Thursday, October 25, 2012

Meet the New PEC Coordinator!


Dear Earth Caretakers,
Hello, members and friends of Presbyterians for Earth Care.  My name is Elspeth Cavert and I am serving as the new PEC Coordinator.  I’m very glad to be filling this role for Presbyterians for Earth Care and I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself!

I grew up in Minneapolis and was lucky to be able to spend my childhood enjoying Minnesota’s outdoors and developing a love for nature through bike rides along the Mississippi, skiing on city lakes, and taking trips to Lake Superior.  I stayed in Minnesota for college, and this past spring I graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul where I majored in Environmental Studies and Political Science.  My environmental studies classes led me to view environmental problems as social justice issues that we must commit to solving for the sake of the entire planet’s health and future.  In my time at Macalester, I also learned firsthand about the diverse ways that different organizations and individuals are beginning to address these issues.  I worked on projects researching air quality improvement, helped to create a college carbon neutrality plan, and taught environmental education classes to kids!

                 
I hoped to continue working on environmental issues after college, so I was very excited when I was accepted into Lutheran Volunteer Corps (a year-long volunteer service program) and placed with the National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Programs. My work for the National Council of Churches encompasses both my role as the PEC Coordinator as well as outreach and educational work on a variety of different environmental issues for the Eco-Justice Programs.  As Coordinator, I am managing PEC’s website, social media, email accounts, and mailings as well as doing other administrative work.
Though in the past I have mostly worked with secular environmental organizations, I am very excited and passionate about working with people of faith who are speaking out against the destruction of Creation.  I’m inspired by the voices of PEC and other faith groups who recognize and describe climate change, pollution and fossil-fuel based energy as morally wrong and contrary to God’s Creation.  I’m glad that I will be able to continue to receive this inspiration and help PEC’s Creation care efforts as I continue my work.  I also look forward to continuing to learn from everyone who is involved with PEC, and I encourage you to contact me at presbyearthcare@gmail.com with any questions or concerns!
Thanks for all your Creation caring!
  Peace,
  Elspeth Cavert
  PEC Coordinator




Please Note: We forgot to include the music notation in our previous blog post about the "Let the Earth Breathe" song. We want to make sure everyone can enjoy this song and share it with their congregations, so we've updated the post with the link. You can also click here for the music!

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Let the Earth Breathe


Dear Friends,

I am very grateful for our creative Earth-caring partners. One of these friends is the Rev. Ellie Stock, who, with her family, has been an advocate for creation care and social justice for many years. She and her husband, Carleton (also clergy) have just retired, after 40+ years of co-pastoring together. They now are working with a congregation and several groups related to the ecology and sustainable community.

Ellie has written a song "Let the Earth Breathe", which is both a prayer and an affirmation of what is needed and what is possible for the Earth and all of God's creation not simply to survive, but to thrive with great vigor and continued creativity. Ellie has offered this song for us to enjoy and share. Their daughter, Chenoa and she made a "home-spun" recording of the song so people could get an idea of the melody. The music notation can be found here and the audio on Youtube is available here.


Ellie and Carleton are members of the Presbytery of Giddings-Lovejoy where, for the last twelve years they have worked with the presbytery's Joining Hands Peru Partnership, a program of the PC(USA) Hunger Program. Ellie has been coordinating efforts through the Friends of La Oroya to address the issues of lead and heavy metal contamination of the land, air, water, vegetation, animals and residents of the Andes Mountain community of La Oroya, Peru by a smelter owned by a U.S company (mentioned in our previous e-blast). The same company operates a smelter in Herculaneum, MO (within the boundary of Giddings-Lovejoy) where they have partnered concerned people from that community with La Oroya.

Chenoa is presently a PC(USA) Mission Co-Worker, serving in Bolivia as the Companion Facilitator for the Joining Hands Bolivia Partnership which focuses on water contamination and accessibility issues related to extractive industries.

Ellie states, "We invite you to enjoy and use the song with congregations and groups with which you work."

Thanks to Ellie, Carleton, Chenoa, and all who share in caring for this beautiful, breathing sphere.



In gratitude,
Diane Waddell
Moderator
Presbyterians for Earth Care




Below is the link to Youtube for audio: