Walking Matthew 25

 

Rick and Jo Randolph in Alaska, 2019

by Jo Randolph

 

Walking is the oldest form of transportation on this earth. In Genesis 13:17 the Lord asks Abram to “Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you.” He explains this is the way for Abram to get to know the land that the Lord will give to him and his offspring forever.

 

Having grown up on a farm in southeast Wisconsin, walking was the mode of transportation to get to and from my grandfather’s home, to get to and home from school (on nice days), and to visit with friends after school and on holidays. It has become fundamental to the way I experience creation around me. When you wander many days and hours over fields, you feel the dirt between your toes, you smell the odor of the soil and the sweet ripe berries and fruits ready to eat.  The beauty of the trees leafing out, the flowers arriving in spring, and the sound and smell of the leaves falling to the ground in the fall. To see creatures scurry away from me, to see the birds soar above, to hear the sounds of the wind rustling the leaves of each of the different trees, or water flowing over the rocks in the streams – it is a different language you learn when taking the time to wonder on the immense gift of this glorious creation around us.

 

I have had the opportunity to walk in many and varied areas of the world, from the farms of

Wisconsin to the mountains and deserts of AZ, from the forests of Germany to the glaciers of Alaska and the sands of the outer banks. The sounds of each step on the land and the sounds of the winds and animals informed my deep love and passion for this world and to care for it deeply.

 

These and other walks just around our suburban area have taught me to listen, see, and learn about not only the nature around me but the way we have changed that nature to suit our desires but not the needs of creation that must live there.

 

Walking on a PCUSA Peacemaking study tour is an amazing learning experience. An experience of the greater world around you that you cannot learn from just watching a documentary. Take the opportunity for yourself.  I have had two such opportunities and am looking forward to a third one this April. My husband Rick and I traveled to Guatemala and Costa Rica in 2017. I also had the opportunity to travel in early 2019 to Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica. 

 

In 2017 we experienced peacemaking, environmental issues, and climate concerns of highly conflicted communities. We traveled to historically peaceful places and highly conflicted small villages. From environmentally degraded areas to ones of great ecological beauty. We met and talked, worshiped, and learned about the people of faith in Guatemala and Costa Rica who have been responding to issues of peace and environmental justice issues for generations.  We arrived in Guatemala and first visited CEDEPCA (Protestant Center for Pastoral Studies in Central America) and its staff. We were briefed on the context of the climate and the areas of conflict of the indigenous peoples the we would be meeting and learning from during our short time in Guatemala. Our first stop the next morning was to visit with a small group of members of the Peaceful Resistance in La Puya. They were/are protesting the poisoning of their waters (and the minds of the corrupt Guatemalan government officials) by the mining corporations in Canada. They have set up a watch area on a small narrowing of a dirt road where they keep an eye on the helicopters and heavy trucks. The corporation is NOT supposed to be doing any work on or in the mines but these helicopters are flying in and out of the ‘closed’ area daily.  There are big earth-moving trucks that are ‘just moving’ dirt to ‘help clean the tailings ponds’ from the poisonous chemicals that are used to release the gold and silver from the land. Having lunch with these people while holding a watch on all the traffic flowing by was revealing. Some of the travelers were neighbors and some were unknowns. Some with weapons and some traveling with foodstuffs and children heading home from work and school. The whole visit was certainly a visceral learning moment to absorb what our developed world ‘wants’ and is creating for those indigenous people’s daily lives.

 

Our Guatemala travels also allowed us to worship with the Asociaciónde Mujeres Indígenas de Santa María Xalapán (the indigenous women’s association of the Santa Maria Xalapán). The Xinca Invocation Ceremony was breathtaking and left us in wonder about the gratefulness these people have for the everyday gifts, given to them by God, of water, air, food, and comfort.

