Presbyterians for Earth Care - Important Climate Action Letter Needs Your Signature & Registration Open for Food Waste/ Climate Change Webinar

PLEASE READ AND SIGN: Presbyterian Letter on Climate Action You may be aware that last summer, the General Assembly of PC(USA) passed a number of overtures related to restoring creation and made some bold statements about the need for action.  We are encouraged not only to be faithful stewards within our homes and churches, but to advocate for policies that  help build a safe, just, and sustainable future for all. The Presbyterians 4 Carbon Dividend team, in partnership with Presbyterians for Earth Care Advocacy Team, has launched a Presbyterian Letter on Climate Action.  Our goal is to reach out to Presbyterian Members of Congress and encourage them to support policies aligned with recent actions by our General Assembly.   You can add your voice in this advocacy for God's creation by signing the letter here.  And please feel free to share this email with others who might be interested.  We will be hand delivering this letter to Washington DC offices in early June.

WEBINAR REGISTRATION OPEN: Labels, Food Waste & Climate Change Presenter: Minnie Ringland, ReFED Climate Fellow Date: Thursday, June 29th Time: 7:30 pm EDT (6:30 CDT, 5:30 MDT, 4:30 PDT) What are the relationships between label date confusion, wasting good food, and methane emissions from landfills?  In the U.S., a staggering estimated 38% of all food goes unsold or uneaten – the equivalent of 149 billion meals annually. It’s valued at $444 billion, roughly 2% of U.S. GDP, and it has the same climate footprint as the entire U.S. aviation industry (passenger, commercial, and military). Join PEC for a webinar with ReFED, a national nonprofit that leverages a holistic view of the food system to collaborate with key audiences and generate large-scale, meaningful impact. Confusion over food labels can lead to food waste, increased organic waste in landfills, rotting food in landfills, and methane emissions. In addition to environmental concerns, perfectly good food could be going to feed hungry unsheltered people through our food pantries if label confusion could be addressed. Join us to learn what we can do about food waste in our communities, homes, and places or worship.  Please plan to join us for this FREE Webinar!

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

“The Climate Crisis & Empowering Hope” is our theme for our 2023 national conference. The conference will deal with the greatest moral issue of the day and practical ways that our faith can guide us to act for creation care. We will gather in person in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley and at three satellite locations (California, Arkansas and Minnesota) and we will also stream all presentations online. We will learn from top church leaders, gifted biblical and theological teachers, activists, pastors, and one another. This important conference will make a difference for God’s creation and the Church. Please plan to join us and ask your Presbytery to include this information in your Presbytery newsletter.

CLICK HERE FOR CONFERENCE INFO & REGISTRATION

This Sunday, June 4, has the Revised Common Lectionary texts of Genesis 1:1-2:4a and Psalm 8 - two great texts for creation care.  “Psalm 8: The Ecology of “Dominion” in the Context of God’s Majesty: Exegetical Reflections” by William P. Brown of Columbia Seminary is an excellent article by a gifted biblical teacher posted on the PEC website.  “Retranslating Genesis 1–2: Reconnecting Biblical Thought and Contemporary Experience” by Theodore Hiebert of McCormick Seminary states “translations in Genesis 1–2 from the Common English Bible illustrate a more integrative understanding of the human and nonhuman, recognize the presence of nonhuman agency, and capture a more accurate representation of the human place in the world as Genesis’s authors conceived it (Gen 1.9-12; 1.26-28; 2.7). A tradition of translation has inscribed the dualistic, anthropocentric, and hierarchical cast of Western philosophy and theology into the biblical text. Careful attention to the world of the text, and translations that reflect that world authentically, can open up new (“old”) readings that are more ecologically sound and sensitive.”   “O God, Our Sovereign” by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, is a hymn based on Psalm 8 to the tune of LOBE DEN HERREN 14.14.4.7.8 ("Praise Ye the Lord, the Almighty"), that lifts up creation care in verses 3 and 4, which some other hymns on Psalm 8 do not mention.

