Caring for Creation Workshop: Faith-Based Environmental Activism and the Challenges We Face

Course Description: Every major faith tradition recognizes a responsibility to care for the Creation we have been given. Yet our society seems to run contrary to this responsibility – particularly in our profligate use of energy from fossil fuels. These damage our health, the natural beauty of our state, and cause changes in the environment that we don’t even fully understand. Rabbi Rieber’s talk will focus on the environmental challenges that face us and what we, as people of faith and as communities of faith, can do to address these complicated and challenging issues.

Bio: Rabbi Moti Rieber is coordinator of Kansas Interfaith Power & Light, a statewide non-profit that encourages faith communities to take a more active role in environmental stewardship, particularly in the areas of energy efficiency, energy conservation, and the use of renewables. A graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, Rabbi Rieber is a long-time activist on peace, social justice, and environmental issues. He previously served as Rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom in Naperville, Illinois, and as Executive Director of the Mid-Kansas Jewish Federation in Wichita, Kansas. He was also a founding board member of Kansas IPL. He and his wife, Suzy, live with their three children in Overland Park.