Loading...Cindy Coe hopes to make environmental education not only a part of Christian formation, but of basic human responsibility and awareness as well. Coe has been awarded a Justice and Advocacy Fellowship for Environmental Stewardship from The Episcopal Church.
The Fellowship for Environmental Stewardship is one of two fellowships that are new initiatives of the Church. The second is for addressing domestic poverty in communities. The fellowships, in support of Marks of Mission 4 and 5, provide financial support for service, professional development and education to recipients.
Coe is sponsored by the DuBoseConferenceCenter, an Episcopal facility owned by the three Episcopal dioceses located in Tennessee. She wrote in her application: “This fellowship will introduce environmental education to young people through summer camp activities. Leader training workshops will also be offered to share this program with other camps, schools and parishes.”
A Christian Formation Committee member in the Diocese of East Tennessee, she worked as a garden teacher at the Episcopal School of Knoxville. She said the experience “opened my eyes to the need for children and youth to have direct interaction with nature in their daily lives. From my observations, time in nature brings to children serenity, a quiet environment in which they might listen to or converse with God, and fulfilling manual work that they do not seem to get in regular school and household life.”
Coe has most recently worked with Episcopal Relief and Development. She wrote the Abundant Life Garden Project® resource specifically to engage children and youth in the ministry of the agency. Through this work, she discovered a passion for nature that she would like to develop further.
She said one of the best ways of highlighting environmental issues is to engage young people. “My own environmentalism began in elementary school, on one of the first ‘Earth Day’ celebrations, when my class left the school building to observe the nastiness of trash thrown along a creek bed just a few blocks from school. As a young adult, I was further engaged by a college seminar in which a professor took the class to observe streams fouled by strip mining and other sites damaged by human neglect of the environment,” she said.
While serving as a Mark 5 Fellow, Coe says she will continue to engage with Christian formation ministers, youth leaders, and teachers serving in Episcopal institutions to both share her findings and learn from others.
Read The Episcopal Church Media Release announcing fellowship recipients here.
