The Creation Care Alliance is hosting its 2023 Clergy Retreat and Symposium at the Montreat Conference Center in Montreat on Feb. 6 and 7. The program is designed to provide creation care professionals, volunteers, lay leaders and clergy with tools to inspire their congregations and communities to care for the health of the planet and the communities of the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains.

This year's symposium, titled "For the Love of All Creation: Practicing Resilience and Restoration in the Mountains," will offer workshops on climate resilience, practicing solidarity with Indigenous communities, community organizing, finding support for eco-grief and renewable energy and energy efficiency for congregations.

Creation Care Alliance of WNC Director Sarah Ogletree said faith and the environment go hand-in-hand.

"We can’t love our neighbors – our human neighbors – without loving the air they breathe, the water they drink or the ground in which their food is grown without thinking about our water and air and our ability to thrive," Ogletree said.

Avery Davis Lamb, co-director of Creation Justice Ministries, will be the symposium's keynote speaker. Avery's research focuses on the role of religious communities in building climate resilience and adaptation, with emphasis on the virtue of "climate hospitality."

The symposium is sponsored by MountainTrue and Creation Care Alliance.