2026 EcoFaith Summit of the Upper Midwest
From Fear to Fire:
Igniting Community for a Planet in Peril
April 18, 2026
At First Lutheran Church,
Duluth, MN and Livestreamed via Zoom
This year's Summit is Co-Presented by:
“Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road…?” - Luke 24:32
Igniting courageous community across the Upper Midwest with:
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An unquenchable fire of love for Creator and Creation.
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A controlled burn of holy fear, wonder, and joy - across generations and divides.
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A germinating fire seed of collaborating and creative networks.
We encourage you to attend as a group from your congregation, campus, camp, or community!
Register for the 2026 EcoFaith Summit Now!
Meet our Speakers
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Rev. Kristen Glass Perez
Campus Minister & Author
Rev. Kristen Glass Perez is an ELCA pastor who is the University Chaplain at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where she leads the Center for Interfaith & Spiritual Life. She has previously served as a college and university chaplain at Northwestern University, Muhlenberg College, and Augustana College. Kristen brings extensive experience building and leading multireligious teams of chaplains and staff who work closely with students in support of spiritual life, vocation, and well-being. She was also the first Director for Young Adult Ministry for the ELCA Churchwide Organization and a Development Editor for Augsburg Fortress Publishers. A frequent keynote speaker, workshop leader, and author, her work focuses on college student success, economic hardship, vocation in the undergraduate experience, interfaith engagement, and young adult ministry. She also collects antique glassware.
Lacy Tooker-Kirkevold
Young Adult Organizer & Youth Director
Lacy Tooker-Kirkevold (they/she) is a young adult leader, organizer, and activist from the Twin Cities. Their day job is working as the Director of Children, Youth, and Family Ministry at Diamond Lake Lutheran Church in Minneapolis where they are also a member. Outside of work Lacy is an organizer with the Sunrise Movement, fighting the rise of authoritarianism and working towards a green new deal. Additionally, Lacy also serves on the Eco Faith organizing team for the Minneapolis area synod and is one of the core leaders for Gather Twin Cities, a young adult ministry of the ELCA. In their free time they enjoy baking, caring for their jungle of houseplants, and hanging out with their dog Luna.
Brooke Elness
Youth EcoFaith Leader
Brooke Elness is a senior in high school. She plays tennis and participate in speech, one act, drama, and the music program. After graduation, she will be attending University of Wisconsin: Stevens Point and majoring in Wildlife Ecology and Management. She is an environmental activist, and the LYO and youth liaison on the EcoFaith Leadership Team. She loves nature, and especially passionate about native pollinators.
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Eóin Small,
Organizer, Rise & Repair
Eóin is an artist, activist & community organizer living on the ancestral homelands of Dakota & Anishinaabe people in what has come to be called Minnesota and the broader Midwest and Great Lakes region. Much of Eoin’s work centers on the climate crisis & supporting indigenous-led movements to protect Water and Land. Eóin currently works as an organizer with Rise & Repair, a diverse alliance of people and organizations working to advance climate justice & Indigenous rights in Minnesota.
Rise & Repair is a diverse, non-partisan alliance of people and organizations advancing Indigenous rights & climate justice in Minnesota.
Meet our Artists
Paul Oman
Drawn to the Word Artist
Paul Oman, artist and pastor, shares his Drawn to the Word artistic ministry with audiences across the country and around the world. He served as a teacher, then Lutheran pastor when, in 2011, he took up work as an artistic pastor full-time. Paul seeks to give new vision to God’s Word by using the process of painting to captivate audiences in our visually oriented cultures.
Painting and drawing have been a part of Paul’s life since childhood. Receiving national & international recognition for his work, Paul uses this gift of painting to proclaim the Gospel unique and powerful ways that bring the Word of God to life before your eyes. Paul works in many settings, including congregations, schools, universities, seminaries, camps, prisons, nonprofits, and more. The larger-than-life sized paintings are painted with acrylics on stretched canvas. Paul lives near Amery, Wisconsin with his wife, Jana, and their children. www.drawn-to-the-word.com
Joe Davis
Spoken Word Artist
Joe Davis is an award-winning spoken word artist and bestselling author who uses poetry to power possibility.
