Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns

Forum on Faith, Economy and Ecology:

Moving beyond growth to a sustainable Earth community

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Saturday, May 2

Welcome/Logistics and opening reflection: The Universe Story (PowerPoint presentation)

Keynote presentation (PDF file): Ched Myers

Panel 1: Connecting our lifestyles to values of faith and conscience: Articulating the values that could carry a new economic model and grounding our political work and cultural analysis in the expression of our beliefs.

Panel 2: Connecting economic models to the real economy: Presenting key ideas -- ecological economics, steady state economy, internalizing real costs of economic activity, addressing corporate power, etc.

Video conference with Michael Northcott

Sunday, May 3

Ecumenical worship

Panel 3: Connecting the dots: Local economies and the global economy: Growth vs. development discussion; local and regional economies in the U.S. and around the world

Short bios for Forum speakers

Gar Alperovitz has had a distinguished career as a historian, political economist, activist, writer, and government official. His most recent book, co-authored with Lew Daly, Unjust Deserts: How The Rich Are Taking Our Common Inheritance and Why We Should Take It Back was published in 2008. Another of his books, America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming our Wealth, our Liberty and our Democracy, delves into the issues of localization and scale. He is currently the Lionel R. Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland and the president of the National Center for Economic and Security Alternatives. He is a former Fellow of Kings College, Cambridge University; Harvard’s Institute of Politics; the Institute for Policy Studies; and a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution.

Sarah Anderson has done extensive research and writing on the impact of the international financial institutions and free trade and investment policies on inequality, poverty, environmental sustainability, and human rights as the Global Economy Project Director at the Institute for Policy Studies. Sarah is a co-author of the books Field Guide to the Global Economy and Alternatives to Economic Globalization. Sarah is also a member of the Strategic Corporate Initiative.

CEDICAM is a collective of Mixteca indigenous in Oaxaca, Mexico whose sustainable agricultural and reforestation methodologies have reversed the process of desertification in their region and contributed in significant ways to the resurgence of a vibrant local economy; Jesus Leon of CEDICAM was the North American recipient of the 2008 Goldman Prize. Fermina Zarate will represent CEDICAM at the Forum.

Larry Chang is a psycho-spiritual counselor with Science of Mind and Zen study, imagineer, author of Wisdom for the Soul and founder of EcolocityDC, which 1) aims to create a permaculture intentional community and 2) works with other groups to launch DC2020Vision, a project to make the District of Columbia carbon-neutral by 2020.

Brian Czech, Ph.D. is the president of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy. As a certified wildlife biologist, Czech applies his training and experience to economic issues, especially macroeconomic policy. He is a visiting assistant professor at Virginia Tech University, where he teaches ecological economics and endangered species policy. A prolific author, Brian wrote the book Shoveling Fuel for a Runaway Train, which calls for an end to reckless economic growth.

Geoffrey Garver is an environmental consultant and adjunct professor of law at the University of Montreal and Laval University (Quebec City). He is co-author of Right Relationship: Building a Whole Earth Economy. From 2000-2007, he was a senior official at North America's Commission for Environmental Cooperation in Montreal. He was an environmental attorney with the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 1989-2000. Geoff grew up in a Quaker family in rural Western New York and is on the boards of the Quaker Institute for the Future and the Bolivian Quaker Education Fund.

Keith Helmuth is an entrepreneur, business manager, and community development activist, living in Woodstock, New Brunswick. He is a founding board member of Quaker Institute for the Future, a member of the Moral Economy Project, and contributor to Right Relationship: Building a Whole Earth Economy.

Rogate Mshana, a Tanzanian, is executive secretary for economic justice for the World Council of Churches (WCC) and author of several books and numerous articles, including Passion for Another World and Wealth Creation and Justice.

Ched Myers, a fifth generation Californian, lives in a small intentional community in Oak View, CA, near Los Angeles. Over the past three decades he has worked with many peace and justice organizations and movements, and has written a number of books, articles and essays. Today with Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries he focuses on building capacity for biblical literacy, church renewal and faith-based witness for justice.

Michael Northcott is a professor of ethics at Edinburgh University and author of Moral Climate: The Ethics of Global Warming. Best known for his work in environmental theology and ethics and his book The Environment and Christian Ethics (CUP 1996), Northcott has written more than 60 scholarly articles and is presently pursuing several research projects including an edited volume on the theological implications of Darwin's Origin of Species, an interdisciplinary collaborative work on the theological and ethical implications of the present extinction crisis, entitled The Genesis of Extinction.

Margaret Swedish is the author of Living Beyond the End of the World: A Spirituality of Hope and the director of Spirituality and Ecological Hope, a project focused on exploring the values, the vision, and the spiritual resources that might nurture a new human community in the face of the combined crises of climate change, living beyond the means of the Earth, and the wars and tensions resulting from these crises.

Laura Ruth Yordy is an assistant professor of philosophy and religion at Bridgewater College in Virginia. In her book Green Witness: Ecology, Ethics, and the Kingdom of God, Yordy encourages readers to approach Christian environmental work from the perspective of God’s promise thus inspiring them to be faithful witnesses to the healing presence of God in our world.

Fermina Zarate Domínguez, an indigenous Chontal from Oaxaca, has worked with CEDICAM since 2003 in community nutrition. As a promoter of sustainable agriculture, she has travelled to Brazil, Cuba, the United States and Guatemala. She is the mother of three children.

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