October News
As the Executive Director of the Leadership, Education, and Development (LEAD) Hub United States for the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM), I have had the privilege of leading the LEAD Hubs’s Social and Ecological Responsibility Initiative, which includes working closely with the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement to promote education and advocacy for environmental justice and climate justice. The LEAD Hub United States has been an ongoing partner with UM Creation Justice as a resource for summits and online webinars, and the Hub provides funding to assist the publication of the monthly newsletter you are reading now. The LEAD Hub also helps connect the UM Creation Justice Movement with eco-justice leaders in Methodist-related schools, colleges, and universities around the world.
A few of these creation justice educational leaders are featured in this month’s [October 2022] newsletter, and they are highlighting some of the important work for social and ecological sustainability that is happening in our United Methodist schools of theology. They are helping to prepare ministers of today and tomorrow for the fiercely urgent work of climate justice that our churches must engage in if we are to preserve a livable climate. As you will see from their work and their curricular and co-curricular programs, our UM seminaries are involved in innovative and creative endeavors to address the ecological challenges in the world house we share as our only home.
Rev. Dr. Mark Y. A. Davies,
General Board of Higher Education and Ministry LEAD Hub US
Wimberly Professor of Social and Ecological Ethics and
Director of the World House Institute for Social and Ecological Responsibility at Oklahoma City University