Seattle Pacific Seminary

Fostering Creation’s Praise is an interdisciplinary initiative of Seattle Pacific Seminary (SPS) integrating climate science into theological education. The project asks how future Christian leaders might hear and protect creation’s praise amid climate change and ecological disruption.

The project brings together SPS and Seattle Pacific University (SPU) faculty, urban conservation leaders, and local church partners. We will begin with an ecological inventory documenting SPU’s trees, plants, and birds through seasonal surveys and the Audubon Christmas Bird Count. Students will study biodiversity, habitat change, species monitoring, and urban ecological resilience. As a result, we will publish a SPU Campus Field Guide in print and online as a lasting resource for students, churches, and the community.

These insights will be integrated into the seminary’s Trinity and Creation course through a new birding and ecology unit and a Seminary Birding Club. Students will also participate in an immersive course at SPU’s Blakely Island Field Station, studying ecology, climate science, and environmental change alongside theological reflection.

SPS will partner with local bird conservationists to develop congregational resources for birding, urban conservation, and ecological stewardship as Christian discipleship. The project will culminate in a public symposium bringing together scientists, theologians, students, pastors, and conservation leaders to explore congregational responses to climate change.

Through permanent curricular integration, faculty collaboration, the Birding Club, the campus field guide, and church partnerships, Fostering Creation’s Praise will equip future Christian leaders with scientific understanding, theological imagination, and practical skills to help churches become faithful stewards of creation.