The First Week of Advent Devotion: Environmental Justice and Loving Neighbors as Ourselves

The First Week of Advent Devotion by Sue Smith

“‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40, NRSV)

I saw a lone fir tree last week, looking like it was ready to be decorated for the Christmas season. But it is not. It is planted in soil covering a cement cap that shields soil so contaminated by dioxin, it could not be remediated. This is the former manufacturing home of DDT and Agent Orange.

I saw this on a tour of the Ironbound section of Newark, NJ, named because it developed inside the railroad tracks crossing the city. Today the majority of the population is African American, Latino and foreign born, moderate to low income, and approximately 75% of the population has less than a high school education. People who don’t live there know this
section as having the best Portuguese restaurants in the state, yet it is a food desert. On this tour, what I saw was environmental racism. This is not the reflection of a person who has experienced the injustice in this community, but of a white, middle-class person who toured it one day and saw circumstances that would not be tolerated in my neighborhood. What I saw is a community that suffers from the cumulative impacts of multiple injustices:

• The dioxin-laden site, along with other pollutants from numerous old industrial sites, contaminated a 13 mile stretch of the Passaic River. In many neighborhoods, the rivers play a large part in the community, this river does not.
• The Ironbound abuts Newark Airport and is surrounded by five major New Jersey highways its air is polluted by emissions and noise.
• Port Newark is also adjacent to the Ironbound and 7,000 trucks regularly service the port.Trucks idle for hours at the port waiting to load cargo and drive through the Ironbound. Community members did a truck count once for 2 hours at 6 intersections and counted over2,000 trucks.
• Port Newark is also a visual reminder of the US trade deficit, with towering piles of emptyshipping containers (a visual eyesore as well).
• There is a lack of recreational opportunities – not many parks, others closed because of contamination. One chemical company, as part of restitution, built a recreational center. The pool had to be suspended above ground because of the contamination in the soil at that location.
• Covanta operates the largest incinerator in the state here (over half of the trash comes from New York City). And the air scrubbing equipment is not as advanced as the other installations in the state.

In this season of anticipation of the birth of Jesus, I am drawn to his commandments. If we love God, we need to love all of God’s creation. Can we do this and tolerate multiple injustices to the earth in one place? Can we love our neighbor and tolerate multiple injustices to our neighbor’s community?

But in this season of hope –I saw great hope. The Ironbound Community Corporation is very engaged in helping residents organize and advocate to remediate the current problems, and prevent further cumulative impacts. They provide awareness tours. They advocated keeping a medical waste facility from being built. They are involved with the planning process for the restoration of the river banks. They are saving the few parks they have.

In this season of anticipation of the birth of Jesus, I am drawn to his commandments. If we love God, we need to love all of God’s creation. Can we do this and tolerate multiple injustices to the earth in one place? Can we love our neighbor and tolerate multiple injustices to our neighbor’s community?

What can we do?

• Always respect a community suffering from environmental injustice and how they are working to make their situation better.
• Provide support by writing letters and standing with the community when asked.
• When you throw out your trash, think about how to create less going to incinerators.

More Information:

• Read the Environmental Justice Principles: http://www.ejnet.org/ej/principles.html.
• Look at the web to see if your state posts DEP environmental mapping tools.
• Read the Executive Summary of the United Church of Christ’s report on Toxic Waste and Race:http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/2007%20UCC%20Executive% 20Summary.pdf.

Prayer:
Gracious God, in this season of anticipation and hope, care for those who are impacted by environmental injustice; keep them safe from further injustices; give them strength in their work for justice. Open the eyes of the unaware. Help us all to tend your wondrous creation, working towards a healthy earth that will lift everyone. Amen

Sue Smith is the Treasurer of Presbyterians for Earth Care, a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Rumson, NJ, a GreenFaith Fellow, and a student at New Brunswick Theological Seminary.

Click here to access the whole 2011 PEC Advent Devotional in PDF format.

A Gift for You: PEC Advent Devotional

Dear Friends in Earth Care,

Our Update this month is an Advent Devotional with a new twist: integrating the mysterious beauty of Advent (and Christmas) with the mystery and beauty of Creation. Through this PEC devotional, we invite you to experience Advent through your spirit, heart, mind, and your senses – and to experience it deeply. Click here to read the Advent devotional.

You might take a few moments daily to reflect on the devotional offering for the week (or day). Consider the reflection inwardly, breathing in and out with a sense of birth/rebirth.

