Meditation for Earth is held every Tuesday at 12:15 p.m. ET.
In-person in the Sanctuary at the First Presbyterian Church of Rumson, 4 East River Rd. Rumson, NJ.
Join our virtual meditation on our YouTube channel HERE
Sorry, but this event is cancelled, due to Saturday’s weather forecast.
Save Coastal Wildlife and has been recruiting and training volunteers to monitor these seasonal populations. Our own Scott Carlin has been trained as a volunteer. Hugh Carola, Hackensack Riverkeeper, is also joining us. They are inviting the public to join them at Sandy Hook to see the seals in person. We will watch the seals and record data to report. While we are there, we will discuss all of the wildlife around us. Click the title or photo above for additional details, including our registration link.
We’re partnering with The BTS Center and The Many – a songwriting advocate for the Earth – to offer a yearlong cycle of music, liturgy, art, and scripture, and presence. Lament with Earth is a five-part series of interactive virtual events inviting you to pray and sing along.
Bring your emotions, in all their complexities and intricacies. Together, we’ll share the grief, and we’ll share the balm, too.
Learn more and register.
Save Coastal Wildlife and has been recruiting and training volunteers to monitor these seasonal populations. Our own Scott Carlin has been trained as a volunteer. Hugh Carola, Hackensack Riverkeeper, is also joining us. They are inviting the public to join them at Sandy Hook to see the seals in person. We will watch the seals and record data to report. While we are there, we will discuss all of the wildlife around us. Click the title or photo above for additional details, including our registration link.
Join Waterspirit and Yoga Instructor, Angel Tener, for Gentle New Moon Flow Yoga. Both beginner and experienced participants will enjoy this class as we develop energy and balance. Flow through poses to promote strength, flexibility, and body awareness. Connect with nature and with your inner self as Angel guides us through breathing and mindful movements.
Cost: $5 per participant.
Please join Waterspirit’s Exploring Spirituality, Nature, and Action Book Club as we discuss Betsy Damon’s Water Talks. In Water Talks, Betsy Damon seeks to educate and empower communities to reclaim their waters. Part of the books power is that it roots the science of water as the center of all life. The focus here is on citizen science - empowering all of us to map and understand our own watersheds and to connect the varied ways that water is central to our social, economical and physical wellbeing. “For 35 years, Damon has committed herself as an artist, a community organizer, a designer and an educator of water in all its complexity. She has partnered with scientists, Indigenous leaders, government and corporate authorities, artists and citizens alike, weaving together the strengths of all into a powerful and collaborative force.”
Pick up your copy and start reading today! Zoom link will be emailed upon registration.
Please join us at the Monmouth County Faith & Ecology Meetup. This is a quarterly interfaith gathering for people working on environmental issues in our county.
Let's meet each other and learn what we are working on in our faith communities! What issues are inspiring us? What challenges are we facing? How can we create a faith-fueled network of Earth care where we live?
Let's build solidarity and community resilience together at this gathering.
Save Coastal Wildlife and has been recruiting and training volunteers to monitor these seasonal populations. Our own Scott Carlin has been trained as a volunteer. He is inviting the public to join him at Sandy Hook to see the seals in person. We will watch the seals and record data to report. While we are there, we will discuss all of the wildlife around us. Click the title or photo above for additional details, including our registration link.
Join your fellow water protectors at this community-building fundraiser. This special event will include delicious food, an exciting silent auction, and stunning ocean views. Joys of the Sea will feature remarks from the 2026 Suzanne Golas Spirit of Water Award winners: Dr. Patricia Shanley, Ridgeview Conservancy and Captain Robert Killian, NJ Clearwater and Aquarian Quest, Inc.
Join Waterspirit and Yoga Instructor, Angel Tener, for Gentle New Moon Flow Yoga. Both beginner and experienced participants will enjoy this class as we develop energy and balance. Flow through poses to promote strength, flexibility, and body awareness. Connect with nature and with your inner self as Angel guides us through breathing and mindful movements.
Cost: $5 per participant.
Daylight is lengthening, temperatures are warming, trees are blooming and we are celebrating. Join Waterspirit on March 20 as we celebrate the arrival of Spring with music, movement, poetry and contemplation. The Spring Equinox is a time to reflect on the freshness and excitement of the rebirth of nature. We look forward to the April showers which will water our gardens and bring forth new life.
