistance and restoration. A worship gathering for our climate-changed world with The Many.

“Climate change is a powerful message—spoken in the language of fires, floods, droughts, and extinctions—telling us that we need a new way of sharing this planet.”  –Naomi Klein

This isn’t theoretical. We live in a climate-changed world. Every day the fires grow larger, hotter, harder to extinguish, water becomes scarcer, the soil gets sicker, we lose more of creation, and as always, the ones who are already marginalized and vulnerable are the ones who get hurt the most. We feel overwhelmed by what is going on with our environment. By the greed and injustice that drive it. By our own complicity in it. But what can we do?

One thing we can do is create an altar in the middle of the desert, in the middle of our broken world, and come together in a time of worship. A time to cry out to God, to name our sorrows and our failures and our fears. A time to remember we are not alone. And all is not lost.

As people of faith and doubt, hope and fear, we invite you to join us for this time of music, spoken word, liturgy and visuals woven together to create a space for prayer, reflection, lament, and singing. A time of worship that has eyes wide open to the desperate state of creation, and also to God who loves us and loves all life on this tender, trembling planet.

TO REGISTER FOR THESE EVENTS, CLICK HERE.

To view the bios of the members of The Many, click here: The Many group members.

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The Carl Howie Center for Science, Art, and Theology sponsors presentations through which church leaders (including seminarians) recognize and engage the insights and implications of the interplay of science, art, and theology for theological expression and the practice of ministry.  The Center generously provides funding for lectures, seminars, and displays at Union Presbyterian Seminary annually, featuring artists, scientists, and/or theologians in conversation about a particular topic.