He is the founding director of Finding Your Freedom Practice, a wellness ecosystem teaching body-centered practices through spoken word, writing, music, theater, film, and dance. Joe holds a Master of Arts degree in Theology of the Arts and also heads a multimedia production company, a soul funk band, and a racial justice education program. His work has been featured on BET, MPR, CNN, VH1, and the Twin Cities CW.
Based in Minneapolis, he tours internationally to join schools, faith spaces, nonprofits, businesses, and correctional facilities to practice envisioning and embodying a world of collective liberation and human flourishing. To connect, book, or learn more, visit JoeDavisPoetry.com.
What to Expect
SCHEDULE FOR THE DAY:
8:30 - Doors open, coffee & table exhibits
9:30 - Welcome & Introductions
9:50 - Opening Worship
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Morning Plenary with Summit Speakers, One-on-one conversations
11:40 - Break
11:55 - Community Action Stations
12:20 - Meal
1:15 - Summit Worship
2:00 - Fireseed Session #1
2:50 - Break
3:00 - Fireseed Session #2
3:50 - Break
4:00 - Sending Worship
4:15 - Reception
Improved Livestream Experience
This year's livestream Summit experience will be streamed via Zoom with a Summit Host. The Summit music, worship, and speakers will be livestreamed from the First Lutheran sanctuary, the afternoon Fireseed enrichment sessions will be an online-only experience for a more engaging online Summit community building experience.
Livestream Group Experience Guide
Participate in the Summit Community from your own place! Use our guide to plan to gather your own community in your place to both participate with in-person community and the EcoFaith Summit of the Upper Midwest. Read about how Bethel Lutheran near St. Louis MO created their own Summit Experience last year.
Morning Gathering and Action Stations
We gather to listen, share with one another, be challenged, and ignited for community with our constellation of speakers to who are engaged in community organizing for neighbors and Creation: Rev. Kristen Glass Perez, Campus Ministry Pastor and author, Hungry for Hope; Brooke Elness, High School EcoFaith Leader; Eóin Small, organizer, Rise & Repair; Lacy Tooker-Kirkevold, Young Adult Organizer ; Minister JaNaé Bates, Co-Executive Director, ISAIAH MN.
Live Artist Rev. Paul Oman will enhance the Summit worship through painting the Easter story of the Road to Emmaus. Spoken Word Artist Joe Davis will share his spoken word of gospel, inspiring fire-y hope and action.
Our morning will culminate in a call to action, inviting us into action stations for collective action on behalf of our planet in peril.
Afternoon Engagement Sessions
The afternoon will include a variety of breakout enrichment sessions to give your community practical tools for kindling action. This year we are naming these sessions Fireseed after the seeds that require fire in order to germinate and grow.
The afternoon will conclude with sending worship and a reception.
Children's Experience at the Summit
Come and bring your children to the Eco Faith Summit this April 18th! Kids ages 2 through upper elementary are invited to the Children's Experience at the Summit. The program will be like a mini Vacation Bible School where we will enjoy age appropriate Bible Study, games, songs, and crafts related to our theme "From Fear to Fire." One of the highlights will be planting and bringing home a plant to start your own pollinator plot!
Led by Kaari Enigl, teacher and parent, former youth director and camp counselor, from Washburn WI, NWSWI.
Registration for children is free.
What's New in 2026
Ishkode at Wisconsin Point:
Rekindling Indigenous Fire Relationship
Explore fire’s path to igniting community in a special Summit Fireseed Session
Friday, April 17, 2025
12:30-4:45p.m.
Lake Superior Estuarium and Wisconsin Point
City of Superior, Wisconsin
Ishkode is an onsite opportunity to spark imagination into the transformational power of God's refining fire in community building through the story of intercultural collaborative action on Wisconsin Point. Participants are encouraged to rideshare as parking is limited. Please be prepared to be on your feet (walking and standing) for approximately 90 minutes with no breaks.
Purpose: Participants will be challenged to confront past understandings and imagine new possibilities in the areas of community engagement, team building, and ecological practices that shape our relationships and our world.
