August News & Views
UPCOMING FROM TAF
Sign up for our Aug. 27 ‘Preaching an Election Sermon’ Workshop
AS THIS ELECTION SEASON CONTINUES TO TAKE SURPRISING turns, TAF offers an interfaith workshop on “Preaching an Election Sermon” to help congregational leaders motivate their members to vote. This two-hour Zoom workshop will be held Tuesday, August 27, 4:00-6:00 PM PT/ 7:00-9:00 PM ET, and you can register at this link.
This election will test, as never before, the hopes and the expectations that Americans have for our nation’s leaders. What future do we want? What promises do we trust? What values will we enshrine? The election will also test, as does every election, citizens’ engagement in the democratic process.
The candidates — up and down the ballot — offer stark choices on such consequential issues as climate change, adherence to the Constitution and rule of law, and even the status of truth. The stakes could not be higher.
Clergy are trusted messengers and congregational life shapes the moral views and actions of millions of people, and our workshop offers clergy and congregational leaders an opportunity to reflect on the demands of faithfulness in such a time as this.
Read more about the workshop and register on our website. Contact us at thirdactfaith@gmail.com if you would like the flier to share with others, or share our post on Facebook.
Online Sept. 9 & 12
Healing Spiritual Injury from Climate Activism: An Online Gathering and Ritual
CLIMATE ACTIVISM CAN TAKE AN EMOTIONAL and spiritual toll on activists. No matter how much we believe in the value of our work, confronting the reality of environmental and cultural collapse can injure us in ways that undermine our well-being and our effectiveness as activists. We often avoid acknowledging our grief, fearing it will be too painful or will distract from our activism. This requires emotional numbing that can sap our energy and lead to cynicism, despair, burnout, or worse.
To address this, Third Act Faith is hosting an online gathering that will briefly explain the causes of moral and spiritual injury and suggest practices for healing them. Participants will then join in a simple ritual of sharing and/or offering witness to the pain we feel in our activism and in living on a planet in crisis. This event will be our contemplative opportunity for September.
Our leader is Martin Wagner, a long-time environmental activist and student of Buddhist Joanna Macy. Anyone is welcome to take part, and we are offering the session twice in the same week, to accommodate different schedules and time zones. Visit our website to register for the 90-minute session on Monday September 9 at 4:00-5:30 PM PT/ 7:00-8:30 PM ET, or on Thursday September 12 at 7:00-8:30 PM PT/10-11:30 PM ET.
Join us Sept. 24 to hear activist George Lakey
FOR ITS SEPTEMBER GENERAL MEETING, Third Act Faith is delighted to host a talk by Quaker author and activist George Lakey. The meeting is Tuesday, September 24 at 4:00 PM PT/7:00 PM ET, and you can register at this link.
Active in the ban-the-bomb movement in the late 1950s, George was first arrested while participating in the civil rights movement, where he was a trainer for “Mississippi Freedom Summer.” He co-authored his first book, A Manual for Direct Action, which was used in the civil rights movement throughout the South.
In 1991, he co-founded Training for Change, which leads trainings and consultations for activists and NGOs, and in 2009, George co-founded the Earth Quaker Action Team (EQAT) to “build a just and sustainable economy through nonviolent direct-action campaigns,” as their website puts it.
George’s longtime friend and TAF member Ruah Swennerfelt says, “I’ve known George for a number of years through Quaker connections, and over time we became friends. My husband and I participated in an EQAT action prior to the 2014 People’s Climate March in NYC, and we’ve hosted him in our home when he has come to Vermont to speak. His infectious smile and laugh warms people to him. He’s an incredible speaker, because he is authentic.”
George retired from Swarthmore College, where he was held the Eugene M. Lang Visiting Professorship in Issues of Social Change. He’s written ten books and many articles that reflect his social research into change on community and societal levels. His latest book is his memoir, Dancing with History: A Life for Peace and Justice.
In 2010, George was named the National Peace and Justice Studies Association’s “Peace Educator of the Year.” A forthcoming film will honor his life of commitment, purpose, and love. “The George Lakey Documentary Film presents the life and work of a nonviolent revolutionary, a deeply spiritual man with a rebel heart, who has been guided in life by his ideal of societal transformation.”