 

In Costa Rica, we learned the damage monoculture plantations of bananas and pineapples have on the lives of the small villages and villagers.  The overuse of pesticides and fertilizers used in crop production for the export of these two crops alone has poisoned the water and taken jobs from the original inhabitants of the villages.  I still wonder HOW villagers can function with only five gallons of water delivered weekly. The local government is mandated to deliver fresh water weekly to their homes, and it is per home, NOT per number of people living in the home. Those five gallons are to be used for ALL their needs, from drinking, and food preparation to cleaning both themselves and their clothing. The running water in the creeks is so caustic due to the chemicals it is ‘eating’ the skins of the people and the fibers of their clothing.

 

The 2019 Central American Migrant Trails peacemaking tour of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras focused on immigration issues. Our group learned about the immigration context being faced by those wanting to emigrate north. It was a clearer picture of the reasons why they take the risk of embarking on a dangerous journey with small children in tow. We heard from Not For Profits and government officials while exploring the potential and actual consequences of US policies. Mass deportation is impacting the lives of the returned migrants, their families, their communities, and their nations. In El Salvador, we heard from Catholic Relief Services, the Ministry of Foreign Relations, and returned migrants from a migrant program. In Guatemala, we heard a priest tell us about the pastoral challenges to care for caravans of immigrants. We met returned Guatemalans and heard their stories of how they are unceremoniously returned to Guatemala by our government.  In Honduras, we met with organizations working for transparency and against corruption in the Honduran government. We also heard from a children’s ministries and advocacy group, the RedViva Danish network, and a Presbyterian Hunger Program partner Ecoré, working to better the lives of the people impacted.

 

Wandering and studying these and many other issues certainly opened our senses to wonder how this world created for all has been abused for the ‘select.’ Learning from those who have experienced the issues or those who work with impacted immigrants as well as with our own Presbyterian Mission Co-Workers opened our eyes in some small steps as to how we can walk in the manner to which Christ called us in Matthew 25 to care for all others.

 

This April my husband and I will again travel on a PCUSA Peacemaking Study Seminar. We will be studying the native lands of the Southwest, the Doctrine of Discovery, and its legacy today. We will be learning the harm the Doctrine of Discovery did to indigenous peoples of North America since the landing on this continent and to this day. 

 

Psalm 104 will be with us daily as we walk, wander, and wonder in the steps of those we have harmed.

 

(31-34) – May the Glory of the LORD endure forever: may the LORD rejoice in his works . . . . May my mediation be pleasing to him for I rejoice in the LORD.

 

Jo and Rick Randolph are members of Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, Heartland Presbytery. Jo is currently the Treasurer of Presbyterians for Earth Care.  Rick, an MD, is Senior Medical Director of Heart to Heart International.

Creation is Calling

 

Diane with a Kenyan friend on a mission trip to Thawke Village near Nairobi

by Diane Waddell

 

Eco-Tourism is a popular item….a destination-type of tourism where visitors hope to travel responsibly or visit places that are deemed to be sustainable communities. `

 

Consider a spin-off on Eco-tourism…towards faith-based, destination Earth encounters, such as Sustainable Mission trips.   Consider the term…Sacred Earth travels as a new mindset. Indeed, connecting with our Sacred Earth is connecting with the beauty and intelligence of plants and other animals….with earth, air, soil, water.

 

In fact, Creation calls us… as God calls us…through whispers of water, air, fire, and soil; through multitudes of types of plants and animals; all miraculous. Our response to that calling honestly must be with reverence, grace, and gratitude. Creation is calling…for Justice. The Rev. Dr. Bill Brown (professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary) shared many wise words at PEC’s Stony Point Conference in 2019. He suggested that the term we need to use is “Creation Justice” as we are stewards of God’s magnificent gift.

 

I am so grateful that the PCUSA, through Presbyterian Compassion, Peace and Justice programs, has shared and continues to share ways of connecting with our global partners through travels and seminars (both virtual and on-site.) I have been so grateful for connections that have continued to be transformative for me. In Lima, Peru, for example, I vividly recall climbing up one of the Andes Mountains toward a small community and school. The higher up the mountain, the more poverty there was. The children had to climb down in the dark in the morning to get to school, and parents had to leave in the darkness down the mountain to get to their farming work. Thanks to the work of World Mission partners, Hunger Program, Disaster Assistance, and many others for allowing us to be connected both virtually and physically around the world; raise awareness, and support persons in need.

