Caring for Creation LiveBlog

I’m in Fayetteville, Arkansas for the “Caring for Creation” conference. I’m pretty excited. Unfortunately, web presence for this event is pretty minimal. You can see more information here (it should be the first event listed) including links to PDF files of the workshops and plenary speakers, etc.

I don’t know what the internet situation will be like over there, hopefully they will have wifi. If they do, I will be live-blogging here throughout the weekend providing you with live updates on the workshop and the plenaries. If they don’t have internet access I’ll be live updating my twitter, via my cell phone, which you can see at my twitter site, at my facebook, or in the left-hand sidebar down there somewhere.

Obviously that won’t be as ideal or as comprehensive as an actual liveblog, but I’ll do what I can. All updates will be in central standard time. Don’t forget to spring forward this weekend! Reflections on the entire weekend will follow on Monday.

REAL-TIME UPDATES:

3:57 pm: Got here several hours ago. Had lunch and did some hiking. Now I’m waiting for dinner. May see if I can catch some z’s. The good news is there is wifi, at least in my room. Not sure about the rest of the campus. So I’ll be updating here and hopefully throughout the sessions. If not here then via twitter. The bad news is tonight’s plenary speaker, Dr. J. Matthew Sleeth, had to cancel because of weather and flight delays. So, I’m not sure what’s going to go down tonight. More to come.

9:05 pm: So, there is no internet in the conference area. Kind of frustrating. Updates won’t really be “real” time. The first plenary was pretty good, a nice intro. to the weekend. So far I’m very impressed, most conferences I go to talk about sustainability and then use styrofoam cups and have expensive food catered, but here they gave us mugs to use for the entire week. I’ve never been to a conference that actually puts their message into action.

11:31 pm: The best part about these events are the conversations that take place and the relationships that are built/nurtured. That alone is better than any plenary speaker.

Day 2:

10:19 am: Just finished my first workshop on determining your eco-footprint. Wow. Mine was lower that the national average (which I guess doesn’t say a whole lot), but not as low as I’d like it to be. The overarching issue here is consumption. Global climate change is the symptom of that deeper problem. Next plenary at 10:30 by the my professor.

2:47 pm: The plenary session this morning was great. Dr. Davies talked about systemic solutions for sustainability and the Oikos movement. My second workshop was about political advocacy and was good, although I still remain a little cynical about the influence of advocates being usurped by the lobbyists. It seems like our government is turning into a system by the lobbyists for the lobbyists.

4:07 pm: Second afternoon workshop, “Reduce-Reuse-Recycle,” was pretty mediocre. It was exclusively about recycling and basically amounted to the facilitator telling her success story and assuming we should all do the same thing. Great if you want to hear an inspirational story, but not very practical. Got some free time now, until dinner. Think I may try and catch a nap.

12:17 am: Again, conversation trumps all. I’m grateful for that. The third plenary was perhaps the best thus far given by John Hill of Board of Church and Society of the UMC on global climate change. It’s hard not to be depressed when faced with the facts and projections, but I am hope nonetheless. And inspired. It’s late and we spring forward tonight, I’m out.

Day 3: 

10:07 am: Worship was great. Anytime you incorporate readings from Zen Buddhism and Albert Einstein into the service it automatically goes up a few notches in my book.  Not that I’ll likely be able to take it home, but it was really good nonetheless.

~bh ><>