IN THIS ISSUE

Upcoming Events

• Monthly Climate Conversations
• Take a Deep Time Walk to Connect Earth History and Creation Care
• Initiative 2117: A threat to our climate and our care for Creation?
• Greenbelt Cleaning and Work Parties
• Wednesday Forum on Garbage, Recycling, and Composting
• Beyond the Cart–Community Reuse & Recycling Event
• Poetry Reading–Sunday Forum
• Creation Care Monthly Meetings

Recent Highlights

• Visit by Bill McKibben

Reflection

• Written by Amelia Brand

Updates & Spotlight

• New Cathedral Climate Justice Coordinator
• Carbon Tracker Insight–Install Efficient Irrigation

Creation Care Insights

• Upcoming Ballot Initiatives

Snapshots

• Raised beds and the birdbath in Leffler Garden

Monthly Climate Conversations

THE SECOND THURSDAY OF EACH MONTH, 6:30–7:30 P.M., online via Zoom

Join fellow parishioners in these monthly climate conversations to learn about practical ways to reduce your impact on the environment. Participants also share insights on how they take action to care for God’s creation and mitigate climate change. Our themes for the next several months are:

September 12: Season of Creation

The background of the Season of Creation, what it means for us and actions we can take during the Season.

October 10: Plant Trees for Cleaner, Healthier, Cooler Air

Discuss why and how to plant trees, what species to select for a warming future, ways to get free or low-cost trees, and how to participate in local or city tree-planting initiatives.

November 14: Eat Pizza for the Planet

Making Meals that Reduce Climate Change: Two of the top 10 things people can do to reverse global warming are reducing food waste and eating a plant-rich diet. We’ll dig into the details to find out what we can do.

December 12: Reduce Plastic to avoid Gigatons of Carbon Emissions

We’ll discuss the places we use plastic, how to avoid it, alternatives to plastic, and innovative solutions.

Take a Deep Time Walk to Connect Earth History and Creation Care

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1–4 P.M., walk begins and ends in Leffler Garden

Explore climate change through a transformative walking experience that leads participants into a profound connection with the more-than-human world. Deep Time Walk is a journey through 4.6 billion years of Earth history via a 2.8 mile guided walk. By using a science-based approach to connect to the history of the earth through the walk, participants learn about the magnitude of the Earth’s history and the evolution of living things, with humans arriving only very recently

At the end of the walk, leveraging a Creation Care perspective, participants will share light refreshments and discuss what they have learned and how to take positive action for a regenerative earth. Walk. Experience. Act.

This event is suggested for high school age youth and older. Please RSVP to organizer, Richard Hartung, so we can have an estimate of how many will be walking: rlhartung@outlook.com.

Initiative 2117: A threat to our climate and our care for Creation?

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 6:30–8 P.M., via Zoom

This Diocesan presentation is an opportunity to learn how Washington State Initiative 2117 will threaten our climate and opportunity for Creation Care ministries across the diocese to act faithfully. Experts and faith activists will explain the impacts of Initiative 2117 and explore what we can do. Join with others who share your concerns and your determination to care for Creation. Register here, and contact Climate Care and Climate Justice Missioner John Kydd with questions: jkydd@ecww.org

Greenbelt Cleaning and Work Parties



EVERY THURSDAY, 6:15 P.M.–SUNSET, meet in the lower parking lot

Summer is fading, and as the heat wanes, the Saint Mark’s Greenbelt starts to come back to life. The creek is burbling with water again and plants are putting out new growth in anticipation of fall rains. For those interested in spending time in the Greenbelt, the loop trail is cleaned and trimmed weekly. Join us every Thursday from 6:15 p.m. until sunset for Bring-Your-Own-Tools Trail Brushing and Plant Identification as we prepare the trail for exciting things to come. Or join us every other weekend starting in September for our Greenbelt work parties, where we steadily work at removing the invasives. The Greenbelt Ministry is also planning to start Liturgical Walks in the fall. Email Elli Howard at qwertynerd97@gmail.com if you want to get involved.

Wednesday Forum on Garbage, Recycling, and Composing

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 6:45–8:15 P.M., in Bloedel Hall

Attend the evening forum with guests from waste management company Recology to learn more about how to sort recycling, composting, and garbage at home and at Saint Mark’s. These practical actions are some of the simple things we can do to care for Creation. Actions turn to hope.

Beyond the Cart–Community Reuse & Recycling Event

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 9 A.M.–1 P.M.

At this community event offered in collaboration with Recology, Seattle residents are invited to drop off items for recycling and reuse at this free Community Reuse & Recycling event at Saint Mark’s.

Get rid of hard-to-recycle items such as Styrofoam, household batteries, fluorescent tubes and bulbs, small electronics, small appliances, clothing & linens, furniture & household goods, and paper for shredding. Watch the Saint Mark’s newsletter and website for more details. 

Sunday Forum– Poetry of the Season

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15, 10:10 A.M., in Bloedel Hall

Gather in Bloedel Hall for a quiet time of listening and sharing poetry related to the winter solstice and creation.