 

Presbyterians for Earth Care has shared many excellent conferences both on-site and virtually, and continues to share and prepare us as Creation calls. Stay tuned for their next amazing conference in September, 2023 and for many webinars coming up…when we can virtually ‘tour.’ And hold in appreciation those who have hosted conferences. (Thanks to Barb Brown who has written a lovely article about Alaska. She and others including then-EP Curtis Karns hosted a great conference in Alaska open to PEC members.)

 

Yet, we can also be connected with travel in our backyards, church campuses, local parks, rural areas, and more. We can work towards making a sanctuary in our own backyards with trees, plants, and animals. Planting native plants and trees is a beautiful way to make a special connection. Native species are more sustainable and adapted to thrive in their own natural habitat.

 

While connecting with your own space, look up the name and history of your watershed and what native tribes walked in the same space. Work with local and national groups who appreciate caring for your Earth space… to work on the transformation of your backyard, church campus, etc., toward becoming a more sacred space.

 

Wendell Berry states that “it is impossible, ultimately, to preserve ourselves apart from our willingness to preserve other creatures, or to respect and care for ourselves except as we respect and care for other creatures; and…it is impossible to care for each other more or differently than we care for the earth.“ (The Body and the Earth) He reminds us that the earth is what we all have in common, that it is what we are made of and what we live from, and that we therefore cannot damage it without damaging those with whom we share it. Amen.

 

And as we travel, we recall that sustainability in means of travel is extremely important… Thanks to Jo and Rick Randolph’s travel stories of walking while traveling. How beautiful to touch the Earth with respect while walking and hearing Creation calling that much more clearly.

 

And if and as you do travel using fossil fuels, consider contributing to the Restoring Creation Fund as a carbon offset program of the PCUSA, which will go toward planting and nurturing trees with longstanding partners.

 

Restoring Creation For Ecology & Justice (E865715)

To give by phone, call 800-872-3283. To send a check, please designate where you want your gift to go on the memo line and mail to:

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)P.O. Box 643700
Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700

 

As you consider an eco-tour, hold in your hearts the concept of Sacred Earth. Consider that sacred earth each time you touch the ground as you walk, every time you breathe in the air, feel the warmth of the sun or the coolness of rain and marvel at the beauty of God’s garden. Allow each moment to be a means to answer Creation’s call for justice. Be grateful for each opportunity to be and share, whether it is with a plant or water fountain, indoors or outdoors; whether in your own backyard, or on a local, regional or global visit or conference.

 

Hold those moments and those places sacred. For indeed, they are.

Aho. Amen.

 

Diane Waddell is a leader in Heartland Presbytery’s Justice, Outreach and Yoga New Worshiping Community, and past moderator of PEC.

Hiddenness: I Saw a Corn Crake!

 

The elusive corn crake

by Nancy Corson Carter

From May 30 through June 8, 2013 my husband Howard and I joined a band of 42 pilgrims gathered by the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. This pilgrimage was to the small Hebridean island of Iona. This tiny island, measuring only about three miles long and one mile wide, lies off the west coast of Scotland. Here, the Celtic monastic community, alive in the fifth and sixth centuries and not dispersed until the 13^th century, participated in a unique flowering of art and education, based on scripture and upon God’s revelation in Creation.

 

“The shared intent of our pilgrimage, entitled “Earth Care—Earth Prayer,” was to:

• listen deeply for God’s invitations to pray and care for our wondrous Earth

• open to the spiritual treasures of holy Iona, the Iona Community, and our

 own pilgrim community

• deepen our awareness of the Holy One’s radiant Presence, and to

• praise God.

