This Academic Year, the Center for Climate Justice and Faith was delighted to send two MDiv students in the Concentration in Climate Justice and Faith out on a year-long internship with congregations. These students, Trevor Boe and Katie Insalaco, have spent the last three years integrating climate justice into their seminary experience. From attending the Bioneers Conference, to leading worship during the Season of Creation, to organizing climate justice-oriented Bible studies, to marching in the streets for Indigenous rights, these students have invested their time and energy in preparing themselves to be effective leaders for climate justice in their future ministries.

Through the Concentration in Climate Justice and Faith, Trevor and Katie are working with EcoFaith Recovery during their internship to design and implement a project focused on Climate Justice at their internship site.

Trevor is on a year-long pastoral internship at First Lutheran Church of Waltham, Massachusetts. His experience in the Concentration in Climate Justice and Faith has greatly shaped his internship experience.

“My entire internship has really revolved around a lot of the elements of climate justice and faith that I was introduced to at seminary.” Trevor Boe, PLTS MDiv Student on Internship in Waltham, MA.

In the fall, Trevor introduced the congregation to the Season of Creation https://seasonofcreation.org/. Working with the music director and pastor he helped incorporate liturgical elements, hymns and even a few sermons that brought themes of environmental justice into worship. Following the momentum of the Season of Creation, Trevor led a 7-week adult forum on Laudado Si’ – Pope Francis’ Encyclical on Care for Our Common Home. Then after Christmas, he coordinated monthly screenings and discussions of the documentary series The Week which shows how everyday people can work for climate justice.

For his internship project Trevor focused on helping the church’s food ministry incorporate more sustainable and culturally appropriate foods into their “Blessing Box”. Drawing on the community organizing skills he developed in the Climate Justice: Theology and Action class at PLTS, Trevor had a series of one-on-one conversations with community stakeholders. Through a conversation with leaders at Latinos en Acción, Trevor learned which food items some members of the immigrant community would like to receive in their blessing box. A conversation with Waltham Fields Community Farms led to the farm providing free CSA shares of their produce for the blessing box and an opportunity for a group from the congregation to volunteer at the farm this summer. Trevor has led two congregational forums to discuss making these changes to the box and gathered a team to begin formally redesigning the box in May.

Katie Insalaco is on her year-long pastoral internship at Zoar Lutheran Church in Canby, Oregon. After several one-on-one conversations, Katie designed a project to help existing ministries at Zoar understand their connections to climate justice. To demonstrate the interconnectedness of the church’s ministries with climate justice Katie incorporated a climate-justice lens into the majority of her work at Zoar. She preached about creation, coordinated community-led visio divinas for Advent and Lent to display artwork depicting Creation in the sanctuary, and garnered support for shifting from shipping in palms for Palm Sunday to using local foliage instead.

Outside of the worship setting, Katie accompanied other clergy and lay people to Oregon’s capitol to lobby for climate justice legislation. She also coordinated a partnership between Zoar, EcoFaith Recovery, and the Canby Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) to offer a hybrid disaster preparedness training at Zoar.

For her internship project, Katie led a six-week Bible study using Journey to Eloheh: How Indigenous Values Lead us to Harmony and Well-being by Randy and Edith Woodley. This bible study upholds indigenous wisdom alongside the gospel to guide people towards harmony with self, community, and creation. The book was a departure from the group’s usual Eurocentric Christian authors and was very well-received. During that book study, the Woodleys needed community support so Katie led the Bible study group to write a letter to the Yamhill County Commissioners advocating for the Woodley’s right to practice indigenous religion on their land.

“I hope that my leadership through small, achievable, and significant climate-centered actions rooted in God’s overabundant love for all of creation, will continue to ignite Zoar (Lutheran Church’s) collective imagination long after I’m gone.”

Using the skills, spiritual practices, and wisdom developed during their time at PLTS, Trevor and Katie are already leading the church in working for climate justice. In a few weeks, they will graduate from PLTS with their Masters of Divinity. All of us at the Center for Climate Justice and Faith cannot wait to see where their ministry will take them next.