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January, 2025

Greetings!

Here in the dawning days of 2025, I am full of gratitude to find myself right here, writing to you as the new Executive Director of our New Mexico and El Paso chapter of Interfaith Power and Light (IPL). I am deeply honored to join this remarkable community of people who care so deeply for our Earth and continue to rise to chart a path forward in these extraordinary times. Your commitment to all of creation inspires and uplifts me, and I am eager to engage with you in this transformative journey.

It is a deep honor to follow in the footsteps of Sister Joan Brown, who co-founded the New Mexico chapter of Interfaith Power and Light almost twenty years ago and faithfully sustained its bold voice and witness over these years. Joan’s embodied love and commitment to just action in the face of the reality of climate change shines a bright light in our region. Thank you, Joan!

We are blessed to have Clara Sims continuing as the Assistant Executive Director of IPL (NM and El Paso). Clara’s inclusive leadership has been such an inspiration and tremendous support during this time of organizational transition. I personally am excited and grateful to work with her. Her kindness provides a natural balm in every place she is present. 

A little about me: I’m a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and until recently I applied myself to work in the fields of housing, homelessness, and behavioral health. This was work I found deeply meaningful; and yet I recognized an emerging calling to do more about climate change. Since college environmental science classes in the late 1990s, the climate crisis has been the framing matter of my perspective on life. Folding all justice matters into one global situation. Pressing all nations and peoples on earth to work together as one family to solve it. In sessions with my spiritual director and on my own, I was praying to be able to do climate work in a way that would be spiritually and emotionally rooted for me. I was praying for vocational guidance and opened myself widely to how that might arise.

Amidst this spaciousness, late in the summer of 2024, Sister Joan and I reconnected on a camping trip in the Jemez Mountains and, in short, this chance encounter brought an invitation to serve that felt like an answer to my very intimate prayer. This mission. With all of you. 

Interfaith Power and Light has articulated a vital mission and vision. The mission is to inspire and mobilize people of faith and conscience to take bold and just action on global warming (climate change). The vision is of a stable climate where humans live in right and just relationship interconnected with a healthy, thriving natural world. 

At a time when, as we all know, the US federal government will be shrinking into denial of and irresponsibility toward the serious climate challenge at hand (even as the United States, historically, has emitted more greenhouse gases than any other nation on Earth), such grassroots communities within which we are rooted will provide creative and vital avenues for us to move forward. We will be like the sacred water that flows around obstacles. We can and will show the global community that people in this region are committed to doing our part in this critical time.

In New Mexico, especially, where the Permian Basin spreads deeply into our southeast region, burdening this small state with one of the most intense areas of fossil fuel extraction in the world, we are poised to lead in profound and prophetic ways.

I will close with inspiration from Joanna Macy, whose ‘Work That Reconnects’ provides a powerful frame for our ongoing engagement. Macy articulates work that unfolds as a ‘spiral journey,’ articulated in four parts. The work begins with gratitude, recognizing what nourishes and sustains us in this life. Then we honor our pain for the world. We get in touch with anger, sadness, recognize our numbness, etc. This part is essential. What we can experience in the presence of compassionate eyes alchemizes and allows us to move to see with new eyes. From this place we go forth, we commit to action from this new and transformed place. And we continue the spiral journey, around and around again, continuing to renew ourselves and recommit to transformed action.

Thank you for joining us in a transformative journey, beloved community! We will stay in touch with you and invite you to stay in touch with us as we move forward. There will be lots of different ways to get involved, share your own voices, and join with others in action that shines with the light of justice and care for all of creation. In the following section of this newsletter, we have information to help you prepare to be voices of and for the Earth in the upcoming legislative session. 

We ourselves are truly the ones we have been waiting for; and now is our time.

In gratitude, 

Desirée Bernard

P.S. If you have the financial means, your donations are also an amazing way to support our work and keep us moving forward. You can use our green donate button at the bottom of this newsletter. Thank you for all the ways you show up!

SIGN ON TO SUPPORT THE GREEN AMMENDMENT HERE!

Curious to learn more about how the Green Ammendment movement has evolved in NM? You can find more information here. The legislation was pre-filed on Tuesday, January 7th. You can read the press release and see testimonies from sponsoring legislators here.

If you would like to learn more about how the Green Ammendment is being uplifted in this 2025 legislative session, there are several online opportunities to engage:

• NM Green Ammendment Trainings and Testimony - sign-up here
• Green Ammendments for Clean Energy, January 16th at 10:00 am MT- sign up here

NM LEGISLATIVE SESSION 2025

Your voice of faith and conscience matters!

Interfaith Power and Light (NM and El Paso) is priorotizing advocacy for a number of pieces of legislation that focus on green house gas reduction, economic transition support, community resilience and public health, and responsible water security and management in light of the rapidly increasing threat climate change poses to our sacred waters and desert communities.

Throughout the legislative session, we will update you on ways you can advocate for these pieces of legislation. You can find our 2025 Legislative Guide here, with prelimiary information on bills.

You can also click here to access this guide as a Google Document that will include ongoing updates to bills (i.e., committee assignments, hearings, etc.). If you have difficulty acessing this document, please email Clara at clara@nm-ipl.org.

