Special Offering
At the Threshold: a four part series on Buddhist Eco-Chaplaincy (Panel 3)
September 29, 2026
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Location
Online
September 29, 2026
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
With Rebecca O. Johnson in conversation with Sarah Dōjin Emerson
Building on the first two conversations in the At the Threshold Series Panel 1: What is Buddhist Eco-Chaplaincy: Responding to Eco-Crisis from the Cushion to the Earth, and Panel 2: The Dharma of Upheaval: What does Buddhist Eco Chaplaincy Look Like in the World?, this September gathering brings Sarah Dōjin Emerson into conversation with Rebecca O. Johnson — exploring her decades of work as a social justice and engaged Buddhist teacher, advocate, and on-the-ground organizer across the U.S., and the relationship between climate justice, equity, and Buddhist spiritual care. The conversation will close with Q&A and open discussion.
This is the third in a four-part online series created in collaboration with BECA (Buddhist Eco-Chaplaincy Association). In this panel we explore Buddhist eco-chaplaincy with panelists offering different perspectives on ecological grief, spiritual care, and real-world application. Across four sessions, participants will gain insight into its foundations, intersectional relevance, and interfaith possibilities while experiencing the compassionate outlook this emerging field offers.
Time: 7:00–8:30 PM ET / 4:00–5:30 PM PT
Location: Online via Zoom (link will be provided to registrants)
Fee: $10–$75 sliding scale, per event.
(Find your rate through our Equitable Pricing Model. If this doesn’t work for you, apply for financial assistance. No one will be turned away due to financial constraints).
Financial assistance deadline: Sept 22, 11:59pm ET
Registration deadline: Sept 29 at 12:00 PM ET /9:00 AM PT — Register below.
Questions? Contact us at info@brooklynzen.org.
Rebecca O. Johnson is a writer, social justice organization capacity builder, and activist based in the Bronx, New York. A community organizer since the early 1970s, she has worked on housing, food security, Black worker rights, and immigration issues, organizing alongside women of color from many different countries. As a consultant, she provides capacity building services to Black-led organizations across the Carolinas, Mississippi, Southern California, and Louisiana. Since Hurricane Katrina, Johnson has dedicated much of her writing, advocacy, and organizing to revealing what has been hidden in plain sight: the environmental degradation suffered by working-class communities and communities of color in the wake of plastics production and the industrial toxins these industries create. Johnson began practicing meditation in the early 1990s and continues to practice in the Theravada tradition. She served on the Graduate Faculty of the Health Advocacy Program at Sarah Lawrence College and was founding program director of its End-of-Life Care Program. She has also taught Community Engaged Buddhism in the Buddhism and Interreligious Engagement Program at Union Theological Seminary. In 2024, Johnson completed the Urban Naturalist Certificate Program at the New York Botanical Garden, where she problematizes “nature” by focusing on weeds and that which is labeled “invasive.”
Sarah Dōjin Emerson’s formal practice in Soto Zen began in 1996. She lived and trained at Tassajara Zen Mountain center and other sites of the San Francisco Zen Center from 1997-2007. She received Dharma Transmission from Abbott Konjin Gaelyn Godwin of the Houston Zen Center in 2015. She has a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies, and has worked in the fields of mental health and pastoral care with children and adults. She experiences Bodhisattva Zen practice as deeply supportive to inquiring into, challenging and transforming systems of oppression, particularly racial inequities and the harm they cause within convert Buddhist sanghas, and in U.S. society generally. Sarah has also worked for many years in grief support- clinically, ritually and in community- specializing in child loss. She lives with her partner, Charlie Pokorny (who is also a Soto Zen Buddhist priest), their children (who are her most profound and constant teachers) and numerous pets in Brooklyn, NY.
Photo by Margo Evardson on Unsplash
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