By 1808Delaware
On March 3 and 4, voices at the pulpit will turn toward the planet.
At Methodist Theological School in Ohio, the 2026 Schooler Institute on Preaching will ask a blunt question: What does faithful preaching sound like in an age of climate disruption? The theme this year does not tiptoe. “What on Earth? An Urgent Call to Ecologically Sound Preaching” signals both theological depth and practical urgency. Leading the conversation is scholar, author and preacher HyeRan Kim-Cragg, whose work sits at the intersection of postcolonial theology, homiletics and environmental justice.
This is not a theoretical exercise. It is a challenge to how clergy speak, how congregations listen, and how faith communities act.
A Pulpit That Faces the Planet
Kim-Cragg serves as principal of Emmanuel College, a theological college of Victoria University in the University of Toronto, where she earned her Doctor of Theology degree. A leading postcolonial scholar in homiletics, she has helped shape global conversations about preaching in a climate-changed world.
Since 2020, she has served on the Executive Committee of the Academy of Homiletics, co-leading its Preaching, Environment and Climate Crisis workgroup. She also sits on the editorial boards of the journals Homiletic and the International Journal of Homiletics. For more than 25 years, she has served the United Church of Canada.
In other words, she brings both scholarship and church-grounded experience. That matters. Too often environmental discourse either drifts into abstraction or collapses into partisan shorthand. Ecologically sound preaching demands something harder: theological clarity, moral courage and pastoral sensitivity. Kim-Cragg’s lectures and sermons at Schooler will press into that tension.
Theology, Ecology and Worship in Conversation
The institute will not be a one-voice event. Associate Professor of Theology, Ecology and Race Christopher Carter will lead a conversation about preaching in what he calls “these challenging days.” His scholarship explores how race, ecology and Christian theology intersect. Any honest conversation about environmental crisis must acknowledge who bears the heaviest burdens and why.
Associate Dean Lisa Allen-McLaurin, professor of worship, music and spirituality, will address music and worship leadership suited to the current moment. If sermons call congregations to ecological awareness, worship must carry that call beyond words. Hymns, prayers and liturgy either reinforce the urgency or dilute it. That integration of preaching, theology and worship is one of Schooler’s strengths. It treats proclamation not as a solo act but as part of the church’s larger witness.
Access, Cost and Practical Details
The 2026 Schooler Institute will take place Tuesday and Wednesday, March 3 and 4, on the MTSO campus at 3081 Columbus Pike in Delaware. Thanks to the generosity of the Schooler Family Foundation, the event is offered without cost to the public. One-half continuing education unit is available for $30. Advance registration is required, with a deadline of Feb. 26 at mtso.edu/schooler.
Selected portions will be streamed live, though some sessions will be limited to those attending in person.
For clergy, seminarians and lay leaders, this is more than a conference. It is a professional and spiritual recalibration. The climate crisis is no longer a distant horizon issue. It is reshaping communities now.
A Seminary Framing the Moment
MTSO describes its mission as providing theological education and leadership in pursuit of a just, sustainable and generative world. Beyond the Master of Divinity degree, it offers master’s programs in social justice, public theology and theological studies, along with a Doctor of Ministry degree. Hosting this theme is consistent with that identity. The real test, though, is not in hosting. It is in how preaching changes afterward.
Ecologically sound preaching is not about adding a “green Sunday” once a year. It is about rethinking how scripture, creation, justice and hope interlock week after week. It asks whether sermons name environmental harm honestly, connect it to faith and point toward collective responsibility without collapsing into despair. That is demanding work. It risks discomfort. It may even risk resistance in congregations wary of anything that feels political. But silence carries its own theology.
In March, on a campus just north of Columbus, that silence will be confronted head-on.
Source: MTSO Press Release
