April News & Views
April 18, 2023
IN THIS ISSUE
Earth Day 2023
Third Act Faith: We’re Growing
More TAF News
Third Act Central News
News from Our Partners & Friends
Taking Note of Faithful Action
Did You Know?
EARTH DAY 2023
Many Ways to Observe Earth Day
By Mary Jane Cherry
TAF Coordinating Committee
With the frighteningly dire report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change regarding the consequences of inaction on the climate front, observing Earth Day this Saturday, April 22, may evoke a complex set of feelings of awe and anxiety. For me, it is the thought of this planet, shining like a sapphire in the sunlight on a cloudy day, no longer defying the lifeless darkness of the galaxy that contains it.
Feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, however, needn’t rule the day, as TAF co-facilitator Jane Ellen Nickell reflected in our last newsletter. Our faith communities and partners in action won’t let us give in to either. Earlier this year Interfaith Power and Light and Creation Justice Ministries supplied us with toolkits and guides for reflection and prayer to encourage action and instill hope. With Earth Day just four days away, you may want to watch or arrange a screening of the IPL-sponsored Current Revolution film series and then plan to do something to honor the Earth this Saturday (and every day thereafter). IPL’s website also may help you find an Earth Day event near you.
If participating in a local event or community action is not an option for you, there are still ways to be a part of a community honoring and caring for the Earth and all of God’s creation. Foremost on my agenda, as a Third Act Faith member, is to attend a virtual event, ”What’s Possible? Earth Day Stories of Hope,” the inaugural United Church of Christ Earth Day Summit at which our own Jim Antal will give the keynote address.
A lifelong climate activist, Jim is a United Church of Christ minister and leader credited with leading UCC churches in Massachusetts and ultimately the denomination to divest from fossil fuels, making the UCC among the first denominations to do so. His book, “Climate Church Climate World: How People of Faith Must Work for Change,” is a must-read for those of us who want to engage our faith communities in this work.
The two-and-a-half-hour digital event will begin at 11 a.m. EDT (8 a.m. PDT). In addition to Jim’s address, the agenda includes a panel discussion with Gina Peltier from Honor the Earth, Analyah Schlaeger dos Santos from Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light, and Alexa Horwart from Isaiah. Register here.
Other ways to observe Earth Day:
Watch “Current Revolution,” a series of three short films by the American Resilience Project. The films explore “the exciting possibility of a just transition to a clean energy economy where the well-being of workers and frontline community members is valued instead of neglected.” The first two films are about 30 minutes each. The final film is only six minutes long. Register here to arrange a screening.
Attend Creation Justice Ministries’ Ecumenical Earth Day Service at noon EDT (9 a.m. PDT) on Friday, April 21. Drawing upon the Ministries’ 2023 Earth Day Sunday resources guide “Sowing Seeds,” the virtual prayer service will take participants through reflection, contemplation and prayer as they consider the prophetic actions that might be taken on behalf of God's creation. Register here.
Join the Nationwide Climate Prayer: Interfaith Power & Light has organized a time for all of us to raise our voices — at noon Saturday, April 22 — and pray for action on climate change. Sign up here to receive IPL’s national climate prayer and view several other faith-specific prayers.
Download and read the educational materials in IPL’s “Living the Golden Rule: Just Transition to a Clean Energy Economy,” a multifaith toolkit of climate action resources.
Download and read Creation Justice Ministries’ "Sowing Seeds,” which focuses on food systems, climate change and regenerative farming.
THIRD ACT FAITH
We’re Growing in Members & Opportunities
By Jane Ellen Nickell
TAF Co-facilitator
Third Act Faith continues to grow, with over 350 members signing up since we launched in early 2022. With that growth, more good ideas and opportunities have come our way than our Coordinating Committee can accomplish on our own, so we are looking for folks to join us in leadership. In addition to our ongoing committees for banking and communications, we hope to create the following:
Membership Committee to welcome new members and help integrate them into our work.
Program Committee to plan general meetings for the entire group.
Education Committee to organize book reads and create or locate other resources for faith communities.
The chair of each committee would also serve on the Coordinating Committee, and each committee will help to develop its specific tasks. If you cannot commit to an ongoing group, we expect to need help with short-term projects as well. We know that folks over 60 keep busy, so we want to provide opportunities for you to get involved at whatever level works for you.
Please complete this short form by April 30 to let us know how you would like to help extend Third Act Faith’s reach and offer ways for our members to deepen their engagement with our work.
MORE TAF NEWS
Kudos, Pat and the TA Lawyers Group!
