Redeemer University
777 Garner Road East Ancaster ON L9K 1J4
On this page: Registration | Purpose | Speakers | Plenary Lectures | Schedule | Workshops | Breakouts | Accommodations and Travel
Registration
Registration is now open! Join Redeemer University on October 2-3, 2026 for a two-day academic conference exploring and learning how creation is a precious gift to be received and celebrated. Discounts are available for pastors, students, and alumni (email wolterscentre@redeemer.ca), and Friday only and Saturday only options are available for each ticket. Registration closes on September 18, 2026.
Purpose
To Love This World: Receiving the Gift of Creation aims to inspire and equip Christians to receive creation as God’s good gift and to respond with gratitude, delight, and care.
Creation care is sometimes approached with anxiety, guilt, or political suspicion. This conference begins with a different conviction: that the world belongs to God, that creation declares his glory, and that Christians are called to love and steward the places, creatures, and communities entrusted to us.
Through plenary lectures, interdisciplinary conversations, hands-on workshops, breakout sessions, and opportunities for reflection, participants will explore how Scripture, theology, science, literature, art, education, and everyday practices can shape a faithful response to creation. The conference is designed especially for lay Christians, students, pastors, educators, and church communities who want to think more deeply and live more faithfully in relation to the created world.
Our hope is that participants will leave with a renewed sense of wonder, a clearer theological vision for creation care, and practical encouragement for caring for the places God has given them.
This two-day conference is hosted by the Albert M. Wolters Centre for Christian Scholarship at Redeemer University.
Speakers
Jeffrey Bilbro (PhD, Baylor University) is a Professor of English at Grove City College, and Editor-in-Chief at Front Porch Republic. His books include Words for Conviviality: Media Technologies and Practices of Hope, Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News, Loving God’s Wildness: The Christian Roots of Ecological Ethics in American Literature, Wendell Berry and Higher Education: Cultivating Virtues of Place (written with Jack Baker), and Virtues of Renewal: Wendell Berry’s Sustainable Forms.
Jonathan Moo (PhD, University of Cambridge) is the Bruner-Welch Endowed Chair in Theology at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington. Holding graduate degrees in both biblical studies and wildlife ecology, his teaching and writing explore the intersections of Scripture, theology, ecology and science. He is the author and co-author of numerous books and articles on creation care, environmental ethics and biblical theology, including Creation Care: A Biblical Theology of the Natural World and Let Creation Rejoice: Biblical Hope and Ecological Crisis. Jonathan serves on the Board of Directors of A Rocha USA and continues to support the work of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion in Cambridge.
Plenary Lectures
Plenary Lecture #1: Overturning False Idols, Embracing Good Limits, and Resisting Babylon: On the Revolutionary Possibilities of Biblical Hope for Life on Earth (Dr. Jonathan Moo)
We live in a time of incredible blessing and promise, yet it is also marked by ecological and climate crisis, personal and societal disconnection and distraction, and growing pressure to cede our future to machines. In this talk we will explore the potential of biblical hope—especially, perhaps surprisingly, that which emerges in the book of Revelation—to empower faithful witness to Christ in a time such as ours, including in how we love and care for creation. The aim is to refresh and reshape our imagination about what is good and true and beautiful so that we might resist false idols, grow in discernment about how and where we use the gifts of technology, and cultivate spaces of flourishing life that reflect the kingdom of God.
Plenary Lecture #2: We Are Not as Gods and Might as Well Get Good at It (Dr. Jeffrey Bilbro)
Technologists from Stewart Brand to William MacAskill believe that we humans hold the world in our hands and therefore must turn to powerful technologies, like AI, to shepherd the earth and its occupants. If we try to shoulder this divine responsibility, seeing it as our duty to ensure the earth’s good future, then the temptation to hand over our work to Big Technologies will be irresistible. Yet in aspiring to be gods we end up abnegating our human vocation to bear God’s image to his creation. This vocation can’t be offloaded to a machine, no matter how much more efficient or effective it may seem. Christ’s ministry and parables offer insight into how God calls us to love the world, insight particularly needed in our machine age.
Plenary Lecture #3: Loving God and Cherishing the Earth: A Biblical Vision (Dr. Jonathan Moo)
In this talk, we will explore, in dialogue with natural science, what Scripture reveals about the triune God’s relationship with the earth and its creatures and our place among them. The biblical vision invites us into wonder and delight and calls us to lives of worship that include the study and care of creation, celebration of the goodness of the earth and of our embodied, entangled lives, lament over all that is lost and broken, and the cherishing of our homeplaces.
