Regeneration and Resilience for Young Adults in Climate Crisis
September 30 - October 2
In the Bible, the wilderness is the site of incredible revelation, discernment, and learning. John baptizes in the wilderness; Jesus prayerfully wrestles with his responsibility to teach and heal here; and, most notably, Israel flees to the wilderness to escape enslavement, learning there how God intends for them to be a liberated people.
At the Wilderness School, you are invited to return to this site of transformation for our spiritual ancestors and wrestle with the one of the most pressing issues of our generation: climate crisis.
On the shores of Thumb Lake in Northern Michigan, we will practice gratitude for the life-sustaining gifts of creation; we will lament for environmental degradation and the ways it impacts the poor and people of color first and most; and we will imagine ways to practice resilience and resistance amidst this existential crisis.
Our time together will draw from the tools and stories of the Christian tradition, the spiritual practices of Joanna Macy’s The Work That Reconnects, and lessons from the earth itself.
This retreat is for young adults aged 18 to 35(ish), who have inherited the already-apparent effects of this crisis as well as the responsibility to slow this degradation for future generations.
Thanks to a grant from the Michigan Conference of the UMC’s Board of Young People’s Ministries, this weekend retreat is priced at $15 for students and $30 for non-student young adults. Full and partial scholarships are available to those unable to pay these fees.