Flooding after heavy rainfall in Phalombe District / Malawi. The "Spirit & Soul" project aims to help people share their climate fears with others and overcome them together.

Pastoral care in times of the climate crisis

Pastor Lioba Diez has launched "Spirit & Soul", a project that aims to help people overcome their fears - such as "climate anxiety" - together.

The ecological crisis - like many other crises of our time - not only affects our outer world, but also our inner world, our soul. Yet we often remain alone with this. That is serious. Because the climate crisis is not a private problem, but a social one.

When we deal with the climate crisis[1] Whether we are out for a walk in the countryside or reading the news about forest fires, heat-related deaths or floods, we are usually alone with our thoughts and feelings. This is difficult to bear. We often suppress or trivialise it because it overwhelms and frightens us.

Pain for the world as a form of grief

The term "pain for the world" offers a helpful perspective here. It is a separate form of grief, whereby grief is a natural reaction to loss. Even though it is rarely discussed in public, the internal consequences of the climate crisis are enormous, and new terms such as climate anxiety and climate grief have become established.

The Shell Youth Study 2024 shows: In addition to the fear of war in Europe and growing poverty, climate change (63%) and environmental pollution (64%) scare a large majority of young people[2]. Despite this, there are only a few spaces in our society where these feelings - fear, despair, insecurity, powerlessness, anger and sadness - are allowed to exist.

However, we know from pastoral care how important such spaces are - for example in cases of bereavement. However, the church has so far offered places for communal mourning almost exclusively on individual occasions. However, there is also a need for spiritual spaces where people can share their grief for the world with one another.

Sharing the pain of the world with each other

For some time now, I have been offering workshops with Spirit & Soul[3] to share the pain of the world in community. They are inspired by the "Work that Reconnects " by environmental activist and deep ecologist Joanna Macy[4]. The process follows four steps:

  • Coming from gratitude: recognising that our lives cannot be taken for granted.
  • Honouring the pain: Giving space for thoughts and feelings in community.
  • Seeing with new eyes: feeling the connection with each other and with creation anew.
  • Moving on and taking action: finding steps in a life-enhancing direction.

In this ritualised setting, there is room for feelings that are otherwise often taboo: Fear, sadness, anger, shame, numbness, powerlessness.

Finding comfort, love and vitality

Time and again it becomes clear that grief and pain over developments in the world are not an individual matter, but are shared by many - even if the expression and intensity vary from person to person. It connects and relieves when people experience: "I am not alone in this" and "There is a place where I can be with what is actually too much for me."

The feedback from participants shows that It's good not to be alone with your grief and pain about the world. Such spaces open up a surprising amount of comfort, love and life energy.

Outlook

There is a great need for communal places for mourning - both in the case of personal loss and in the context of social crises such as the climate crisis. The church and pastoral care have enormous, hitherto little-utilised potential here.

About the author

Lioba Diez is a pastor and economist and founded Spirit & Soul in 2020, a project for true-to-life, experience-orientated and committed spirituality. The search for spiritual places for the pain around the world has long preoccupied her. An intensive study of the topic was made possible by the facilitator training of"Work that reconnects" and a three-month study period, among other things. For many years, Lioba has accompanied people in pastoral care, coaching, spiritual counselling and training in transformational leadership. Please send any suggestions or feedback to lioba.diez@spiritandsoul.org.

 

[1] Instead of the climate crisis, we can also think of other current crises such as the extinction of species, the shift to the right, etc.

[2] Summary of the Shell Youth Study https://www.shell.de/about-us/initiatives/shell-youth-study-2024/_jcr_content/root/main/section/simple/call_to_action/links/item0.stream/1730903501282/d8b545435fc2799eb6044e48b4a9fccc80b95b2d/ap-shell-jugendstudie-zusammenfassung-barrierefrei.pdf (04.12.2024).

[3] Spirit & Soul is a project for true-to-life Christian spirituality - digitally and in Berlin-Neukölln. More at www.spiritandsoul.org

[4] Joanna Macy developed this approach in the 1980s. It is about honouring pain and despair in the face of the destruction of the earth and confronting the ecological crisis in solidarity and with creative strength. Today, there is a worldwide network of people who practise and lead the "Work That Reconnects". Find out more at www.workthatreconnects.org and in the books Macy, Johanna et al: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects. New York 2014; in German: Dies, Für das Leben! Without Why: Encouraging a Spiritual-Ecological Revolution. Paderborn 2017.

 

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