Help us grow! Please let us know if there is anyone we should add to our list!  Just reply to this email.  Thank you! Please help us to continue to assist individuals and churches in creation care work by donating to PEC through our website by CLICKING HERE.  Thank you!

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WCC NEWS - In Barbados, public lecture explores “Touching Lives of Persons With Disability: Freed to Simply Be”

Photo: Calvary Moravian Church 1 June 2023 Cowans, who described the Barbados Gospelfest as “a wonderful model of expressing the goodness of God in the world through music,” expressed gratitude to the festival’s organizers. “You know, marginalized people in the world are sometimes referred to as the voiceless, and perhaps there are more people who are not voiceless so much as we are not listening,” he said. “The theme that I chose is a theme that aligns with the gospelfest and I believe one of significance for persons with disabilities, and for the church and society at large.” He reflected on the biblical story in which Jesus brings a new perspective to a blind man who is begging on the streets. “Jesus has a way of bringing a changed perspective to every situation he touched,” said Cowans. “For years, this community had seen a man sitting in a particular place, begging.” The man was blind, he said, and for people in his community, that’s what defined him. “The community saw ‘blind’ and ‘beggar’ as synonymous.” Cowans rhetorically asked: For what else is there for a blind man to do—but beg? “What else could he offer to his community?” asked Cowans. “When our community does not engage and ask such questions, you end up with what Jesus discovered on that day: a man symbolizing the interaction of disability and uselessness.” The community had another label on the man who was born blind. “This damage, this curse—was someone’s fault,” said Cowans, who then explained how communities across the world can bring a new perspective. The lecture was presented in association with the Barbados National Organization for the Disabled. When Cowans was a member of the National Advisory Council on Disability to the Minister of Social Security, he chaired the Margaret Moodie Trust Fund, a scholarship fund for students with disability accessing tertiary education.   Watch the Barbados Gospelfest 2023 - Public Lecture  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 352 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 150 route de Ferney Geneve 2 1211 Switzerland

WCC News: During prayer in Bucha, Ukraine, “we hear the cries of despair”

Members of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (UCCRO) and WCC leadership delegation takes part in the Ecumenical prayer service at St Andrew Orthodox Church in Bucha, Ukraine, on 12 May 2023. Photo: WCC 01 June 2023 In the first days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces occupied Bucha, and during the occupation more than 400 people – mostly civilians – were killed. Photographic evidence of the massacre emerged on 1 April 2022, after Russian forces withdrew from the city. Many bodies were found with their hands tied behind their backs, and other victims appeared to have been shot while going about their daily routines, carrying shopping bags, or riding bicycles. Ukraine has asked the International Criminal Court to investigate possible war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Bucha. The bodies of 119 of the victims were buried on 10 March 2022 in a mass grave in the grounds of the St Andrew Orthodox Church, of which 115 were civilians including 30 women and two children. Later, after the liberation of Bucha, the bodies were exhumed for forensic examination, and subsequently reburied by their families.  The story of this tragedy was told to the WCC delegation by local parish priest Father Andrii Halavin, and by the terrible images in the photographic exhibition in the church. “We hear the cries of despair, of those who were killed and of those who have seen their loved ones killed,” said Bedford-Strohm during a prayer. “Let us all not surrender to hate but overcome hate by love.”  Outside in the grounds, prayers were offered for the dead at a memorial on the site of the mass grave, including by a representative of the Muslim community of Ukraine, a member of UCCRO. Representatives of all UCCRO’s member churches took part in the ecumenical prayer service inside the church.  Participants joined in praying for people threatened by war in Ukraine, and for the establishment of a just peace.  Intercessions were offered to “open the hearts of the world,” to “boldly confront evil,” and for “those with responsibility in the world’s governments to strive and work for peace in Ukraine and wherever there is conflict.”  Participants petitioned God to “preserve us from the arbitrariness of the powerful of this world and lead them to recognize their limits that they may find ways towards peace and put an end to the loss of life and the senselessness of war.”  “Soften the hearts of those who have hardened them and let us return to the knowledge of your wisdom. Grant us courage to respond to the cry of the church and people in Ukraine. In the midst of ongoing conflict, grant physical, emotional, social and economic healing to our world.” Pillay said: “All of these people have been killed because of the incidence of war. We are deeply grieved by what we see. We are brought into the realization of the devastation caused by war and it greatly pains us. The leaders of the WCC stands here grieved by what we see caused by this unnecessary war. Our prayer to God and the call to the world is to stop the war.” Photo gallery from the Ecumenical prayer service in Bucha, Ukraine WCC leadership delegation meets with churches in Ukraine (WCC news release, 12 May 2023) The story of the Bucha tragedy was told to the WCC delegation by local parish priest Father Andrii Halavin, and by images in the photo exhibition in the St Andrew Orthodox Church in Bucha. Photo: WCC 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 352 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 150 route de Ferney Geneve 2 1211 Switzerland

