October News & Views
TAF EVENTS
October TAF offerings will focus on resilience
WITH OUR COUNTRY’S GENERAL ELECTION COMING CLOSER, Third Actors can find themselves growing increasingly anxious, and may be looking for ways to remain calm and fortify each other for what’s ahead. To that end, Third Act Faith will offer a one-hour Zoom gathering on Tuesday, October 29, 4:00-5:00 PM PT (7:00-8:00 PM ET), just one week before Election Day. All are welcome, especially those for whom faith is a calming and grounding influence.
“Resilience” is our theme for the gathering, and the readings, contemplative silence, and musical selections all center on that theme. This interfaith gathering is led by faith leaders from Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Christian communities, who will share readings from their faith traditions. This part of our gathering is designed to highlight our resilience in the face of the unknown surrounding the 2024 general election.
Following this 30-minute service, there will be time for participants to talk with each other and share our thoughts – positive and negative – as we bolster our trust that democracy will prevail on November 5. Third Act Faith hopes that this one-hour Zoom gathering will cultivate within those who attend a safe space to which they can return as needed, no matter what happens in the weeks following the election.
THE WEEK BEFORE THIS GATHERING, ON OCTOBER 23 at 11:00 AM PT (2:00 PM ET), TAF’s monthly contemplative practice will also address election stress. Our leader is Stephanie Wagner, meditation teacher and Director of Learning and Development for Healthy Minds Innovations and guest speaker at a recent Hope & Joy gathering. Using the Healthy Minds Framework of Well-Being, her meditation will focus on building resilience, practicing awareness, and cultivating compassion — skills that empower us to stay grounded and engaged during uncertain times.
We hope that both of these sessions will help our members navigate any anxiety you are experiencing, and foster emotional balance, clarity, and inner strength as Election Day approaches.
Register for Stephanie Wagner’s contemplative practice on October 23 here.
For our General Meeting with Contemplative Service and Check-In on October 29, register here.
Please note that given the experiential nature of both gatherings, we will not be recording them to share with those who register. For more information, email thirdactfaith@gmail.com.
November 21 Contemplative Practice with Dan Quinlan
Join Dan Quinlan, leader of the Third Act “Hope and Joy” series and graduate of the Living School at the Center for Action and Contemplation, for a special Zoom session on Nov. 21 (11:00 AM PST / 2:00 PM ET), where Quinlan will teach us three well-known core practices of contemplation/meditation: focused breathing, focused attention, and focused reframing.
You’ll come away with an appreciation for how practicing these fundamental skills can lighten whatever burdens you carry, offer an on-going source of energy, and help you maintain equanimity.
To attend this Nov. 21 session, register here.
George Lakey Inspires TAF Members at General Meeting
AT OUR SEPTEMBER GENERAL MEETING, QUAKER ACTIVIST and author George Lakey brought a lighthearted tone and infectious laugh to a serious topic: his 60-year fight for peace and justice spanning the Civil Rights movement, anti-war efforts during the 1960s, and more recent campaigns with Earth Quaker Action Team. George shared insights gleaned from this work, his Quaker faith, and his training as a sociologist — among them the importance of having a vision of the transformation you seek, and the need for being patient with the often slow pace of social change.
George learned the value of community early, he told us, when he and fellow peace activists felt called to sail a boat into South Vietnam with medical supplies for hospitals treating civilian victims of the Vietnam War. George consulted his Quaker community about the wisdom of putting his own life in danger this way when he had three young children depending on him. But his community affirmed that God was calling him to go, and they committed to care for his family if anything happened to him.
Having been beaten up multiple times and even confronted at knifepoint, George said such incidents demonstrate the importance of teamwork, and they reinforced his own commitment to remain nonviolent. “Each time that I remember to remain nonviolent when I’m threatened, it strengthens me, it gives me power, and it builds in my own subconscious a kind of track record of memory and belief in myself, such that I can take on the next thing,” he told us.
In addressing the polarization our country is experiencing, he described the biggest professional mistake he made as a sociologist, which was thinking of polarization as a negative social factor that would inhibit progress. That idea was challenged when he studied the social progress achieved in Scandinavian countries, which dates to the 1930s when Nazis were marching in the streets and Scandinavian countries were in turmoil. George said he found the key to this apparent contradiction when a Quaker sculptor showed him the forge where he heats the metal to the point that it can be transformed.
“Man, you saved my brain,” he told the sculptor. “That's the metaphor I've needed! Polarization is a blacksmith forge, heating a society and making it possible for people to make major advances that they in other periods of time cannot make. Whoa!”
