Creation Care Network E-news |
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Dear friends,
• On Sunday we cap our celebration of Creation Season with the feast day of St. Francis, who claimed all Creation as kin and identified with the poor. St. Francis’ approach to life reminds me of Father Zossima in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov: “Love all of God’s creation, the whole of it and every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything.”
• “Climate Disruption Is Now Locked In. The Next Moves Will Be Crucial.” This striking front-page article in The New York Times notes that “America is now under siege by climate change in ways that scientists have warned about for years. But there is a second part to their admonition: Decades of growing crisis are already locked into the global ecosystem and cannot be reversed.
“This means the kinds of cascading disasters occurring today — drought in the West fueling historic wildfires that send smoke all the way to the East Coast, or parades of tropical storms lining up across the Atlantic to march destructively toward North America — are no longer features of some dystopian future. They are the here and now, worsening for the next generation and perhaps longer, depending on humanity’s willingness to take action.”
To put it bluntly: “Gone is the climate of yesteryear, and there’s no going back.” Our choices “now range from merely awful to incomprehensibly horrible.”
Please read the article and consider some new ideas – “moral hazard,” “compound hazards,” “cascading hazards.” The article doesn’t mention “climate gentrification” or “climate apartheid,” but you can spot where those ideas might apply.
Let’s consider some old ideas, too: love, courage, imagination, justice, and bold collective action.
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Late summer goldenrod and bee. Photo: submitted. |
• When SustainablePreaching.org asked me to submit a sermon on Creation care for October 11, I sent in “Invitation to love’s banquet,” a sermon about attuning ourselves to God’s Presence. Practicing the Presence of God can give us courage and inner peace to navigate a frightening time. As I admit in my sermon, I don’t always say Yes to God’s call, but joy arises when I do. Here’s an excerpt:
“Invitations to love’s banquet can take many forms, and they come not just once, but every day, and many times a day – maybe as an invitation to gaze at the beauty of the world, or as an invitation to be generous, or as an invitation to pause for a while to give the lover of our souls our full and undivided attention in prayer.
Yet how easy it is to say No! I have a million excuses – I’m too busy, too focused on my own agenda, too scattered or overloaded to relinquish my worried, busy mind, to let my awareness open, and to drop down to my heart. That’s a loss, because deep at the center of our being is an unquenchable thirst for union with the divine. Deep in our guts, our bones, our very DNA, is an irrepressible yearning to move toward the Source of life, the All, the Ultimate, the Holy One...”
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• Last week, leaders in the Diocese of Western Massachusetts issued a strong statement urging the faithful to vote and to encourage voters in other states to cast their ballots. “The November election gives Americans a precious opportunity to support candidates and policies that will build up communities, protect public health, encourage racial and social justice, and restore the web of life. This election will set the course on climate change and other critical issues that are central to our faith. Many of us consider it the most significant election of our lifetime…”
The statement suggests two ways we can fight vote suppression and encourage people of faith to vote their values. It also includes a link to a toolkit produced by The Episcopal Church for the 2020 election, including resources for “Vote Faithfully Sunday” on October 25. Read the statement here. Local media picked up the story, which you can read here.
• Interfaith Power & Light invites people of faith to record a short video – 90 seconds or less – explaining why YOU are a faith climate justice voter. I just recorded my own video – you can watch it here. To learn how to record your own video, visit here. In any case, please Take the Faith Climate Voter Pledge and ask others to do the same!
• Our just-completed, inaugural Creation Season Preaching Circle went well. Over thirty lay and ordained preachers from two dioceses signed up. Thank you, everyone. Let’s do it again! We’re posting the presentations of our four guest speakers on the Diocesan YouTube channel, so take a look if you’d like some preaching inspiration.
• Nudged by a colleague, I recently launched a YouTube channel, where I’ve posted several sermons and a body prayer. More to come. Feel free to subscribe. Many other videos are already posted at RevivingCreation.org.
