Putting Ecospirituality to Work: Environmental Ministry and Chaplaincy

Environmental ministry/chaplaincy, sometimes called eco-chaplaincy, is an emerging practice discipline that has not been systematically explored. This paper describes a beginning exploratory process using two data streams: information gleaned from the Web, and an online survey and interview of eco-chaplains. For the survey, eco-chaplaincy was broadly defined as “those working at the spiritual interface of humans and Nature/the environment.” Results reveal a still-emerging discipline with the potential to develop into an ecospiritual subspecialty. Both the online group and the survey cohort come to the practice of eco-chaplaincy from varied spiritual and experiential backgrounds. They are drawn to the work through recognition of a broad societal spiritual crisis and the urgency of the resulting environmental, social justice, economic, and political crises. Descriptions, practices and activities, and organization of eco-chaplaincy are evolving. The basic questions “What do eco-chaplains do?” and “How does one prepare to be an eco-chaplain?” are addressed.