Schedule
| Friday, October 2, 2026 | |
|---|---|
| 12:30-2:00 p.m. | Conference Registration |
| 2:00-3:30 p.m. | Plenary #1: Dr. Jonathan Moo – Overturning False Idols, Embracing Good Limits, and Resisting Babylon: On the Revolutionary Possibilities of Biblical Hope for Life on Earth |
| 3:30-3:45 p.m. | Break |
| 3:45-5:15 p.m. | Workshop Session #1 (choose one) 1. Chedoke Watershed Walk: Dr. Edward Berkelaar and John Terpstra 2. Reading and Restoring the Land 3. iNaturalist and Nature Journaling: Sandra Zuidema |
| 5:15-7:00 p.m. | Dinner (Dining Hall) |
| 7:00-8:30 p.m. | Art in Place Panel: Dr. Jantina Ellens and Phil Irish |
| Saturday, October 3, 2026 | |
|---|---|
| 9:30-10:30 a.m. | Interdisciplinary Sustainability Panel: Drs. Jonathan Moo, and Jeffrey Bilbro |
| 10:30-10:45 a.m. | Break |
| 10:45 am-12:15 p.m. | Breakout Sessions (choose one) 1. Liturgies of Restoration: Spiritual Formation Through Creation Care: Jon Terry 2. Caring for Our Common Home Together: Amanda Hildebrand 3. Poetry in Place: Drs. Deborah Bowen and Doug Sikkema |
| 12:15-1:45 p.m. | Lunch |
| 1:45-3:15 p.m. | Plenary #2: Dr. Jeffrey Bilbro – We Are Not as Gods and Might as Well Get Good at It |
| 3:15-3:30 p.m. | Break |
| 3:30-5:00 p.m. | Workshop Session #2 (choose one) 1. Restoration in Practice: Jeremy Petrusma 2. Sustainable Impact: Leveraging Business to Enable Access to Safe Water: Bruce Taylor 3. iNaturalist and Nature Journaling: Sandra Zuidema |
| 5:00-7:30 p.m. | Dinner break (Offsite) |
| 7:30-9:00 p.m. | Plenary #3: Dr. Jonathan Moo – Loving God and Cherishing the Earth: A Biblical Vision (Auditorium) |
| 9:00-10:00 p.m. | Reception in Art Gallery |
Workshop Sessions
Friday at 3:45 p.m. (choose one)
- Chedoke Watershed Walk: Dr. Edward Berkelaar and John Terpstra
- Join poet John Terpstra and Redeemer professor Edward Berkelaar for a guided walk through the Chedoke Watershed. This informal workshop will combine local environmental science, stories, poetry, and reflection as participants explore the beauty, significance, and stewardship of this local watershed.
- Reading and Restoring the Land
- How do we learn to see the land around us more attentively? This workshop will explore the connections between ecology, land use, restoration, and active, faithful stewardship. Participants will be invited to consider how local landscapes can be read with care and imagination, and how practices of restoration can help communities live more purposefully and responsibly within the places they call home.
- iNaturalist and Nature Journaling: Sandra Zuidema
- Learn the art of nature journaling with local artist, educator, and nature-lover Sandra Zuidema. Nature journaling is one of the most beautiful ways to cultivate your attention, perception, and wonder of the natural world, learning to notice the subtly ever-changing face of the creation day by day, season by season, year by year. All supplies will be provided!
Saturday at 3:30 p.m. (choose one)
- Restoration in Practice: Jeremy Petrusma
- This hands-on workshop will give participants an opportunity to take part in practical ecological restoration work on Redeemer’s campus. Rather than simply talking about creation care, participants will be invited to learn by doing as they contribute to the ongoing care and renewal of the land around us.
- Sustainable Impact: Leveraging Business to Enable Access to Safe Water: Bruce Taylor
- Dive into a hands-on, interactive simulation where teams compete to organize and deliver safe water access as efficiently as possible. In this workshop, participants will split into groups – some playing the game while others observe—then debrief together to share insights on strategy, collaboration, and improvement. Whether you’re a water access advocate, entrepreneur, or sustainability enthusiast, this workshop equips you with practical skills to drive meaningful, scalable solutions.
- iNaturalist and Nature Journalling: Sandra Zuidema
- Learn the art of nature journaling with local artist, educator, and nature-lover Sandra Zuidema. Nature journaling is one of the most beautiful ways to cultivate your attention, perception, and wonder of the natural world, learning to notice the subtly ever-changing face of the creation day by day, season by season, year by year. All supplies will be provided!
Breakout Session
Saturday at 10:45 a.m. (choose one)
- Liturgies of Restoration: Spiritual Formation Through Creation Care: Jon Terry – Au Sable
- Caring for the earth is more than an environmental task—it is one of the ways God forms us into the people he created us to be. Drawing on themes from Liturgies of Restoration, this interactive session will explore how practices of worship, attentiveness, community, and hope can shape our lives and help us respond faithfully to a world marked by distraction, loneliness, and ecological concern.
- Caring for Our Common Home Together: Amanda Hildebrand – A Rocha
- This interactive breakout session will equip you with practical tools to care for the places you call home using the Head, Heart, Hands model. Together, we’ll explore how to learn about your local environment and community (Head), cultivate a shared sense of wonder through liturgy, worship, and prayer (Heart), and take meaningful action through projects that fit naturally within your existing ministries, programs, and priorities (Hands). Whether you’re just getting started or looking to build on existing efforts, you’ll leave with adaptable ideas, planning tools, and inspiring examples that demonstrate how to care for creation well.
- Poetry in Place: Drs. Doug Sikkema and Deborah Bowen
- What does poetry have to do with creation care? Join scholar Deborah Bowen and Doug Sikkema in a conversation about the ways in which our words are creative responses to God’s ongoing poem of Creation. In unique ways, the art of poetry trains us in the use of fresh, new language that can shape our imaginations and reorder our love for the created world.
Accommodations and Travel
Nearby hotels (within a 10-15 minute drive of Redeemer University):
- The Barracks Inn, Ancaster
- Holiday Inn Express, Hamilton
- Staybridge Suites, Hamilton
Nearby airports: