Woke Oregon chaplain is helping eco-warriors ‘say goodbye to species’ while activists deal with anxiety from ‘climate grief’
An Oregon chaplain is helping eco-warriors cope with ‘climate grief’ as part of a growing movement of religious leaders addressing people’s eco-induced existential anxiety.
Rev. Liz Olson, a trained hospital chaplain, now runs the Sustaining Climate Activists group after turning her to those struggling with ‘saying goodbye to species.’
Her group’s difficulties were profiled this week by NPR, which sat in one of her sessions as members – reportedly made up almost entirely of retired adults – talked through their issues.
‘I need support in my grief process,’ attendee Diane Ware told the outlet.
Rev. Liz Olson, a trained hospital chaplain, is leading ‘climate grief’ religious sessions as part of a growing movement of religious leaders helping people handle eco-induced anxiety
Climate chaplaincy is a new strain of religious teachings, and notably veers away from focusing on faith in favor of climate anxiety.
Olson’s group meets at a public library once a month, as attendees say it is one of their only sources of support over their fears of global warming.
For Ware, she began attending after horrific wildfires swept through the Hawaiian island of Lahaina, in August 2023.
Despite reports that the wildfires may have been triggered by downed powerlines, Ware said she was upset by the failure of some news organizations to link the tragedy to climate change.
‘I just thought how on Earth are we ever going to get this problem solved if we can’t even talk about it and get good information from the newspapers that we think are the guardians of truth?’ she told NPR.
‘And then I just thought, ‘Wow, I am fried.”
The group began in 2016 when activists affiliated with the Southern Oregon Climate Action Now group panicked over the election of Donald Trump.
‘Trump’s election freaked everyone out,’ Alan Journet, a co-founder, said. ‘Group members wanted a way to deal with fears and anxieties about climate and politics.’
Olson’s sessions allow members to talk out their fears over global warming, and reportedly include passing around of a box of Kleenex and using a color wheel of emotions
A group member said she began attending the sessions after the huge wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Lahaina last year
At the recent meeting sat in on by NPR, Olson worked through the methods she uses to help her constituents through the day.
‘Just breathe normally,’ she told the group.
‘You can use this breathing any time you are panicking or worrying, knowing that we have this symbiotic relationship with the plants and the trees, and that as you are exhaling they are inhaling, and as you are inhaling, they are exhaling. We are always connected to the plants and the trees.’
While the rest of the group discussion was reportedly confidential, it included the passing around of a box of Kleenex and a color wheel of emotions such as fear, anger, loneliness, and anxiety over a warming world.
Ware and others said that at the end of the sessions, they have enough strength to carry on after realizing their years of focus on climate change made little difference.
The retiree said that while she often feels despair, she leaves the meetings with a renewed hope.
‘It may not come during the meeting or right after,’ Ware said. ‘But it comes, like a cat creeping on, when my whole being is ready for it. It returns me to myself with a different level of awareness and trust.’
Group members say their eco-anxiety sessions were launched in 2016 because the election of Donald Trump ‘freaked everyone out’
Olsen’s group was born out of the newfound rise of ‘eco-chaplaincy’, which only begun in recent years and is not a recognized branch of any church.
The title may have been invented by student Sarah Vekasi at Naropa University, and was popularized in 2015 by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen when she wrote of ‘A Call for a New Kind of Chaplain.’
Her article, published by the Association of Professional Chaplains, read: ‘We are stuck here on our shrinking, warming planet that we love so much and depend on so totally… We are all in the sort of place where a chaplain’s presence is needed.’
With roughly 100 eco chaplains working today, their methods take a variety of forms, mostly similar to Olsen’s group sessions as well as one-on-one therapy.
One chaplain, Rev. Alison Cornish, told NPR that she was surprised when she offered a training course for other reverends that drew 80 applicants.
‘They are asking how do we deal with regret, with complicity, with lament, with saying goodbye to species,’ she said.
‘They are creating rituals that honor all of those.’