July News & Views
TAF to Offer August 27 ‘Election Sermon’ Workshop for Clergy, Congregational Leaders
AS WE APPROACH WHAT MAY BE THE MOST CONSEQUENTIAL ELECTION in history, clergy must face the question of whether or not to preach an election sermon, and if so, how to faithfully address the choices and challenges before us.
On Tuesday, August 27, Third Act Faith is offering clergy and congregational leaders an opportunity to reflect on the demands of faithfulness in this election year by presenting a 2-hour Zoom workshop at 4-6 PM PT/ 7-9 PM ET, led by the Rev. Dr. Jim Antal, Rabbi Stephanie Kolin, and Imam Jamal Rahman.
The candidates – up and down the ballot – offer stark choices. At the top of the ticket, the contrast on such consequential issues as climate change, adherence to the Constitution and rule of law, and even on the status of truth itself could not be greater.
For centuries, and especially over the past 10 or so years, congregations and clergy have taken a wide variety of positions in relation to political engagement. Many draw a sharp line between the “spiritual” focus of congregational life and politics. Others recognize political engagement as an essential dimension of their calling. More recently, outspoken Christian Nationalists can be heard from pulpits and in the pews boldly seeking to install theocratic leadership in all three branches of government.
BECAUSE CLERGY ARE TRUSTED MESSENGERS and congregational life shapes the moral views and actions of millions of people, Third Act Faith is offering clergy and congregational leaders this opportunity to reflect on the demands of faithfulness in such a time as this.
What guidance will you offer?
What principles will you lift up?
What questions will you raise?
What sources will you cite?
What will you identify as the moral qualifications for leading our nation?
If you are criticized, how can you respond faithfully?
How can you engage the political landscape without being partisan in any way?
What guidance will you offer as your congregation seeks to distinguish truth from lies – and what encouragement will you offer them to discern and hold fast to truth?
The workshop is for church leaders seeking to discern how God may be calling them to speak to this time of decision.
Visit our website to read more about the workshop and the clergy who are leading it. REGISTER HERE for the workshop.
July 30 General Meeting Will Build a ‘Spiritual Toolbox’ for Courageous Action
BUILDING ON OUR CONVERSATION AT THE JUNE 25 GATHERING, our July 30 General Meeting will explore the spiritual dimension of our work.
The June General Meeting featured breakout rooms where members could get to know one another and talk about what drew them to Third Act, and specifically Third Act Faith. At our July meeting, we will discuss how we draw on spiritual practices and religious resources to support the challenging work of confronting threats to the climate and democracy.
Our first breakout conversation will invite participants to share the spiritual disciplines and practices that they rely on when meeting challenging times like this current moment. We follow that up with a discussion about what the movement needs that TAF could help provide. The ideas shared in these conversations will be gathered into a toolbox of practices that we can share with others to equip us to meet this moment.
The meeting will also include an update on the summer’s actions and upcoming events, and two lucky persons in attendance will win $25 worth of merch from Third Act.
The meeting is on July 30 at 4:00 PM PT/7:00 PM ET, and you can register here.
If you attended the June meeting, we hope you’ll return for this follow-up. If you couldn’t make it in June, we look forward to you being part of this conversation! Please note that because of the interactive nature of this meeting, it will not be recorded.
Activist George Lakey to Speak at September 24 General Meeting
ON SEPTEMBER 24, THIRD ACT FAITH FRIENDS HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY to hear from George Lakey at our monthly General Meeting.
A Quaker activist and expert in nonviolent activism with the Earth Quaker Action Team, George has held 1,500 workshops on five continents, including ones with Cesar Chavez on strategy, peacekeeping workshops with African National Congress members leading up to South Africa’s 1994 elections, and sessions on nonviolent struggle theory for pro-democracy students in a guerrilla encampment in the Burmese jungle.
George was instrumental in founding the organizations Training for Change, Movement for a New Society, and the Philadelphia Jobs with Peace Campaign. The author of eight books and numerous articles, he’s a committed pacifist and activist—first arrested for a civil rights sit-in in 1963 — a man who strongly believes in nonviolence and social justice.
Register here for this Zoom event, and watch for more about George Lakey in our August issue.
