The air you are breathing has animated countless beings before you. The soil on which you stand carries memory and possibility. The water you drink has flowed through the vascular system of a tree. You are participating in an integral ecology. Your role within this reality is unique, and your community’s role is also unique. From restoring an ecosystem to visiting someone who is imprisoned, to volunteering at a food bank, to addressing redlining, to raising a family, each of us has a role to play — if only we take the time to listen and uncover where we are being invited.
Join us for an emergent day of reflection that balances contemplative practices with action. To that end, we will literally get our hands dirty at the nexus of ecology, spirituality, and care for the other. Through prayer, individual reflection, shared experiences, and ecological insight, we will begin to uncover what already exists within us and in our communities — a hidden wholeness. Together, we will listen for opportunities to act prophetically and with imagination in our homes, parishes, and communities. In doing so, we begin to rediscover a deeper unity that has been present all along. Lunch is included. Guided by Jarrod Kinkley.
Jarrod Kinkley is the founder and Director of the Cooperative for Integral Ecology — a nonprofit that accompanies individuals and faith communities as they live into integral ecology through action and contemplation. He is also the Director of Ecology and Environment for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Baden, stewarding seventy-five acres in partnership with the Sisters, the staff, and those who call the land home. Jarrod is a relational leader in education and nonprofit management, cultivating connection and facilitating organizational growth. He has supported national nonprofits through strategic project management, conference facilitation, retreat design, and more. A poet at heart, Jarrod’s experience also includes teaching, collegiate and high school campus ministry, and thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail and the Camino de Santiago. He is rooted in the North Hills of Pittsburgh, PA, where he lives with his wife and three daughters, and operates a backyard native plant nursery grounded in contemplative spirituality and integral ecology.