This event is part of our 12 Days of Peace virtual event series.
What does it mean for Christians to build peace with the earth? What are the biblical implications of Christ renewing all things, and how do we join Christ in that work where we are today?
Join us for this workshop to focus on our relationship to land, water, our non-human community, and our neighbors who bear the brunt of ecological destruction. Together we will discuss what the Scriptures say about our relationship to the earth, how Scripture applies to the crises of our time, and how we might put our Christian faith into action. We will share hopeful stories of changemakers who bring faith to bear in healing the wounds of creation. Joe Alexander-Meinholz brings his experience from the frontlines of Indigenous-led environmental justice on the Mississippi River and the farmlands of the Upper Midwest, while Kirsten Schlewitz talks about everyday actions individuals and communities can take to make a difference in how we come into communion with creation.
MEET THE PANEL
Joe Alexander-Meinholz
Joe resides in Des Moines, Iowa, where he is equipping Christians to build peace with the Earth by addressing harmful farming practices, the clean water crisis, and the church-supported colonial history of land theft. He guides churches to be more connected to the land, water, and fellow species where they worship, and to reckon with the racial injustice that shapes how we relate to Creation. Joe serves on the spiritual care team of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, a movement of churches working on Indigenous justice issues in North America.
Previously, Joe served as a community organizer for Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light, where he mobilized faith communities to engage in solidarity with Anishinaabe water protectors as they worked to stop Enbridge’s Line 3 oil pipeline from crossing the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Joe also worked in his own neighborhood in Minneapolis to halt toxic pollutants and reclaim neighborhood control of abandoned industrial areas threatening the health of neighbors. Based on these experiences, he is passionate about Christians learning to see Christ in Creation, where salvation means daily bread for all, rest for the land, home for the sojourner, justice for the displaced, and reconciliation of all things in Christ.
Joe holds a Master of Divinity with an emphasis in Missional Innovation and Conflict Transformation from Duke Divinity School.
Kirsten Schlewitz
Kirsten Schlewitz educates current and future pastors and church leaders on how peacebuilding can bridge their congregations’ spiritual practices and active engagement in their communities.
Kirsten embraces digital ministry and virtual education because, as a neurodivergent woman with chronic illness and hidden disability, it is vitally important to her to reach people who sometimes feel left out of changemaking efforts or excluded from communities due to mental and/or physical difference.
She lives far away from her native Pacific Northwest because she met her Yugoslav husband while studying peace and reconciliation in Bosnia, and they and their two cats moved to Belgrade, Serbia in 2016. There, she lives out her commitment to peacebuilding by amplifying the voices of Balkan nonprofits dedicated to justice, reconciliation, and social changemaking, widening their reach so they can attract more people to their events and secure more funding for future campaigns.