Creation Care Monthly Ministry Meetings

THIRD TUESDAYS, 7 P.M., Cathedral House 210 and via Zoom

Everyone is welcome to join the Saint Mark’s Creation Care Ministry meeting on the third Tuesday evening of every month via Zoom. Notes from past meetings can be found here. Upcoming dates: September 17, October 15, November 19

Lifelong Climate Activist Bill McKibben

Saint Mark’s supported a presentation by legendary scientist and activist Bill McKibben on July 2 at First United Methodist Church of Seattle. The event, sponsored by Th!rd Act Washington and hosted by First United Methodist Church’s Climate Justice working group, was an excellent opportunity to hear this lifelong climate activist speak and to connect with others involved in efforts to slow climate change. Click here to view Bill McKibben’s talk on July 2.

I recently read his latest book, The Flag, the Cross, and the Station Wagon, and I really appreciated how much I could relate to McKibben’s thoughts about how the politics, religion, and economics of his childhood in the 1960s and 70s has shaped our current world picture. I highly recommend this latest book from McKibben.

—Marjorie Ringness

• Recordings and resources from past Climate Conversations can be found here.

• Notes from past monthly Creation Care Ministry Meetings can be found here (scroll down to "Ministry Meetings")

An Antidote to Climate Fears

As people of faith living in an especially beautiful state, with awe-inspiring landscapes ready to be explored, we often find solace in God's Creation. Given how precious Creation is to us, we may also find our worries over climate change multiplied, especially at this time of year, when wildfire smoke clogs Washingtonians' lungs, threatens livelihoods and impacts our friends and families up and down the West Coast. 

The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication reports that more than two-thirds of Americans are worried about climate change. When worry becomes debilitating, without an outlet, it can transform into anxiety and cause us to retreat in fear. I wish to share with you an antidote to these fears.

Earlier this summer, Creation Care Ministry members attended a talk by climate activist Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org and Th!rd Act. While Th!rd Act Faith is centered on empowering elders to protect the climate and strengthen our democracy, its work is important for people of any age. Th!rd Act Faith works to "support and encourage others on the path of faith-based action as an antidote to denial, paralysis, and despair," encouraging people to get involved in taking action. (you can read about McKibben's talk here). 

So much of the action that I take personally is solitary: dialing in to a City Council meeting to give testimony on social housing, messaging my legislators to support climate action, praying for our Earth to be healed. Even dialing in to the Bill McKibben talk, instead of going in person, was a solitary experience.

It is in community, though, that it is easier to feel Christ's healing presence and His calls to action. A group from the Creation Care Ministry recently gathered to discuss how we could better understand and take action on ballot initiatives that are bad for our climate and our communities statewide. We discussed how it is important for us to meet together, instead of only over Zoom. Meeting in person, we had a more natural way to discuss the urgency of the climate crisis -- and why we are hopeful. In no time, I found my worries eased by the hope, passion and faith that our group expressed.

I encourage all, even many of us are no doubt already taking environmental action and praying for our Creation in solitude and with others at Saint Mark's and beyond, to recognize also that this is a long journey we're on for God’s Creation. It’s normal to feel worried. In community with others, we can find a way out of the fear that clutches us and draw on the hope, faith and passion of others to get the strength we need to keep going. 

—Amelia Brand

Upcoming Ballot Initiatives



A group from the Creation Care Ministry recently gathered to discuss how we could better understand and take action on ballot initiatives 2117 and 2066, which would reverse recent legislation to fight climate change.

Further information will be available at the Creation Care Ministry table at the Ministry Fair on September 8 at the as well as at a Diocesan Forum September 23, 6:30-7:30 p.m. 

New Climate Justice Coordinator at Saint Mark’s

Saint Mark’s recently hired parishioner Elizabeth Antley to fill the new part-time position of Climate Justice Coordinator & Cathedral Grant Writer. Elizabeth will engage in special projects pertaining to the Cathedral’s carbon reduction initiatives, strategic objectives, and missional and ministry goals, guided by our commitments to environmental stewardship, intergenerational community, and restorative justice. She will also serve as the lead writer for grant applications that align with the Cathedral’s current and prospective climate justice efforts as well as a range of intersectional missional goals. This new position at Saint Mark’s is a wonderful example of our community’s commitment to care for Creation.

Carbon Tracker Insight:

Install Efficient Irrigation

Drip irrigation is a watering system made up of small water lines and nozzles that are distributed around your garden to water just the adjacent plants. Drip irrigation is like putting mini-sprinklers (or tiny hoses) all over your yard. The difference is that they provide water right where you need it, right to the root of the plants, so you need to water much less. It’s targeted watering. Sprinklers, on the other hand, often over-water, and much of the water never reaches where the plants need it or it is lost to evaporation. The best part - drip irrigation is low cost, easy to do, and can be applied to your whole yard, including trees, shrubs, plants, vegetables, potted plants and the lawn. It also works well on slopes or uneven surfaces. If you are watering any part of your garden by hand now, installing drip irrigation will also save you considerable time. If you would prefer to have help, most landscaping companies can help you install a new system. 

Source: Bright Action (carbon tracker)

More insights can be found on the carbon tracker website here. 

New raised beds and the birdbath in Leffler Garden.

Saint Mark’s Cathedral acknowledges that we gather on the traditional land of the first people of Seattle, the Duwamish People, who are still here, and we honor with gratitude the land itself and the life all the Coast Salish tribes. [Learn more]