ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

 

The Rev. Dr. Leah Schade, Ph.D., is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America recently appointed as the Assistant Professor of Preaching and Worship at Lexington Theological Seminary in Lexington, Kentucky.  She has 16 years of pastoral experience as the Pastor of United in Christ Lutheran Church in rural Lewisburg, Pa., Spirit and Truth Worship Center in Yeadon, Pa., and as Associate Pastor at Reformation Lutheran Church in Media, Pa.  She earned her both her MDiv and PhD degrees from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, and completed her dissertation focusing on homiletics (preaching) and ecological theology (caring for God’s creation).  Her book Creation-Crisis Preaching:  Ecological Theology and Homiletics (Chalice Press, 2015) is available at www.chalicepress.com.  Dr. Schade also served as an adjunct religion and philosophy instructor at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, PA, and Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA, teaching courses on ethics, religion, gender and ecology. 

 

Dr. Schade is an anti-fracking and climate activist and advocate for environmental justice issues, and is a trained workshop leader for Lutherans Restoring Creation, a grassroots movement helping congregations learn how to “go green.”  As a community organizer, Schade served as the coordinator of a local grassroots effort to halt plans for a proposed tire incinerator in Union County.  She has presented testimony at numerous state and federal hearings on several different environmental issues and helped to organize and been a speaker at press conferences, protests and rallies about the dangers and injustices of the shale gas industry. She has been featured on local radio talk shows and interfaith workshops on care-of-Creation issues. 

 

Samples of her sermons, book and film reviews and other writings can be found on her blog:  www.ecopreacher.blogspot.com. She is also a professional harpist and her CD, Shall We Gather, is available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/ldschade. She and her husband Jim will be living in Lexington with their children Rachel (age 13) and Benjamin (age 9).