If you’re thinking ahead to a practice to observe during Lent, consider reading the new Lenten devotional A Grounded Faith: Reconnecting with Creator and Creation in the Season of Lent. I contributed to this booklet, and other contributors include Michael Ellick, Solveig Nilsen-Goodin, Janet Parker, Joshua Grace, Jim Sequeira, and Tom Airey. We put this together as a partnership between EcoFaith Recovery, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, and Eloheh Indigenous Center for Earth Justice, and published by Barclay Press.
A Grounded Faith is designed as a companion to Randy Woodley’s new book, Becoming Rooted: A Hundred Days of Reconnecting with Sacred Earth. This 100 days runs from January 13–Earth Day, April 22, 2022 (although, of course, it can be read in the future for any 100 days). We’re reading this book as a community through our Green Circles as Oregon Interfaith Power & Light, encouraging people to form small groups in their faith communities to read together and act on what they’re drawn to do as a result of their reading.
Each of the 40 days of Lent includes a scripture reference, a quote from Woodley’s book, and a reflection on the intersection between Woodley’s book, Christian tradition, and the contributor’s own story. While Becoming Rooted is geared toward an interfaith or spiritual but not religious audience, A Grounded Faith connects the topics in Woodley’s book to Christian teachings, while also challenging the ways those teachings have been enacted, as Christians have used their faith as a basis for colonizing, enslavement, and overuse of the planet’s abundant life, offered as a gift by the Creator. A Grounded Faith invites people to take Christ’s message seriously, which may require a reorientation of our lives toward more communal expressions of our faith and society, and ways of living on the land and in relationship with other species that contribute positively to the continuation of life on Earth.
A Grounded Faith is available in print for $12 (free shipping in the US), or if you purchase it in “bulk” with others from your congregation or meeting, it’s $9.60 each for 5–9 copies or $9 each for 10 or more copies. You can also purchase it for $3 for a digital download (e-reader or PDF).
Cherice Bock 