Bring your family and friends to Waterspirit and join in the celebration. The program will be celebrated in person and livestreamed on our YouTube channel.
Join Waterspirit’s Earth Day Beach Cleanup on April 25 and help us protect the sacred waters. Click here to learn more.
We’re partnering with The BTS Center and The Many – a songwriting advocate for the Earth – to offer a yearlong cycle of music, liturgy, art, and scripture, and presence. Lament with Earth is a five-part series of interactive virtual events inviting you to pray and sing along.
Bring your emotions, in all their complexities and intricacies. Together, we’ll share the grief, and we’ll share the balm, too.
Learn more and register.
Please save the date for this young adult retreat on the mental health impacts of climate change, hosted by Waterspirit’s Executive Director. This retreat will take place in New Jersey. Please contact us for more information.
On May 18th, Waterspirit will host its 2nd book club of 2026. It is sure to be a fun read, so go ahead and add the date to your calendar! We will select our May book in early March.
Please save the date for this young adult retreat on the mental health impacts of climate change, hosted by Waterspirit’s Executive Director. This retreat will take place in Washington state. Please contact us for more information.
We’re partnering with The BTS Center and The Many – a songwriting advocate for the Earth – to offer a yearlong cycle of music, liturgy, art, and scripture, and presence. Lament with Earth is a five-part series of interactive virtual events inviting you to pray and sing along.
Bring your emotions, in all their complexities and intricacies. Together, we’ll share the grief, and we’ll share the balm, too.
Learn more and register.
Please save the date for Waterspirit’s Summer Solstice Celebration!
We will welcome the summer with music, poetry, reflection, and family-friendly fun. Special guests will be announced as the solstice approaches. This in-person ceremony will also be live-streamed on Waterspirit’s YouTube channel.
Waterspirit will be joining forces with our friends from Save Coastal Wildlife to protect our precious water by doing some beach clean-ups. Please join us. Together we can make a difference. Registration will be required. For now just save the date!
Please bring gloves. Wear clothes that can get dirty. Please wear boots or old shoes that can get muddy. We need lots of people to help remove lots of trash!
Park at Sandy Hook Parking Lot C. Note that the Google maps link will take you - incorrectly - to Parking Lot D. (That is the closest address we have.)
Our Waterspirit community will choose our August book in May, but we hope you save the date on your calendar today! More details to follow in late May.
We won’t know our November book title until the fall, but you can still mark your calendar! More details to follow in early September.
Please save the date for this informational meeting that will outline what this 10-week support group entails, explain the course’s suggested donation, and answer any questions you might have prior to committing. The group will meet on Zoom from 2/5-4/9 from 7:30-9:30 p.m. ET. LEARN MORE AND REGISTER.
Climate change, super storms, rising sea levels, large-scale pollution—do these problems seem large, looming, intractable? If you’re feeling vulnerable, dis-empowered, or burnt-out, you’re not alone: eco-anxiety, climate grief, and other climate feelings are shared by many people who are paying attention to the climate crisis. Addressing these heavy feelings in community can be a way of generating the personal resilience needed to cope with an uncertain future.
Waterspirit hosts eco-anxiety peer support groups using the Good Grief Network’s “10 Steps to Personal Resilience and Empowerment in a Chaotic Climate” method. Please join us for this informational session that will introduce the group's methodology, giving you an opportunity to meet the facilitators and ask any questions prior to committing to the 10 weeks.
Join Waterspirit and Yoga Instructor, Angel Tener, for Gentle New Moon Flow Yoga. Both beginner and experienced participants will enjoy this class as we develop energy and balance. Flow through poses to promote strength, flexibility, and body awareness. Connect with nature and with your inner self as Angel guides us through breathing and mindful movements.
Cost: $5 per participant.
Waterspirit is excited to host another workshop at the Alliance for New Jersey Environmental Education’s annual Winter Conference.
Join Waterspirit’s Program Manager Scott Carlin for a session titled “The Intimacy of Climate Science: Learning to Interbe” during the January 15th 9:45-11:00am workshop block. Learn more and register at: https://www.anjee.org .
Celebrate Winter Solstice with Waterspirit and friends as we commemorate the deeper meaning of the winter season with reflections, contemplation, music, and gentle movement. The winter solstice marks NJ’s shortest day and longest night of the year. Join us after the celebration for refreshments and fellowship. This event is also live-streamed to our YouTube channel.
