MLP February Newsletter!

IN THIS ISSUE * Notes from the Staff * Welcome to our newest MLP Ministry! * Upcoming Events

From our Director of Engagement

The last few weeks have been hard on this country. We have witnessed state-sponsored violence on immigrants and citizens. We have been gaslighted by corporate media and the current administration, telling us that what we have seen is not real. We are experiencing the rise of a “Big Brother” kind of government that knows our every move.  Immigration should matter to More Light Presbyterians and to all our constituents. Not just because we are working “toward God’s promised liberation and flourishing for all creation,” but because we are witnessing the beginning. We never thought our neighbors would be next. Or cute five-year-olds with blue hats. Or White millennials with cameras. Or well-respected journalists. But here we are. And it keeps getting closer and closer to us. When we fight evil, when we fight to dismantle the government agencies that are killing and kidnapping our siblings, we are fighting for ourselves. And there are many ways we can fight. Educating ourselves is one way. Advocating in the public sphere is another way. Cooking meals for our neighbors is another. Walking around our neighborhoods with a whistle is yet another way. Caring for our souls is another way. Whether you are attending our retreat in April or a More Light Monday or the “Faith under Fire” webinar, know it is an act of love. For yourself and your community. Below is more information on these events.  Keep causing good trouble.  -Claudia