 

What I found on Iona reminds me of Isaiah 58:11: “You shall be like a watered garden, like a deep spring that never runs dry.” That verse gives me courage when I am close to despairing in my avocation of Earth-caring; it correlates with a deeply refreshing companionship that I felt on Iona—because of the land itself, its creatures, its hallowed history, and the pilgrim circles within and beyond our gathering. Even though I use the first person in this meditation, I am always aware of a great, encompassing “we.”

 

J. Philip Newell’s The Book of Creation: An Introduction to Celtic Spirituality was a welcome companion to this pilgrimage. His commentary about John Scotus Eriugena, a ninth-century Irishman, particularly encouraged my receptivity to revelations from all forms of life on the island, even birds I had never heard of—the Corn Crakes!

 

[Eriugena] taught that God is the ‘Life Force’ within all things. ‘Therefore every visible and invisible creature,’ he said, ‘can be called a theophany.’ All life manifests something of the One who is the essence of life. . . . Through the letters of Scripture and the species of creature’ the eternal Light is

revealed. (xxi)¹

 

Though Eriugena was accused of pantheism, it is clear that he saw creation not as God in itself, but as God’s dwelling place; he said each creature is a “manifestation of the hidden,” or in Newell’s words, “a showing forth of the mystery of God” (67-8). That so many Celtic saints are associated with creatures of Earth, sky, and sea affirms human creatureliness as a relationship to cherish and honor rather than to deny. Indeed, it is a gift “at the heart of who we are" (71 ff). If we open ourselves to reciprocal caring with the whole creation, we will discover much that we might otherwise never know.

 

“Hiddenness” is a word often indicating secrets or withheld information. However, it makes me think of “seeing through a glass darkly” or “the cloud of unknowing.” “Hiddenness” may suggest mystery yet to be revealed as we continue on our journey.

 

I found the theme of hiddenness by entering briefly into a somewhat comic relationship. Soon after our arrival on Iona, I became aware of a mysterious bird called a Corn Crake. It is also known as a Landrail; its Latin name is onomatopoetic for its rather grating call: Crex crex. In a little photographic display in our hotel’s central corridor of unique creatures which sometimes visited Iona, I first saw a Corn Crake’s image. It looked to me like a long-necked light brown chicken with gangly legs and feet, a bit, I’m sorry to say, like a rubber chicken. With the guidance of one of my fellow pilgrims, I quickly learned to recognize the strange grating utterances of the males. It’s said that they can be heard a mile away. In the early breeding season, they sound often during the day and intensively at night—one bird may call more than 10,000 times between midnight and 3:00 am. (A Gaelic name for this bird is Cleabhair coach or “mad noisemaker.”) But the strange thing is that while they call insistently for mates in voices extremely hard for humans to miss, they crouch so low as they creep along through the open meadow grasses that they rarely even ruffle a stem. They really seem to be invisible.

 

My husband Howard, a friend, and I were walking the path by the field below the Iona Cultural Center when I saw a Corn Crake pop up on the stone wall about 50 feet ahead of us. I knew what it was because I’d studied the photo, and I excitedly pointed and exclaimed “It’s a Corn Crake!” “It’s a Corn Crake!” Our friend hadn’t studied the hotel photo; he was doubtful, but I knew. The Corn Crake made an awkward jump into flight, crossed the path ahead of us, and skimmed over the opposite stone wall. We scurried to catch another glimpse, but it disappeared without a trace into the grassy field. Soon we heard the familiar call, but we’d had our one look for our visit even though we tried hard for a repeat sighting.

 

Corn Crakes are rare enough that birders go well out of their way to come here so that they can add them to their life lists. These aficionados come by cruise ships as well as by ferries, and they often tote cameras with enormous lens, yearning to snap a photo or two. We’re not sure why, but we’ve heard that the locals’ name for them is “twitchers”? We saw many of them clustered hopefully around the fences of the fields where the hidden birds made their loud, unmistakable calls. One lady said she’d been steadily looking for them, but that she had managed to see “only a few legs.”

