The Fellowship Program consists of three three-day residential sessions in ecologically varied settings -- one urban, one rural, and one suburban. The themes of the retreats are: eco-spirituality, environmental justice, and stewardship and consumption. There will also be monthly conference calls, mentoring sessions, an email list serve, networking both within the program and at each fellow's local/regional level and reading/writing assignments before and after each retreat. The second class of Fellows will consist of at least 25 people and will run from the fall of 2008 through the end of 2009. Fellows will be selected through a competitive application process. GreenFaith is interested in attracting applications across a broad religious, geographic and ethnically diverse spectrum. African-American, Asian-American, Latino and Jewish applications for this year's class are particularly welcome.

The first class of 18 fellows is a talented group from across the country and active in a wide variety of religious settings: congregations, campus ministry, NGO work and denominational organizations. Initial reactions of the Fellows towards the program have been uniformly positive and enthusiastic.

Rabbi Lawrence Troster is the Fellowship Program director. Troster is a nationally recognized religious environmental leader who has worked with the Coalition for the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL), the Jewish Theological Seminary, Bard College, and as a rabbi of congregations in Toronto and New Jersey. A graduate of the University of Toronto and the Jewish Theological Seminary, Troster has published and lectured widely on theology and environmentalism, and has led GreenFaith's Meeting the Sacred in Creation retreats for religious leaders.

"I know of no more important religious work than the restoration of Creation," said Troster. "We look forward to working with our new class of Fellows to support their growth as religious-environmental leaders."

"This program will offer these leaders the opportunity for educational, spiritual and vocational growth and skill development in religious environmentalism," said the Rev. Fletcher Harper, an Episcopal priest and GreenFaith's executive director. "We believe these leaders will make a lasting contribution to the development of an environmentally just and sustainable world."

Troster and Harper co-chair the United Nations Environment Programme's Interfaith Partnership for the Environment.

Each retreat will feature faculty members with extensive experience in a range of religious and environmental fields. These include Kurt Hoelting, an experienced leader of wilderness retreats for clergy, the staff from WEACT (West Harlem Environmental Action), a nationally-recognized environmental justice organization, and from a wide variety of theological seminaries including Auburn Theological Seminary. Fellows will develop relationships with these leading teachers and practitioners, will engage with the writings of the best religious-environmental authors, and will write a personal eco-theological statement, grounding their learning in their own religious self-understanding.

Later in the program Fellows will design and implement their own religious-environmental leadership plans, applying for up to $1,000 in matching funds through a Fellowship mini-grant program designed to support their work. Upon graduating, they will join the Fellowship's alumni/ae network and mentor other emerging leaders, building and taking part in a community of support.

An advisory committee of nationally recognized religious and environmental leaders have shared their experience with past religious-environmental initiatives and offered strong support.

"The GreenFaith Fellowship Program is a critical initiative for the religious environmental movement," said Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim, co-directors of the Forum on Religion and Ecology. "There is currently no such program of its kind and thus its potential contribution is clear. There is a dearth of religious leaders in the United States who are speaking out regarding key environmental issues we are facing. This interfaith effort is indispensable."

Dr. Larry Rasmussen, Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, said: "The GreenFaith Fellowship Program meets a palpable need for a select group at a critical time. I applaud the substance and details of the program -- if it didn't exist, we would need to invent it."

Rabbi William Lebeau, former vice-chancellor and dean of the Rabbinical School of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, said, "I believe that this kind of program will help to produce a cadre of clergy and lay leaders who will help to bring their communities to a new level of environmental knowledge and action."

The Fellowship Program intends to play a major role in strengthening, broadening and deepening the impact of the religious-environmental movement.

GreenFaith is grateful to the Richard Oram Charitable Trust, the Kendeda Fund, the Edgebrook Foundation, and to GreenFaith members for their support for the Fellowship Program.

GreenFaith is a New Jersey based interfaith coalition for the environment. Founded in 1992, GreenFaith inspires, educates and mobilizes people of diverse spiritual backgrounds to deepen their relationship with nature and to take action for the earth.

Individuals interested in learning more about the Fellowship or in applying should visit http://www.greenfaith.org/ or contact Rabbi Troster at rabbiltroster@greenfaith.org or 732-565-7740.