Annual Environment and Spirituality (AES) Summit 2025

Bringing Spirituality and Environment Together: Faith in Place’s Annual Environment and Spirituality Summit 2025

Faith in Place is excited to announce our Annual Environment and Spirituality (AES) Summit 2025, formerly known as the Green Team Summit. Each year, this gathering brings together faith leaders, environmentalists, and community members for insightful conversations on the intersections of spirituality, justice, and care for our Earth.

This year’s Summit will take place September 29–30, 2025, featuring four inspiring sessions. Past Summits have hosted world-renowned voices such as Katharine Hayhoe, Leah Thomas, Rabbi Ora Nitkin-Kaner, and Lama Rod Owens. Building on that tradition, the 2025 theme—“Strong and Connected”—will be reflected in powerful talks from this year’s speakers:

Rev. Dr. Randy Woodley – A Cherokee descendant recognized by the United Keetoowah Band, Dr. Woodley is a teacher, writer, activist, and farmer whose work uplifts kinship with land and community as essential to healing.
Dr. Carolyn Finney – A storyteller, cultural geographer, and author of Black Faces, White Spaces, she explores the deep connections between people, place, and identity.
Lyanda Lynn Haupt – An award-winning naturalist, ecophilosopher, and author of Rooted, Crow Planet, and The Urban Bestiary, she invites us to rediscover wonder and attentiveness in our relationship with the natural world.
Keynote Speaker: Robin Wall Kimmerer – A renowned scientist, author, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Dr. Kimmerer has inspired readers worldwide through her bestselling book Braiding Sweetgrass.

At Faith in Place, we believe that today’s environmental crisis is, at its heart, a spiritual crisis of disconnection—from faith, from one another, and from the Earth. The AES Summit seeks to heal those connections by inviting us to reflect, learn, and act together. Each of this year’s speakers will bring a unique lens to the theme: from Indigenous understandings of resilience and care (Dr. Woodley), to the stories of the Earth that hold us (Dr. Finney), to practices of kinship and wonder (Lyanda Haupt), and finally to the reciprocal strength between humans and the natural world (Dr. Kimmerer).

The Summit will be held online, with special watch parties for the keynote session on September 30 across Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. Wisconsin locations include:

Milwaukee – Solomon Community Temple UMC (3295 North Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Milwaukee, WI 53212, USA)
Madison – Friends Meetinghouse (1704 Roberts Court Madison, Wisconsin 53711)
Fond du Lac – Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes (320 Co Rd K, Fond du Lac, WI 54937)
La Crosse – First Congregational Church UCC (2503 Main St, La Crosse, WI 54601)

To prepare for the Summit, we encourage participants to read or listen to Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass and her latest work, The Serviceberry. Both are available on Audible and Libby, narrated by the author herself.

Please visit AES Summit to learn more about the event and for free registration. And join us as we come together—strong and connected—to nurture our spirits, communities, and the Earth. For any questions, please contact Laura Lane (laura@faithinplace.org) or Muhammad Shahzad Hussain (shahzad@faithinplace.org).