Andromeda Galaxy | Photo by R. Craig Kochel

“How Surely Gravity's Law”
By Rainer Maria Rilke

How surely gravity’s law,
strong as an ocean current,
takes hold of the smallest thing
and pulls it toward the heart of the world.
Each thing —
each stone, blossom, child —
is held in place.
Only we, in our arrogance,
push out beyond what we each belong to
for some empty freedom.
If we surrendered
to earth’s intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.
Instead we entangle ourselves
in knots of our own making
and struggle, lonely and confused.
So like children, we begin again
to learn from the things,
because they are in God’s heart;
they have never left him.
This is what the things can teach us:
to fall,
patiently to trust our heaviness.
Even a bird has to do that
before he can fly.

Journey of the Universe in China

Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim traveled for five weeks in China from June 7th to July 12th. Here is an initial report on their China Summer 2024 Trip, which will be expanded in the coming months.

They offered a series of Journey of the Universe film screenings and lively discussions to receptive audiences in Beijing in the north and in the southwest province of Yunnan.

• June 18: Beijing University
• June 19: Chinese Academy of Social Sciences University (CASS), Beijing
• June 30:  Bivou Hotel, Lijiang, Yunnan 
• July 1: Linden Centre, Dali, Yunnan 
• July 4: Wild China Museum, Dali, Yunnan 

They also gave talks on “Ecological Civilization.” This is a 30 year effort of the Chinese to move from an industrial society with unlimited economic growth that is destroying ecosystems to a regenerative civilization that sustains the well-being of people and the planet. Please visit the newest section of the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology website: Ecological Civilization.

Upcoming Events

Journey of the Universe Film Screening
Yale Young Global Scholars (YYGS) 
New Haven, CT, USA 
July 28, 2024
2:00-5:00 pm ET

John Grim will return to host a Journey of the Universe screening and discussion with a diverse group of high school students at the Yale Young Global Scholars (YYGS) program.

Celebration Everywhere!  Delight in the Liturgy of Our Sacred Universe
Sisters of the Earth Community: 30th Anniversary Conference
August 22-25, 2024
Online

Payments by check only. 
Please mail your check in a timely way so as to confirm your registration. Payable to 'Sisters of Earth.' 
Mail to:
Sisters of Earth
200 Ricardo Rd.
Gabriola, BC V0R 1X1 Canada

Note: Intern'l postage is required.

Click here for more info and to register!

All attending the conference are encouraged to attend these two 1.5 hr programs offered this coming weekend Saturday / Sunday:

The Mysticism of Thomas Berry 
With Gail Worcelo
July 27, 2024
4pm EDT 

Click here for the Zoom link!
Zoom Room: 5655104539
Passcode: Earth

Thomas' Cosmic Liturgy 
With Maureen Wild
July 28, 2024
7:30pm EDT

Click here for the Zoom link!

The Mepkin Abbey Forum for Contemplative Ecology
With Fr. Diarmuid O’Murchu
August 5, 2024
7 pm EST
Online

Participants will reflect on a pre-recorded interview with Fr. Diarmuid O’Murchu, a social psychologist, member of the Sacred Heart Missionary Order, and author of Ecological Spirituality (Orbis Books, 2024).

Click here to sign up for the Forum.

The Collected Thoughts of Thomas Berry

Thomas Berry photo by Lou Niznik

Tucker and Grim’s teachers, Thomas Berry and Ted deBary, visited China in 1948 and became leading scholars and teachers of Asian traditions, especially Confucianism. Berry developed a History of Religions program at Fordham University, and de Bary created Asian studies at Columbia. 

June 1st was the 15th anniversary of Thomas Berry’s passing. In honor of his life and legacy, the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology released the final installment of The Collected Thoughts of Thomas Berry.

Listen to “Part 8: The Historical Mission of Our Times” with an introduction from Sam King.

Collected Thoughts on the Thomas Berry Website

Collected Thoughts on the Forum YouTube Channel

Recent Events

Cosmic Walk at The Liturgy Festival
Mission Farm with St. James Episcopal Church
Woodstock, VT, USA 
July 19-20, 2024 

The Liturgy Festival hosted by Mission Farm included a Cosmic Walk led by Sam King and a panel on the theme of “Transcendence in Nature.” The Festival featured several speakers, including Ursula Goodenough, a choir from England, and liturgies throughout the weekend. 

Click here to learn more!