From our Director of Operations

I just finished rewatching Game of Thrones. I watch it, maybe, once or twice a year (odd choice, I know).  I am always fascinated by the way they evolve Daenerys' storyline. In the beginning of the series, you find yourself rooting for the  'rightful' heir to the Iron Throne, committed to crushing the proverbial wheel of oppression. She removes the evil Lords who sit in power, all in the name of liberation, and we cheer and root for her victory.  As the series evolves, though, it becomes easy to see that her commitment to ending oppression becomes oppressive in itself. She says in the final episode, after destroying the whole of the capital city in the name of freedom, that her soldiers will not lay down their spears until all are no longer oppressed. Having just watched her use her dragons and soldiers to completely destroy a population, it leaves the viewers, not to mention her on-screen advisors, taken aback. Is she coming to liberate the oppressed or destroy opposition? Ultimately (spoiler alert), those around her do not allow her to come into power, recognizing that she was quickly becoming more of the same.  I don't know what liberation truly looks like, or how we can truly dismantle the systems that have historically oppressed the most vulnerable in society without inadvertently recreating them in the process. What I do know, however, is that our silence is complicity.  Our inaction is an endorsement. And that is unacceptable. More Light Presbyterians will not be sitting idly in this fight for collective liberation. I hope you will join us in our mission to bring about the flourishing of God's creation, however complicated and long that journey may be.  -Jesy    WELCOME! Welcome to our newest MLP New Worshipping Community! House of Figs   ANNOUNCEMENTS   February 9 at 7:00 PM (EST) Last month we learned about the ways we can make worship more inclusive. We continue that discussion around the adaptability of music! Join Board members, Avery Arden (they/them) and Matt Webb (he/him) as they discuss ways to change the hymns to correct harmful or outdated theological language.  Questions: Contact hello@mlp.org Register Here Join us this Spring at Ferncliff Camp & Conference Center for a weekend of rest, respite, and reconnection! You’ll have two lodging options — both first-come, first-served: Brown Center Includes: 2 nights of lodging, five meals, activities, sustainability fee, and registration. Total Cost: $231.79 Williams Lodge Includes: 2 nights of lodging, five meals, activities, sustainability fee, and registration. Total Cost: $170.17 For our BIPOC and Trans siblings: Email hello@mlp.org about travel scholarships! Click HERE to register today!   When is this retreat? April 17-19, 2026 (right after Easter!) Who is this retreat for? This is a space exclusively for our LGBTQIA+ siblings and the MLP board, which will be holding its semi-annual in-person meeting before the retreat.  Where is this retreat? Ferncliff Camp and Conference Center in Little Rock, AR Why Ferncliff? Because the LGBTQIA+ community in Arkansas is suffering and Ferncliff has become a safe haven for our queer siblings (especially the young ones) and they need our support. Our presence in Arkansas is an act of resistance and defiance to an unjust system. Learn more about Ferncliff and the work they do to support the LGBTQIA+ community here and check out some of the programming they offer to our queer kiddos here.   What are you doing to ensure our safety? We are arranging direct transportation from the airport to Ferncliff (only 23 miles away) so no one has to use any other form of transportation.  What is the cost? Thanks to the dues of our member churches and the generosity of our individual donors, we were able to subsidize 50% of the cost for all participants, so depending on where you choose to stay (available on a first come, first served basis), the cost is $231.79 for those staying at the Brown Center or $170.17 for those staying at Williams Lodge. This price includes 2 nights lodging, 5 meals, activities, sustainability and registration fees.  How big will this be? Since we want to ensure everyone gets privacy, we can accommodate 44 participants in single-occupancy rooms.  Where can I register? You may find all instructions to register here.  Do you have scholarships? Yes! We have ten $300 scholarships available for trans and BIPOC peeps. To apply, email hello@mlp.org a screenshot of your registration and we will give them to the first ten to apply.  How can I help? Your donations and annual dues help us fund this work. Please consider giving to MLP. UPCOMING EVENTS! February 9: More Light Monday! This More Light Monday will be all about music. Avery Arden and Matt Webb will share tips on changing lyrics of beloved tunes when the theology is harmful or outdated. Use this LINK to register February 12: Faith Under Fire: The Impact of Christian Nationalism on LGBTIQ+ Communities. A webinar hosted by the Lavender Interfaith Collective, this 90-minute panel discussion and training examines how the fusion of religion and nationalism shapes public policy, church culture, and social attitudes toward sexual and gender diversity. Visit here to register: https://lincollective.org/events  April 17-19: MLP National Gathering at Ferncliff Conference and Retreat Center. Use the link above to register.   Our collective wisdom and knowledge can take us farther than what we can do on our own. You can help us this month in a few ways: *Has your congregation paid dues this year? If not, you may submit them here.Your dues help us do this work. *Donate! We educate individuals and congregations, offer pastoral care to queer people and the ones who love them, we guide congregations as they seek to discern best steps, we advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community in our denomination and in the public arena. We can’t do it without your help.  *In light of recent political developments, the number of LGBTQIA+ couples seeking to get married has increased. More Light Presbyterians is compiling a list of queer and queer-affirming clergy willing to officiate wedding ceremonies and preach at MLP congregations on short notice. Please spread the word widely within your networks. If you are in need of an officiant, please contact us at hello@mlp.org indicating your location and the date of the ceremony.  *Do you have Pride pictures? Keep them coming! Please email them to hello@mlp.org We are trying to collect a list of all former board members to create an MLP alumni group. Have you served on our board, or do you know someone who has? Fill out this form, and we will contact you in the next few months.

Mail a Check: More Light Presbyterians, Inc. P.O. Box 735764 Chicago, IL 60673-5764   Contact Us: More Light Presbyterians 14301 Laurel Bowie Road Laurel, MD 20708 hello@mlp.org Website: www.mlp.org

WCC Feature: WCC joins water justice movements demanding human rights focus at UN conference