Join us in September for an unforgettable evening with this champion for peace and justice. You can read more and register for this Zoom meeting on our website.
Get involved! Actions you can take to spur voting
AS THE ELECTION SEASON GETS INTO FULL SWING after Labor Day, Third Act Faith joins Third Act Central and other allied organizations in encouraging elders and people of faith to vote their values. Here are some ways you can help get voters to exercise their sacred right to vote this year:
Third Act and Activate America have a goal of writing to 200,000 voters in key states and districts by mid-October. Learn how to get involved by writing postcards on your own or hosting an in-person or virtual postcard party.
Phone banking is another way to reach voters, and Third Act is partnering with Activate America and the Environmental Voter Project to talk with voters. Learn more at Call for Our Climate! Phone Bank with Third Act!.
Third Act’s Senior to Senior voter registration project continues, inviting elders to partner with local high school seniors and their schools to encourage voter registration.
Our friends at Interfaith Power & Light offer a Faithful Voter Reflection Guide that you can share with others, along with their nonpartisan Faith Votes campaign that lets voters sign up for information on all the names and measures on their ballot.
Faiths United to Save Democracy is an intergenerational, multiracial, and interfaith campaign centered on protecting the right to vote. Explore their website to find a variety of ways to help protect voters’ rights where they are most threatened.
The Why Do You Vote? campaign invites voters — including elders and people of faith — to create short videos about why we vote and share them to inspire younger people to vote.
Stay connected to Third Act for more opportunities to get involved between now and November 5 by signing up for the Bi-Weekly Election Updates on Wednesdays via Zoom or by regularly checking thirdact.org/act/.
TAF THIS SUMMER
Practicing Storytelling at Chautauqua
FOM JULY 24 TO JULY 26, ALONG THE SHORE of Lake Chautauqua, NY, 20 environmental activists learned how to share their climate journeys across generations and got to hang out with TA Founder Bill McKibben.
The Intergenerational Storytelling Project was a partnership of Third Act, Planet Forward, and the Chautauqua Institution designed to capture the insights of elders and youth and catalyze climate action. Ten intergenerational pairs were drawn from TA Faith, TA Upstate New York, elders and young people from the Chautauqua community, and high school students from Dryden and Carthage, NY.
Journalist Frank Sesno, Founding Director of Planet Forward at George Washington University, led participants through a workshop on how to conduct interviews. Three pairs shared their interviews at a public event, and they all recorded their stories to be part of an online “StoryCorps” for the climate, which will be available later this year.
On Wednesday Bill McKibben and Frank Sesno gave a mainstage talk, then Bill took part in an info session about TA Faith that drew about 130 people, with some of them signing up on the spot. Later he joined the workshop participants for a pizza party on the lakeshore.
Patty Werner, a member of the TAF Coordinating Committee, traveled with her daughter Wendy from Colorado to take part in the events. Wendy enjoyed learning from Sesno how to conduct good interviews, having pizza with Bill McKibben, and hearing about the climate work the other young people are doing. Patty was delighted to hear from Bill several times in one day. “In each of those settings, he presented more depth about the urgency and importance of working together across generations to find solutions to environmental problems. I learned a lot and loved every minute,” she said.
Read the full story, including responses from other participants, on our website.
Our ‘Summer of Heat’: What Happened
“SUMMER OF HEAT ON WALL STREET” WINDS UP THIS MONTH with the “Feminists Fight Fossil Fuels” Week August 18-25, and an elders-only action on August 27, “Climate Action for (Y)our Grandchildren” (and ALL grandchildren are OUR grandchildren).
All this summer, starting in June, Third Actors took part in demonstrations at Citi headquarters in New York City and around the country. There were weeks devoted to Elders (July 8-13), Faith (July 28-August 3), and Justice for Displaced Peoples and Migrants (August 12-17), highlighting how various groups are affected by climate change.
