From the Editor
This summer issue of EcoStewards, the Quarterly Journal of World Stewardship Institute features the River. That is, this is an issue primarily about the Russian River, a coastal stream wending through oak woodlands and redwoods to the sea sixty miles north of San Francisco, California. But by extension, this is an issue suggesting new ways to understand and celebrate rivers, wherever they may be.
This issue of EcoStewards accordingly features WSI's collaborative efforts with the farsighted and enterprising persons facilitating the Celebration of the Russian River: a special acknowledgment to Kay McCabe and many others who have generously given their time so that this Celebration may become a part of the lives of people in our community. This issue also features our collaboration with the Conference of Living Waters: the River, Religion, and the Environment, which WSI anticipates becoming the seed for a larger community concern with the crucial topic of Religion and the Environment. Please read about these and other WSI programs and projects, perhaps with the beautiful words from the "Canticle" by St. Francis of Assisi in mind (see Saint Francis: a Model):
Praised be thou, my Lord, for Sister Water,
Which is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.World Stewardship Institute takes pleasure in bringing this Summer issue, imparting the feeling of flowing water and celebration, to our readers and members. WSI continues to affirm stewardship as an activity of the whole person: mind, body, and spirit. This issue of EcoStewards aims to remind its readers of the kinship between stewardship and water: this immediate and tangible sense of kinship is one of the fruits of Summer, this and every Summer.
World Stewardship Institute, located in Santa Rosa, California, is an active, alive, growing non-profit organization. We are a membership organization, dedicated to our mission and goals of cultivating environmental stewardship. Will you join us?
We also hope to see our local Sonoma County readers at one or more of the events listed on the calendar of the week-long Celebration of the Russian River: A River Runs Through Us. An insert regarding these events is inside this issue of EcoStewards: please take it, post it, give it to your friends. WSI takes special pleasure in being able to facilitate some of these wonderful events: (1) Living Waters: The River, Religion, and the Environment; (2) Bio-Dynamic Agriculture at Topolos: Crucial Care of the Watershed; (3) Rivers of Imagination: School Children Celebrate the Russian River Watershed. Join us in celebrating rivers, those life-bringers among us, wherever on the planet these may be. May we learn to bring wider dimensions to our outlook on rivers! May we learn from this year's Celebration of the Russian River how to celebrate rivers.
EcoStewards Production Staff
Editor-In-Chief---Ed Castellini
Copy Editors---Brian Talbot, Ed Castellini, Vincent Rossi
Staff Writers---Ed Castellini, Brian Talbot
Journal Design---Lynn Newton, Brian Talbot
Editorial Board---Ed Castellini, Warren Linnet, Sarah Nossman
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