SojoMail - Christians should denounce anti-trans laws, not write them

Christians Should Denounce Anti-Trans Laws, Not Write Them Adam Russell Taylor My first exposure to the trans community came when I was 14 and on my first major international trip with family across Asia, ending in Thailand. My parents had heard how much drag shows were renowned in Thailand so they got tickets to a local show. Drag performers can be people of any gender or orientation, but as is common in Thailand, some of the performers in the show we saw were transgender women, or kathoey. Despite the misleading messages of many recent bills across the U.S. that claim all-ages drag shows target or sexualize children, my experience at the drag show was uplifting, not tramautizing. I mostly remember being blown away by the performers’ talent and poise. Bills targeting drag performances are just one part of an alarming surge of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the U.S., especially bills that target transgender or nonbinary people, most intensely targeting trans youth. So far this year, 70 anti-LGBTQ+ laws have been enacted across the U.S. In recent years, at least 20 states have banned or limited transgender student athletes’ sports participation and at least 18 states have enacted laws or policies that bar various forms of gender-affirming medical care for minors. For politicians like Florida governor and Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis, these bills are designed to rally a voting base by stoking moral panic; for transgender people, especially transgender kids and their families, these laws can be a matter of life and death. Given the ways Christians have been (and often continue to be) at the forefront of movements that harm LGBTQ+ people, we need an equally active movement of Christians to support the rights and dignity of LGBTQ+ people, including transgender youth. READ THE FULL ARTICLE Forward Share

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Our Latest Asexual and Aromantic People Are Often Forgotten, But God Sees Us (by Jenna DeWitt) Both conservative and liberal Christians often struggle to imagine a life that isn't shaped by romantic and sexual desire. What ‘Drag Nuns’ Get Right About Catholic Faith (by Kaya Oakes) The Catholic hierarchy has often tried to mute gender nonconformity, but the truth is more complicated. Puberty Is Spiritual in ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.’ (by Olivia Bardo) “Have you thought about it, God? About my growing, I mean. I’ve got a bra now.” A Biblical Perspective on the Debt Ceiling Debate (by Lauren W. Reliford) There was once a rich nation that subsidized its economy by withholding from the poor.

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From the Magazine Can the Enneagram Make Us Better Christians? (by Josiah R. Daniels) Personality type indicators might seem self-centered, but they can be powerful tools for doing justice in our communities.

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Check out our colorful and doodle-filled Climate Zine  If I want to talk to my church about climate change, where do I begin? We’ve got you, friend! We're proud to present the story of creation care and climate justice…all wrapped up in an action-packed zine. Our zine provides an engaging way to learn, jumpstart conversations, and act together to protect our common home.  Shop Our Recommended Reads Wondering what to read next? Visit our Bookshop page to find new, noteworthy, and recently reviewed books, our anti-racism reading list, and more – all in one place! Purchasing through Bookshop supports Sojourners and local bookstores.

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