An Oregon chaplain is helping environmentalists deal with “climate grief” as part of a growing movement of faith leaders addressing people’s environmentally induced existential anxiety.
The Rev. Liz Olson, a trained hospital chaplain, now runs the group Sustaining Climate Activists after steering it toward those fighting to “say goodbye to species.”
The difficulties of his group were described this week by National Public Radiowho was present at one of its sessions while the members – apparently composed almost entirely of retired adults – talked about their problems.
“I need support in my grieving process,” assistant Diane Ware told the outlet.
The Rev. Liz Olson, a trained hospital chaplain, is leading religious sessions on “climate grief” as part of a growing movement of faith leaders helping people manage climate-induced anxiety.
Climate chaplaincy is a new strand of religious teaching and moves away from a focus on faith to climate anxiety.
Olson’s group meets at a public library once a month, which attendees say is one of their only sources of support for their fears of global warming.
Ware began attending after devastating wildfires swept through the Hawaiian island of Lahaina in August 2023.
Despite reports that the wildfires may have been sparked by downed power lines, Ware said she was upset by the failure of some news organizations to link the tragedy to climate change.
“I thought, how are we going to be able to solve this problem if we can’t even talk about it or get good information from the newspapers that we think are the guardians of the truth?” she told NPR.
“And then I thought, ‘Wow, I’m screwed.'”
The group began in 2016 when activists affiliated with the group Southern Oregon Climate Action Now panicked over the election of Donald Trump.
“Trump’s election scared everyone,” said Alan Journet, one of the founders. “The group’s members wanted a way to deal with fears and anxieties about climate and politics.”
Olson’s sessions allow members to talk about their fears about global warming and reportedly include passing around a box of Kleenex and using an emotion color wheel.
One member of the group said he began attending the sessions after massive wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Lahaina last year.
At a recent town hall meeting attended by NPR, Olson discussed the methods he uses to help his constituents throughout the day.
“Just breathe normally,” he told the group.
‘You can use this breath anytime you feel panicked or worried, knowing that we have a symbiotic relationship with the plants and trees, and that when you breathe out, they breathe in, and when you breathe in, they breathe out. We are always connected to the plants and trees.’
Although the rest of the group discussion was reportedly confidential, it included the passing of a box of Kleenex and a color wheel of emotions such as fear, anger, loneliness and anxiety about global warming.
Ware and others said they had enough strength at the end of the sessions to move forward after realizing their years of focusing on climate change had made little difference.
The retiree said that although she often feels hopeless, she leaves the meetings with renewed hope.
“It may not come during the meeting or immediately after,” Ware said. “But it comes, like a cat crawling away, when my whole being is ready for it. It brings me back to myself with a different level of awareness and confidence.”
Group members say their eco-anxiety sessions began in 2016 because Donald Trump’s election “scared everyone”
Olsen’s group was born out of the new boom in “eco-chaplaincy,” which began only in recent years and is not a recognized branch of any church.
The title may have been invented by Naropa University student Sarah Vekasi, and was popularized in 2015 by Rabbi Katy Z. Allen when she wrote about “A Call for a New Kind of Chaplain.”
His article, published by the Association of Professional Chaplains, said: ‘We are stuck here on our shrinking, warming planet that we love so much and on which we are totally dependent… We are all in the kind of place where the presence of a chaplain is needed.’
With approximately 100 ecological chaplains working today, their methods take a variety of forms, mostly similar to Olsen’s group sessions, as well as individual therapy.
One chaplain, the Rev. Alison Cornish, told NPR she was surprised when she offered a training course for other reverends that attracted 80 applicants.
“They wonder how we deal with regret, with complicity, with lament, with saying goodbye to species,” he said.
“They are creating rituals that honor all of them.”