Environment: despair, no; hope, yes
Hope and despair were recurrent themes when activists in the climate change and environmental justice communities came together for the April “Environmental (Dis)Locations Conference” hosted by Yale Divinity School. Early on in the three-day conference, David Orr of Oberlin College laid the groundwork for a theological approach to the environmental crisis by calling despair a “sin,” warning that despair over environmental degradation can be a “self-fulfilling prophecy,” and challenging listeners to adopt a “hopeful” posture that can lead to action. “I would submit that the challenge of climate change is more than replacing our lightbulbs or measuring our carbon footprint,” asserted Mary Evelyn Tucker, who holds joint appointments in the schools of divinity and environmental studies, and at the college in religious studies. “Climate change is at its heart a moral issue, calling into question who we are as humans and how we will survive as a species on a finite planet. … Issues of justice and compassion are at the core of these moral arguments.”
Four tapped for alumni awards
Winnowed from a strong field of international candidates, four YDS graduates are recipients of the school’s 2010 Distinguished Alumni Awards. They span four decades of YDS education and will be honored at Convocation and Reunions 2010, October 11–14. Honorees include Lillian F. Daniel ’93MDiv, senior minister at the First Congregational Church in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, Distinction in Congregational Ministry; Barbara K. Lundblad ’79MDiv, the Joe R. Engle Professor of Preaching at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, Distinction in Theological Education; Nancy Jo Kemper ’67BD, former executive director of the Kentucky Council of Churches, William Sloane Coffin ’56 Award for Peace and Justice; and Nai-Wang Kwok ’66BD, past head of the Hong Kong Christian Council and the founder and director of the Hong Kong Christian Institute, Lux et Veritas.
YDS capital campaign close to goal
At the end of April, as the university’s Yale Tomorrow capital campaign approached the beginning of its fifth and final year, Yale Divinity School was just shy of the $30 million mark toward a goal of $38 million. While gifts of $1 million or more have provided a foundation for the YDS campaign, smaller gifts from alumni have played a significant role as well in reaching the milestone. One very successful “mini-campaign” within the framework of the overall campaign was the Divinity School Challenge, in which two Yale College alumni established a dollar-for-dollar matching fund that yielded $1 million primarily through gifts from alumni. “The campaign has had a wonderfully sustained momentum,” said director of development Constance Royster ’72. “We now have to make that final push to the finish line.”
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