 

A review of the general habits and recent past history of the birds in this region demonstrates why it’s rare to see even those “few legs.” The Corn Crakes travel from their wintering grounds in Africa to arrive on Iona for breeding usually by late April, leaving before the end of September. Friends from our hometown who visited the island in late July didn’t hear them at all. Corn Crakes were once widespread in western and central Europe, extending east as far as Siberia, but they were lost from most of the UK after the 1930s. Local ecologist John Clare writes that “Iona, and to a lesser extent the Ross of Mull, are now two of the few places in the British Isles where Corn Crakes nest in any numbers.”²

 

Conservation measures and reassessment of large and apparently stable populations in Russia, Kazakhstan, and western China have restored them to the category of Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, but they continue to be carefully monitored. The focus of conservation efforts in Europe is to change the timing and method of hay harvesting; later cutting gives time for breeding to be completed, and leaving uncut strips at the edges of fields and cutting from the center outwards reduces casualties. Hayfields with limited cutting or fertilizer use (which I assume includes those on Iona) are ideal.

 

As though the Corn Crake were emissaries of approaching transition, I have begun to understand the idea of hiddenness personally. A friend recently gave me Henri J.M. Nouwen’s The Inner Voice of Love, and I was somehow led (like the little Puritan mouse that nibbled to the Bible passage God intended to be read) to open to one of his “spiritual imperatives” titled “Keep Trusting God’s Call”:

 

As you come to realize that God is beckoning you to a greater hiddenness, do not be afraid of that invitation. Over the years you have allowed the voices that call you to action and great visibility to dominate your life. You still think, even against your own best intuitions that you need to do things and be seen in order to follow your vocation. But you are now discovering that God’s voice is saying, ‘Stay home, and trust that your life will be fruitful even when hidden.’ (89)³

 

Without ignoring the irony of the admonition to “stay home,” I ponder what a difficult lesson Nouwen suggests. My Type A over-active Martha (vs. Mary) self constantly confuses me with guilt over “not doing enough” and a lack of discernment over what is mine to do. I pray for clearer knowing, for a deepening trust that God is leading me to find. Again, I turn to Nouwen, whose book seems written expressly for this stage in my life, a “stage” that could be called “later life” or “elderhood.” He counsels that

 

…you have not fully acknowledged this new place as the place where God dwells and holds you. You fear that this truthful place is in fact a bottomless pit where you will lose all you have and are. Do not be afraid. Trust that the God of life wants to embrace you and give you true safety (15).

 

So here I am—I venture that God might see me as goofy as the Corn Crakes appear to me, yet I yearn to be lovingly encouraged to fulfill my own creatureliness. It’s a large hope, and I am always looking and listening for allies on this journey. I have been reading Václav Havel’s Letters to Olga, written from prison where he was sentenced in 1979 to 4 ½ years of hard labor for his human rights activities in Czechoslovakia. In the middle of his incarceration, he writes of a growing “mood” of “contemplation,” which he defines as “the manifestation of a deeper, more spiritual relationship to the values of the world and my life” (204). What Havel says about this “mood” strikes a chord for me as I explore the “hiddenness” the Corn Crakes have roused me to ponder:

 

It is an experience of the manifestation—the vivid presence—of an otherwise hidden, yet all-determining dimension of the spirit, that is the presence of faith, hope and the profound conviction that there is a ‘meaning’ (205).

 

The very fact that Havel has found this understanding in prison inspires me with the power of the human spirit to meet despair-inducing adversity with hope, daring to probe beyond surfaces to deeper meaning. It’s a bit of a stretch, and I do not wish to appropriate his hard-earned wisdom glibly, but I like to think that Havel and I and the Corn Crakes are kindred spirits, expressing in quite different languages our kinship with the community of all Being. Finding even glimpses of what such hiddenness may mean is a gift as I travel a new path from middle age into later years.

