McGowan MG100
McGowan Building
411 Pacific St
Monterey, CA 93940
View in Campus Map

Free
Open to the Public

Deborah Streeter, woman with long hair standing in front of ocean and shore, wearing blue shirt, light blue scarf, hosted by CenterForTheBlueEconomy part of HaywardSpeakerSeries.Sp18

In the very diverse religious landscape, many faith communities are actively involved in environmental stewardship, and can be effective and trusted partners with secular conservation organizations.

Join Reverend Deborah Streeter as she discusses the ways the faith and environmental communities can join efforts.  

Free and open to the public.

This talk is part of the Hayward Social and Environmental Speaker Series, co-hosted by the Center for the Blue Economy. 

About the Topic

In the very diverse religious landscape, many faith communities are actively involved in environmental stewardship, and can be effective and trusted partners with secular conservation organizations. All world religions teach some version of human responsibility to be good stewards, encouraging “creation care” and a concern for “the least of these” that has led some faith communities to be leaders in the movement for environmental justice and calling out environmental racism.

Every successful social change movement in the U.S. has had significant leadership from the faith community—civil rights, women’s rights, LGBT, and now climate change. Rev. Deborah’s Streeter’s Blue Theology ministry moves the widespread movement to “green” religious communities into issues of ocean stewardship and spirituality.

About the Speaker

Rev. Deborah Streeter is authorized by the United Church of Christ to be “Minister for Blue Theology,” preaching and teaching about ocean spirituality and ocean stewardship. She encourages faith communities, environmental activist groups and science/education organizations to work together as trusted partners in caring for God’s wet and blue creation.

She is a member of two churches: La Selva Community United Church of Christ and the Christian Church of Pacific Grove, where she cofounded their Blue Theology program, which provides learning/serving/retreat opportunities for youth and adults on ocean stewardship and spirituality. She writes a weekly “Blue Theology Tide-ings” blog on Facebook and at www.bluetheologytideings.blogspot.com.

An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ (UCC) for more than 30 years, she has worked as a local church pastor, campus minister (at UC Berkeley), hospital chaplain (at Stanford Hospital), and associate conference minister for the UCC and editor of their monthly regional newspaper. She has taught at Pacific School of Religion and in Santa Clara University’s environmental studies program. She served for nine years as a member at large and chair of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council. She has been a docent at Point Lobos State Reserve and a guide at the Monterey Bay Aquarium for more than fifteen years, and she leads tours at both places specifically designed for faith communities. In 2008, she directed the Living Ocean Initiative with support from the Monterey Bay Sanctuary and Aquarium, bringing together 150 faith leaders from diverse traditions to learn about faith and ocean conservation issues.

She has a BA from Stanford University, an MA in ethics and a master of divinity from Pacific School of Religion. She edited “Dancing on the Brink of the World: Selected Poems of Point Lobos” in 2003. She lives with her family in Big Sur.

Related Links

Location

McGowan 100

The McGowan Building is located at 411 Pacific Street, Monterey, CA, 93940, on the campus of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Attendees should enter through the glass doors from Pacific street, and room 100 is located inside to the left.

View the campus map.

Parking

Parking is available in any Middlebury Institute campus lot after 5pm or on the street (time limits on surrounding streets end at 6pm).

Questions

Contact Rachel Christopherson at the Center for the Blue Economy at cbe@miis.edu or (831) 647-6615 ext. 1.