Worship and Formation Materials
CCEJ and the Faith in Life Committee are working with the Center for Deep Green Faith to develop formation and worship materials for Advent, Epiphany, and Lent. The intent is for these materials to provide an “eco-catechesis,” demonstrating that care of creation is found deep within scripture and our tradition.
In August 2022, Good News to All Creation vestry devotional materials were released and offered for use in parish vestries across the diocese.
Beginning with Advent 2022, the commission is introducing seasonal programs that offer formation sessions and liturgical resources including suggested modifications to the Prayers of the People and the Eucharistic prayer. These materials are still in development. It is our hope that these diocesan-developed materials will eventually be available for use in the wider Episcopal Church.
Agrarian Ministry Course
Join Procter’s own Jerusalem Greer for this online course!
Agrarian Ministry is where spiritual formation, evangelism, belonging, justice, the care of creation, and food ministries collide as they relate to the characteristics traditionally associated with a land-based way of life and values, and the promotion of agricultural interests. This course will prepare church leaders to teach, lead, and inspire their faith communities to steward land in a way that is faithful to our call as disciples of Jesus. Key to this task is the integration of Church Land Stewardship, Creation Care, Food Justice, and Wellness. Participants will explore agrarian ministry practice and leadership in a contextual story-sharing process with a variety of agrarian ministry content experts and theologians from the Episcopal Church and beyond. We will explore opportunities and options that include church and community gardens, farms, orchards, prairie land, apiaries, wildlife habitat, regenerative landscaping and our watersheds.
This course is offered online, every other Monday, 6:30 – 8:30 pm EST, January 20-May 11, with an optional in-person retreat held at Procter at the end.
Registration info found here.
Catechism of Place
A program of the Diocese Of Southern Ohio to support parish creation care efforts, in collaboration with the Creation Care and Environmental Justice Commission.
Catechism of Place is a resource and mentorship program available to any Episcopal community or parish within the Diocese of Southern Ohio. Its goal is to provide opportunities for churches to deepen their ecological and theological commitments and land use practices. Through group study, planning, designing, and connecting with community resources, participating communities will receive a solid framework for fostering eco-theologically oriented and land-based initiatives in their respective contexts.
Catechism of Place will assist participating groups in:
- Tending and bolstering imagination for environmental restoration and healing
- Holding an ecological and liberatory lens to scripture and tradition
- Developing bioregional literacy
- Cultivating deep listening through contemplative and creative practice
- Considering how use of church land can reflect theological commitments to creation care.
- Building connections with local advocacy groups, and land.
- Developing their own Catechism of Place
To begin working with us in your community we invite you to chose from the following workshops:
Program coordinators
Megan Suttman
Megan has a Background in environmental education, contemplative and biblical studies and Waldorf education. She has spent most of her adult life in gardens and forests, cultivating and facilitating place-based programs and experiences for children and adults. She recently graduated from the Center for Action and Contemplation and is the Minister for Land Justice at Church of the Advent in Walnut Hills. She also runs Terra Divina, an outdoor contemplative prayer gathering that meets in Price Hill, Cincinnati.
Jacob Taylor
Jacob is a resident and student of the Maketewah watershed. A recent graduate of the Methodist Theological School in Ohio, his work focuses on constructive ecotheology and faith practice in the Anthropocene. His experience as an artist, farmer, lay theologian, and food justice educator across southern and central Ohio situates him to work with adults around formation of faith and theology at the crossroads of bioregionalism, radical discipleship, and climate justice. He holds a Master’s of Theological Studies and a Master’s in Practical Theology degrees from MTSO and is currently the Minister for Arts, Media, and Community at Church of the Advent in Cincinnati.
Tess Dankoski
Tess is an undergraduate student studying theology and literature at Xavier University and is graduating in May 2025. An avid reader and lover of wildlife, her areas of interest lie in the intersections of poetics and localized community-oriented creation care. She has been working at Church of the Advent since 2024 as the Land Justice Intern, helping implement Advent’s Good News Garden and studying rewilding as a spiritual discipline.
Please reach out to Megan Suttman (msuttman@adventcincy.org) to work together.
