Science & Faith Intersections
Presentations:
God's Voice in Ocean Wonder, Ruin, and Restoration:
The Call of Faith to Act NOW
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As director of the Interfaith Oceans, Lorbiecki shares the delights and the destruction of the oceans. She makes people aware of the sad realities of rising seas and refugees, ocean acidification, plastic trash, human slavery involved with some seafood, the difficult lives of the coastal poor, and the decline in many of our beloved marine species--and what they can do and why.
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"Growing Faith in the Oceans' Future:
The Work of Interfaith Oceans"
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This speech will energize your church, synagogue, or community in joining the urgent world-wide effort to apply our values to protecting oceans and everyone who lives on the water planet. She explains how Interfaith Oceans is based on shared principles across all major faiths -- and how people are honoring World Oceans Day and speaking out for marine sanctuaries.
Presentations:
Is God an Environmentalist? And What Does that Even Mean?
What does faith have to tell us in a world filled with natural wonders, yet wracked by climate change concerns and ecological crises?
Dynamic speaker Marybeth Lorbiecki dives deep into this sea of questions and longings, exploring the common principles of care for creation and the poor that bind most major faiths and spiritual traditions of the world, with a special focus on Judea-Christian and Catholic teachings.
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How the Christian Faith Calls Believers to Care for God's Creation--he has studied the Bible in this regard and can help audiences see how their faith fits in with ecological challenges and opportunities facing them and the world as a whole, particularly showing the effects of environmental damage on the poor and marginalized.
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How Laudato Si Can Transform Us , the Church, and the World -Having Following St. Francis: John Paul II's Call for Ecological Actions and worked with the Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace, she can particularly talk about Pope Francis' encyclical: Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home.
When we think of climate change, most of us face it with fear or denial. What can be done?
Using vibrant and inspiring stories, quotations, science, and solutions, Lorbiecki offers a fresh look at what seem intractable problems. She calls Christians back to Scripture and science for wisdom, and uncovers not only the challenge God is giving us, but the spiritual, social, and economic rewards that can come to us personally and communally if we choose to change. It isn't quick or easy, but is spiritual growth ever quick or easy? Yet is there hope and joy? Yes!
For Roman Catholic audiences, Lorbiecki specifically highlights the teachings of St. John Paul II and Pope Francis, which she collected for her book Following St. Francis: John Paul II's Call for Ecological Action (Rizzoli Ex Libris, 2014). It has won acclaim from the Catholic press and gratitude from Catholic leaders. Pope Benedict XVI and the presidents of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and Pontifical Council of Justice and Peace wrote her personal thank yous for this book. She will be giving a presentation to the national convention of the Catholic Honor Society -- Kappa Gamma Pi-- in June 2015 -- The Call to Renew the Face of the Earth: Listening to Pope Francis, St. John Paul II, and Scripture
