Ben is a former Holden Village pastor. He is Associate Professor of Worship and Director of Advanced Studies at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, where he has taught since 2009. He received his STM from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia and PhD from Emory University. His graduate work focused on how ritual shapes people’s environmental spirituality. Ben is author of A Watered Garden: Christian Worship and Earth’s Ecology and a contributing author to Eco-Reformation: Grace and Hope for a Planet in Peril. He is a member of the North American Academy of Liturgy and serves as convener of its Ecology and Liturgy Seminar.
Beth is currently Unit Director of the Skilled Care Center and Rehab Unit at Rush Oak Park Hospital in suburban Chicago. She recently earned her Doctorate in Public Health Nursing from Rush University, focusing on how people and populations successfully make changes to improve health. Her primary research explored the relationship between health promotion and sobriety in women with substance abuse issues.