Experience the star(s) in a deep way, knowing that we are all stardust, knowing that we are all part of the mystery.

Recall St. Francis of Assisi's words..."Most High, all powerful, all good Lord. All praise is Yours, all glory, all honor and all blessings...Praise be You my Lord with all your creatures...Brother Sun...Sister Moon...Brothers Wind, Air, and Fire...Sister Water... Praised be you, my Lord through our Sister, Mother Earth who sustains and governs us..." (Canticle of the Sun.)

Consider creating a special space at a table and adding some elements from Earth that symbolize soil, water, air, and the other amazing animals that share this planet. Add those to symbols which you hold most sacred in your relationship to Christ: a cross, Bible, meaningful texts, pictures. Add elements which contain fragrance such as pine branches as well as different textures -- a bowl or pitcher of water (or a picture of snow), a candle, feathers, maybe in white to represent a dove.

Invite others into your special space this Advent—especially children and youth—as you share gratitude for Christ and Creation. The space may be your heart or your table space. It may be in person or through a letter, email, or prayer. Breathe in the opportunity for deepening relationships with others, as well as with Creation.

Dear friends, may the mystery of this holy season be integrated in your heart and mind. May the blessings of God's Creation hold and renew you. May you know this Advent/Christmas as one of Rebirth as you share the Gift with others in the family of God.

Many thanks to those persons who have written a reflection for this version of the "Update.” Particularly, I want to thank our new newsletter editor-in-training, Abby Mohaupt. Abby is a student at McCormick Theological Seminary with an emphasis in Environmental Theology. We appreciate the skills she brings to this volunteer position, along with her enthusiasm, graciousness, and energy.

We are sharing this Update both in printed version and through e-mail. Each week of Advent, we will send you the reflection, as well as the daily reflection for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Click here to read the Advent devotional.

May the blessings of Christ and the richness of Creation be with you,

Diane Waddell
Moderator, Presbyterians for Earth Care

“The Global Food Crisis You Will Always Have With You...” But Why?

By Andrew Kang Bartlett, Associate for National Hunger Concerns, PHP

The 2008 Global Food Crisis was a wakeup call for politicians around the world and for the hundreds of Presbyterians who joined in the PC(USA) church-wide fast. Now in 2011 food prices have risen again to record highs. Why? Because the causes of the crisis have not yet been addressed.
Eating has turned into a multi-trillion dollar industry with supply chains that can reach halfway around the globe. Small-scale farming still provides half or more of the calories people put in their mouths, but the US’s “get big or get out” approach has been spreading globally.

For centuries, local production has been a primary food security and safety net for people living on the edge of poverty. As more and more farmers are pushed to produce for the national and often international export markets, this safety net has been destroyed. Countries formerly self-sufficient in staples and other crops are now net importers, and people suffer immediately when prices rise. When this happened in 2008, 100 million more people joined the nearly 900 million children, men and women who were already suffering from chronic and debilitating hunger. Now it appears that high prices are here to stay.

Various international gatherings of thr UN, national leaders and multilateral organizations have declared the dire need for large increases in funding for agricultural research, training and production for Africa and countries throughout the Majority World . Billions have been promised and millions are slowly making their way to struggling countries, but it is critical that these approaches avoid the mistakes made in past decades and meet the needs of smallholder farmers.

A story from Guatemala illustrates the brokenness of the system and how deep changes must be made to bring prosperity to communities throughout the Global South.

In May, Felicity Lawrence from the Guardian UK told the story of Marina Tamupsis, her two-year-old daughter, Yessica, and her husband, Domingo, who live in the village of Willwood, Guatemala. Despite living in a fertile farming area near the Pacific Ocean, the family often goes hungry. The family is a victim of the global food crisis.

Domingo works to harvest sugar for a Guatemalan firm that exports agroethanol so you and I can fill up our fuel tanks. Domingo works 60-70 hours a week, but earns so little that he sometimes subsists on the fallen mangoes he can collect. Marina was hungry throughout her pregnancy and last year birthed a stillborn child. A friend had to lend them the money for a coffin. The Tamupsis family was blessed to be born in a beautiful country with rich volcanic soil, yet they are so poor the doctor had to lend them bus fare so they could return to bury their third child, Marvin Orlando.

