Jeff is a retired Lutheran (ELCA) pastor. During his tenure as pastor of Advent Lutheran Church in Madison, WI, he led numerous initiatives related to environmental sustainability. It has been a priority of his to undergird every initiative with solid theology. He co-authored Church on Earth: Grounding Your Ministry in a Sense of Place with Peter Bakken and has published articles in The Lutheran and Word and World. Advent’s advancements in environmental sustainability–including rooftop solar panels, energy efficiency measures, prairie restoration, and community gardens–have been recognized locally and nationally by EPA’s Energy Star Program, the National Council of Churches, and more. Jeff graduated from Luther College in Decorah, IA, and Luther Seminary in St. Paul.
I am a pastor for a great ecumenical congregation strongly invested in creation care with solar panels, pantry gardens, prairie restorations, occasional honeybee residents, and more. I am a bike commuter, regular tent-er on minor adventures, a mediocre birder, and inattentive gardener. I keep track of some of my words at https://utphall.wordpress.com/ nick@theMCC.net
Susan GIlbert Zencka is the pastor of Frame Memorial Presbyterian Church. She was the founder of the Interfaith Community for the Earth–an interfaith response to global warming in Portage County. In her pastoral ministry, she aims to incorporate earth care and creation-orientation in her preaching as well as her living. She was on the board of the Wisconsin Interfaith Climate and Energy Campaign prior to joining the board of WIP&L. Her doctoral work in preaching focused on wellness, deep prayer, and rest as foundational to preaching, and she is reminded always that these practices are consistent with earth care as well as self-care. She and her husband , Carl, have three adult sons, and have just begun the adventure of grandparenthood which only binds them more closely to hope for the earth and all its creatures.
Sister Rose is a member of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Cross, Nicolet Drive, Green Bay. She has served on the Leadership Team and as treasurer of the Catholic religious order. She has also been an elementary school teacher and principal. She has a BS from St. Norbert College in De Pere, WI, and a Master of Science in Administration for non-profit organizations from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. She has strong knowledge and interest in renewable energy and sustainability issues and she chairs the order’s Sustainability Committee. Sister Rose was instrumental in the installation of solar panels at the Convent of the Sisters of St. Francis in 2014 and expanded in 2019. These solar panels are producing an average of 50% of the Convent’s electricity. The solar site is open to the public. It features a walking path with signs that explain solar energy and why the Sisters installed solar.
Dr. Bakken is the Justice and Witness Coordinator at the Wisconsin Council of Churches and Statewide Coordinator of Wisconsin Interfaith Power and Light. He received his Ph.D. in Theology from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is the author of the WCC publications, Hunger at Our Doorstep: A Study-Action Guide for Wisconsin Congregations (2006; 2014) and Becoming Welcoming Communities: Immigration in Light of Biblical Faith (2011). Other publications include: Church on Earth: Grounding Your Ministry in a Sense of Place (with Jeff Wild; Augsburg Fortress 2009); Ecology, Justice and Christian Faith: A Guide to the Literature (co-compiled with J. Ronald Engel and Joan Gibb Engel; Greenwood Press, 1995) and Evocations of Grace: Writings on Ecology, Theology and Ethics by Joseph Sittler (co-edited with Steven Bouma-Prediger, Eerdmans, 2000). He was a member of the task force that produced the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America social statement, “Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope and Justice.” He lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with his wife and daughter, where they are members of Advent Lutheran Church (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America).
Daniel grew up in North Carolina at a quaker school and then went to Madison Edgewood High School where he first started taking religious studies courses. There he gained a passion for learning about others’ worldview and the ways people communicate especially with modern technology. Outside of academics, he is a member of the UW-Madison Ultimate Frisbee team and enjoys volunteering as a middle school ultimate frisbee coach when possible.”
