Finding Peace On Earth With Todd Warfield

Todd Warfield, Rolling Ridge Naturalist Consultant

Finding PEACE ON EARTH:

Todd Warfield and the Rolling Ridge Earth Center

By Rev. Michael Reed, Associate Director

“Peace on Earth” may be a common Christmas proclamation, but at Rolling Ridge, it is not just a spiritual platitude. It is a commitment to justice we take quite literally.

Through the generous support of an anonymous donor and a grant from the United Methodist Camping and Retreat Ministries, we hired Todd Warfield this fall as our Naturalist Consultant to expand the Rolling Ridge Earth Center and our eco-spiritual programs. Welcome Todd!
 

An educator and herbalist, Todd is also a United Methodist Home Missioner candidate. “Connecting with the land is important to me,” he says. “Because everything is connected.” As a person of Abanaki heritage, Todd is helping us live into our Land Acknowledgement, in which we have committed to tell our history honestly, and to live peaceably on land forever tied to the Pennacook Abenaki people.
 

During our Land Acknowledgment ceremony in 2022, we officially gave the island off the Rolling Ridge peninsula a new name: "Menahaniz" (pronounced "mena-ha-neez"). In the Algonquin dialect—the language of the Pennacook Abenaki people—Menahaniz means "Small Island." Learn more about the Land Acknowledgment here.

Already Todd has begun to help us bring peace to our 38 acres of creation: tending to the many damaged trees and trails impacted by the September 8th, 2023 microburst storm; cataloging flora and fauna on the property; designing new eco-programs; and connecting with our current eco-partners. His goal, he says, is to help our guests live in connection with Earth in ways marked by community rather than consumerism—“not just taking, but stewarding forward what’s here, for future generations.”
 

 Damage from the windstorm on Sept. 8th, 2023

Peace on Earth requires long-range thinking, taking into account the needs of tomorrow as every bit as prescient and pressing as the concerns of today. Already, Todd is helping us to expand our mindset “I’m concerned about the storm damage,” he says, “I’m also concerned about what the land will be like for the next generation. How do we continue to steward it now, in ways that make a positive difference in another twenty-five or thirty years, or even further down the road?”

Todd’s position, along with our growing Earth Center, is only possible through the support of generous supporters. To them, and to those who have already given to our 2023 Annual Appeal, we say a huge THANK YOU for your commitment to bringing peace and justice on Earth! We hope you’ll come visit Todd and us in the New Year!
 

Read our 2023 Annual Update and Appeal online here.

If you haven’t yet, we invite you to make your donation today. Your contributions help us steward our 38 acres of earth, and expand our ministry of justice and eco-spirituality for rising generations in years to come. To give today, please go to www.rollingridge.org/donate.

May there be peace on Earth, and may it begin with us!
 

Send Todd an email to wish him a warm welcome to Rolling Ridge! You can reach him at earthcenter@rollingridge.org.