TAF Joins ‘Summer of Heat’ Actions With Contemplative Video, Faith Week
SUMMER OF HEAT’S ELDERS WEEK (JULY 8-13) saw actions across the country–from Augusta, ME, to San Francisco, CA, and from Minneapolis, MN, to Broward, FL. Visit Third Act’s Facebook, X, and web pages for pictures and stories of elders pressuring Wall Street banks to stop using our hard-earned retirement savings to fund the climate crisis. TAF member Rev. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas wrote movingly about the July 8 demonstration on her blog.
As part of that effort, TAF created a recorded contemplative service that folks could use in conjunction with their demonstrations, or as a way to engage in prayer and solidarity with frontline activists. That service was created by TAF member Jessica McArdle to speak across traditions, and can be viewed on our YouTube channel.
BUT SUMMER OF HEAT IS NOT OVER! TAF joins other religious environmental groups in SOH’s Faith Week, July 29-August 3. On August 1, members of GreenFaith, Dayenu, Earth Quaker Action Team, and XR Mindful Rebels will gather for a day of food, song, art, and spiritual practice in Citi Plaza in New York, NY. If you can be there in person, register here.
There are options for those who cannot be in New York. On August 1 at 1:00 PM PT/4:00 PM ET, GreenFaith is hosting a Virtual Action Hour, to flood Citibank with phone calls. In the meantime, you can sign this letter calling on Citibank to stop funding fossil fuel expansion in the Gulf South and invest in clean energy.
You might also gather with friends or members of your congregation during Faith Week to view TAF’s contemplative service. Again, this can be in conjunction with a demonstration in your community or as an act of support for actions taking place elsewhere.
THE SERVICE INCLUDES INTERFAITH CHANTS, PRAYER, AND PETITIONS and provides an immersive guided forest meditation. Designed to invite participants to experience the natural world's refreshment, it underscores the earth’s fragility and our summons to safeguard what has been entrusted to us. With no specific reference to Summer of Heat, the service is “evergreen,” so we hope you will revisit it whenever your spirit needs to be refreshed.
News Is Mixed as Religious Groups Act on Divestment
IN APRIL, THE UNION FOR REFORM JUDAISM became the first Jewish denomination to pass a resolution agreeing to stop investing in fossil fuels. The move, sparked in part by a landmark report by the Jewish climate action group Dayenu, came on the heels of two Jewish federations in Oregon — one in Portland and one in Eugene — making the same commitment, a first for federations.
The URJ resolution recommends that Reform institutions, including congregations, take similar steps and offers a balanced discussion of the pros and cons, along with suggestions for a path forward. You can read more about it on the URJ website.
Dayenu worked closely with the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and the URJ in developing the URJ resolution. Dayenu Climate Finance Advisor Rabbi Jacob Siegel provides support for Jewish organizations to help them make their investments and banking relationships more resilient by screening out fossil fuels and investing in a clean energy future. Rabbi Siegel welcomes your questions at info@dayenu.org.
THE UNITED METHODIST GENERAL CONFERENCE IN MAY, which had been delayed four years because of the pandemic, also took action on climate, but fell short of approving divestment. Since their last gathering, about one fourth of UMC congregations—mostly hard-line conservatives—had left the denomination, allowing the General Conference to take more progressive climate action.
Led by TAF member Sharon Delgado and others, the advocacy group Fossil Fuel UMC lobbied before and during the General Conference session, which passed legislation to move toward net zero and to encourage climate action throughout the church. Wespath, the church’s pension system, announced its expansion of fossil-free investments, but an effort to call for full divestment was referred to a church agency, along with other pending legislation, as the clock ran out. You can read details of these actions and FFUMC’s ongoing work on their website.
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH(USA) DID NOT FARE AS WELL when its General Assembly met recently. By a margin of 264-146, the body approved a resolution calling for full divestment from fossil fuels. Later that day, the same delegates were persuaded to amend that legislation and approve divestment from the top 10 companies that derive most of their profits from fossil fuels.
The lead staff person for the PC(USA) Committee on Mission Responsibility through Investment urged the Assembly to see the amended legislation as “a good compromise for how we can fill in some of the holes in MRTI’s work but also make a statement and also allow us to continue” with some engagement. Despite passionate appeals from youth delegates to consider the future they would inherit, the body reversed its earlier action and voted in favor of this motion 375-48. Details and links to the legislation are on the PC(USA) news page.
