 THE REVEREND MICHAEL DOWD is one of the most inspiring speakers in America today. At home in both conservative and liberal settings, and uniquely gifted at building bridges between religious and nonreligious people, Dowd is passionate about sharing the 14 billion-year history of Cosmos, Earth, life, and humanity in ways that offer practical guidance and uplift and expand heart, mind, and soul. His 2007 book, Thank God for Evolution!, has been endorsed by 5 Nobel Prize winners and 120 other science and religion leaders across the theological spectrum.
REV. DOWD graduated summa cum laude from Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri (affiliated with the Assemblies of God), where he received a B.A. in biblical studies and philosophy. He also graduated with honors from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now, Palmer Seminary) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (affiliated with the American Baptist Church), where he earned a Master of Divinity degree. Dowd served as a congregational minister for nine years, pastoring United Church of Christ (UCC) churches in Massachusetts, Ohio, and Michigan. His 1991 book, EarthSpirit: A Handbook for Nurturing an Ecological Christianity (Twenty-Third Publications) was one of the first attempts to look appreciatively at biblical Christianity from the perspective of a modern cosmology.
In the mid 1990s, Rev. Dowd began working with Jewish, Roman Catholic, Protestant, Evangelical, Unitarian Universalist, and New Thought leaders across America on environmental issues that were coming up for a vote in Congress, as Religious Organizer for the Washington D.C. based National Environmental Trust. From 1997 to 2000 he headed the first government-funded program designed to produce large-scale voluntary citizen behavioral change along stewardship lines in the United States: The Portland Sustainable Lifestyle Campaign, in Portland, Oregon. He continued this work for two more years by serving as campaign manager of Global Action Plan's EcoTeam and Livable Neighborhood programs in Rockland County, New York. Rev. Dowd has served on the boards of the North American Conference on Christianity and Ecology, the Ohio Conference UCC Integrity of Creation, Justice, and Peace task force; and the Hudson Valley Sustainable Communities Network. He has also served on the steering committees of the International Network of Biblical Storytellers and the UCC Network for Environmental and Economic Responsibility. His great joy is telling the history of everything and everyone in ways that inspire people of all faiths and philosophies to grow in evolutionary integrity and cooperate across ethnic and religious differences to create a thriving future for all.
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