Check out the following links to read more about the summer’s actions:
The July 8 “Memorial” for what has been lost to climate change:
Bill McKibben blog post describing the action
A short video on Facebook
“Climate grief and resistance: Mourning a livable planet” a, blog by TAF member Rev. Dr. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas with links to other videos and articles
A Common Dreams article with links to social media posts and videos
Read “In New York, Protesting the Backers of Big Oil With Die-Ins, Drums and Song,” The New York Times (free link).
For more, visit the TA Summer of Heat webpage (scroll down for blogs).
See additional news coverage of the New York actions on the Summer of Heat website.
Visit Third Act’s Banking on Our Future website for actions you can take to help keep the pressure on Wall Street, or sign up to call Citibank executives and join the “Costco Hot Dog Rebellion.”
NEWS FROM PARTNERS & FRIENDS
Learn About Celebrating the New ‘Season of Creation’
MANY CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS FOLLOW A LITURGICAL CALENDAR which includes Advent, Lent, and Eastertide, but in recent years many congregations have added a Season of Creation in their calendar. Described as “a time to renew our relationship with our Creator and all creation through celebration, conversion, and commitment together,” this season begins on September 1, the Day of Prayer for Creation, and ends on October 4, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology.
The 2024 Season of Creation theme is “To Hope and Act With Creation,” and includes a Global Day of Action on September 21. The Day of Action is scheduled during the UN General Assembly to encourage faith communities to endorse a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Visit the Season of Creation website for details and resources, including a free guide to download and links to resources from various denominations. The National Council of Churches also offers resources, including weekly online vespers throughout the season.
In Climate News …
Warm, warmer, warmest
The planet continues to heat. Over 47,000 deaths in Europe alone last year have been directly linked to excessively hot temperatures; 2023 was globally the warmest on record.
Tipping points
Earth’s warming is reaching “tipping points” that will be hard if not impossible to reverse: the mass die-off of coral reefs worldwide; the abrupt thawing of permafrost; the breakup and collapse of Earth’s vast ice sheets; loss of the Amazon rainforest; and the collapse of Atlantic Ocean currents. A recent interactive report in The New York Times (free link) offers graphic evidence.
Attitudes toward global warming
This spring, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication conducted an extensive survey on attitudes toward global warming. They found that “Americans who think global warming is happening outnumber those who think it is not happening by a ratio of about 5 to 1” and nearly 60% understand that it “is mostly human-caused.” Fully half of respondents said they've personally been affected by the results of global warming. However, says the report, 66% of Americans say they “rarely” or “never” discuss global warming with family and friends. And broadcast news of climate collapse seems to have decreased in the last year.
Telling the wrong stories
According to an article this month in The New Climate, we’re failing to engage the public on global warming issues because many of us have been telling the wrong stories.
What to eat
The New York Times has begun a series called “What to Eat on a Burning Planet.” The idea, says its editor, “is to push lawmakers, scientists, farmers and consumers to confront the growing strain on our global food supply and the natural systems it depends on and to advance a range of solutions.” Click here (free link) to learn more about this series.
Listen to those who live in the Amazon
Amazon rainforest residents have released a detailed plan to save their vast homeland. Read more here.
Upcoming Events
Click on the link to register for the online events.
August 26: Welcome to Third Act: Let’s Get Started. (Zoom), 4:00 PM PST / 7:00 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.
August 27: Preaching an Election Sermon: An Interfaith Workshop. (Zoom), 4:00 PM PST / 7:00 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.
August 28: Bi-Weekly Election Countdown. (Zoom), 3:00 PM PT / 6:00 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.
September 9 & 12: Healing Spiritual Injury from Climate Activism (Zoom), SEPT. 9, 4:00-5:30 PM PT / 7:00-8:30 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.
SEPT. 12, 7:00-8:30 PM PT / 10:00-11:30 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.September 21 : Global Day of Action for a Fossil Fuel Treaty. MORE INFO HERE.
September 24 : General Meeting with George Lakey. (Zoom), 4:00 PM PST / 7:00 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.
Send us your photos and stories
Please send us news items, reflections, story ideas and photos that we can use on our web pages and include in our monthly email. Send the submissions to thirdactfaith@gmail.com.
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Check out a free year long series of short video clips to help educate your congregation. Available free under "Minute for Mother Earth" on the website www.wakeupworld.earth