Hope for Creation Conference Coming to Spokane April 23-24

St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral will host a conference called “Hope for Creation” on Friday, April 22 and Saturday, April 23, in partnership with Whitworth University’s Office of Church Engagement, Gonzaga University’s Center for Climate, Society and the Environment, Terrain, and Fig Tree. The Conference is designed to showcase local caretakers of land, water, and air, along with renewing Spokane’s leadership on environmental care.

Beginning at 9 am on Friday, the conference will feature an address by Whitworth Theology Professor Jonathan Moo entitled “Creation Care: Bridging Science & Faith.” Moo has a doctorate in wildlife biology and authored a book cataloging the biblical teachings about care for creation.

Moo will be followed by speakers on adaptations to dryland wheat agriculture in the inland northwest during environmental stress, the use of biochar from fuel-rich forests as a soil amendment, business practices that promote ecological harmony, and more.

Saturday morning’s program will begin with Twa-le Abrahamson of the Spokane Tribe speaking on the clean-up of land despoiled by the Midnite Mine and is followed by professor Tara Hudiburg from the University of Idaho speaking on Sustainable Northwest forests and wildfire management. A talk by Kara Odegard on Spokane’s Sustainability Action Plan will also take place. Saturday’s activities will include a street fair free to the public with exhibits by local groups promoting environmental care, an art exhibit presented in collaboration with Terrain, live music, and food trucks.

Professor of History at Eastern Washington University and author of “The Fair and the Falls: Spokane’s Expo ’74: Transforming an American Environment”J. William T. Youngs will deliver the keynote address “Expo ’74, The Environment Then & Now.”

The conference will conclude with a session where participants can recommend ways to renew Spokane’s leadership on the environment and lays the groundwork for discussion about the 50th anniversary of Expo ’74 in 2024.

Those planning to attend can register online.