Water justice movements, including faith-based networks and civil society groups, are holding the United Nations accountable as the world prepares for only the third UN Water Conference in 50 years.  Dinesh Suna, among the rapporteurs and facilitators of Stakeholder Consultation, presenting reports of their Interactive Dialogue sessions Photo: People's Water Forum 29 January 2026 At the High-Level Preparatory Meeting in Dakar, Senegal, on 25-27 January, the People's Water Forum – which includes the World Council of Churches (WCC) Ecumenical Water Network – issued a statement challenging corporate influence in global water governance and reiterating nine demands from the Water Justice Manifesto signed by more than 500 organizations. The 2026 UN Water Conference takes place 2-4 December in the United Arab Emirates, co-hosted by Senegal and the UAE. After the first UN water conference in 1977 in Mar del Plata, Argentina, the UN took a 45-year hiatus before organizing the second conference in New York in 2023. Corporate sectors filled that void, dominating water policy through forums like the World Water Forum. Grassroots movements found these forums largely out of reach, with registration fees at 1,000 euros and side events costing 2.500 euros. Dinesh Suna, WCC programme executive for Land, Water, and Food and coordinator of the Ecumenical Water Network, co-facilitated Interactive Dialogue 3 on "Water for Planet" at Dakar. There were six interactive dialogues. He presented a stakeholder “think piece” urging shifts in water governance, ecosystem protection and climate resilience. Freshwater ecosystems are water-giving systems, the think piece stated, and outlined recommendations including integrating water policies across climate, biodiversity, and land management.     WF members  and allies with UN Special Rapporteur after issuing a press statement at UN Water conference, Dakar  Photo: People's Water Forum People's Water Forum members organized a press conference with civil society representatives and UN special rapporteur Prof. Pedro Arrojo-Agudo. Their statement challenged the conference architecture: "The Conference architecture entrenches multi-stakeholder governance as the dominant mode of engagement, placing corporations and financial actors on equal footing with states and communities whose lives and livelihoods depend on water." The statement also addressed debt justice, which it called inseparable from water justice. The Africa Water Justice Network argues that debt servicing undermines government capacity for public spending on water, sanitation, and health. The statement challenged the silence on water deprivation as a tool of human rights violations in Palestine, Sudan, and the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. "The UN Water Conference's claims of addressing pressing global water issues have no credibility without explicit recognition of these grave injustices," it stated. The People's Water Forum called for a formal intergovernmental mechanism that ensures the primacy of human rights, creates binding commitments for universal water access by 2030, cancels unsustainable debt, and rejects market-based governance models that deepen global inequities. In the months ahead, water justice movements will push to ensure that marginalized communities and faith-based organizations remain central to global water policy discussions. People's Water Forum statement Water Justice Manifesto UN Water Conference 2026  See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa.  Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland

EarthBeat Weekly: Where New York's new archbishop stands on climate, creation care