Registration is free to everyone who registers for the Summit. Participation is limited to 30 people.
Led by: Callie Grones and Colleen Bernu
Callie Grones is a Marshfield Clinic Health Systems AmeriCorps member serving with the Friends of the Lake Superior Reserve (FOLSR). She has organized several volunteer events at Wisconsin Point, including multiple beach cleanups and a spotted knapweed (non-local plant) pull. She is also a part of the working group to restore ishkode (Ojibwe for fire) to Wisconsin Point.
Colleen Bernu (Fond Du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa) is a Minister of Word and Service through the ELCA, formerly serving as mission developer for Together Here Ministries and later DEM and Minister for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Northeastern Minnesota Synod. Colleen is dedicated to using her training and professional experiences combined with the traditional ecological knowledge of her ancestors as a teacher to bridge diverse communities through increased understanding, shared language, and mutual dialog.
Young Adults Gather
Young Adults (18-35 years old) are invited to spend Friday night in community with a sleep-over at Gloria Dei Lutheran, Duluth before attending the EcoFaith Summit together on Saturday.
Summit Registration is free for those under 30. Register for the overnight with your Summit registration.
Youth at the Summit!
High school EcoFaith Youth who attended last year's Summit along with two young adult youth directors are working to plan youth engagement to the EcoFaith Summit.
EcoFaith Youth Leaders at the Summit:
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Brooke Elness, Summit Speaker, NEMN Synod EcoFaith Network Leadership Team Member, Lutheran Youth Organization (LYO) leader, High School Senior
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Youth dramatizing the Gospel of the Road to Emmaus
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EcoFaith Youth facilitate an afternoon Fireseed Session about what you want to bring back to your congregation and community.
Lunch in the youth room for connection and intentional conversation.
Register your group with a rough estimate of youth attendance. We will reach out to you to finalize youth registration, release forms, and final numbers.
Friday Night Youth Group Lock-in
First Lutheran, Duluth
Bring your youth group for a pre-Summit overnight! The lock-in is geared towards 9-12th graders but youth leaders have the discretion to bring youth as young as 7th grade if they feel they will benefit from the Summit experience.
Flexible arrival time for whatever your group needs are: you are welcome to arrive as early as 5pm, free pizza dinner at 6pm, programming will begin at 7pm, or arrive as late as you need.
We will provide the programming. Your youth group adults are in charge of the direct supervision, safety, and well-being of your own youth, please bring as many adults as you need. There will be an enforced bedtime so that everyone can enjoy the Summit on Saturday.
Registration is free for youth and youth group leaders.
Consider a donation from your church to help support the Summit and keep youth registration free! Donations can be made electronically via Paypal here. Or if you prefer by check, payable to "NE MN Synod/EcoFaith Summit 2026" and sent to: The Northeastern Minnesota Synod 1111 London Road, Duluth, MN 55802.
Theme & Goals Statement
“[Our hearts] will sing of the day you bring, let the fires of your justice burn,
Wipe away all tears for the dawn draws near, and the world is about to turn.”
- Canticle of the Turning - ELW #723
Summit Goals
Ignite courageous community across the Upper Midwest to spark:
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An unquenchable fire of love for Creator and Creation.
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A controlled burn of holy fear, wonder, and joy - across generations and divides.
-
A germinating fire seed of collaborating and creative networks.
Peril:
Our planet is in peril: from rampant forest fires to flagrant abuses of power, from raging economic and racial injustices to the burning anxieties of children, youth, and adults.
Smoldering in our spirits are embers of paralyzing fear: fear that Earth’s ability to support life is damaged beyond repair; fear that we are powerless; fear that our efforts are too little and too late because the harm that has been done is irreversible; fear that what power we wield will be answered with callous disregard and violent retaliation and any good we do will be overturned; fear that we are alone.
Promise:
The Spirit’s baptismal spark blazes away this dross, making space for a different fear that ignites our hearts: the fear of the Holy One, Creator of the Cosmos, Healer of All, Sustainer of Life. Living in wonder, awe, and sacred trembling, we fall in love with Creator’s self-revelation, Healer’s presence, Sustainer’s gifts: the beauty and bounty of this planet, all our kin, our beloved and only home.
