Every week this month, the Salish Sea Spiritual Ecology Alliance (SSSEA) will be celebrating ecological activism in what will be a modern-day pilgrimage to mirror evolution. Think about light coming into the oceans, forests, farms and cities. This almost temporal and spatial land progression manifests itself in the four aptly titled convergences: Ocean Day, Forest Day, Farm Day, and City Day.
With two successful events behind their shoulders, the Farm Day spiritual convergence will be coming up shortly this weekend and City Day will soon follow the weekend after. This concludes the convergences for the year.
The inspiration for the convergence started a year ago from another event called the Spiritual Ecologies and New Cosmologies Convergence. This event looked at the relationship of between spirituality, ecology, cosmology, science, art and activism in an academic sense. For this initial event, there were a range of different speakers who spoke about topics such as the Big Bang, organic farming and an intuitive plant ecology walk.
This year’s event aims to celebrate the idea of place-based activism and the unique diversity of Vancouver’s landscape. According to Jason Brown, a current PhD student at UBC in the Institute for Resources Environment and Sustainability, the goal of each convergence day is to not simply be an opportunity to engage with the environment around.
“It's not just a feel-good drum circle, but an opportunity to engage with the beauty and the pain of each domain and the real risks and dangers that we’re facing," he said.
But what really is spiritual ecology and why should students care?
Samantha Gambling, a Master's student in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems and organizer of Farm Day, hopes people will be inspired to practice changes in their lifestyles.
"We hope this will maybe be some sort of trigger – whether it be a small or large trigger – for them to make personal changes in their daily lives."
Farm Day consists of workshops, discussion and mindful practice. It begins with a food ceremony led by Dawn Morrison – an indigenous food systems leader. He will be giving a food offering to the land and lead an indigenous food workshop and discussion.
There will also be a solar tea which is going to be made a day before. The tea is heated by the sun made of spruce tips on the farm. Also taking place will be a mindful eating workshop led by Kate McCandless of the Mountain Rain Zen Community.
"Within this framework of food sovereignty, one of the pillars of that is the idea that food is more than a commodity. It’s more than nourishing for the physical body," said Gambling. "It’s sacred and it’s nourishing for the soul and it’s a means to connect."
Farm Day will be taking place at UBC Farm from 1-8 p.m. on September 26, 2015. City Day will be taking place at St. Paul’s Anglican Church on October 4, 2015 from 5-9 PM. Space is limited so online registration is required.
Share this article
