ENG EP: 80 Creation, Food & Ecological Ethics - Part 1

A rich and extremely fascinating conversation with Tallessyn. Don't forget to listen to the second part next week. A beautiful exchange of thoughts and her approach towards life and parenting. I am sure you will enjoy watching or listening to Tallessyn as much as I enjoyed with her.

Tallessyn Zawn Grenfell-Lee recently earned her Ph.D. in Social and Ecological Ethics from Boston University School of Theology.

Her dissertation, "Creation, Food, and Ecological Ethics: The Garden as Mediation," examined the potential of congregations to heal the Earth and build communities grounded in ecological peace and justice. She has written, "When churches cultivate vegetable gardens, their communities are strengthened through a greater commitment to eco-justice.... Cultivating a sacred relationship with the 'The Garden of God' can overcome our alienation from nature and from one another."

Grenfell-Lee's dissertation explores a basic ethical problem: we the people of faith know we are called to do better; so what are the impediments to a virtuous and holy life? She performed participatory ethnographic research with local congregations that demonstrated a link between intersectional nature connection programs and a sustained increase in pro-environmental behaviors to address the ecological crisis. Grenfell-Lee examined current behavioral science regarding pro-environmental behaviors as well as relevant Wesleyan and ecofeminist understandings of the Judeo-Christian tradition.

In 2009, during her doctoral program, she helped draft a Green Vision for the School of Theology and helped found and lead the Thecology group, which focused specifically on integrating ecological and ecojustice awareness into all aspects of the school community, including not only the introduction of recycling and fair trade products, but also clergy ecological skills and resources training, natural disaster resilience, nature connection and primitive skills, spiritual life, intersectional justice awareness, and political activism.

Grenfell-Lee also continues to explore the connections between parenting and ecofeminist understandings of the Judeo-Christian and United Methodist traditions. Specifically, she with her partner and children have incorporated ideas such as: democratic parenting, democratic education/self-directed learning, intuitive eating, mindfulness techniques, non-violent communication, frugality, nature-based learning and ritual, ancestral rituals, coming of age rituals, and body positivity.

Grenfell-Lee previously did graduate research on the molecular biology of Alzheimer's Disease as well as preventive research on Ovarian Cancer. She received a B.Sc. in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an M.A. in Molecular Biology from Harvard University, and an M.Div. from the Boston University School of Theology. She is a regular contributor to the Feminism and Religion Blog, where she continues to explore intersections of ecofeminism/ecojustice, grief, nature connection, and parenting. She is certified in permaculture design and is in the process of developing a climate chaplaincy program for spiritual and nature skills-based climate resilience.

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