The recent United Nations climate change conference in Brazil, COP30, was a beacon of hope and uncertainty. Global civil society showed up in force inside negotiating rooms, in interreligious dialogues, and during the new Global Ethical Stocktake, to demand real climate action and a revolution of consciousness. Join Waterspirit’s Blair Nelsen to get a glimpse into whether COP30 lived up to its promise, what frontline communities at COP30 were calling for, and next steps we can take for a livable, fossil free future.
Email us for the Zoom link.
New Jersey is vying for a constitutional Green Amendment - what would that really mean for our communities, our health, our watersheds?
Join us in Newark for an open town hall to learn more, get your questions answered, and discuss how a Green Amendment could strengthen environmental protections across NJ. This is your chance to be part of the conversation that could shape NJ’s environmental future. Please register beforehand: water@waterspirit.org
For several years, Waterspirit’s Public Policy & Justice Organizer has been active and leading committees focusing on all things water through the Jersey Water Works Collaborative. This year at the annual conference, she will be moderating 2 panels, one focused on water affordability and water quality. Partaking in cross-industry conversations leading up to the event, we are looking forward to how the discussion takes shape and action follows. Join us!
We’re partnering with The BTS Center and The Many – a songwriting advocate for the Earth – to offer a yearlong cycle of music, liturgy, art, and scripture, and presence. Lament with Earth is a five-part series of interactive virtual events inviting you to pray and sing along.
Bring your emotions, in all their complexities and intricacies. Together, we’ll share the grief, and we’ll share the balm, too.
Learn more and register.
We look forward to hearing from our Executive Director, as she shares a recap from her time spent in Belém, Brazil for COP30.
If you would like to be included in this virtual update, please email Waterspirit’s team: water@waterspirit.org
The Waterspirit Team has a reverence for water. We make a commitment to preserve and protect this source and sustainer of life. On the day after Thanksgiving, rather than shopping, we go to a local park to reflect on the beauty of nature. Freneau Woods Park is comprised of dense woods, open fields with majestic trees, Lake Lefferts and freshwater ponds. This year’s walk includes a forest bath, lead by Jenna Reynolds, President of Save Coastal Wildlife. We will enjoy a water ceremony before hiking back to the parking area. The terrain is a mix of flat trails and rolling hills. Note that Freneau's trails are often muddy following wet weather. Dress for the weather. November can bring varied temperatures. While this is a free event, we suggest making a $20 donation to support Waterspirit's eco-spiritual programs and advocacy. This event is co-sponsored by Save Coastal Wildlife.
Please join Waterspirit’s Exploring Spirituality, Nature, and Action Book Club as we discuss Robert Macfarlane’s book, Is A River Alive? This book is a joyous exploration into an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are living beings who should be recognized as such in imagination and law. Powered by Macfarlane’s dazzling prose and lit throughout by other voices, Is a River Alive? will open hearts, challenge perspectives, and remind us that our fate flows with that of rivers—and always has.
Pick up your copy and start reading today! Zoom link will be emailed upon registration.
Join Waterspirit and Yoga Instructor, Angel Tener, for Gentle New Moon Flow Yoga. Both beginner and experienced participants will enjoy this class as we develop energy and balance. Flow through poses to promote strength, flexibility, and body awareness. Connect with nature and with your inner self as Angel guides us through breathing and mindful movements.
Cost: $5 per participant.
Waterspirit has been educating communities about the prospective strength of enshrining the NJ State Constitution with the rights to clean air, pure water, a stable climate and healthy environment for current and future generations.
Since the State Assembly has yet to hold a hearing on the proposed New Jersey Green Amendment, we’re creating space for the voices that matter most…yours.
Join us for the People’s Hearing, a public forum where residents can share their stories, concerns, and hopes for a cleaner, healthier, and more just environment. REGISTER HERE
Whether you’ve felt the impacts of pollution, cherish a local park or waterway, or simply believe every New Jerseyan deserves the right to clean air and water, this is your chance to speak up and be heard.
Share your connection to the environment and why you support the Green Amendment.
Together, we can show that protecting our natural resources is not just policy, but a shared value. Hosted by the Pinelands Alliance and Green Amendments for the Generations, this event is designed for you to share your voice. After a short welcome from Maya van Rossum, the microphone is yours.
If you plan to share a comment, please email Stephen atstephen@pinelandsalliance.org so we can plan our time accordingly. Thank you!
