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Gun Violence Prevention News for Congregations

Presbyterian Peace Fellowship


Gun Violence Prevention News

for Congregations - Summer 2025

Welcome, New Readers!



How did your church mark Gun Violence Prevention Month &

Wear Orange Days? Please send news and photos HERE.


Photo: New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church in Fort Worth

combined "Wear Orange" with its Vacation Bible School,

hosting a day for "Baptisms, Not Burials," on Juneteenth.

The Atwood Institute for Congregational Courage

is having a Contest!


Bring a Team!

The biggest team wins.

A team is 2 or more attendees who will work together when they get home. Teams will get scholarship priority and a surprise gift at the Institute.

Best of all..teams build strong gun violence prevention ministries when they get home.

Sept. 24- 27, 2025

Massanetta Springs Conference Center, Harrisonburg, VA

Build Skills, Courage & Friends for Gun Violence Prevention

Register & Learn More HERE, including the Atwood Institute Schedule


The Atwood Institute is a

game-changing, ecumenical

project of the

 Presbyterian Peace

Fellowship to equip and encourage clergy and lay leaders for gun violence prevention ministry with congregations.

Apply for scholarships HERE.


Photo: 2024 Atwood Graduates

View a short video from last year's participants HERE

The Atwood Institute honors the legacy of Rev. Jim Atwood,

Christian prophet of gun violence prevention.

Celebrating our 5th Year of

Guns to Gardens Action Circles!

Learn how to Transform Unwanted Guns into Garden Tools and Art

See a tribute to PPF's 5th Year of Action Cirlces HERE.


Summer Action Circles

July 10 - Aug. 14

Register HERE for Noon ET

Or

Register HERE for 7:30 PM ET


Action Circles are Six Thursdays on Zoom

1 Hour Per Week & 1 Hour of Preparation






You're Invited!

Gun Violence & Christian Ethics

with Dr. David Lincicum

Professor of Christian Ethics, Notre Dame University

Thurs. July 24 Noon ET Webinar

Register HERE.



Sponsored by the

Presbyterian Office of Public Witness PC(U.S.A.)

Local Spotlight


First Presbyterian Church of Ardmore, PA


This congregation's Thursday Bible Study Group recently completed the "Courageous Conversations" study in the Gun Violence Prevention Congregational Toolkit. With the support of the church Session, they created an 11 x 17 poster to hang inside all of the bathroom stalls in their church, giving people a private way to see resources on issues raised in the study: suicide, domestic violence and secure strorage of firearms. Find a PDF of the poster for your church HERE. It could be printed in other sizes.


Find the "Courageous Conversations" study in the Congregational Toolkit Education Section HERE.

T-Shirts

Guns to Gardens

T-shirts and sweatshirts with

the Guns to Gardens logo on the front

and Isaiah 2:4 on the back. Order for your church volunteers for gun violence prevention events or as a gift.

Order HERE

Please Support PPF's Gun Violence Prevention Ministry


We need support from churches, individuals and presbyteries to do this work. Gifts of all amounts are needed.

Gifts are tax-deductible.



Give HERE or

Mail checks to:

"Presbyterian Peace Fellowship"

att: Gun Violence Prevention

17 Cricketown Rd.

Stony Point, NY 10980 Thank you.

GIVE HERE!

presbypeacefellowship.org/gun-violence-prevention



Rev. Margery Rossi, Minister for Gun Violence Prevention

margery@presbypeacefellowship.org

Rev. Jan Orr-Harter, Editor & Moderator, Gun Violence Prevention Working Group

gvp@presbypeacefellowship.org


Presbyterian Peace Fellowship

Presbyterian Peace Fellowship | 17 Cricketown Road | Stony Point, NY 10980 US

EarthBeat Weekly: Faith-based programs help connect the many people who care about climate action

Faith-based programs help connect the many people who care about climate action

EarthBeat Weekly
Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change

June 27, 2025


Sr. Anna Bakutara waters her brassica in the greenhouse on the farm at St. Mary's Abbey, an enclosed order of Cistercians, in Glencairn, Ireland, Aug. 30, 2022. The monastery uses green energy and sustainable farming to try to make itself self-sufficient for heating and food. (CNS/Reuters/Clodagh Kilcoyne)

For as long as I've been participating in Catholic spaces focused on care for creation (more than a decade), the majority of those I've worked with have expressed the feeling that not enough people in their faith communities care deeply enough about the climate crisis. 

