Welcome to Season 4!
This fall, we’re back–with eight new episodes plus one bonus episode. This season we’re focusing on churches and Christian communities who are learning how to address the climate crisis together, as an essential aspect of their discipleship. We have a terrific variety of guests to share with you, and we’re confident you’ll discover some wisdom to share with your own faith community.
I hope you’ll subscribe now to the Refugia Podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Episodes drop weekly starting September 14 through November 9.
Just a reminder that the first three seasons still make for great listening. They are available as resources for you to use. You can explore refugia with activists, clergy, artists, biologists, theologians, writers, journalists, and more, just by listening to the first three seasons.
Thanks for listening!
What is the Refugia Podcast about?
Refugia is a biological term for habitats in nature where life endures in times of crisis. In the four seasons of the Refugia Podcast, we have explored the concept of refugia both literally and as a metaphor, discovering how people of faith can become people of refugia—nurturing life-giving spaces in the earth, in our human cultural systems, and in our spiritual communities even in this time of severe disturbance.
For grammar geeks: “Refugia” is plural. “Refugium” is singular. I try to keep this straight, but both I and my guests mess it up sometimes. Meanwhile, the phrase “people of refugia” seems to reconstrue the word as a singular quality or state of being. I like this term enough, obviously, to put up with the confusing linguistic issues involved!
Refugia Episodes
Refugia Podcast Episode 35 Peacemaking at the River: Doug Kaufman and the Anabaptist Climate Collaborative
Doug Kaufman directs the Anabaptist Climate Collaborative, an organization that leads climate justice initiatives from an Anabaptist faith perspective. Doug and his team support Mennonite and other Anabaptist churches, helping to build networks, train leaders, and empower climate-related initiatives. Doug describes environmental work as a form of peacemaking, a way of countering the slow violence of actions that cause and exacerbate climate change. Thanks to Doug for geeking out with me on theology and offering some glimpses of Mennonite climate work.
Refugia Podcast Episode 34 A Parable of Redemption: Dave Celesky and Redeem MI Land
Today I’m talking with Rev. Dr. Dave Celesky, pastor of Unity Reformed Church in Norton Shores, Michigan. I’ll be asking Dave about the nonprofit organization he founded called Redeem MI Land, with “MI” spelled “M-I” for Michigan. The idea is to have churches or faith groups purchase a piece of degraded land, and, with community partners, redeem and heal it. Dave speaks eloquently about how this work can serve as an embodied parable for redemption and create vital community connections through a shared project.
Refugia Podcast Episode 33 The Garden Became the Steeple: Heber Brown and the Black Church Food Security Network
Today, I’m talking with Rev. Dr. Heber Brown, founder of the Black Church Food Security Network. Beginning with a small congregation, a 1500-square foot garden, and a divine calling, the Black Church Food Security Network now connects 250 Black churches and 100 Black farmers in the Mid-Atlantic states and beyond. Reverend Brown’s story weaves through issues of health justice, food security and climate resilience.
Refugia Podcast Episode 32 It All Started with Styrofoam Cups: Judy Hinck and Mount Olive Lutheran
It All Started with Styrofoam Cups: Judy Hinck and Mount Olive Lutheran
#31 Artful Wildness: Biologist Dave Koetje Reflects on Season 3
In the face of climate change and other ecological disturbances, you want to try to enhance biodiversity in your own yard. And as people do this, they can not only experiment to try to find combinations of biodiversity that can actually thrive under new climate conditions, but at the same time, you’re also trying to nurture your own soul, because, as so many people have reported, one way to have hope for the future is to plant gardens.
#30 Fortress Press Roundtable: Sharon Delgado and Talitha Amadea Aho on Sentinel Experiences, the Clash of Kingdoms, and Caring Well for Young People in Crisis Times
I preach, I teach, I write, and so on, for that purpose: to hope that through my puny efforts God can help to rouse the church community. That’s what I think the church needs the most, is to be roused related to our social issues.