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We gather to be refined through crossgenerational repentance and lament.
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We gather to be refueled in creation, community, worship, and art.
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We gather to be reignited by a constellation of speakers and organizers - youth, young adults, and elders.
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We gather to be a renewed community, ablaze with New Life for God’s beloved Creation.
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We gather for our fear to become our fuel…
“Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road…?”
- Luke 24:32
Afternoon Fireseed Breakout Sessions
Why Fireseeds?
Fireseeds in nature are seeds that require fire to open and germinate. The seed of the iconic Jack Pine, native to many areas in the Upper Midwest, is such a fireseed. We come to the Summit to ignite a germinating fire for our local and global community.
Fireseed tracks
Fireseed sessions from all four tracks will be offered in each of the two breakout times.
Track 1. Igniting Love of Nature: Becoming Community in and with Creation
Track 2. Faith on Fire for Creation: Spiritual Foundations for Igniting Faith Communities
Track 3. Getting Fired Up: Strategies for Igniting Your Faith Communities
Track 4. From Fear to Fire: Coming Together for Advocacy and Community Action
Online Fireseed Sessions
Session 1: (1:00pm CST) Who is Your Next of Kin? A Guide to Kincentric Ecology: Lessons for Conservation, Justice, and Community Resilience Annica Stiles, Environmental Advocate, Minneapolis Area Synod, Our Saviour’s, Minneapolis
Description: As we face an intimidating and uncertain future for our planet, the environment begs us for compassion and action. Kincentric Ecology and other Indigenous knowledge of land management and environmental protections provide a key framework for environmentalists and communities to restore relationships with the natural world in order to decolonize their work and enhance the socio-ecological resilience of those efforts within a contemporary system in North America. This workshop will walk-through how we can use Kincentric Ecology in our own faith and among our congregations to honor God’s sacred creation. Bio: Annica is an environmentalist with a focus in community centered conservation. She has recently moved back to Minnesota and is living in Minneapolis after completing her Environmental Studies degree from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. Annica has worked with various non-profits, from advocating for environmental policy in DC to conservation field work and environmental education. She currently attends Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in South Minneapolis and often St. Paul Lutheran Church in Wyoming, MN where her parents serve together.
Session 2: (2:00pm CST) Faith-based Community Organizing for Climate Justice
Meghan Sobocienski, Center for Climate Justice and Faith, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary
Description: The Center for Climate Justice and Faith empowers leaders to cultivate moral, spiritual, and practical power for the work of climate justice in communities of faith. Since 2021, the Center has prepared 380 faith leaders from 40 countries to address the climate crisis in ways that also further racial justice, economic justice, and gender justice. Meghan Sobocienski is a co-coordinator of the Center’s Certificate in Faith-based Community Organizing for Climate Justice program. This program is designed as a sequence of workshops, small group coaching and community practice that allows program participants to understand themselves as leaders, expand their capacity to enroll others in collective action, and understand the roles of teams in creating change. Join Meghan to learn how faith communities around the country are using community organizing frameworks to create a more just world and get inspired to mobilize your community to action. Meghan Sobocienski (she/her) is a Co-Founder and Director of Grace in Action Collectives in Southwest Detroit. Meghan spent five years as a Community Organizer with the PICO (Faith in Action Network), and five years working as a Co-Organizer for the Organizing for Mission Cohort (Network) through the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Through this work Meghan guided congregational leaders to utilize their land, financial, and community resources to create social justice projects in their
In-Person Fireseed Sessions
Fireseed Session: 1:00pm
Camp Fire Circles: Igniting Brave Community (Tracks 1 & 3)
Sari Kroschel and Deacon Stephanie Engel, Camp Onomia
Description: The campfire circle is more than a place to sit, it is a formative center for worship, shared meals, play, and conversation. In outdoor ministry, the practices that happen around the fire invite participants into embodied faith: singing and prayer under the open sky, food prepared and shared in community, games that build trust and joy, and storytelling that invites honesty and wonder. This session explores the campfire as a holistic ministry space where the nervous system settles, relationships deepen, and faith is practiced together. In this interactive session, participants will be invited to consider how camps and retreat centers offer a unique and essential form of ministry, modeling integrative practices that congregations and environmental ministries can partner with and learn from as they seek to ignite authentic community.