Waterspirit’s Executive Director, Blair Nelsen, will be presenting at this symposium.
In Mojave poet Natalie Diaz’s words, “The Colorado River is the most endangered river in the United States—also, it is a part of my body. / I carry a river. It is who I am: ‘Aha Makav. This is not metaphor.” This symposium is provoked by Diaz’s poem, “The First Water is the Body,” and convenes scholars, activists, artists, and spiritual practitioners diversely committed to the vitality of water and waterspaces. Amidst water crisis, we seek to share cosmovisions, bodies of knowledge, modes of communication that emerge from deep attention to water. In our interlocking articulations of water cosmologies, water crisis, and water power, we aim to open new paths of insight and collaboration toward collective healing.
Free and open to the public.
This symposium is sponsored by the Institute of Sacred Music’s Religion, Ecology, and Expressive Culture Initiative.
Sam King of the Journey of the Universe project will interview Blair Nelsen, the Executive Director of Waterspirit, on the next episode of the Mepkin Abbey Forum for Contemplative Ecology. Please join us on Zoom for this free event that explores nature-based contemplation, activism, and how we can be better caretakers of water in the places we call home. Email us to receive the Zoom link.
We know water is sacred; let’s treat the water we live near to a visit!
We’re partnering with The BTS Center and The Many – a songwriting advocate for the Earth – to offer a yearlong cycle of music, liturgy, art, and scripture, and presence. Lament with Earth is a five-part series of interactive virtual events inviting you to pray and sing along.
Bring your emotions, in all their complexities and intricacies. Together, we’ll share the grief, and we’ll share the balm, too.
Learn more and register.
Join Waterspirit and Yoga Instructor, Angel Tener, for Gentle New Moon Flow Yoga. Both beginner and experienced participants will enjoy this class as we develop energy and balance. Flow through poses to promote strength, flexibility, and body awareness. Connect with nature and with your inner self as Angel guides us through breathing and mindful movements.
Cost: $5 per participant.
The final session in this series will be held on November 18.
Exciting news! Waterspirit's Executive Director, Blair Nelsen, will be one of six featured speakers at the BTS Center's 2025 Convocation, entitled Flipping the Script: Claiming our Voices, Telling our Stories. Over the course of two days, we will gather to deepen our wisdom through listening and sharing, to celebrate the gifts of community, and to find respite and renewal. Gathering in the spirit of friendship, seeking nourishment in spiritual practice, and committed to paths of honesty and vulnerability, together we will explore what it means to live, love, and lead in a climate-changed world.
Please join us at the Monmouth County Faith & Ecology Meetup! This is an informal, interfaith gathering for people of faith working on environmental issues in our county. Let's meet each other and learn what we are working on in our faith communities! What issues are inspiring us? What challenges are we facing? Let's grow and learn together at this fun networking event. Refreshments will be provided.
*** SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: This meet-up session will include a special listening session to help bring our local climate concerns to the world stage. We will do a group activity called a "self-organized dialogue", part of the Global Ethical Stocktake Circle in preparation for the climate COP30 in Brazil in November. We will share our answers to questions such as:
Why do we so often deny or ignore what science and traditional knowledge say about the climate crisis and share or tolerate misinformation, even knowing lives are at risk?
What traditions, histories, or practices (cultural, spiritual) from your community teach us to live in greater harmony with nature?
Considering that we need to guarantee diversity in the collective, how can we mobilize more people, leaders, corporations, companies, and nations to support just and ethical changes in combating the climate crisis? What ideas and values could inspire us in this mission?
Waterspirit is thrilled to be hosting another workshop at the Alliance for New Jersey Environmental Education’s annual Autumn Outdoor Conference. All outdoors. Zero PowerPoint. Maximum Inspiration.
Join Waterspirit’s Blair Nelsen for a session called “Mindfulness in Nature: Blue and Green Spaces” during the 2:45-3:45 workshop block. Learn more and register at: https://anjee.org/autumn-conference.html
Join the Climate Imaginarium for a New York Climate Week double feature screening event, showcasing climate grief on the big screen. Hosted by Good Grief Network and Stranded Astronaut Productions, in partnership with the Climate Film Festival, Here On Earth, Human Impacts Institute, Broadway Climate Summit, Waterspirit, and Climate Cafe NYC. The night will include screenings of the films Good Grief: The 10 Steps and Healing Lahaina, as well as grounding exercises, plant-based treats, and a special Q&A session.