Lisa Cressman is the author of The Gospel People Don't Want to Hear: Preaching Challenging Messages. She is also Founding Steward of Backstory Preaching, an online community that supports preachers in their task of crafting sermons with spirituality, practical tips, mentoring, and continuing education programs. In this live-streamed interview, Clergy Emergency League co-founder Leah Schade will talk with Lisa about the challenges of preaching during the most divisive election season in our lifetimes.
How can we craft sermons that proclaim the Gospel so that God’s transformative power can reach our congregations? What shall we say, and how shall we say it?
You can RSVP here to be sent reminders once we get closer to the date. This is a public event. Feel free to invite colleagues.
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• “Preaching Gospel Hope in a Time of Climate Crisis” | A two-day online workshop
October 16 & 17, 2020
I will lead United Theological College’s annual KJ Campbell Workshop on preaching. You don’t have to head to Montreal – the event will be held online. All preachers are invited! Through a mix of presentations, small group conversation, and whole group discussion, we will discuss the spiritual/moral imperative to preach about climate change, identify obstacles to climate preaching, share
the latest research on how to communicate about climate, discuss theological keystones, consider the links between climate, poverty, race, and other justice issues, and receive theological and homiletic resources.
For details and to download a flier, click here. Registration deadline is October 9. Register by email: [email protected].
• Co-op Power’s Annual Climate Justice Summit: Energizing a Just Transition is sponsored by a host of Mass. and NY organizations. Spend the October 3-4 weekend in a multi-class, multi-race, intergenerational, inclusive gender community of people defining practical ways to build a more just and sustainable energy future. Keynote speakers include Denise Fairchild, president of the Emerald Cities Collaborative, and ecologist and activist Dr. Sandra Steingraber.
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Dozens of participatory workshops will highlight critically important themes and provide opportunities for network building. I’m especially eager to hear from Sherri Mitchell, the Indigenous rights activist and spiritual teacher, and author of Sacred Instructions. Which speakers most interest you? More info and registration are here.
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• "Two Percent Per Year" series on CCC website. Dr. Paul Barten, Professor of Forestry and Hydrology, UMass-Amherst, and a member of Christ Church Cathedral, invites us to read the short articles he wrote – now posted on the Cathedral website – about how to reduce our personal contribution to climate change by just 2% a year – which is surely something that each of us can do. In ten years, that adds up to cutting our use of energy by TWENTY PERCENT. The first article explains the rationale for the series.
• As you reflect on your own carbon footprint, enroll your household in Sustaining Earth, Our Island Home, if you haven’t already done so. Assisted by this carbon tracker, your household can reduce its carbon footprint and likely save money, too. Questions? Contact Rev. Eric Elley (860/394-8728; email: [email protected]).
• The Mayor of Springfield may be the first mayor to announce that October is Energy Efficiency Month! Let’s celebrate energy efficiency in Springfield and wherever we live. Massachusetts offers Mass Save programs that provide a free energy assessment and suggest ways to save energy. These recommendations come with information about how the Mass Save program can help cover the cost of these improvements, including up to 90% of the cost of needed insulation.
Individuals (homeowners, renters, landlords) and small businesses (nonprofits, houses of worship, schools) are encouraged to sign up for energy audits (some are still virtual) and to follow up with suggested efficiency improvements when COVID-19 allows. If your city or town has a municipal utility company, contact them directly.
To sign up, visit https://allinenergy.org/contactcontacto.html and request information, or you can phone: (781) 656-5359. Spanish speakers are welcome. You will be connected with a contractor licensed by Mass Save who can set up your audit and tell you what you’re entitled to receive. If you currently receive fuel assistance, or think you might be eligible, please call your local Community Action agency.
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Late summer garden at Smith College. Photo: submitted. |
• “Seven of the Best TED Talks on Climate Change”: This series includes a talk by Katharine Hayhoe, the atmospheric scientist and Evangelical Christian who is a renowned communicator on faith and climate. She is clear, positive, and down to earth.
