012, Sarah Ogiltree: Embodying Sacred Teachings for Justice, Compassion, and Sustainability

Soul Soil: Where Agriculture and Spirit Intersect with Brooke Kornegay

Meet Sarah. Sarah works with faith-based communities to connect their most sacred teachings to ways to embody those values and incorporate lifestyle changes that promote justice, compassion, and sustainability.

A graduate of the Sustainable Development department at Appalachian State University, Sarah recently earned her Master of Divinity, with a concentration in religious leadership and ecology, from Wake Forest University School of Divinity. She has worked at the intersection of faith and environment for the past six years, partnering with organizations like the Creation Care Alliance of Western North Carolina, United Methodist Women, Creation Justice Network (UCC Southern Conference), and Presbyterians for Earth Care. In her current role as North Carolina Interfaith Power & Light (NCIPL) Program Coordinator, Sarah is blessed with the opportunity to walk alongside faith communities and people of conscience as they consider the social, environmental, and climate impacts of their relationships to both energy and food.

In addition to offering her services as a preacher, Sarah is available to faith communities as a sounding board for their ideas relating to sustainability in addition to giving presentations regarding the connections between climate change, faith, health, and food. Sarah calls the southern Appalachian mountains home and resides in Happy Valley, North Carolina, with her husband, dog, and two cats.

Don't feel like your voice doesn't matter, and don't feel like your voice isn't important. Go out and do what grounds you in the midst of the overwhelm.

In this episode...

• Psychological effects of the environmental crisis

• The work of NC Interfaith Power & Light

• Faith communities help to shape culture, so if we can help folks connect the values of a more just, compassionate and sustainable world with the values outlined in their sacred texts, it will help to shape our culture into one that invests in solutions surrounding climate change

• Climate change as an issue of justice

• How the biblical foundation for environmental work is related to soil

• The role of food and food production in Sarah's work

• Being conscious about meat consumption

• Learning to live well in a world that we have changed

Resources

• Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible by Ellen Davis

• ncipl.org