Not only has the food and agriculture system impoverished their family, it has deepened the divide between the few rich and the masses of Guatemalans. Like much of the world, the poorest Guatemalans spend up to 80% of their income on food and are hit hardest as world food prices shoot up. Countries like Guatemala exemplify the tragedy where food is in abundance and still children go to bed hungry. In fact, tiny Guatemala is the fifth largest exporter of sugar, coffee and bananas. Yet half of the population lives in extreme poverty on less than $2 a day, and half of Guatemala’s children under five are malnourished. International traders are trying to cash in on the US and EU demand for agrofuels, and rural areas are seeing a palm oil boom, but neither the food, much less the profits, make their way to those like the Tamupsis family.

The current commodified, market-based approach to food and agriculture determines that only those with enough cash in pocket will eat. As believers, we say no to such cruelty and assert that the gifts of God are for all people, including future generations. All people have the right to healthy, culturally appropriate food, produced in ways that sustain God’s creation.

Let us together build local food economies that provide for all – both in the U.S. and around the world. Take action locally and connect with national and international food justice efforts by joining the Presbyterian Food and Faith Group and the US Food Sovereignty Alliance. Might the October 10-17 Churches Week of Action on Food and World Food Day be a launching pad for broader engagement? Learn more at www.pcusa.org/food, justice.groupsite.com and www.usfoodsovereigntyalliance.org.

World Food Day

Dear friends and co-workers in environmental justice,

Social and environmental justice are bonded, woven together in the great web of life. They are a 'dynamic duo'. We, as humans, are part of the environment. We care for ourselves and each other as part of caring for Earth. I am grateful to be in a partnership of people who care for Earth because we want to, and also because we have to!

Food is one of the basic bondings we have. Oct 16 is World Food Day, a day for improving public awareness of the problem of hunger in the world.
Some of the unfortunate facts:

• Almost one billion of the 6.93 billion people in the world face chronic hunger – (not including “short-term” emergency situations due to war or natural disasters)
• The world already produces enough food calories for 12 billion people.
• Nearly two billion people are obese or overweight worldwide.
• People in developed countries consume on average over 60 per cent more than they need.
• Worldwide, 40 per cent of the food produced is wasted before it can be consumed.
• 700 children die every hour as a result of hunger.

I am privileged to be a member of the Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP) Advisory Committee. We meet twice yearly with the staff of the PHP. I am consistently amazed at the breadth and depth of the work of the program. PHP helps empower persons in the local community to work with projects that are sustainable and are aimed at the root causes of hunger. The PHP Advisory Committee reviews grants submitted to help fund programs both in the US and abroad. My heart is warmed by the number of grants written which support local organic farming and sustainable agriculture. In fact, one of the 5 guidelines is "a commitment to upholding the integrity of God's creation." I have also appreciated the tandem work between Environmental Ministries and PHP; it’s a great partnership.

A few weeks ago I attended the Prairie Festival, an annual event sponsored by the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas. The Land Institute works on sustainable agriculture, based on the use of perennial native prairie plants. They have developed perennial sorghum and Kernza, which is made from an intermediate perennial wheatgrass, and continue to work on other grains as well. It is a very slow process, but done with love and passionate commitment. My presbytery's environmental justice team, Earthkeepers of Heartland Presbytery, has written an overture to bring to the 2012 GA which supports this type of perennialization of grains. (Please let me know if you would like a copy of this overture in case you would like to concur or just study the concept.) The overture is based on the following booklet called "A Fifty Year Farm Bill".

We must continue to work diligently; to be faithful, to hold fast to the bond. Check out the Presbyterian Hunger Program’s work as well as its partner organizations listed on the website. Remain steadfast, knowing that hunger can be alleviated….and it can be done in a sustainable way. And as we work toward and meet that goal, Earth and its inhabitants will come rejoicing. For, in the words of the Spanish poet Frederico Garcia Lorca, “the day that hunger is eradiated from the earth, there will be the greatest spiritual explosion the world has ever known. Humanity cannot imagine the joy that will burst into the world on the day of that great revolution.”

To learn more about faith and the global food crisis, you can read this post on PEC's blog, written by Andrew Kang Bartlett, Associate for National Hunger Concerns at the Presbyterian Hunger Program.

Strength to you as we work towards environmental and social justice,
Diane Waddell, Moderator
Presbyterians for Earth Care
Diane_Waddell@sbcglobal.net

Dear PEC Members and Friends,

Announcing --- our third PEC Update for 2011!!

