June 4 – “Ecological Responsibility and the Global Biodiversity Crisis”
The Rev. Dr. Mark Y.A. Davies, leading
Of his discourse, Mark writes:
You can download the morning program here
Sometimes as we rightly focus on the climate crisis, it is easy to forget the global biodiversity crisis (exacerbated and accelerated by the climate crisis) we are now facing. Since 1970, we have lost nearly 70% of animal wildlife populations on the planet, with much of their habitat being lost to animal agriculture.* Ecologists note that our current extinction rate is currently 1,000 to 10,000 times the normal backrground extinction rate, with 50% of species potentially facing extinction by the end of the 21st Century.** We are experiencing the Sixth Great Extinction on Earth and the only one caused by the activity of one species. It is a moral imperative for us all to address the global biodiversity crisis, but what, realistically, can we do?
*https://phys.org/news/2022-
10-wildlife-populations- plunge-wwf.html
About our guest minister:
Mark’s Ph.D. is from Boston University in the area of Social Ethics, and he has served Boston University School of Theology (BUSTH) as a member of its Dean’s Advisory Board and as the alumnus representative on BUSTH’s Green Team as part of the Green Seminary Initiative.Mark has led and implemented a number of initiatives in coordination with the Division of Higher Education of the United Methodist Church including a Methodist Higher Education Global Ethics Initiative from 2008 to 2012, a United Methodist Higher Education Interfaith Initiative from 2015 to present, and a Global Methodist Higher Education Social and Ecological Responsibility Initiative from December 2016 to the present. Mark has published in the areas of Boston personalism, process philosophy and ethics, and ecological ethics.In 2017, the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church selected Dr. Davies to serve as the convener of the writing team tasked with revising “The Natural World” section of the Social Principles of the United Methodist Church. This is the first time the Social Principles have undergone a thorough revision since their adoption by the denomination in 1972.Mark is one of the inaugural members of the New Room Books Editorial Board. New Room Books is a reviewed academic monograph series that offers scholars from the Methodist tradition and their students a way to share their work. Since 2015, Mark has served on the United Methodist University Senate, which is “an elected body of professionals in higher education created by the General Conference to determine which schools, colleges, universities, and theological schools meet the criteria for listing as institutions affiliated with The United Methodist Church.”Mark engages in advocacy and activism in the areas of peace, social justice, and ecological sustainability. Locally this is expressed through his work with the Human Community Network, which works to create non-violent systemic change for a just and flourishing human and ecological community through collaboration, education, innovation, and action. See www.humancommunitynetwork.org.He and his wife Kristin live in Edmond, OK in the United States, and they have two daughters who attend Oklahoma City University.