Where New York's new archbishop stands on climate and creation care EarthBeat Weekly Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change January 30, 2026   Joliet Bishop Ronald Hicks meets with members of the diocese's Laudato Si' Committee after a 2023 Mass at St. Francis of Assisi Church, in Bolingbrook, Illinois, kicking off the diocesan Laudato Si' action plan. (Julian Brown) By this time next week, New York City will have a new archbishop. Bishop Ronald Hicks of Joliet, Illinois, is set to be installed as the 14th archbishop of the New York Archdiocese Feb. 6 inside St. Patrick's Cathedral. Much has been reported already on Hicks and his background, as he will become the leader of perhaps the nation's most prominent archdiocese and will succeed Cardinal Timothy Dolan who in his 17 years in the Big Apple has attracted passionate critics and supporters alike.  Today at EarthBeat, I reported on Hicks' background around creation care and what kind of archdiocese he'll be entering when it comes to acting on Pope Francis' 2015 encyclical "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home." Under Hicks, the Joliet Diocese in 2023 enrolled in the Laudato Si' Action Platform, the Vatican initiative offering Catholic institutions a roadmap for implementing the encyclical's teachings. Hicks also participated an ecclesial meeting last year on ingraining Laudato Si' more widely in the U.S. church. So far, 30-plus U.S. dioceses have enrolled in the Vatican platform. "We are each called to protect our common home according to our ability and means," Hicks wrote in an introductory letter to Joliet's Laudato Si' plan. He invited all Catholics "in a new dialogue on Care for Creation for future generations in our diocese, so that they too can enjoy the natural beauty and splendor of our local prairies, wetlands, and woodlands; our great Lake Michigan and mighty Mississippi River; and our cities, suburbs, and farming communities." In New York, Hicks will find church engagement around creation care primarily on two fronts: grassroots parish efforts and the archdiocesan energy department. The New York Metro Catholic Climate Covenant, which began in 2014 shortly after the global People's Climate March, has activated Catholics in parishes and at the grassroots, organizing creation liturgies, creating ecological resources and mobilizing advocacy efforts at the state capital. It has worked in tandem with an informal care for God's creation committee that reports to the archdiocese.  The New York Archdiocese has been particularly active in energy upgrades, led by an energy department that is a rarity in U.S. dioceses. It has conducted energy audits at more than 300 buildings, facilitated 13 solar installations (primarily at schools) with four more in process, and is on track to exceed its goal of reducing its total energy costs by 10%, or approximately $40 million annually. "I think Archbishop-designate Hicks is going to come in, from an energy standpoint, to a well-oiled machine, which we weren't 10 years ago when we started," Martin Susz, the archdiocese's director of energy management, told me. Still, he and others sense much more can be done in New York, which is detailed in the story.  Read more: NY Catholics hope new archbishop Hicks will continue Laudato Si' efforts   What else is new on EarthBeat:   Doomsday Clock now at 85 seconds to midnight; 'failure of leadership' faulted by Gina Christian, OSV News The message of the clock "cannot be clearer," said Alexandra Bell, president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which was founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer and University of Chicago scientists who developed the first atomic weapons. Read more here »   In Africa, religious sisters step in as climate crisis deepens for the poorest by Doreen Ajiambo As religious sisters and others respond on the front lines, communities across Africa bear the cost of global delays on climate action. Read more here »   'Why is this my problem?': a Jesuit guide to teach high schoolers about eco-citizenship by Russell Fiorella "If information alone cannot cultivate eco-citizenship, then teachers must rethink their approach," writes Russell Fiorella. Read more here »   Cardinal Parolin meets with Danish king, prime minister amid tensions over Greenland by Junno Arocho Esteves, OSV News Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, concluded a two-day visit in Denmark with a meeting with the country's king and foreign minister as tensions between Europe and the United States still loom. Read more here »   Russia aims to 'freeze' Ukrainians, prelate says; missile attacks turn Kyiv into 'cold trap' by Katarzyna Szalajko, OSV News Russia's latest missile strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities were aimed deliberately at civilians and civilian infrastructure and bear clear signs of crimes against humanity, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk said, as Ukraine enters another week of winter fighting. Read more here » What's happening in other climate news: Yes, climate change can supercharge a winter storm. Here's how. —Matt Simon for Grist Trump's biggest climate rollback stalls over fears it will lose in court —Jake Spring for the Washington Post EPA plan would begin rolling back 'good neighbor' rule on downwind pollution from smokestacks —Matthew Daly for the Associated Press Fourth wind farm blocked by Trump is allowed to resume construction —Rachel Frazin for The Hill Trump's grant terminations upheld by Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals —Lisa Sorg for Inside Climate News Despite Trump, renewable energy keeps surging —Barbara Grady for Yale Climate Connections One of the worst parts of owning an EV is quickly getting better —Shannon Osaka for the Washington Post Dutch government is ordered to protect residents on Caribbean island of Bonaire from climate change —Mike Corder for the Associated Press Final Beat: All corners of the country have turned attention toward Minneapolis in the past week, after the second U.S. citizen protesting the Trump administration's immigration crackdown was shot and killed by a federal agent on Jan. 24. Along with numerous bishops, U.S. Catholic environmental groups have spoken out against the violence and the administration's increasingly aggressive deportation campaign.  The Minnesota chapter of the Laudato Si' Movement said in a sign-on letter that "we uphold the dignity of all of God's creation, very much including that of every human being, created in the image and likeness of God. We oppose this unjust treatment of our communities and the indiscriminate mass deportation of people." They called on Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to fully withdraw from the state, and for Catholic leaders to stand firmly with immigrants. In its own statement, the Catholic Climate Movement said that although immigration is not its central focus, "the defense of human dignity is inseparable from our work. The fate of migrants, the lives lost to state violence, and the health of our planet are bound together by a single moral truth: every person matters. All is connected." You can follow all of NCR's coverage of the social unrest in the Twin Cities here. As always, thanks for reading EarthBeat.   Brian Roewe Environment Correspondent National Catholic Reporter broewe@ncronline.org     Featured Advertisers   Looking to Hire? Offering Retreats? Selling Books? Place an Ad in NCR's Online Classified Section for Only $75 per Month!   Advertisement