 

When I think of the wholeness of Creation which Celtic Christianity claims as God’s intention, my thoughts go to places where it is now disrupted by threats of extinction. Within the context of a sacred universe, the loss of any form of life diminishes all of us; it takes away something from the “whole book of our meaning.” As an educator, a seeker, a pilgrim, and one committed to advocacy for Earth care, this is of great concern to me.

 

Among the animal species, we are perilously close to losing such treasures as the California condor, the Bactrian Camel, the Hawaiian Monk Seal, the Mountain Gorilla, the Iberian Lynx—all are included among the“25 most endangered species on Earth,” and this list names only ones we know about.

 

Extinction is not the hiddenness I’ve been discussing so far, though it may be useful to compare them. Extinction as we now use the word, is a death, an ending of some life form that prevents its continuity. Extinction as a conceived crisis of species being torn from the fabric of creation surely must be one of the worst sins. In this case, it may mean that we humans have acted with the arrogance of hubris, not

admitting the possibility of anything hidden or unknowable as we pollute, mine,

toxify, clearcut, kill, and otherwise abuse Creation as a “resource” for our use.

 

On the spiritual level, however, the idea of hiddenness shows us the absolute unknowability of the universe, let alone the unfathomable intricacy of the Earth itself. Stepping out into the depths of spirit, we are called to walk in a way that may be visible only one step at a time. Hiddenness requires a surrender to mystery that precludes any attempt to cleverly devise a map and run ahead; we must wait and trust invisible Being.

 

Iona itself was threatened when it went up on the auction block in 1979; luckily the Fraser Foundation purchased it back from the Argyll Estates and presented it to the nation. The National Trust now owns much of the island. In 2000 the Iona Cathedral Trust passed the abbey, nunnery, Reilig Òdhrain, and St. Ronan’s into the care of Historic Scotland.

 

I began this meditation with a fascination with Corn Crakes, but the more I thought of them, there in the great matrix of Celtic Christianity, the more I felt that they expressed important aspects of the spirit of holy Iona: that too was invisible but strongly present. It had been threatened but it survived. I did see one Corn Crake, but I’m still trying to decode its message, a beguilingly quirky yet resonant one. What is hidden draws me onward in a mysterious adventure!

 

Nancy Corson Carter, professor emerita of humanities at Eckerd College, has published two poetry books, Dragon Poems and The Sourdough Dream Kit, and three poetry chapbooks. Some of her poems, drawings, and photos appear in her nonfiction book, Martha, Mary, and Jesus: Weaving Action and Contemplation in Daily Life and in her memoir, The Never-Quite-Ending War: a WWII GI Daughter's Stories.

 

¹J. Philip Newell, THE BOOK OF CREATION: AN INTRODUCTION TO CELTIC
 SPIRITUALITY (New York: Paulist Press 1999), pp. xxi, 67-8, 71ff.
 
² John Clare, Iona and Mull CORNCRAKES ( Mull, Scotland; Moving Stationery Ltd.,
2010), p. 1.  This pamphlet is also the source of the photo included.
 
³ Henri J.M. Nouwen, THE INNER VOICE OF LOVE (New York: Doubleday, 1996), p.
89, 15.
 
⁴ Václav Havel, LETTERS TO OLGA (New York: Knopf, 1988), p. 205.

Earth Day Sunday 2023

Celebrating Earth Day Sunday 2023 

with Your Congregation

Earth Day is April 22nd, but you can celebrate Earth Day Sunday with your congregation any time in April or throughout the year. All Creation praises God’s name, and we can give thanks to God for the wonder and beauty of the world around us!

Here are some resources that may be helpful in planning an Earth Day or Creation Care Sunday at your church. We know that many congregations have creative and original ideas of their own for how to celebrate, and we have included a few from PEC members and friends below. It is our hope that we can share ideas to inspire discussion in the Comments Section of this Blog post.

First Presbyterian Church in New York City will be celebrating an Earth Day family friendly neighborhood cleanup after worship on Sunday, April 23rd.

