Land Justice Futures is a five-part course that explores land justice as a critical, yet often under-explored, component of religious property discernment; one that has the potential to create new healing legacies on sacred lands.

In Land Justice Futures, you will learn about:

• how land access is crucial to the climate justice movement

• the unjust roots of land privatization and the real estate system

• the next generation of land stewards & how landowners can collaborate with them

• the financial, legal, and technical options that can make prophetic land legacies possible — while caring for the needs of religious communities.

How to begin?

Originally run live in 2022, Land Justice Futures is now available below, in its entirety - including all five modules with their recordings and discussion guides.

The course can be taken alone at your own pace, or integrated into your committee meetings or gatherings. We recommend taking the course with others or hosting discussions along the way, because we learn better together.

The modules are outlined below, and you can follow the links here to recordings and discussion guides. That’s it!

session 1: this crucial moment: land, regeneration and repair

Why is land access so important for climate justice? Our opening session frames the way we think about property in this time of ecological crisis and racial injustice. Together, we will begin to uncover creative, collaborative options that can work in many technical and financial realities.

Guest speakers: Tela Troge from the Shinnecock Kelp Farmers, Toby Sheppard Bloch from Greenwave, and Sr. Joan Gallagher from the CSJ Brentwood community.

session 2: roots of land injustice: colonization, racism, and re-imagining solidarity

This session contextualizes the legacy of racism, the Catholic Church, and land dispossession on this continent. By understanding the injustice of our current land system, we then begin to imagine land legacies rooted in solidarity and regeneration.

Guest Speakers: Sr. Priscilla Solomon, CSJ, Ojibway of the Anishinabek Nation, Sister of St. Joseph of Sault Ste. Marie, Deseree Fontenot, member and co-director of Movement Generation: Justice and Ecology Project.

session 3: laudato si’ & the new cosmology: evolvoing our spirituality through land legacy

This session explores the wealth of spiritual resources within the Catholic tradition that support ecological restoration and racial healing — and how creative and collaborative land transitions can serve as bold steps on our collective journey of spirit.

Guest speakers: Rick Ufford-Chase, Co-Director of the Center for Jubilee Practice., Sr. Christin Tomy, OP, Sinsinawa Dominican, scholar, activist, former Sinsinawa Collaborative Farm coordinator, Sr. Sharon Zayac, OP, author and speaker on the Cosmic Creation Story, co-founder of Jubilee Farm.

session 4: Collaboration and Co-Liberation: Meet the Stewards of a Climate Resilient Future

Hear from the visionaries who are actively regenerating land, building food sovereignty, reclaiming Indigenous lifeways, and creating climate-resilient communities. Learn the diverse ways they acquired land, and hear about their dreams for the future.

Guest Speakers: Pat McCabe, Diné (Navajo) mother, grandmother, activist, artist, writer, ceremonial leader, and international speaker, Naima Penniman, Director of Education at Soul Fire Farm and Co-Founder of WILDSEED Community Farm & Healing Village.

session 5: Nuts & bolts: new models for prophetic land legacies

If you’re wondering about the “brass tacks” of land legacy, this session is for you. With guest speakers from real estate, land trust, and legal backgrounds, we will unpack a variety of tools and examples to make land justice a reality.

Guest Speakers: Cassandra Ferrera, cooperative real estate agent and consultant at the Center for Ethical Land Transition, Janelle Orsi and Alejandra Cruz, staff attorneys at the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC). Ian McSweeney, Executive Director of Agrarian Trust.