The Huffington Ecumenical Institute (HEI) at Hellenic College Holy Cross has been selected as a grantee in the third cohort of the Climate Science in Theological Education (CSTE) initiative, a project of the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) program at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Through the grant, HEI will work with DoSER to engage current climate science in its curriculum and programming. HEI is one of 11 theological institutions in this cohort, which includes schools in the United States, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Ukraine.
“This grant will enable us to prepare a graduate course for our school focused on practical steps for greening our parishes,” said Fr. John Chryssavgis, HEI’s Executive Director. “It follows the groundbreaking course offered by HEI two years ago and works with the new program of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America for developing a Green Church Initiative across the country.”
CSTE aims to equip current and future faith leaders to guide their communities in responding to climate change, and to foster settings in which climate science is understood as relevant, compatible, and consequential to religious life and belief. Each grantee will shape its work around the needs of its own students, faculty, alumni, and communities; funded activities may include curriculum development, capacity building, and leadership-focused programs.
HEI’s selection continues its work in ecumenical dialogue as well as its longstanding engagement with the environmental advocacy of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
The CSTE initiative builds on DoSER’s earlier Science for Seminaries project (2016–2023) and a 2022 pilot program incorporating climate science into seminary curricula. Initial funding for CSTE comes from the David and Carol Myers Foundation and Leslie Sternlieb, a private donor. The other grantees in the third cohort are LEMA Theological Seminary (Nigeria), Latter-day Saint Earth Stewardship (Utah), McCormick Theological Seminary (Illinois), New Brunswick Theological Seminary (New Jersey), Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (Pennsylvania), Seminario Evangélico de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico), Seattle Pacific Seminary (Washington), St. Sophia Ukrainian Orthodox Seminary (Ukraine), Tabora Anglican Training Center (Tanzania), and World Mission University (California).
For more information about the CSTE’s work, visit ScienceForSeminaries.org.