Congratulations to Rev. Margie Schneider, winner of the 2024 Fr. Edward J. Ciuba Scholarship! This scholarship honors the eco-spiritual legacy of Waterspirit’s founding board member, Fr. Ed Ciuba, by waiving tuition for the awardee to study the Climate Pastoral Care Course. She is an ordained Interfaith Minister with a Focus on Ecospirituality, as well as an ordained Animal Chaplain and Animal Bereavement Facilitator. Through her own spiritual experience of performing activities in nature, and teaching these classes herself, she was awarded a Certification as an Eco-Art Therapist from Project Nature Connect. Drawing upon this expertise and combining it with her studies in Creation Spirituality at GMU, she received her doctorate, which focuses on Creation Spirituality and Environmental Justice. Due to these experiences, Rev. Margie was moved to write two children’s books on the subject. She also composed a Creation Spirituality poem which was published in the GreenSpirit UK Magazine, in a Creation Spirituality Newsletter, and in a book entitled Anthology of Poems for GreenSpirits. In addition, she has written the text for a course which she teaches at Global Ministries University entitled "Eco-Art & Creation Spirituality: How Locating Your Creativity Through a Practice of Eco-Art Activities within Nature, combined with a knowledge of the Four Paths of Creation spirituality, can result in a deeper spiritual connection with yourself, with nature, and most Importantly, with the Creator". This course invites the reader to engage in nature-related activities approached through the Four Paths of Creation Spirituality. She is also the facilitator for an Introduction to Creation Spirituality Course, as well as a Spiritual Ecology Course at GMU.
Recently, Rev. Margie has taken a course where she has become a certified Laudato Si Animator and as now a member of the Laudato Si Movement which is a global community of prayer and action to animate churches and communities to engage in ecological spirituality, sustainable lifestyles and advocacy for climate and ecological justice. She is also a member of the Creation Spirituality Community and will be receiving her certification in Creation Spirituality in 2025. Rev. Margie also runs a non-profit in Florida called Heart-To-Heart All Creatures Ministry whose mission is to share with others what she has learned so that they, too, might come to understand their own natural connection to the Earth. Her primary focus is on children as she believes that if they learn at their age the importance of respecting and caring for creation their future will be better for them and for the earth as a whole. She is also very interested in spiritual companioning people who are suffering from eco-grief and are very much in despair so they are looking for someone who will listen, understand, and help them move beyond their grief to action where they are motivated to do something to bring about positive change.
Margie is excited about taking this course as she wants to experience what Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone once expressed (see below) so that she might be able to help herself to get beyond wallowing in her own eco-grief so she will have the strength to help others to do the same so that they could come together as a strong community and work to help this world be a more joyful place for all.
"Should you fear that with this pain your heart might break, remember that the heart that breaks open can hold the whole universe. Your heart is that large. Trust it. Keep breathing."