Join Waterspirit and Yoga Instructor, Angel Tener, for Gentle New Moon Flow Yoga. Both beginner and experienced participants will enjoy this class as we develop energy and balance. Flow through poses to promote strength, flexibility, and body awareness. Connect with nature and with your inner self as Angel guides us through breathing and mindful movements.
Cost: $5 per participant.
Additional sessions will be held on October 21 and November 18.
The BTS Center is pleased to offer this learning community, originally developed in an asynchronous format by our friends Jessica Morthorpe and Blair Nelsen, and offered by our partner Waterspirit. We will engage the materials from the Climate Pastoral Care course together as a learning community, guided by three hosts and facilitators, meeting twice each month, to deepen our understanding of the physical, emotional, mental health, and spiritual impacts of the climate crisis, and to explore how to address these impacts through the practice of spiritual care.
Learn more by joining this introductory session on September 22.
Join Waterspirit on Sunday, September 21 as we welcome autumn. Intentionally connecting with the cycles of nature is an eco-spiritual practice that helps us regulate our inner lives and strengthen our connection with the planet. Friends of all ages will gather for this meaningful event celebrated with poetry, movement, contemplation, and music. This long-standing, signature program is inclusive of all faith traditions, inviting attendees into deeper connection with the meaning of autumn.
Fall is the season for all senses. The feel of cooler temperatures after a long summer. The sight of forests filled with reds, oranges and browns. The sound of crunching leaves underfoot. The smell of cinnamon and apples. The taste of pumpkin spice in everything. Welcome Autumn! There are two ways to join the celebration: in-person at Waterspirit (4 E. River Rd., Rumson, NJ) or virtually on Waterspirit's YouTube Channel.
*Please bring a non-perishable food item to donate to the food pantry. Thank you!
Show this flyer at the Chipotle in Red Bank, NJ (20 Water St.) on Saturday, September 20 from 4-8 p.m. to donate 25% of your purchase to Waterspirit! You can also order in the app using code TMBKK7C.
SAVE THE DATE! 9/9/25
We will gather in Monmouth County at Bayshore Waterfront Park at 4PM in the afternoon of 9/9/25 to share information, capture resident and local leader concerns, and speak out in clear opposition to this unnecessary proposed pipeline and compressor project. This is one day before 9/10/25, the only virtual public hearing in New Jersey. Governor Murphy can stop this by using NJ’s power to deny critical water quality permits.
Join us for this rally and register HERE to speak on 9/10/25!
Please join Waterspirit’s Exploring Spirituality, Nature, and Action Book Club for an enriching discussion of Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s book Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead. Learn more and register by clicking on the button below. Grab your copy and happy reading!
Please save the date for this informational meeting that will outline what this 10-week support group entails, explain the course’s suggested donation, and answer any questions you might have prior to committing. The group will meet on Zoom from 8/28-10/30 from 7-8:30 p.m. ET. LEARN MORE AND REGISTER.
Climate change, super storms, rising sea levels, large-scale pollution—do these problems seem large, looming, intractable? If you’re feeling vulnerable, dis-empowered, or burnt-out, you’re not alone: eco-anxiety, climate grief, and other climate feelings are shared by many people who are paying attention to the climate crisis. Addressing these heavy feelings in community can be a way of generating the personal resilience needed to cope with an uncertain future.
Waterspirit hosts eco-anxiety peer support groups using the Good Grief Network’s “10 Steps to Personal Resilience and Empowerment in a Chaotic Climate” method. Please join us for this informational session that will introduce the group's methodology, giving you an opportunity to meet the facilitators and ask any questions prior to committing to the 10 weeks.
Waterspirit is proud to support the NJ Green Amendment movement. Join us!
The NJ Green Amendment team's next monthly training, Writing Op/Eds and Letters to the Editor, led by student leader, Ava Blando on August 14, 2025 on the Green Amendments for the Generations App
Check out the NJ Green Amendments advocacy page through their website: https://njgreenamendment.org/
Here’s the last monthly training led by our Public Policy & Justice Organizer focused on Resolution Passage.
To register, make sure you join our Green Amendment Ambassador group here: bit.ly/NJGreenCommunity. Join New Jersey and Then, click on the “Events” tab to find our upcoming training, and select “Yes, I’m going” from the dropdown! A recording will be available for all those on the Action Platform.