More Upcoming Events & Opportunities

Our Water is Running Out! Advocate for Water Funding from NM Legislature

Sunday, January 12th, 11:45-1:00 pm, First Congregational UCC ABQ (hybrid)

See flyer above for more details. To recieve the zoom link, email Clara at clara@nm-ipl.org.

NM Water Adovcates Speaker Series

Ague Es Vida: Three Water Priorities for the 2025 Legislature

Thursday, January 16th, 6:30-8pm (virtual)

Ladona Clayton, Phil King, and Norm Gaum present as members of the 2022 NM Water Policy and Infrastructure Task Force. Learn from their expertise and wisdom about the 2025 Water Security Agenda and how you can be involved in advocating for responsible, bold policy.

Registration link HERE.

Special Days at 2025 NM Legislature

• January 21 - Opening Day of Session
• January 27 - Climate Health Day
• February 5 - Public Health Day  
• February 20 - Lands, Water, Wildlife
• March 6 - Climate Crisis Day - mark your calendars and look out for more information on attending, carpooling, etc.!
• March 22 - Session ends

Spring Immersion Retreat Experience in Southeast New Mexico

Dates March 27-29, 2025

This is an opportunity to travel individually or in carpools to Carlsbad and other communities in the Permian Basin to understand the scope of oil and gas extraction, impacts on communities, and to reflect and engage. Donation of $100 requested to assist with expenses, but no one turned away. Housing, food, travel for Permian tour, and other expenses covered. Reflection and prayer are integrated into the experience. Contact Sr. Joan at joan@nm-ipl.org to sign up or for information and all the details.

2025 Aldo Leopold Writing Contest

Deadline: February 14th, 2025

Each year, the Aldo Leopold Writing Contest invites New Mexico students in Grades 6-12 to submit essays in response to a carefully-crafted and thought-provoking prompt inspired by the writings of Aldo Leopold: conservationist, educator, philosopher, and writer. This year's theme is around bodies of water and you can find more information here.

Is Your Faith Community Considering Energy Efficiency or Solar Energy?

We can help! Our Cool Congregations committee has an amazing team of volunteer experts who conduct FREE energy audits for houses of worship.

With the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) direct payback program this is an ideal time to pursue solar energy. There are funds to assist houses of worship with 30% or more direct pay checks through the IRS the year following installation. We know each faith community is different with unique needs and that utilizing government programs is not straightforward. We are here to help you navigate this process, whether you are just imagining how to go solar or are already well on your way.

Contact us at info@nm-ipl.org for more information or to set up a meeting.

Residential Energy Savings Opportunity!

NM Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates (HEAR)

New Mexico is one of a series of states launching a pilot program through the Department of Energy (DOE) with up to $14,000 in savings available for low-income qualified households. Electrification opportunities and appliances include: heat pumps, water heaters, insulation, air sealing, and ventilation, heat pump clothes dryers, electric or induction cookstoves, and more. To learn more about elegibility and programs offered, visit the Energy Conservation and Management website.

This program is being rolled out in phases and NM IPL is seeking to help these funds get distributed to as many of those who qualify as possible - especially to our rural communities where government programs are less equipped to do outreach.

If you are interested in learning more and organizing locally through your faith community to help folks take advantage of these significant energy savings, please email Clara (clara@nm-ipl.org).

NM in the news...

ProPublica: The American Oil Industry's Playbook, Illustrated: How Drillers Offload Costly Clean Up Onto Public

Read here to learn more about dynamics present in NM and beyond, especially uplifting the Permian Basin in western Texas and southeastern NM as the most producitve oil field in the world.

More Resources

Climate Cafe with Climate Pyschology Alliance

Research shows that while most people feel alone with their feelings, the majority of people are concerned about climate change. You are not alone. Talking about these feelings in groups can help make them bearable. Find ongoing gatherings here.

The Intergenerational Eco-Justice and Spirituality Network

a Franciscan and interspiritual ecology-based action network guided by a steering committee. The IEJSN is an evolving project that focuses on intergenerational education, spiritual leadership, formation, and community. Check out their website here. 

BTS Center: Jewish Perspectives on Climate Change with Joelle Novey and Jessica Jacob

In this episode, Nicole Diroff and guest co-host Dr. Keisha McKenzie discuss Jewish perspectives on climate change with Joelle Novey, director of Interfaith Power & Light (DC, MD, and Northern VA), and poet Jessica Jacobs. Joelle shares insights into how her Jewish faith informs her climate work and reads from her latest poetry collection, Unalone. Listen here.

The Film "Common Ground" now available to non-profits for FREE

This phenomenal film from makers of "Kiss The Ground" brings to light the extraordinary power of the soil to heal our planetary systems and human health. If your faith community or non-profit organization would like to show the film, the screening rights are now free. IPL's faith climate action page takes you through the simple licensing steps.

Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth Community Worship Resources

This group offers free monthly worship and small group ministry resources focused on Earth care and climate justice: and bonus materials: Spiritual Care for Climate Distress, Anxiety and Grief.

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