Here is a list of activities around Earth Day taking place at Druid Hill Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, GA:

EARTH DAY WORSHIP AND CELEBRATION

Sunday, April 23

Alternative Commute Day: You are encouraged to find a way to church that uses less carbon than your normal commute. This could be carpooling, public transportation, biking, walking, taking one car instead of two, or whatever works best for you. Get creative: even piggy-back rides count!

Community Electronics Recycling Day, 10 - 10:55 AM, 12 - 12:15 PM; Front Parking Lot:

The Mission Team will be collecting unwanted electronics and delivering them to the Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHARM) who will ensure they are properly recycled. Any small household item that requires electricity or charging and charging cords will be accepted. A Mission Team representative will be in the front parking lot to collect recyclables.

Earth Care Sunday School Class with Dr. Stan Saunders, 10AM; Parlor: Many modern Christians have grown up hearing that someday the earth will be destroyed and God will take the righteous to heaven. The New Testament, in contrast, persistently describes God coming to be with us in a renewed heaven and earth, an end that is actually more consistent with the larger biblical story. On Earth Day weekend we will have a special class, taught by retired Columbia Seminary professor Dr. Stan Saunders, which will explore that story and its implications for a Christian approach to our environmental crises. The Christian Ed team hopes you will join us in what is sure to be an engaging class.

Earth Day Worship Service, 11AM; Front Lawn: In recognition of Earth Day weekend, DHPC will gather for worship on the lawn as we give thanks for the gift of God’s amazing creation and commit ourselves to protecting it. Join us as we gather in song, prayer, scripture, and action. Feel free to dress casually in blue, the color of clear, clean water, or green, the color of forests, fields, and more. An opportunity to do some planting will follow worship, so be prepared to play in the dirt!




EARTH CARE FILM, CONVERSATION, AND LUNCH

Sunday, April 30, 12pm - 2pm; Parlor

The Mission Team invites you to bring a bag lunch and join us in the Parlor to watch and discuss a series of short films called Current Revolution (66 minutes), this year’s featured film of Faith Climate Action Week. These films show the possibility of a just transition to a clean energy economy where the well-being of workers and frontline community members is valued. We hope you will join us for what is sure to be an informative film, followed by rich conversation. Bonus: popcorn will be provided.




Village Church in Prairie Village, KS will host a workshop led by environmental theologian and author The Rev. Dr. Patricia Tull on Saturday, April 22nd. An Electric Car Expo will take place afterwards in the church parking lot. If you would like to watch the livestream of the workshop, you can connect through the church's website HERE.




First Presbyterian Church in Asheville, NC will be participating in an ecumenical Earth Day Sunday celebration with other churches as a progressive stroll along their shared street. Activities will include environmental information and resources, children's activities, and snacks.




PEC Moderator Rev. Bruce Gillette will leading his church in Owego, NY through several activities in celebration of Earth Day:





We are doing an ecumenical worship service on Earth Day/Saturday morning outside the Episcopal Church and then we will go together to plant trees. Saturday evening our church is hosting a community vegetarian potluck dinner to introduce people to a wide range of delicious, planet-friendly meals. We will ask for the recipes and share them later on our church website and Facebook to encourage healthy diets (for planet and personal health) year-round.

Saturday evening, we are showing “The Letter” in our fellowship hall after the dinner. “The Letter” tells the story of a journey to Rome of frontline leaders to discuss the encyclical letter Laudato Si’ with Pope Francis: https://www.theletterfilm.org We are thrilled that other churches, especially the Roman Catholic parish, are encouraging people to come to the dinner and the movie. The film is now on YouTube for easy showing and sharing. The PCUSA General Assembly has encouraged everyone to study it.

Sunday morning, we will sing a hymn emphasizing creation care (see below for ideas), lift up environmental concerns in the prayers, and make connections between the Bible and creation care in the sermon (see below).

