The opening of the Living Village on the YDS campus represents a unique moment in School history and beyond. For one of the new residents, daily life in a regenerative residential hall is transforming her idea of ministry.

The world is starting to awaken to the Living Building movement, which is populating the earth with new structures that generate their own energy from the sun, respect the local water balance, and use non-polluting materials. But is it happening fast enough?

An annual YDS course on eco-preaching honors the beauty of the world as well as a sense of planetary loss because of poisonous human habits—and invites congregations into a richer understanding of the Holy Spirit at work throughout all creation.

If ecological vigilance is truly a theological and religious issue, then it’s time to face the biblical message that says the worship of God must include a profound respect for God’s handiwork.

The tasks ahead are formidable, but they can be accomplished with toughminded attention to detail and fairness—and with gratitude that there’s still time to act.

The modern spirit of division and cruelty has been devastating, but it is also impermanent and unsustainable—a temporary setback. The next world-renewing ecosystem of change awaits to be born. It will need the imaginations of all of us.

We treat the planet like a domestic laborer trapped in the low-wage economy: an invisible, neglected presence that keeps everything running without rest.

The world is chafing under the yoke of powerful economic and political systems that seem to possess us, bending us to their wills, enlisting us in poisonous ecological outcomes. In the language of spiritual warfare, we need deliverance.

New collaborations that involve environmental data, the arts, and faith are opening up spiritual spaces for mutual understanding and social uplift.