Journey of the Universe Film Screening
Yale Young Global Scholars (YYGS) 
New Haven, CT, USA 
June 30th and July 14th

Rev. Nancy Wright and Sam King screened Journey of the Universe for two enthusiastic groups of high school students enrolled in the Science Program of the Yale Young Global Scholars (YYGS) program. One student from Hong Kong shared that, “I genuinely found the documentary really interesting…My favourite part was learning about density waves, as well as the ethical concerns behind how humans are exploiting resources on Earth.”

There will be a third screening on July 28th with Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim.

The Deeptime Network Celebrates In Person
Horn Antenna Event Report

On April 20th, the Deeptime Network joined with the town of Holmdel to celebrate the preservation of the Horn Antenna and the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMBR), evidence that the universe began in a fireball. Click on link below to see photos and read about a remarkable day in Holmdel, "The Bethlehem of the New Story," as deeptimer Karen Kudebeh calls it. 

Read more here! 

Mepkin Abbey Forum for Contemplative Ecology
Featuring Victoria Loorz
July 8, 2024

Sam King spoke with Victoria Loorz, a “wild church pastor,” “eco-spiritual director,” and co-founder of the Seminary for the Wild Earth, about her journey into ecospirituality and her book, Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred.

Click here to watch the recording. And click here to sign up for the Forum.

Videos

“How Science and Spirituality Split From One Another”
With Brian Thomas Swimme and Matthew Fox

In this video, Matthew and Brian Thomas take us back to the year 1600 to unpack the origins of this split between science and spirituality — and share how we can merge these seemingly disparate parts of life once again.

Click here to watch the video!

Cosmic Meditation

Did you know the universe has a background temperature? In this video, Orla Hazra and astronomer Stephan Martin demonstrate how to listen, for real, to the background radiation of the universe that bathes everything. How? Using a radio. 

Click here to watch the recording!

Essays

“Blue Diver, Pearl” by Amy Wright

“The Part of the Universe that Looks at Itself”
By Amy Wright

“I grew up on a farm in southwestern Virginia tucked between the Blue Ridge Mountains. Spending my childhood at the feet of this worn and plundered range, I developed a sense of the sublime that runs counter to the ennobling vision of the Romantics. Rather than elevate humanity to soaring heights, the Appalachian sublime carries us like pebbles into streams washed down from the peaks. Among these ridges and valleys, my sense of separation from the landscape eroded. Alongside these rounded ancient peaks, I belonged to a vast geological timescale, even though a human lifetime has a comparative span slimmer than a pine needle.”

Click here to read the essay! 


“Life in the Cosmos: Micro and Macro”
By Shoshanah Dubiner

“Some people see me as a colorist; others wonder whether I was a science major in college. It is true that I once worked in a science museum as an exhibit designer and that I have read many books on science, those written for nonscientists by outstanding science writers; but I do not have the patience to perform modern scientific research, nor to master math and chemistry, or to measure things and interact with modern laboratory equipment. I did enroll in a cell biology course in 2007 at Southern Oregon University, and ever since, my interest has primarily been in the world of the tiny, the forms of the microscopic. And yes, I do have and enjoy looking through my own microscope.

The teeming, abundant, astonishing world of organic forms is my language. Paintings are my medium.”

Click here to read the essay!

News Articles 
 

“For These Nearly Extinct Crocodiles, Life Found a Way”
By Austyn Gaffney. The New York Times, July 17, 2024.

“An Excavation in Wales Paints a Picture of Home Life 3,500 Years Ago” 
By Sonja Anderson. Smithsonian Magazine, July 5, 2024. 

“EU passes law to restore 20% of bloc’s land and sea by end of decade”
By Ajit Niranjan. The Guardian, June 17, 2024.

“Asian Elephants Bury Their Dead, New Research Suggests”
By Sarah Kuta. Smithsonian Magazine, March 11, 2024.

Online Learning

“Embodying Evolutionary Cosmology”
A 10-week cooperative inquiry course designed to awaken your participation as an integral member of the unfolding universe process.
With Ezekiel Fugate and Ari Makridakis
10 Wednesdays, June 12 - August 14, 2024
7:00-8:30 pm EST / 4:00-5:30 PST

Thomas Berry said that to take in a new cosmology is to become a new person. In this course, we will explore what it actually means to “take in” Evolutionary Cosmology by weaving together scholarly engagement (with thinkers such as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Thomas Berry, Brian Thomas Swimme, Freya Mathews, and Gregory Bateson), experiential activities, and critical reflection.  

Learn more and register here!

COSMOGENESIS: Autocosmology as a Spiritual Practice
Join this six-week course with Brian Thomas Swimme and Jennifer Morgan starting October 15th!

Click here for more info!