2022 Evolution Weekend
This year marks the 17th annual Evolution Weekend. While all participating congregations will address the relationship between religion and science, many will focus their attention on the theme selected for this year: The Pandemic, Climate Change and Evolution: How Religion and Science, Working Together, Can Advance Our Understanding.
11 - 13 February 2022 -- Evolution Weekend
Evolution Weekend is an opportunity for serious discussion and reflection on the relationship between religion and science. The ongoing goal has been to elevate the quality of the discussion on this critical topic, and to show that religion and science are not adversaries. Rather, they look at the natural world from quite different perspectives and ask, and answer, different questions.
Religious people from many diverse faith traditions and locations around the world understand that evolution is quite simply sound science; and for them, it does not in any way threaten, demean, or diminish their faith in God. In fact, for many, the wonders of science often enhance and deepen their awe and gratitude towards God.
By taking this perspective, Letter Project participants demonstrate that when some define religion so narrowly that it is categorically opposed to evolutionary ideas, or any of the findings of science, it both demeans and diminishes religion. As members of The Clergy Letter Project have stated so often and so clearly, this narrow perspective is at odds with the broader conception of religion held by thousands upon thousands of religious leaders.
This year, those congregations opting to embrace our theme, The Pandemic, Climate Change and Evolution: How Religion and Science, Working Together, Can Advance Our Understanding, will demonstrate how religion and science, each working through their specific lens, can help shape public dialogue and understanding. At a time when we’ve been unable to put the pandemic behind us and as a growing percentage of the population is recognizing the crisis, both environmental and social, that stems from global climate change, members of The Clergy Letter Project have decided that it is time to act. Both religious teaching and scientific teaching lead us to the same conclusion: following the science about the pandemic and climate change is imperative if we are to care for our fellow humans and serve as responsible stewards for the planet. Evolution Weekend provides an opportunity for congregations to explore productive actions that can be taken on both fronts as well as to bring these issues to a wider public in a fresh context.
On a broader front, The Clergy Letter Project has, over the years, been a good example of how the teachings of religion and science can support one another. We have, for example, taken positions against the separation of immigrant children from their parents, against racism, homophobia and Islamophobia, and in favor of developing a greater environmental ethic. Each of these positions makes sense from both a theological and a scientific perspective. Each of these positions can be, indeed have been, defended on the basis of evolutionary biology.
Through sermons, discussion groups, meaningful conversations and seminars, the leaders listed below show that religion and science are not adversaries.
To examine some of the sermons members of The Clergy Letter Project have delivered on this topic, to find scientific consultants willing to help answer questions or to read media reports about our activities, please explore our web pages. Similarly, if you want to examine some liturgical resources created and recommended by Clergy Letter Project members for Evolution Weekend, click here.
Whatever way participants choose to celebrate Evolution Weekend, their activities demonstrate, as do The Clergy Letters themselves, which have now been signed by more than 17,300 members of the clergy in the United States, that those claiming that people must choose between religion and science are creating a false dichotomy.
122 Congregations
representing 31 States and the District of Columbia
as well as 4 Countries participated in
Evolution Weekend 2022
Select a state to see its participants or simply scroll down.
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
The Fountains, a United Methodist Church Arkansas
California
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Tuolumne County Colorado
Boulder Mennonite Church Connecticut
Delaware
Salem United Methodist Church Florida
Living Faith Fellowship Georgia
Norcross Presbyterian Church Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
The New Reform Congregation Kadima Indiana
First Unitarian Church of Hobart Iowa
Trinity Las Americas United Methodist Church Kansas
Kentucky
Gloria Dei Lutheran Church Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation Massachusetts
The Congregational Church of Mansfield Michigan
Community Unitarian Universalists of Brighton Minnesota
Family of God Church ELCA and UCC Mississippi
Missouri
Cape Girardeau Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Montana
Unitarian Universalist Church of Missoula Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
Unitarian Universalist Church of Franklin, NH |
New Jersey
Dorothea Dix Unitarian Universalist Community New Mexico
The United Church of Santa Fe New York
Roessleville Presbyterian Church North Carolina
Congregation Bayt Shalom North Dakota
Ohio
The Burkhart Center Oklahoma
Unity Church of Christianity Oregon
Beavercreek United Church of Christ Pennsylvania
St. Luke United Methodist Church Rhode Island
South Carolina
Circular Congregational Church South Dakota
St. Paul's Episcopal Church Tennessee
First Presbyterian Church Texas
Center for Inquiry Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
Metaline Falls Congregational United Church of Christ Washington, DC
Congregation Shir Hadash West Virginia
Wisconsin
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Eau Claire Wyoming
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Due to scheduling difficulties, some participating congregations will be holding
their events close to the weekend of 11 - 13 February 2022 but not on that weekend.