Clean Energy Revolution and How Faith Communities Can Participate (Track 4)
Bret Pence, Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light
Description Coming Soon
Congregational Organizing and Spiritual Transformation (Track 3)
Rev. Corinne Freedman Ellis, ISAIAH and Peace United Church of Christ, Duluth
Description Coming Soon
Data Centers Deep Dive: What's at Stake and How Can You Get Involved? (Track 4)
Kathryn Hoffman, Executive Director, and JT Haines
MCEA (Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy)
Description Coming Soon
The Freedom Circle Method: Regulate, Relate, Create, Integrate (Tracks 2 & 3)
Joe Davis, Spoken Word Artist
What makes a gathering transformative rather than transactional? How do we move beyond conversation toward embodied action, creative power, and collective liberation? In this interactive workshop, award-winning poet, educator, and healing justice practitioner Joe Davis pulls back the curtain on his signature facilitation methodology: the Freedom Circle Method—a four-part framework he developed and refined over more than a decade of leading workshops with youth, artists, educators, faith leaders, and community organizers. Participants will learn the foundational steps of the method: •Regulate – grounding the nervous system to create a safe and brave embodied container •Relate – building authentic connection and shared humanity through compassionate curiosity, story dwelling, and dialogue •Create – activating imagination and creative power through collaborative artistic practices •Integrate – translating insight into action that can be carried into everyday life Rooted in trauma-informed practice, somatic awareness, and arts-based community building, this session offers a crash-course introduction to the principles behind Joe Davis’ broader healing justice ecosystem known as Freedom Practice—a growing body of curriculum, content, and community designed to help people cultivate resilience, resources, and revolutionary practices through the arts. Participants will leave with practical tools for facilitating meaningful gatherings in their own communities and an invitation to further explore and deepen the work. Bio: Joe Davis is an award-winning spoken word artist and bestselling author who uses poetry to power possibility. He is the founding director of Finding Your Freedom Practice, a wellness ecosystem teaching body-centered practices through spoken word, writing, music, theater, film, and dance. Joe holds a Master of Arts degree in Theology of the Arts and also heads a multimedia production company, a soul funk band, and a racial justice education program. His work has been featured on BET, MPR, CNN, VH1, and the Twin Cities CW. Based in Minneapolis, he tours internationally to join schools, faith spaces, nonprofits, businesses, and correctional facilities to practice envisioning and embodying a world of collective liberation and human flourishing. To connect, book, or learn more, visit JoeDavisPoetry.com.
Lord, what is it that you have been preparing us for? (Track 2 & 3)
Rev. Kristina Frugé, Riverside Innovation Hub at Augsburg University, Minneapolis
Description: This session creates space to connect our care for young adults and younger generations with the real world they are inheriting. Together, we’ll explore how the church can respond to fear, denial, and uncertainty while discerning what it means to be the church in a time of collective upheaval and violence and world threatening realities. We’ll reflect together on the church’s public call—to be proximate, prophetic, and practical—and consider how the ways we show up now will shape the future young people are growing into. BIO: Kristina Frugé has worked in ministry for 25 years and currently serves as the Director of Congregational and Community Initiatives where she leads the Riverside Innovation Hub at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, MN. With an MA in Congregational Mission and Leadership from Luther Seminary, she has worked alongside dozens of congregations inviting them to be curious about their call to become vital neighbors in the ecosystem of their local neighborhoods. In all her work, she aims to animate the truth of our generous connection to one another, rooted in a belief that the Holy Spirit is activated in our relationships helping us to repair, problem solve, love and flourish. This includes her work as a mother, wife, friend and neighbor in her South Minneapolis Longfellow neighborhood where her family has lived for over 20 years.
