Diffusions – Monastic Land Stewardship: Caring for the Earth in Troubled Times
With Jason M. Brown, Samuel Torvend, Brenna Cussen-Anglada, Douglas Burton-Christie and Sr. Carol Ann Wassmuth, OSB
May 11 - August 10, 2024
The Center for Benedictine Life would like to invite you to participate in a Zoom webinar series that will focus on exploring the perspectives of contemplative and monastic communities on the ethics of care for the land. Through both historical and current examples, the speakers will discuss the relationship between the vow of stability and sense of place, the virtue of simplicity as an environmental ethic, work and prayer (Ora et Labora) as ecological theology, and Lectio Terra as embodied spirituality. The speakers will highlight the quiet environmental justice and conservation work that is happening on monastic lands all over North America, as well as offer a vision for how monastic lands can contribute to a racially and ecologically just future.
- April 13 : Jason M. Brown :: Dwelling in the Wilderness: Sense of Place and Monastic Spirituality
- May 11 : Samuel Torvend :: Exploring Monastic Ecological Wisdom
- June 8 : Brenna Anglada :: Land Justice Futures: Ecological and Racial Healing Through Religious Land Legacies
- July 13 : Douglas Christie :: The Desert Within: Vastness and the Sense of Place
- August 10 : Sr. Carol Ann Wassmuth :: Listening to the Land : Developing a Philosophy of Land Use
All programs will begin at 10:00 am Pacific Time (1:00 pm Eastern Time).
Diffusions offers online programs to further opportunities for prayer, learning, community, and spiritual growth from a Benedictine perspective. We look forward to bringing Wisdom from the Center to you, wherever you are.
Leaders
Jason M. Brown is a lecturer in the Department of Humanities at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. He holds a doctoral degree in resources, environment, and sustainability from the University of British Columbia and joint master’s degrees from Yale University in forestry and ecology. He lives in Vancouver and blogs at holyscapes.org.
Learn more about Jason M. Brown
Samuel Torvend, PhD, is a priest, emeritus professor of religion, Benedictine oblate, and instructor in diaconal formation in western Washington. He is a member of the ecology and liturgy seminar of the North American Academy of Liturgy, and the author of Still Hungry at the Feast: Eucharistic Justice in the Midst of Affliction published by Liturgical Press. His books, articles, and lectures focus on liturgy and social ethics. Born on an island in the middle of the Columbia River, Samuel Torvend was raised in Washington and then Northern California. He spent much of high school in speech and debate competition and continued…
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Brenna Cussen-Anglada is a founding member of Saint Isidore Catholic Worker Farm, where she lives in community with her spouse and a family of four. Cussen Anglada works with the Nuns and Nones Land Justice Project.
Learn more about Brenna Cussen-Anglada
Douglas E. Christie received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, his M.A. from Oxford University and his Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. He has been awarded fellowships from the Luce Foundation, the Lilly Foundation and the NEH. From 2013-2015 he served as Co-director of the Casa de la Mateada study abroad program in Córdoba, Argentina. His primary research interests focus on contemplative thought and practice in ancient and medieval Christianity and on spirituality and ecology. He is the author of The Word in The Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism…
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Sister Carol Ann’s life is an array of vibrant endeavors woven securely together by commitment. Her roles include overseeing the Monastery’s 1,400 acres of land which brings her excitement and joy. “Forestry is my passion,” she laughs. “The forest is my heaven.” In the 1990s, the prioress asked her to organize a Stewardship of the Land committee. One day she found a notice for a Department of Lands workshop on forest insects and disease and decided to attend. That’s when she fell in love with forestry. More opportunities came for forest education and she went on to earn her Idaho…
Learn more about Sr. Carol Ann Wassmuth, OSB