Respect Life. Restore Earth. Renew Spirit. www.uuministryforearth.org NEWSVoLlumeE13, IsTsue 3TSEpringR 2014 Opportunities For Environmental Justice Engagement at Providence GA Ellen McClaran, UU Ministry for Earth Board Member his year’s General Assembly (GA) offers many Table Talks for small groups will be scheduled several workshops and activities related to environ - times a day throughout GA. Pick up the schedule mental/ecological justice that may be of inter - and register at UUMFE’s booth, #203. Topics will Test to UUMFE members and supporters. This is par - include: Earth-based liturgy/theology; basics of EJ ticularly true for congregations looking for projects and how to get started; creating an environmental for their Green Sanctuary action plans. film library; becoming a Green Faith Fellow; divest - Please check your program for the location of the ment/reinvestment strategies; and many more. offerings described below. Come by our booth in the Several other workshops focus on the environment exhibit hall (#203) for a visit and learn about our new and/or ecological justice. Here are a few – see the GA EJ “Table Talks,” described at the top of program for dates and times. the next column. UU Divest, the group Lappé, Miller, Jacobsen, and Joy: Just that spearheaded the Business Resolu- Good Food – Environmental pioneer tion on Fossil Fuel Divestment will be Frances Moore Lappé ( Diet for a Small sharing our booth – see article on page 5. Planet ), stand-up comic Marisa Miller Hope to see you at GA! Wolfson ( Vegucated ), restaurant labor UUMFE is sponsoring two workshops organizer Ariel Jacobsen (of Behind the this year, both on Friday. Faithful Kitchen Door), and psychologist Melanie Response: Antiracism From Hurricanes Joy (Why We Love Dogs & Eat Pigs ) will Katrina, Sandy & Beyond , co-sponsored discuss climate action, class justice, and with UU Trauma Response Ministries the joy of just eating. and the Central East Regional group, is Love Reaches Out To Address Our at 10:30 a.m. Participants will learn how Climate Crisis – This workshop will review the structures of racism and interlocking the science, discuss the grief associated oppressions inequitably affect recovery with climate change, address how com - efforts and the UU way to respond. munities are and will be affected its Singing For Our Lives will begin at 5:00 p.m. with effects, and suggest actions participants can take in Sandy O and Pat Humphries of emma’s revolution , their congregations and larger communities. Tim DeChristopher of Bidder 70 fame, and Curtis Emergency: Lead, Inspire, Grow – In this new age of Murphy, UUMFE’s Young Adult EJ Intern for 2013-14. climate disruption, participants will learn the basics Participants will sing, hear stories, and learn how to for emergency preparation and response work and get their own UU communities singing for justice. how to make their congregations safer. Inside This Issue 2 Message From the Board Chair 7 The Great March for Climate Action: Walking a 3 New Northwest Earth Institute Curriculum Mile In Their Shoes Highlights From Earth Day 2014 8 Is It War? 4 News From Our Young Adult Network 9 2014 Courageous Love Award 5 Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement 10 Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle 6 It’s Politics and the Economy 11 Solar Panels at UU Church of Chattanooga Unitarian Universalist Message From the Board Chair Ministry for Earth Going From Here To Tomorrow Unitarian Universalist ecent discourse in the media indicates that more leaders are speaking Ministry for Earth truth about climate change and human contributions to the root causes. NEWSLETTER Does this make you feel that we are being heard – that our communi - is published three times Rcations, marches, or prayers are being heeded? That our connections have per year by impact? And, does the news of the day have you frozen in place, or do you UU Ministry for Earth feel grief in your more quiet moments? Rev. Kurt Kuhwald described this 1034 SW 13th Ave. Portland, OR 97205 duality as “Unfurling and Unraveling” in a sermon at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland, CA. The points of view “We are deeply embedded in both: An Unfurling and an Unraveling. An unfurling expressed by contributors of positive, life-giving need for decency, for freedom, for sanity and creativity, are their own and not neces - for love. An unfurling … irrepressibly and undeniably rising out of a great sarily those of UU Ministry for Earth (UUMFE). human need for wholeness, and even more fundamentally, for the promise that Subscriptions are available life will continue—that beauty and health will prevail, that the sacredness and through membership in the majesty of life on this planet, and of the planet itself, will endure. organization. The printed “And … we are deeply imbedded in an unraveling … the great systems of Earth version of this newsletter as well as of human society give every indication that they are unraveling, uses 100 percent coming apart before our very eyes: