Students examine ecological justice and personal recreation
TORONTO, ON—Between 40 and 50 young people will gather at a retreat centre outside of Toronto in May to discuss environmental justice and the ethics of leisure.
"Re:Creation - Ecology and Movement Rebuilding and Personal Restoration" is the theme of the 2013 Student Christian Movement (SCM) Canada National Conference, happening May 5 to 12. SCM, a campus ministry dedicated to social justice, is holding the conference at the Five Oaks retreat centre in Paris, Ontario, one hour southwest of Toronto.
Sheryl Johnson, SCM's administrator, believes it is a timely theme.
"Ecological theology and ecological justice are things a lot of people are concerned about, and the topics intersect with social justice," she says.
Over the course of the conference, participants will discuss the role of the Church and grassroots organizations in ecological justice through discussion, testimonies and presentations. Stephen Scharper, a professor of environmental science and public religion at the University of Toronto, is the keynote speaker.
The fundamental question the conference seeks to address is: What is it that SCM envisions to be ecological and economic justice in Canada, and how can conference participants carry out this work in their own communities?
At the same time, Johnson adds, the conference will look at how things like gender and class influence people's approaches to recreation and leisure.
"We'll really be thinking about the idea of recreation and personal renewal, and the role it plays in the busyness in students' lives," Johnson says, adding that discussions will include looking at how students can make time for leisure, and what exactly ethically responsible leisure looks like.
Conference participants will travel to Toronto on May 8 to participate in the 40th anniversary celebrations of KAIROS, an ecumenical organization dedicated to social justice with which SCM is affiliated.
Johnson says that Re:Creation participants will also spend a day working at the Five Oaks retreat centre and reflecting on what it means to work. She adds this is in part a nod to some of the projects the SCM movement undertook in the 1940s and '50s, including socialist work camps where students worked in unionized factories during the summer and pooled their resources in communal houses of prayer.
"I think a lot of conferences you go to, you sit and other people take care of the logistics," Johnson says. "Here it's more participatory. We're cooking for ourselves [and] we're cleaning up."
Originally from Winnipeg and a member of the United Church, Johnson has been involved with SCM for the past seven years. She says being involved with the ecumenical organization has challenged and reshaped many of her stereotypes and ideas about different denominations and different ways of expressing one's faith.
"It's been wonderful," she says.
She hopes young people who participate in the Re:Creation conference will have a similar experience.
"I hope that [the conference is] a time for participants to really form community, to meet people from different backgrounds, to see themselves as leaders and to connect their commitment to justice with their faith."
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