Even after the release of Pope Franci's encyclical Laudato Si' in 2015, which offered an emphatic boost to the environment movement both within and outside of the church, many Catholics still routinely express the feeling that their fellow parishioners, pastors, bishops and the church at-large just don't consider the plight of the planet and the poor with the urgency required.

While there's been many stories (often in EarthBeat's pages) about challenges faced in convincing religious leaders to prioritize environmental justice and climate action, is it really true that only a few people care? Several studies suggest that's actually a major misconception, and the vast majority of the global population — between 80% and 89% — wants to see more action taken in response to climate-related issues.

Covering Climate Now, a news collaborative that supports journalists in better reporting on climate change, set out to break that news this year with The 89 Percent Project. As a CCN partner, EarthBeat contributed to the initiative with a report Tuesday from Rebecca Randall detailing how some young Catholics are empowered by connecting with values-aligned communities who are working toward climate justice.

Read more: Up to 89% of the world wants more climate action. These Catholics find hope in that.

One of those supportive communities of people focused on faith-based climate action includes the thousands of individuals and institutions partaking in the Laudato Si' Action Platform, an initiative launched by the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, with Pope Francis' endorsement.

Since its launch in November 2021, the Laudato Si' Action Platform has garnered more than 10,600 enrollments, directly impacting an estimated 20 million people in 150 countries, according to its organizers, reported NCR environment correspondent Brian Roewe in Part Two of his series on the future of Laudato Si' efforts this week. Approximately 2,300 of those enrollments come from the United States, which along with Italy tops all countries.

There's plenty of room for growth in the years to come, but as more people realize they're not alone in their hopes for a greater emphasis on Laudato Si'-related efforts across the church, the promise of perseverance and continued ecological conversion grows too.

Read more: Vatican program to turn Laudato Si' words into environmental action presses forward

 



 

What else is new on EarthBeat:

 
by Kimberley Heatherington, OSV News

Laudato Si's auspicious June 18, 2015 publication date 10 years later coincides with proposals by Congress to defund America's clean energy investments and pollution reduction programs, sell public lands to industry, establish legal permitting detours for potential polluters, and eliminate federal subsidies for energy-efficient technologies, among other not-so-green actions.


 

by Tony Onyulo, Stella Gitau


 

 

by Dan Stockman

"When a sister is in the dialogue, they listen differently," said Sr. Susan Francois,


 

What's happening in other climate news:

Inside a last-ditch battle to save (or kill) clean-energy tax credits —Lisa Friedman, Maxine Joselow and Brad Plumer for The New York Times

'Throwing us off a cliff': Megabill could derail hundreds of planned clean energy projects —Kelsey Tamborrino and Jessie Blaeser for Politico

Huge public land sale stripped from senate bill — for now — but assault on federal land protections continues —Wyatt Myskow for Inside Climate News

Trump to strip protections from millions of acres of national forests —Anna Phillips and Jake Spring for the Washington Post

In Alabama, a social media influencer really gets wild: Kyle Lybarger built a loyal following online by talking about native plants and why biodiversity matters. —Catrin Einhorn, photographs and video by Charity Rachelle for The New York Times

Turning plastic into fuel: Photos of Gaza's youth surviving with makeshift burners —Abdel Kareem Hana for the Associated Press

In rural Alaska, a village turns to solar and biomass energies to cut diesel and save money —Dorany Pineda, John Locher and Mark Thiessen for the Associated Press

 


Final Beat:

I will not be sending out this EarthBeat Weekly newsletter next Friday, July 4, Independence Day in the United States. Any stories published on EarthBeat during the next two weeks will be included in the July 11 newsletter. 

To receive faith and climate stories in your inbox more often, sign up for EarthBeat Daily. This newsletter includes links to any stories published on EarthBeat in the previous 24 hours.

Thanks for reading EarthBeat.


Stephanie Clary
Environment Editor
National Catholic Reporter
sclary@ncronline.org
 


 


 
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