Hope for Creation draws speakers for environmental panel

The 2024 Hope for Creation conference joins with the EXPO '74's 50th anniversary to host a panel discussion on "Spirituality and Environmental Care" at 7 p.m., Wednesday, May 29, at St John's Cathedral, 127 E 12th Ave. The session is co-sponsored by the cathedral's Environmental Stewardship Committee and Tribal Culture pillars of EXPO.

Leaders from five spiritual and creation-care traditions will offer their thoughts and respond to questions.

They are Marqus Cole from Georgia Interfaith Power and Light, Page Checketts from the Mormon Environmental Stewardship Alliance, Yoshi Silverstein from Mitsui Collective, Barry Moses from the Spokane Tribe and Melanie Mullen from the national Episcopal Church.

Warren Seyler from the Spokane Tribe and John Wallingford from St. John's Episcopal Cathedral will moderate the session.

There will also be a speaker's coffee reception at 9:30 a.m., Thursday, May 30, at St. John's, followed at 11:30 a.m. at Temple Beth Shalom, 1322 E. 30th Ave., by the speakers joining Adam Bartholomew of Gonzaga University for a discussion on "The Meaning of Jubilee: The 50th Year," in the context of celebrating Expo. 

That afternoon at Riverfront Park, there will be a presentation on "The Embodiment of Faith" by Yoshi, with Erin Heyamoto from Eclipse Yoga. 

The annual Healing of the Earth Vigil will follow this session at 5:30 p.m., in the Lilac Bowl. It is organized by the Faith Leaders and Leaders of Conscience. 

At 7:30 p.m., Thursday, a discussion of priorities of Interfaith Power and Light will be led by Marqus and Melanie, joined by AC Churchill, executive director of Washington State Interfaith Power and Light.

On Friday, May 31, Inland Northwest Lands Conservancy docent Andi Chatburn will lead a hike up Steven's Creek so visitors can experience Spokane's natural environment. 

On Saturday, June 1, Dri Chatburn will lead a walk at the James Slavin Conservation area to teach about the Lake Missoula floods.

Marqus will preach at an environmental worship service at St. John's at 5:30 p.m., Friday, May 31. Sunday, June 2, he will preach at Immanuel Spokane, Melanie will preach at St. John's, and Page will speak at an evening gathering of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints. 

Page is chair for the Mormon Environmental Stewardship Alliance, co-founder of the Utah Childcare Cooperative, secretary of the Utah Public Health Association and president of a local women's organization in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

She graduated from Brigham Young University in nursing and worked at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in medical oncology before moving to the Bay area, where she shifted to liver and kidney transplants. She holds master's degrees from the University of Utah in public health and public policy.

Marqus is a Public Voices Fellow with the Op-Ed Project in partnership with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, a Grist 50 Fixer and organizing director with Georgia Interfaith Power & Light.

As an attorney, he promotes racial, environmental and biblical justice by organizing people and communities for reconciliation and restoration.

Marqus lives and works in a hinge community at a historic moment for climate action. He shares stories and teaches others to share stories to bridge the gap between stakeholder communities and the policies they need. He engages communities from his experience as a Black, millennial, professional of faith working in the civic arena in the Bible Belt.

Yoshi is founder and executive director of Mitsui Collective, a nonprofit that cultivates pathways towards Jewish embodiment with a vision of activating thriving, resilient, healthy and diverse communities that embody Jewish values of equity, justice, compassion and belonging.

A Chinese-Ashkenazi-American Jew and a multidisciplinary practitioner of embodied creative expression and spiritual exploration, Yoshi is a 2022 Pomegranate Prize recipient from The Covenant Foundation, and a 2021 "Grist 50 Fixer" who seeks to build a more just and equitable future.

Yoshi, who grew up in Spokane and now lives in Cleveland, earned a master's degree in landscape architecture at the University of Maryland with a thesis on Jewish landscape journey and experience. He has certificates in spiritual and social entrepreneurship, permaculture design and environmental education.

Melanie has been director of reconciliation, justice and creation care in the office of the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church USA in Washington, D.C., since 2017. She works on domestic poverty, racial reconciliation, justice, stewardship and the church's United Thank Offering.

A community organizer and an ordained Episcopal priest, she holds a masters of divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary and a bachelor's degree in history from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Barry Moses co-founded Spokane Language House, a native-led nonprofit, in 2015 to increase the number of speakers of Salish. The program is one of immersion learning. His bachelor's degree in Spanish and secondary education is from Eastern Washington University and his master's degree in education is from Whitworth University.

He worked to gain proficiency in Spokane Salish, Kalispel Salish and Spanish, while teaching secondary and college courses in English, Spokane Salish and Spanish.

For information, email jcwallingford@gmail.com.