This Update is partially a reflection of our 2011 Conference at Highlands Conference Center, “Too Big to Fail? A Conversation among Faith, Science, and Culture.” The conference was informative, energizing, and truly transformative. We are grateful to all who participated!

Many thanks as well to all who were a part of producing this Update. We particularly hold up Jenny Holmes, immediate past PEC moderator, who planned the edition and gathered the articles, as well as Will Layton, Eco-Justice Fellow, NCC Eco-Justice Office, who edited and prepared the layout.

The final Update for the year is underway. It will be in a different format, as we are offering an Advent/Christmas Devotional. There will be a weekly devotional reading for each week of Advent plus one for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It will come both through electronic media as well as printed format.

The Earth is greatly in need of our care-giving now, and many advocacy issues ‘out there’ needing our attention. There is much in the way of eco-justice and social justice to do.

Strength and wisdom to you in your journey of Earth care.

In hope and faith,
Diane

Diane Waddell
Moderator
Presbyterians for Earth Care

New PEC Steering Committee

Dear friends in the Presbyterian earth-care community (and beyond),

Greetings from the Steering Committee of PEC. Our 'new' steering committee is on board and working towards offering excellent leadership for the future. I am certainly boosted by the amazing energy and dedication of others in the Executive Committee -- Jane Laping, Vice Moderator and Sue Smith, Treasurer. Jane has served as an at-large member and has certainly served PEC well as chair of the fundraising and membership committees. Sue has been exceptional in her work as treasurer. We officially welcome our new regional representatives, Andrew Plocher (SE Representative) from the Bethesda, Maryland area, Holly Hallman (NW Representative) from the Seattle area, and Ann Owen (SW Representative) from Little Rock, Arkansas. Additionally, Fred Milligan from Traverse City, Michigan has recently joined us as an at-large member of the Steering Committee. To learn more about our Steering Committee members, visit the PEC website.

I am also grateful as well for our very organized and forward-thinking coordinator, Shantha Ready Alonso. You have met William Layton in our last e-blast who is volunteering as a fellow in the NCC Eco-Justice Office until next July. (Hurray for volunteers!!)

Our conference at Highlands Conference Center was excellent, not only through education and information shared about eco-justice in MANY ways but also through beautiful, meaningful worship, excellent field trips, and lots of networking. We are so grateful to everyone who planned, participated, and became a deeper part of our community.

Overall, there is MUCH to do. It is a great feeling to be part of such an organization as this which can make such an impact on both environmental and social justice issues. PLEASE do keep in touch with us, particularly as you note projects, plans, and advocacy needs mentioned on the e-blasts. We DO need your input as we move forward together in this beautiful but fragile world.

From "For the Earth and Her Creatures", a prayer by Marjorie J. Thompson, from Prayers for the New Social Awakening: Inspired by the New Social Creed, edited by Christian Iosso and Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty:

Merciful Lord, open our ears to the groaning of creation:
glaciers melting into a rising sea,
polar bears swimming to exhaustion in search of ice,
wetlands drying to parched cracks,
songbirds seeking ancient sanctuaries in vain,
coral reefs bleaching in polluted waters,
whales beaching themselves in despair.

Awaken us, Good Lord, to our responsibility
for this earth over which you made us stewards . . .

In the name of the One through and for whom
all things have been created,
and in whom all things hold together.
Amen.

The Peace and Passion of Christ be with you all,
Diane Waddell
Moderator, Presbyterians for Earth Care

Earth-Honoring Faith Series at Ghost Ranch

By Rev. Janet Parker
Janet Parker is pastor at Rock Spring Congregational Church in Virginia. She is working on her new book: Becoming Human Again: A Pastoral Theology for a Changed Planet. Below is an excerpt from her "Becoming Human Again" blog post about her teaching at the Ghost Ranch, a Presbyterian education and Retreat Center (and working ranch) near Abiquiu, New Mexico.

Teaching at Ghost Ranch was an extraordinary capstone to an extraordinary sabbatical. The very same Ghost Ranch where Georgia O'Keefe lived and painted her landscapes. These photos are just a glimpse into the high desert beauty of this place.