We have invited electric vehicle owners to show off their cars and trucks in designated parking spaces next the church following the worship service. We will also be planting a new tree in honor of our oldest church member (Eudora had her 100th birthday recently). I hope it will inspire more tree planting on church property and beyond.


Creation Care Hymns in Glory to God by David Gambrell
Hymns by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette (permission is given for free use to PEC friends)
Preaching on April 23 lectionary text (great resource for lectionary preaching year-round).
Litany of Confession - Lord's Prayer & Creation Care
Actions Beyond Worship:
EarthDay Sunday from Presbyterian Hunger Program
TreadLightly (good beyond Lent)
Respondingto Climate Change free conversation guide (Christian Century).
Presbyteriansfor Earth Care (PEC) Webinars on many topics: https://presbyearthcare.org/events/

WOMAN OF POWER, WOMAN OF GRACE

 

Woman of Power, Woman of Grace:  FOR CREATION

by Diane Waddell with Jerry Rees

 

Jerry Rees and I came to know Carey Gillam through her father Chuck, a true eco-warrior, a member of Village Presbyterian Church, and a staunch defender of Earth Care. Chuck had been a faithful and outspoken member of our Presbytery Earth Care Team for several years and had not mentioned anything about his amazing daughter.  After he humbly told us about her, our team has followed her work, met with her, shared her work with others, and has been constantly amazed.  Carey exemplifies hard work and self-sacrifice (at a world-class level) in trying to make the earth safer and less toxic.

 

It has not been easy.  Early on, she worked so hard in her job with Reuters—uncovering the unfortunate facts about the devastating effects of glyphosate—that her position was changed by some “powers that were.”

 

Nevertheless, she kept pursuing the facts and now is able to share what the public needs to know to help protect our lives and the well-being of God’s Good Green Earth.  We bring to you her story (which is far from finished) and invite you to read her books and follow her current work through US Right to Know, a not-for-profit food industry research group. Here is the rest of her story…

 

Carey Gillam is an investigative journalist and author with more than 30 years of experience covering food and agricultural policies and practices, including 17 years as a senior correspondent for Reuters international news service. She has won several industry awards for her work. Her first book, Whitewash: The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer and the Corruption of Science, was released in October 2017 and won the coveted Rachel Carson Book Award from the Society of Environmental Journalists, as well as two other awards.

 

Carey's second book, a legal thriller titled The Monsanto Papers - Deadly Secrets, Corporate Corruption, and One Man's Search for Justice, was released March 2, 2021.

 

Gillam has been asked to speak all over the world about food and agricultural matters, including before the European Union Parliament in Brussels, the World Forum for Democracy in Strasbourg, and to public officials, organizations, and conferences in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Argentina, France, and The Netherlands. She has also been an invited lecturer to several universities, including Emory University, Berkeley Law School, Washington University, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, the University of Iowa, the Cambridge Forum in Harvard Square, and others.

 

She has served as a consultant on, and participant in, several documentaries, including the award-winning Poisoning Paradise, released in June 2019 by actor Pierce Brosnan and his wife Keely Brosnan. A new documentary based on Carey’s books Into the Weeds will have its U.S. release on Earth Day in April.

 

Gillam writes regularly for The Guardian. Her work has also been published in The New York Times, Huffington Post, Time, and other outlets.

 

In May of 2022, Gillam helped launch a non-profit environmental news outlet called The New Lede as a journalism initiative of the Environmental Working Group.

 

You can receive updates on Gillam’s work by subscribing to her free Substack called UnSpun.

 

Gillam speaks to issues of food safety and security, environmental health, agricultural issues, corporate corruption of regulatory policies, as well matters about journalism, fake news, corporate pressure on media, and more.

 

Carey, we appreciate you greatly and thank you for pursuing justice for earth and her inhabitants.

 

 

Diane Waddell and Jerry Rees are members of Earthkeepers of Heartland Presbytery.  Jerry is a member of Village Presbyterian Church, which hosts Earthkeepers meetings.