#29 Climate Hospitality: Karyn Bigelow and Avery Davis Lamb on Creation Justice Ministries and Resilient Church Communities
What we mean when we say “climate resilience” is not simply the ability to bounce back after climate impacts and disasters, but the ability to bounce forward. So seeing these moments we’re in of climate breakdown not simply as a time to rebuild what has been destroyed, but to kind of reconstitute our life together to transform how we live together in the beloved community.
#28 Becoming The Refuge: Rev. Gerry Koning on Sensory Sanctuaries, Poo-Sniffing Dogs, and the Transition to a New Kind of Church
I can’t step back anymore. I’m committed. I’m going to go to the end with this. And I’m just going to let the results be in God’s hand.
Episode 27 God is Still Speaking: Rev. Jim Antal on Communal Vocation, Golden Rule 2.0, and Our Urgent Moral Challenge
If we are to be faithful, we must address the emergent moral challenges. What could be more of an emergent moral challenge than climate change?
Episode 26 At School in Community: Ruth Padilla DeBorst on Intentional Christian Community, Resisting the Allure of Empire, and Planetary Gardening
A church of refugia will be one that is introspective enough to admit, to confess, to lament, to recognize that complicity; to seek then to open up to the work of the Spirit to convict of truth and to bring change, to change those hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.
Episode 25 Houses of the Future: Rabbi Dean Shapiro on Biblical Stories, Renewed Ritual, and Facing Climate Change as Religious Communities
We want to create a shared space and curriculum through which religious leaders from a wide, wide range of wisdoms will produce and share knowledge with one another and train to lead their communities. And this is all rooted in the conviction that we can, and in fact, we must make a meaningful contribution to ensuring a livable planet and a future in which wellbeing is obtainable for all humankind.
Episode 24 The Arc of Movement History: May Boeve on Bridging Refugia through Global Connection, Leveraging Prophetic Speech, and Looking into the Abyss with Faith
So much of the social change we need to make to confront climate change requires community structures, requires people working together to make change. And you can create new structures, and a lot of people do, but there are also a lot of existing structures, and a lot of them are tied to church and faith in some way.
Background
Refugia are places of shelter where life endures in times of crisis. From out of these small sanctuaries, life re-emerges, and the world is renewed. We’re exploring what it means for people of faith to be people of refugia. How can we create safe places of flourishing— “micro-countercultures” where we gain strength and spiritual capacity to face the challenges ahead?
Host Debra Rienstra interviews a different guest each week, exploring the evocative idea of refugia from a variety of perspectives, from biology to worship to politics.
This is a podcast, ultimately, about watching for places where God is working at renewal—of the earth, of the church, culture, and society. It’s about seeking how we might participate willingly and courageously in that divine work.
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the team of people who made this project possible.
Thanks to all my guests, who were so generous with their time and wisdom. I’m proud to put your work on display whenever I can.
Thanks to Kathleen Dean Moore, whose book Great Tide Rising inspired the idea for the podcast and who continues to inspire me with her prophetic voice, artistic skill, and personal integrity.
Thanks to the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship for generous support for Season 4. Thanks to Colin Hoogerwerf for working audio miracles as producer. Thanks to Michal Rubingh for ably editing the transcripts. And thanks to Ron Rienstra for all manner of support in creating Season 4.
Thanks to David Wunder along with the Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship for providing support for Season 3 and to the several Centers and Institutes at Calvin University that provided funding to support an experimental pilot project during the summer of 2019.
Thanks to my excellent assistants for Season 3, Ian Gilbert and Kathryn Gardner (audio editing) and Michal Rubingh (text editing).
Thanks to my excellent assistants for Season 2, Josh Parks (text editing and publicity) and Philip Rienstra (audio editing). Could not have done another season without you.
For Season 1, thanks to Calvin students Kayla Cooper and Garrett Strpko for doing so much of the recording and post-production, and to Jordan Van Eerden for batting cleanup. Thanks to Lauren Cole for much transcription editing and for developing the look of the podcast. Professors are not necessarily the most tech-savvy and we tend to be reclusive, but we can learn. Thanks for your patience with us.
Thanks to Michaela Osborne and Stephanie Boer for vital logistical support during Season 1.
Finally, huge thanks to John Hwang, whose passion and commitment fired me up and made all this possible. Rest in peace, rise in glory, John.
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