Building on the consultations, the Center for Earth Ethics and the United Religions Initiative partnered to create a guidebook for individuals and local organizations that want to host similar conversations in their communities about ecosystem restoration. The “Values, Culture, and Spirituality: Ecosystems Restoration Conversation Guide”, which was compiled by Schwartz and Lauren Van Ham, an interfaith minister and climate action coordinator at URI.

"Spirituality and faith are elemental. Water, soil, fire and air bring substance and form to our understanding of the divine. Our traditions call us not only to care for the natural world but to learn from it, and to be in relationship with it as a source of reverence, life and beauty. Modernity has encouraged us to think and act as individuals, but as a species, it is not who we are. Indigenous knowledge and our faith traditions continually call us back to the wisdom of shared practice, reciprocity and doing the work to cultivate healthy and helping relationships with one another and all of life. When we recognize ourselves as part of nature, we remember that we have always belonged to a much bigger, more ancient story. Together, we are stronger, more creative, and more resilient. Earth restoration, therefore, is a spiritual act. Caring for Earth moves us away from isolation, into belonging and relatedness."

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Type of publication

Guidelines

Type of Ecosystem

Farmlands, Forests, Freshwaters, Grasslands, Shrublands and Savannahs, Mountains, Oceans and coasts, Peatlands and Urban areas

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