Plotting Resurrection: Pollinator Synods and Sanctuaries (Tracks 1, 2, 3)
Rev. David Carlson, NE MN Synod EcoFaith Network Co-Chair, Gloria Dei, Duluth
Jan Bilden, Pollinator Plot Chair, NE MN Synod EcoFaith Network, St. Andrews, Grand Rapids
Description Coming Soon
Preaching the Ignites Fire (Track 2)
The Rev. Melinda Quivik, Ph.D. Editor-in-Chief of Liturgy, Mentor, Backstory Preaching, Green Blades Preaching Roundtable Contributor, Saint Paul Area Synod Care of Creation
Description Coming Soon
Saint Louis River Estuary: Nature’s Call to Community (Track 1 & 4)
The Rev. Will Mowchan, Friends of the St. Louis River Estuary, NW Synod of Wisconsin
Description Coming Soon
What is Citizens Climate Lobby and How Can You Start One in Your Community? (Track 4)
Rev. Beth Monke, Grove Lake Lutheran, Pelican Rapids, NW MN Synod Creation Care Team
Description Coming Soon
Fireseed Session: 2:00pm
Bringing the Fire Back Home: An Open Discussion (Track 3)
Facilitated by EcoFaith Youth Leaders
Description Coming Soon
Congregations as Community Resilience Hubs (Track 4)
Rev. David Carlson, Gloria Dei, Duluth, NE MN Synod EcoFaith Network Co-Chair
Bret Pence, Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light
Description Coming Soon
Congregations on Fire for Creation: A Panel Discussion (Track 3)
Rev. Amber Kolina, Northwestern Minnesota Synod
Russ Schultz, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Northeastern Minnesota Synod
Lynda Meyers, Hope Lutheran Church, River Falls, Wisconsin, NW Synod of Wisconsin
Description Coming Soon Russ holds a degree in Civil Engineering with a focus on water resource management. After a 34-year tenure as a Hydrologist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, he now leads the Creation Care team at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Brainerd.
Energy Action Starts at Home (Track 4)
Carmen Carruthers, Outreach Director, Citizens Utility Board of Minnesota
Description Coming Soon
The Feast of Creation: A New Festival to Celebrate the Goodness of Creation? (Track 2)
Rev. Ben Stewart, Ph.D., Pastor, Seminary Professor, Author, Northeastern Minnesota Synod
Description Coming Soon
The Gold Leaf Challenge: Igniting Communities for Climate Action (Track 4)
Erica Bjelland, Minnesota Green Steps Communities and Tribal Nations
Description: What do meaningful climate actions look like in your different communities (at school, work, city, faith community)? Aligned with the statewide plan for climate action (the Climate Action Framework), the Gold Leaf Challenge is a new Minnesota-based challenge to help communities take climate action. This session will provide an overview of the Gold Leaf Program, examples of community actions, and questions to consider how to prioritize your community's climate actions. Erica Bjelland has spent most of her career working on rural environment and energy projects. In the Brainerd Lakes Area, she worked on solar equity projects and education before working with small cities on the creation and implementation of Energy and Environment Action Plans with the Region Five Development Commission (R5DC). Erica was also a Land Use Planner working to preserve the beautiful, fragile mountain ecosystem in rural Boulder County, Colorado. She now serves as a Program Associate at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) for the GreenStep program and primarily works with small cities on sustainability actions.
Non-Cooperation 101 (Track 4)
Eóin Small, Organizer, Summit speaker, Rise & Repair
Description: Is this democracy? What is a democratic backslide? What tools can we draw upon to counter the rising threat of authoritarianism? What is the “inverted triangle”, what is “symbolic protest”, what are “Red Lines” & the “Pillars of Support”? In this Fireseed session, we’ll walk through some basic foundational understandings around the premise of non-cooperation, offering shared language which can inform the way we organize our communities and take action at this critical moment in the human story. Bio: Eóin is an artist, activist & community organizer living on the ancestral homelands of Dakota & Anishinaabe people in what has come to be called Minnesota and the broader Midwest and Great Lakes region. Much of Eoin’s work centers on the climate crisis & supporting indigenous-led movements to protect Water and Land. Eóin currently works as an organizer with Rise & Repair, a diverse alliance of people and organizations working to advance climate justice & Indigenous rights in Minnesota.
