CLS: Life in a Sacramental Ecology with David McDuffie

Save the date and plan to attend one or all four sessions of this new lecture series developed by the Lakeside Environmental Stewardship Society (LESS) and Lakeside Wooden Boat Society (LWBS) in partnership with Lakeside Chautauqua.

This Climate Change & Lake Erie Lecture Series, held in Orchestra Hall, features expert scientists and thought leaders presented both with in-person and virtual formats on June 15, June 22, June 29 and July 6. From global climate change to toxic cyanobacterial blooms, each session includes a one-hour thought-provoking and informational lecture followed by Q&A.

Life in a Sacramental Ecology

The emerging scientific narrative of the universe’s natural history tells us that we live in an approximately 14-billion-year-old universe and that all forms of life on our planet are ecologically and genetically related. Understanding the story of the evolutionary connectedness of life can inspire a valuation of and a desire to protect Earth’s biodiversity.

Life in a Sacramental Ecology will explore how a religious understanding of sacrament, in which the divine is experienced through material reality, can seamlessly connect with a scientifically informed ecological ethic. In a sacramental ecology, divine grace is to be found in the evolutionary emergence and sustenance of all that lives. Such an understanding can serve as an enrichment of contemporary efforts to protect life on Earth.

David McDuffie is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies and a member of the Environment & Sustainability Program Advisory Council in the Department of Geography, Environment & Sustainability at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is also a staff member with the Center for Religion & Environment at Sewanee: The University of the South and Chair of the Environmental Ministry Committee for the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina. He is the author of Nature’s Sacrament: The Epic of Evolution and a Theology of Sacramental Ecology.

Additional lectures in the series:
– June 15: Climate Change & What to Do About It with Jordan Kern
– June 22: Addressing Climate Change: Ending 20th Century Air Pollution with 21st Century Action with Jason West
– June 29: Lake Erie Cyanobacterial Blooms: An Overview of Blooms & Ongoing Research with Justin Chaffin