August 4, 2026

How can we best steward the gift that is the Earth? How can we be fruitful and multiply, while also caring for creation?

A new Cardus event series, the Kennedy Stewardship Conversations, is made possible by the estate of Wilhelmina Kennedy and will help unpack these questions this fall, while also equipping the next generation to take up this important mandate.

“We’re grateful to the Kennedy family for their generous support of our work, and the way they are choosing to honour their mom and enrich the lives of their fellow Canadians through her memory,” says Michael Van Pelt, Cardus CEO. “These conversations around how we create while also sustaining what we have are essential to the establishment and preservation of the common good. We look forward to engaging broadly over the coming months through these important events and our exciting student contest.”

The Kennedy Stewardship Conversations series is also strengthened through an institutional sponsorship from A Rocha Canada. A Rocha is an international Christian organization which, inspired by God’s love, engages in scientific research, environmental education, community-based conservation projects and sustainable agriculture. 

This series will include three events:

• (Bird)Houses and Greenbelts: Can We Build Family-Friendly Housing While Protecting Ontario’s Environment?, on August 25, a virtual discussion: Does expanding a city necessarily mean we don’t care about the environment? Join housing developers and greenbelt enthusiasts for a debate on the role of preserving nature, while ensuring we have enough places to live.

• Loving the Local: Why Creation Care Starts at Home, on September 11 in Hamilton: While you may be concerned about global warming, do you know the difference between a cedar waxwing and a nuthatch? Presented in partnership with A Rocha and Redeemer University, join this panel of local Hamilton scientists, naturalists, and artists, to discover the link between naming things and loving them, and how names lead to love, which leads to care.
  
• Economic Growth and Creation Care in the Christian Tradition, on November 23 in Ottawa: Any political geek who actually listens to a federal or provincial budget will reasonably come away thinking that GDP growth is the most encompassing and credible measure to speak to the health of our economy and our country. Cardus Senior Fellow Father Raymond de Souza, who also teaches economics at Queen’s University, will deliver a lecture that explores Christian social teaching on economics and creation care, melding and mixing theology, economic theory, and current events.

More details will be announced soon regarding these events.

In launching this new event series, Cardus is also announcing a forthcoming perspectives paper from Cardus Canada President Brian Dijkema focused on the social and cultural determinants of the economy with a conservationist lens.

Additionally, a student contest is launching in August with five prizes of $1,000 each to be awarded this December to five Canadian high school or university students who submit essays focused on the idea of thrift. Assessment criteria will have economic, creative, and theological lenses. More information will be available soon.

Cardus – Imagination toward a thriving society

Cardus is a non-partisan think tank dedicated to clarifying and strengthening, through research and dialogue, the ways in which society’s institutions can work together for the common good. 

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About Wilhemina Kennedy

Wilhelmina Margaretha Kennedy (1933–2025) (née de Groot) was a Dutchborn Canadian artist whose life was shaped by faith, creativity, and a deep love of nature. Born in the Netherlands on June 18, 1933, she grew up in the Mauritshuis Museum, where her father was curator and her mother a classical singer—an upbringing that fostered her lifelong passion for the arts. 

After immigrating to Canada in 1952, she later earned a Fine Arts degree from the Ontario College of Art and continued her studies in Art History at McMaster University.

A devoted teacher, Wilhelmina inspired many students and her eight grandchildren with her love of art. Her work—ranging from landscapes and still lifes to abstract pieces—often reflected her Christian faith and can be found in private collections and public spaces, including Redeemer University. She played an instrumental role in founding the Colborne Art Gallery and supporting its exhibitions.

Wilhelmina cherished God’s creation, spending time camping in Killarney and walking the forest she loved—soon to be preserved as Wilhelmina Woods through the Northumberland Land Trust. She passed away on January 16, 2025, at the age of 91, leaving behind a legacy of beauty, faith, and community.