Last fall, Duke Divinity School’s Transformative Preaching Lab led a cohort learning opportunity focused on training preachers to address issues relating to climate justice. “Common Home: Preaching, Justice, and Creation Care” brought together preachers from around the country to six online sessions and one on-campus residential retreat focused on small group conversation, sermon workshops and interdisciplinary educational opportunities. The Rev. Dr. Jerusha Matsen Neal, associate professor of homiletics, led sessions that included discussions with Duke scientists from the Nicholas School of the Environment, pastoral care practitioners and biblical scholars. The cohort engaged Dr. Neal’s recent book Holy Ground: Climate Change, Preaching and the Apocalypse of Place (Baylor University Press, 2024), which draws on the voices of displaced communities in the biblical text and the contemporary context to reframe preaching’s significance for creation’s thriving. Ten preachers took part in the cohort, over half of whom are leaders in their denomination. When Hurricane Helene hit, the network provided support for pastors in the cohort from Western North Carolina. Duke Divinity School is building on this class to create a Climate Justice and Pastoral Care online course available in multiple languages for an international audience, which will also include conversations with scientists from across Duke University. READ MORE.