I was at Ghost Ranch to serve as one of the faculty members for the course, "This Planet as Paradise: Beauty and Ecological Restoration," the fourth in the "Earth-Honoring Faith" series organized by my former doctoral advisor, Larry Rasmussen. What a privilege it was to teach alongside Larry, Rita Nakashima Brock, Dan Spencer, Barbara Rossing and Marty Haugen!
I hereby invite everyone who reads this blog to join us next year, when the topic will be "Food, Glorious Food!" The course is always held the fourth week in June. See the Ghost Ranch website for the course listing, under the "Earth-Honoring Faith" section of the courses and retreats tab.

McCormick Seminary Certificate in Environmental Ministry Program Equips Religious Leaders with Tools to Make Their Impact on the Earth More Sustainable and More Just.

Deep personal commitments to environmental ministry and a strong belief that the care of creation must be a vital ministry of the Church led four McCormick faculty members to develop this program that blends the study of Science, Theology, Bible, Ethics and Action as a means of equipping persons of faith who are passionate about ecological concerns. The Certificate is targeted to those who seek to shape policy, who are looking for deeper biblical and theological foundations for their practices, and are interested in pursuing these questions with a group of committed peers and colleagues.

Read what the faculty that developed this program has to say about its importance to the church and its leaders and their contributions to it:

"Many pastors and congregational leaders feel some sense of urgency about responding to our current ecological context. But where to begin? The scientific, theological, and practical aspects of the issues can be intricate and complex, and we may quickly feel overwhelmed. I hope that participants in this program will be able to engage the ecological context (and lead others in doing so) in an integrated way, with practices that have real effects on the ground, theological depth, and spiritual significance. I also hope that the certificate will contribute to the building of a dispersed community of energized, informed, and committed religious leaders who can shape the next phase of the religious ecological movement!" -- Jennifer R. Ayres, Assistant Professor of Religious Education and Director of the Program in Religious Education, Candler School of Theology Atlanta, GA and former McCormick Faculty member.

Clare Butterfield, Faith in Place

"I think the course is important because it helps religious leaders be where their laity is already. People come to church with concerns about the planet. This certification program is designed to help their clergy help them to integrate those concerns, and practical responses to them, into the life of the church. My contribution is in the realm of practical and impactful things that congregations can do." -- Clare Butterfield, Executive Director, Faith in Place

“Our current ecological crisis makes it imperative that we find new ways of living within the world of nature. There are some very practical steps we know we should take, yet finding sufficient courage and motivation to make the needed changes is sometimes difficult. There are spiritual and theological dimensions to the challenge before us. What we believe about God and the world and about the place of the human being within nature affects how we live--theology matters. This course will resource religious leaders in both the practical and the theological work we need to do.” Anna Case Winters, Professor of Theology.

Ted Hiebert, Professor of Old Testament

“I think the course is important because it helps religious leaders rediscover the importance of the entire creation in their Scriptures. We've forgotten about this because of such a strong spiritualizing tendency in our tradition. My contribution is to help us retrieve the ways in which the world of nature is foundational for our faith and to help us connect biblical values with contemporary challenges." Ted Hiebert, Francis A. McGaw Professor of Old Testament.

Registration is open until August 15th; a $100.00 discount applies to all applications received by July 31st. For more information, contact Martha Brown. Application forms and detailed information may be found on the McCormick Web Site

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Presbyterians for Earth Care Video for "We are PCUSA" Initiative

PEC is participating in Bruce Reyes-Chow's "We are PCUSA" video project. Videos will stream all day on June 22. Vice Moderator Diane Waddell has submitted a video on our behalf. Check it out!
To see more information about the "We are PCUSAProject" go to http://www.patheos.com/community/breyeschow/we-are-pcusa/

Shades of Green Energy discussed how the faith community is addressing issues associated with green energy and the environment.

It is great to see Presbyterians taking a lead in their communities to care for God's Earth. Tune in to this radio show to hear Lou Snead of Faith Presbyterian Church in Austin and Colin Rowan of First Presbyterian Church in Austin discusss several Earth Care initiatives they are undertaking in the Austin area. Colin organized a showing of the movie “A Carbon Nation” at his church and Lou Snead is part of the Interfaith Environmental Network in Austin. (See a photo of the Interfaith Environmental Network's leadership here.) Austin is in Presbyterians for Earth Care's Southwest region. The coordinator for that region is Bee Moorehead, the Executive Director of Texas Impact and Texas Interfaith Power and Light.

Listen to the radio show at: http://shadesofgreenenergy.org/2011/06/435/