• Did you know that the fight against new gas infrastructure in Agawam, Longmeadow and Springfield is heating up? MassLive published Dr. Marty Nathan’s report on the Columbia Gas Reliability Project, a project generating strong opposition from climate activists. Let’s get informed and be prepared to support all Massachusetts communities now fighting the fracked gas buildout, which threatens environmental justice communities first, and eventually all of us.
• The fight continues against defining biomass as clean energy. The Social Justice Commission joined 60 other organizations in signing a letter opposing a House provision that would promote biomass power to municipal electric utilities. Subsidizing commercial biomass projects would not only worsen climate change – it would also give a boost to a long-stalled biomass project in Springfield that would further pollute the air in a city already dubbed the “Asthma Capital of the USA.” Some local activists have called this environmental racism.
As the letter states, “We stand in solidarity with Springfield residents and environmental justice groups who have been fighting the proposed Palmer biomass plant for more than a decade.” You can read the letter here. Meanwhile, WAMC (Northeast Public Radio) reported, “Activists Continue 10-Year Fight Over Biomass Project.”
I encourage you to contact your state legislators to oppose clean energy subsidies for commercial biomass projects. For talking points, visit here.
Offered by The BTS Center in partnership with MICAH (Minnesota Institute of Contemplation & Healing) 5 sessions on Thursday afternoons, 4:00-5:30 p.m. |
Nov 12, Nov 19, Dec 3, Dec 10, and Dec 17 | Suggested donation $50
Registration includes a copy of Creation's Wisdom, which will be mailed to your address. Using Christian scripture and theology through the lens of modern science, Creation’s Wisdom explores the concept of the Tibetan Five Wisdoms to address such questions as: What is a Christian spirituality that speaks to the needs of people in an era of climate change? What practices can guide us? What is a helpful perspective? Author Dan Wolpert contends that the answers lie in the elements of creation.
• For October, I suggest Apocalypse When? A Guide to Interpreting and Preaching Apocalyptic Texts, by Leah D. Schade and Jerry L. Sumney. I’m choosing it because we’re heading toward Advent’s apocalyptic themes and also because many of us feel as if we’re living in “end-times.” Can apocalyptic texts become sources of encouragement and strength? What can we learn from the wisdom and courage of our biblical ancestors who faced their own calamities and who struggled against powerful economic, militaristic, cultural, and social forces? Take a look.
• I will lead two Clergy Days next week, one for the Diocese of Western Massachusetts and one for the Diocese of Massachusetts. Our topic will be emotional and spiritual resilience. Please keep us in your prayers.
I wish all of us steady feet, clear minds, and open hearts in the days ahead.
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Blessings,
(The Rev. Dr.) Margaret Bullitt-Jonas
Missioner for Creation Care
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A homemade sign on Maple Street in Florence, MA. Photo: submitted.
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Opportunities for engagement |
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Help People Get Registered to Vote |
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Compassionate Voter Campaign Organizing Guide - Greenfaith
We know that people who have historically been kept from voting in the US are also more likely to experience climate change and environmental injustice. That’s why we're running a compassionate voter campaign to lessen voter suppression in the upco..
Read more
greenfaith.org
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Preaching Through the Election Season |
In this live-streamed interview, Clergy Emergency League co-founder, Leah Schade, will talk with Lisa about the challenges of preaching during the most divisive election season in our lifetimes. How can we craft sermons that proclaim the gospel so that God’s transformative power can reach our congregations? What shall we say, and how shall we say it?
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The Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology
The Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology is an international multireligious project contributing to a new academic field and an engaged moral force of religious environmentalism.
Read more
fore.yale.edu
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If you've enjoyed this newsletter, please feel free to forward to one or two friends you think may be interested.
Blessings!
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MBJ photo: Tipper Gore, 2014 |
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