the equilibrium that created the living and postconsumer content dynamic structures necessary for human life and human civilization to develop recycled paper. and flourish … is falling apart.” ABOUT UUMFE We Unitarian Universalists have lauded the leaders among us in the past; Unitarian Universalist please remember to do so to the heroes among us today. I have one incredible Ministry for Earth is a non - set of leaders to celebrate today – the five members of the Planning Team profit organization whose for the UUMFE Ecological Collaboratory that met in Detroit in March. Their supporters envision a world talents and experience and vision in which reverence, grati - created an environment for a tude, and care for the living dynamic conference that will Earth is central to the lives yield results in a lot of different of all people. As a 501(c)3 directions. The Planning Team organization, contributions members were Pamela Sparr, Dr. are tax deductible to the full Mike Hogue, Rev. Dr. Frances Sink, extent of the law. Rev. Kurt Kuhwald, and Dr. Mark UUMFE BOARD Hicks. They did an amazing job of giving us time to acknowledge Chair our ‘unraveled’ feelings and build Collaboratory Planning Team Irene Keim our sense of ‘unfurling.’ As Kurt Treasurer described, we were “… thirty UU leaders who had gathered from all over the Ellen McClaran US for what we called a Collaboratory. We used the word Collaboratory Directors because we meant to create an active mix of collaboration within relationships Cynthia Davidson with the vital work of a laboratory – all within the context of Ecological/Environmental Justice. Our goal, quite overtly and unabashedly, was Rev. Earl Koteen to kick-start a process with those leaders that would begin to embed Earth- Kat Liu Justice at the heart, at the very core, of Unitarian Universalism.” Vince Pawlowski Rev. Frances Sink More will be forthcoming as the Collaboratory participants begin the tasks they defined for themselves – all in addition to their regularly scheduled programming and jobs. Continued on page 3 2 • UU Ministry for Earth News From UU Ministry For Earth Meanwhile, UUMFE also keeps going with our other Highlights From Earth Day 2014 programming, described in this newsletter. Check Cindy Davidson, UUMFE Board member out the information about Curtis Murphy, our Young Adult Climate Justice Intern, the movement to divest from fossil fuels, our Earth Day winner for the UUA Bookstore gift and start planning for the UUA General Assembly in Providence, RI. We hope to see you there – check out Booth 203. Kudos to those of you who see our sadness and help nder the broad theme of “Working Towards us acknowledge and move towards hope and action. Sustainable Communities,” UUMFE developed Hooray for those of you who have your finger in the Earth Day materials addressing waste and hole in the dam and those of you who are going Uconsumption, and socially responsible investment about improving all manner of situations. All are in and the fossil fuel divestment movement. Those the spirit of General Assembly this year – ‘Love resources, like the ones from earlier years, are only a Reaches Out.’ keystroke or two away, ready for use at any time of In gratitude, Irene Keim, UUMFE Board Chair the year for your educational and programming needs. Please use them generously and share them Peace, Justice and Sustainability widely! Are Focus of New Northwest Earth Many congregations registered their Earth Day plans on our website this year, and, once again, we were Institute Curriculum encouraged by the array of services, events and Ellen McClaran, UUMFE Board member activities that have since taken place in UU congre - n April , the Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI) gations and communities across the country. Be sure introduced a new discussion course, Seeing to check out our table of Earth Day registrations to Systems: Peace, Justice, and Sustainability . The learn more about what other congregations have oIverall goal of the six-session curriculum is to connect done, and as a source of programming ideas and the dots between three of society’s most pressing contacts for the future. Due to a technical glitch on challenges and help course participants find pathways our part, however, not all the registrations entered to powerful change in their “took” in our database, and we regret that. I encour - everyday lives and press for age those affected to re-register the information needed institutional changes. online, as well as those latecomers who have infor - Watch a short introductory mation to share in hindsight! video for the course here: Here are some highlights from registered congrega - http://vimeo.com/89030991 tions that demonstrate our collective creativity in As with previous NWEI worship and community engagement: courses, the format is ideal • Worship services featuring lessons on Ostara and for use by small affinity the spring vernal equinox; the link between the and/or covenant groups that environment and economics; and an Ethical meet on a regular basis.