The Third Act Lawyers working group participated in the 3.21.23 Day of Action by emailing a letter to the CEOs and executives of each of the four big dirty banks, reports Pat Almonrode, who is not only a TAF co-facilitator but also a founding member of the lawyers’ group. “Our letter expanded on the letter Bill [McKibben] sent at Christmas, in particular stressing the point that the banks' failure to diminish their contribution to climate chaos is actually a failure to properly exercise their fiduciary duty.” So far, the TA Lawyers’ group has received only one response. “In that reply, Chief Sustainability Officer Val Smith writes that she ‘would also be happy to meet to further discuss,’” Pat reports. “I think we might take her up on that offer.”
Kudos, Dan!
TAF member Dan Terpstra gave a “fabulous presentation” (see the video below) to the Climate Justice Ministries Task Force in the California/Nevada Conference of the United Methodist Church, reports task force member Sharon Delgado, who is also a TAF member. Dan’s Feb. 15 presentation focused on “Older Adults and Climate Change: What Can We Do?” He is the chair of TAF’s Faithful Banking Committee and a member of the Coordinating Committee.
THIRD ACT CENTRAL NEWS
All-In Call, Tomorrow
Third Act’s first All-In Call since the Day of Action will be tomorrow night (Wednesday, April 19), beginning at 8 p.m. EDT (5 p.m. PDT). The virtual meeting will look forward to future action involving climate finance and voter accessibility concerns. It will also glance back, giving us a chance to see ourselves in action on 3.21.23 and acknowledge “how Third Actors were front and center in the hearts of people across the country, recognizing perhaps for the first time how crucial older Americans will be in our shared fights for a just and abundant world.” Register here.
Welcome to Third Act: Let’s Get Started
Join Third Act volunteers on May 1 at 7:30 p.m. EDT (4:30 p.m. PDT) and learn about campaigns, the working groups, and how you can plug into our growing network. Register here.
Eldering Series #3
The third intergenerational conversation will be on May 10 at 1:30 p.m. EDT (10:30 a.m. PDT) on “Imagining the ‘Commons’ – Creating Space for All of Us.” Register here for the virtual meeting.
NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS & FRIENDS
No Faith in Fossil Fuels: A Climate Finance Summit
Third Act and Third Act Faith have signed on as co-sponsors of GreenFaith’s “No Faith in Fossil Fuels: A Climate Finance Summit,” to be held online May 8-11. Like Third Act, GreenFaith focuses on the connection between finance and climate, encouraging individuals and communities of faith to let their beliefs and values inform their finances.
The summit will gather people of faith to learn about how banks and asset managers continue to invest in the fossil fuel industries that are destroying communities, and how to hold these financial institutions accountable. The three-day summit will amplify the voices of frontline leaders of Indigenous communities that bear the brunt of financial decisions made by Chase Bank, Bank of America, Vanguard, BlackRock and others who invest in harmful oil and gas extraction.
Building on momentum from the 2022 launch of GreenFaith’s Climate Finance Campaign, the summit is open to anyone, whether you are new to this issue or already managing funds according to climate values. Sessions will cover spiritual grounding, learning about Indigenous-led campaigns, finding out how to move your money, and committing to action.
The summit's full schedule and registration information are available online.
TAKING NOTE OF FAITHFUL ACTION
Sisters of Loretto take big Laudato Si’ step
Ensuring their land will be protected and preserved in perpetuity, the Sisters of Loretto Community in Kentucky recently signed an agreement restricting 80% of their nearly 800 acres for conservation purposes. According to a Northern Kentucky Tribune news story, the agreement with the Bluegrass Land Conservancy places 654 acres of land under a conservation easement that is legally binding for current and future owners of the property. Since the 1980s, the Loretto Sisters have been actively concerned about conserving their land for future generations, and the creation of the conservation easement is the “latest step” in their participation in the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, a Vatican initiative that lays out steps for individual Catholics and institutions to implement sustainable lifestyles and integral ecology articulated in Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical, “Laudato Si’...on Care for Our Common Home.” The Loretto Sisters were among the first Catholic institutions to divest from fossil fuels, and they have a “land ethic statement” guiding their farming and conservation practices.
DID YOU KNOW?
Geothermal energy, tapped from the Earth’s interior, is not only a renewable and clean source for generating electricity but also a viable one for those places where geothermal reservoirs are located within a mile or two of the Earth’s surface, according to an article in The New York Times’s March 28 issue of Climate Forward. Geothermal energy is especially viable in the U.S., which already has geothermal power plants in seven western states. Although geothermal power, like other sources of sustainable energy, comes with negatives, the International Energy Agency “counts geothermal energy as an important part of a global push to reduce carbon emissions to net-zero by 2050.”