In Climate News …
A DEVASTATING SUPREME COURT DECISION AT THE END OF JUNE could lead to “Environmental Protection Agency limits on air and water pollution, regulations on toxic chemicals, and policies to tackle climate change,” according to The New York Times (free article), which called the decision “seismic.” Read Inside Climate News on what the decision means for climate-change policy.
Despite this blow, surprising and hopeful things are occurring:
CITIES AROUND THE WORLD ARE STARTING TO BAN ADVERTISEMENTS FOR FOSSIL FUELS and high-emissions products, borrowing a tactic from the successful fight against Big Tobacco. Edinburgh, Scotland, recently voted to “ban fossil fuel advertisements on city property, undermining the ability of not only oil companies, but also car manufacturers, airlines and cruise ships, to promote their products,” according to a June 15 article in The Washington Post. Amsterdam has passed a similar law. Sydney, Australia outlawed such ads a few years ago, and other cities in Australia are following suit. Last month the UN called on cities worldwide to impose fossil fuel ad bans.
INDIGENOUS LEADERS IN NEW ZEALAND, TAHITI, TONGA AND THE COOK ISLANDS signed a treaty this spring granting whales legal personhood, which “will pressure governments to do more to help the large sea mammals.” Granting “legal personhood” to animals (and even rivers, which happened in New Zealand a few years ago) provides fuel in arguing for their rights. On June 14, CNN reported the story about the whales. And here's NPR’s story.
ON JUNE 11, A FEDERAL JUDGE RULED that Portland, Oregon’s Multnomah County lawsuit against Exxon and other large fossil fuel companies could resume in state court. Environmentalists consider the ruling a win for environmentalists, as the fossil fuel behemoths wanted the case moved to federal court.
This is one of the first cases focused on public health costs related to high temperatures during a specific occurrence: the deadly heat dome that covered Portland in 2021. The county’s suit seeks over $1 billion in damages incurred by the event.
Korey Silverman-Roati with Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change told Inside Climate News the case was distinctive “because it focused on a specific event.” Such lawsuits until now have “alleged more long-term impact harm from climate change, like sea level rise … something that happens over the course of decades… whereas the Multnomah suit is this 2021 heat dome disaster that they had to deal with.” More from Inside Climate News.
… But the heat!
ON JULY 5 PALM SPRINGS, CALIF. REACHED 124 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT. The National Weather Service said the "seemingly never-ending heat wave" was gripping much of the West. Las Vegas broke its own previous record by three degrees and in Death Valley, Calif., temperatures reached 129 degrees Fahrenheit— one degree shy of the entire world’s all-time heat record. On July 10, parts of Phoenix AZ were 120 degrees, and “on the city’s desert fringes, in territory governed by Native American nations, the land was even hotter, 150 degrees or more.”
As we prepared to publish this issue of News & Views, temperatures had “cooled” in the West to merely “dangerous”: across Arizona they were again forecast to rise above 110 degrees Fahrenheit. (NOAA’s heat index calls this “dangerous.”)
“No one knows exactly how many people are dying from extreme heat,” say Zahra Hirji and Preeti Soni of Bloomberg News, who look at heat deaths worldwide. Jeff Gooddall’s book The Heat Will Kill You First, published last July, explains what we’ll likely face going forward.
Upcoming Events
Click on the link to register for the online events.
July 24: TAF Information session at Chautauqua, United Methodist House, 3:30 PM. No registration necessary.
July 29: Welcome to Third Act: Let’s Get Started: Register to join Third Act's volunteers and learn about campaigns. (Zoom), 4:00 PM PST / 7:00 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.
July 30: TAF General Meeting (Zoom), 4:00 PM PST / 7:00 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.
August 27: Preaching an Election Sermon: An Interfaith Workshop with the Rev. Dr. Jim Antal, Rabbi Stephanie Kolin, and Imam Jamal Rahman. (Zoom), 4:00 PM PST / 7:00 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.
Sept. 24 : General Meeting with George Lakey. (Zoom), 4:00 PM PST / 7:00 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.
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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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