Planting as an Act of Prayer (Track 1 & 2)
Jane Johnson and Libby Sternhagen-Schwenck
Bethesda Lutheran, Detroit Lakes, MN
NW MN Synod
Description Coming Soon
“When our island is under water, will you let us live with you?” (Track 4)
Tammy Walhof, Lutheran Advocacy-Minnesota (LA-MN)
Kathy Chatelaine, LA-MN Policy Council and Southeastern Minnesota Synod
Description Coming Soon Bio: Tammy Walhof, Director, Lutheran Advocacy - Minnesota has a passion for faith and justice has led her to volunteer with low-income families in the U.S., work for six years in organizing and community development in Latin America through World Renew, travel to various African countries, and work in faith-based advocacy for more than two decades. Her background in public policy has served her in state government, her previous positions at Bread for the World, and as Director of Lutheran Advocacy-MN since 2014. She has expertise in many creation care, poverty, hunger, and related issues. In 2023, she served as an observer on behalf of the ELCA to COP 28, the International Climate Conference in Dubai (U.A.E.) , and in 2024 served as a virtual observer for COP 29 (held in in Baku, Azerbaijan). Tammy has a B.A. in History, Political Science, and Secondary Education, an M.A. in Public Policy Analysis and Administration, and has taken additional courses in theology, economics, climate change, and more. Kathy: An educator, Kathy has advocated for children throughout her adult life. As Assistant to the Bishop for Global Ministry in the Southeastern Minnesota Synod, ELCA, she continues to broaden her sphere of accompaniment of local and global congregations by discovering and connecting others to the Spirit’s amazing work throughout our interdependent world. Kathy and her husband, Dave, live in Owatonna and are part of the Trinity Lutheran family. They find joy in sharing life with their three adult children (and spouses) and three grandchildren. Reading, connecting with friends and family, experiencing music, and exploring God’s creation through hiking, canoeing, and kayaking are a few of Kathy’s favorite things.
Who is Your Next of Kin? A Guide to Kincentric Ecology: Lessons for Conservation, Justice, and Community Resilience (Track 1, 2, 3)
Annica Stiles, Environmental Advocate, Minneapolis Area Synod, Our Saviour’s, Minneapolis
Description: As we face an intimidating and uncertain future for our planet, the environment begs us for compassion and action. Kincentric Ecology and other Indigenous knowledge of land management and environmental protections provide a key framework for environmentalists and communities to restore relationships with the natural world in order to decolonize their work and enhance the socio-ecological resilience of those efforts within a contemporary system in North America. This workshop will walk-through how we can use Kincentric Ecology in our own faith and among our congregations to honor God’s sacred creation. Bio: Annica is an environmentalist with a focus in community centered conservation. She has recently moved back to Minnesota and is living in Minneapolis after completing her Environmental Studies degree from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. Annica has worked with various non-profits, from advocating for environmental policy in DC to conservation field work and environmental education. She currently attends Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in South Minneapolis and often St. Paul Lutheran Church in Wyoming, MN where her parents serve together.
From Ash to Action: a Lenten Series
The EcoFaith Summit Organizing Team has collaborated with The Ministry Lab, ISAIAH, Working Preacher, and numerous individuals to create From Ash to Action: Even the Stones Cry Out, a multifaceted Toolkit designed to encourage congregations into the work of community organizing and community building.
This Lenten Toolkit provides formation resources for Shrove Tuesday through Palm Sunday, unique worship outlines for each week of Lent, take-home spiritual practices and Community Action prompts geared to prepare congregations for ISAIAH's Palm Sunday Path and/or 2026 EcoFaith Summit of the Upper Midwest. These are two separate events, both highlighting the church's call to organize and engage in shaping the future God desires for our communities and planet.
A weekly support cohort will begin on Ash Wednesday with Dr. Dn. Diane Jacobson facilitating and EcoFaith Summit Organizing Team members joining in weekly. Find zoom link at this link.
We hope you'll encourage congregations and leaders to utilize the Toolkit as we all get ready for this year's Summit. Congregations new to organizing will find solid introductory materials. Congregations already actively engaged will find supplmental and at-home resources to encourage their good work.
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