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The Home of Evolutioneers

Connie Barlow and Michael Dowd, Spiritual Teachers/Artists of the Month, December 2005

Connie Barlow and Michael Dowd were voted by the members and visitors of Universe Spirit as our December Spiritual Teachers of the month.

Connie Barlow, Michael DowdConnie Barlow, an acclaimed author of popular science books, and Michael Dowd, a former United Church of Christ pastor and evolutionary theologian, embody the marriage of science and religion as wedded partners and itinerant evolutionary sacred storytellers. Michael and Connie live permanently on the road, teaching and preaching an awe-inspiring, science-based spiritual message of hope and possibility in churches, colleges, and living rooms all across North America. Their educational website, www.TheGreatStory.org, consistently generates more than 50,000 hits per month.

Their mission of their work is

  1. To teach and preach a sacred, meaningful, inspring way of understanding the history of cosmos, Earth, life, and humanity in colleges, universities, churches, synagogues, retreat centers, living rooms, and private and public schools across North America.
  2. To network with and support others who are committed to a just, healthy, beautiful, and sustainably life-giving future for all species.
  3. To further evolution's tendency toward greater cooperation and interdependence at ever increasing scale and evolvability.

Connie's most recent book, "The Ghosts of Evolution" (Basic Books), was Amazon.com's #1 recommended science book for several months in 2001. Her previous books, "Green Space, Green Time: The Way of Science" (Copernicus Books), and "Evolution Extended: Biological Debates on the Meaning of Life" (MIT Press) both explore the nexus of science, spirit, and meaning. Connie's great joy is sharing ways in which an understanding of the evolutionary and ecological sciences can enhance our communion with the natural world and with one another.

The Rev. Michael Dowd, a gifted teacher, preacher, and cosmic storyteller, is the author of the 1991 book "EarthSpirit: A Handbook for Nurturing an Ecological Christianity" (Twenty-Third Publications), which was inspired by the writings of cultural historian Thomas Berry, physicist Brian Swimme, and deep ecologist Joanna Macy. During the 1980s and 90s, Michael pastored three UCC congregations, worked with Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, and New Thought leaders across America on environmental, peace, and justice issues, and managed government funded Sustainable Lifestyle Campaigns on both coasts. His great joy is telling the 14 billion year history of everyone and everything in ways that evoke awe, gratitude, and trust, inspire faith and openheartedness, and empower people to follow the path where their own great joy and the world's great need intersect.

Prior to 1981 Michael rejected evolution and aggressively opposed those who taught it. Click here to read a short autobiographical essay written in 2003, entitled: "My Road to Damascus: The Making of an Evolutionary Evangelist".(PDF)

Michael Dowd graduated summa cum laude from Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri (affiliated with the Assemblies of God), where in he received a B.A. in biblical studies and philosophy, and from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (affiliated with the American Baptist Church), where he earned his Master of Divinity degree. Rev. Dowd served as a congregational minister for nine years, pastoring churches in Massachusetts, Ohio, and Michigan.

In 1995 Rev. Dowd began working with the religious leadership of the United States on social and environmental issues that were coming up for a vote in Congress, as Religious Organizer for the Washington D.C. based National Environmental Trust. From 1997 to 2000 he headed the first government funded program designed to produce large-scale citizen behavioral change along stewardship lines in the United States: The Portland Sustainable Lifestyle Campaign, in Portland, Oregon. In 2000 and 2001 he served as Campaign Manager of Global Action Plan's internationally acclaimed EcoTeam and Livable Neighborhood Programs in Rockland County, New York. Both programs helped neighbors build trust and a greater sense of community by supporting each other in becoming better stewards of the natural world and creating healthier, friendlier, safer neighborhoods.

A warm and charismatic, unpretentious speaker, Rev. Dowd has addressed more than a thousand religious and secular groups over the past 25 years. He has served on the board of directors of the North American Conference on Christianity and Ecology; the Ohio Conference UCC Integrity of Creation, Justice, and Peace task force; and the Hudson Valley Sustainable Communities Network. He has also served on the steering committees of the International Network of Biblical Storytellers and the UCC Network for Environmental and Economic Responsibility.

Some samples of Praise for their work:

"Connie Barlow and Michael Dowd are gifted troubadours who celebrate the new evolutionary epic. As they travel endless freeway miles and speak to the full spectrum of humanity, their passionate presentations are igniting a new and exciting synthesis of science and faith." — Brian Swimme, Professor of Cosmology, California Institute of Integral Studies

"Your presentation was absolutely magnificent! Such clarity I have seldom encountered. I learned a great deal." — Thomas Berry, President Emeritus, American Teilhard Association

"Michael and Connie are performing an indispensable service to evolutionary enlightenment...They are building a bridge over which our whole culture can now cross over." — Barbara Marx Hubbard, President, Foundation for Conscious Evolution

"Connie Barlow and Michael Dowd participated in the National Meeting of the National Center for Independent School Renewal, in February of 2004. Michael delivered the keynote address and both conducted small group discussions. They were both superb. As I met folks coming from their sessions I heard them say that they had some very new ways to look at some very old things — for example, the universe some 14 billion years old. Teachers felt stretched in thinking about both science and religion. I would recommend them to speak to any group of people who are searching for the truth and trying to make that search important in their lives and in the lives of those around them." — Bob Shirley, president, National Center for Independent School Renewal

"Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow visited our school and left a lot of room behind — a space, a storied universe. Ms. Barlow in single classrooms showed the hidden stories behind the scene: she animated North America's megafauna, plants, and the basic elements. Mr. Dowd motivated children to see greatness in their own lives as part of this vast universe, and he also spoke on Western culture's evolution to a faculty assembly. Both not only expanded our ideas but embodied hope in this troubled time, encouraging us to think life through. Thanks is only a surface gesture; it's what we do with knowledge that counts. The faculty of Wingate High School were inspired by their offering." — Stan Renfro, English teacher at Wingate High School, a BIA boarding school near Gallup, NM

Books

See these links for a sample of interviews and other information about Connie and Michael and their teachings about the Great Story:

The Great Story website has links to other interviews and extensive information on many subjects related to this new cosmology. Explore its depth here:
www.TheGreatStory.org

Connie Barlow, Michael Dowd

 

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