George documents that revelation in his book Viking Economics and warns that polarization in our country may increase in coming years. Yet he is hopeful that such conflict will ultimately lead to progress, as it did in Scandinavia.
You can read the full story on our website. Better yet, you can listen to George describe these experiences in his joyful, engaging way — including how bank managers responded to Quakers worshiping in their bank lobbies and what PNC shareholders did when demonstrators began to sing “This Little Light of Mine.” Listen to the recording of the full meeting on our YouTube channel.
In an excerpt from George’s memoir, Dancing with History: A Life for Peace and Justice, read how George describes the obstacles he and other activists encountered when they sailed into a war zone with medical aid during the Vietnam War.
A documentary about his life is due out in November.
TA CENTRAL NEWS
Want to Get Involved With Election Work? Check Out These Resources
We have only a few weeks until the November 5 Election. Third Act and Third Act Faith can provide you with resources to make a difference — whether your position in your faith community leads you to engage in nonpartisan get-out-the-vote efforts or more partisan activities.
Third Act’s political action committee, GrayPAC, offers a variety of ways to get out the vote to elect officials who fit with Third Act’s mission of preserving a livable climate and preserving our democracy.
GrayPAC’s What We Do page gives Third Actors ways to participate by helping get out the vote (GOTV), canvassing in key districts, phone banking, and other activities.
For those of us involved in local congregations, Third Act Faith’s video and summary of our interfaith Preaching An Election Sermon workshop provides guidance not only for preachers wanting to encourage thoughtful voting, but also for anyone wanting to find constructive ways to talk about the upcoming election with others in our faith community.
Third Act Faith encourages all our members to choose a way to make a difference in this crucial election.
‘Summer of Heat on Wall Street’: What We Accomplished
Third Act played a big role this past summer in organizing the actions of the Summer of Heat on Wall Street campaign. Faith-based groups like TAF and GreenFaith worked to drive home the message that the Earth is sacred, suffering, and needs our care. The sustained non-violent direct actions throughout June, July and August in New York City were orchestrated to pressure Citibank, one of the nation’s largest banks, to stop funding fossil fuel companies. Disrupting business at bank headquarters was the strategy, but the larger goal was to grow the non-violent activist movement against climate collapse.
During Summer of Heat’s NYC Elders Week July 8-15, The Rev. Dr. Jim Antal, special advisor on climate justice to the United Church of Christ and TAF member, and Episcopal priest, author, and climate activist The Rev. Dr. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas joined Bill McKibben and others in preaching a “sidewalk sermon,” then led hundreds in a symbolic funeral procession, ending with a “die-in” blocking the Citi headquarters entrance that resulted in over 40 arrests.
That same week, Citi released its latest environmental and social risk management report — it included an updated policy restricting direct financing of new projects involving Amazon oil and gas expansion — the result of years of pressure from activists. “While a welcome change, this is a tiny fraction of Citi’s fossil fuel financing,” wrote Third Act campaign strategist Deborah Moore; the update “does not change our demand that Citi broadly stop funding fossil fuel expansion.”
TAF also created a recorded contemplative service available on YouTube so that those unable to participate in the actions could engage in prayer and solidarity with frontline activists. The service was developed by TAF member The Rev. Dr. Jessica McArdle.
Well over 5,000 activists were involved in the three-months of activism, with around 700 arrested over the summer, many for the first time. Actions again escalated during “Climate Week in NYC” at the end of September.
The ongoing non-violent actions drew curious passersby on Wall Street. That, of course, had been an aim of the protests. Most who inquired about the purpose of the protests had been unaware of banks’ roles in funding climate chaos.
For a full report on Third Act’s doings at SOH, click here.
NEWS FROM PARTNERS & FRIENDS
Get Your Congregation’s Bank to Divest
Attend GreenFaith’s Oct. 22 Zoom event to learn how
At an online roundtable event from GreenFaith — Sacred Earth, Stained Profits: A Faith & Finance Roundtable on Tuesday Oct. 22 — participants will hear from faith leaders and financial experts about “how you can use your congregation’s power to pressure your financial institution” to divest from fossil-fuel investment. The event is part of GreenFaith’s current effort to teach congregations how to pressure their financial institutions to divest from oil, gas, and coal. (Read GreenFaith’s report.)
Hurricane Helene was “one of the most destructive hurricanes to make landfall in the U.S.” says GreenFaith, who adds that the storms now “should be named Hurricane Exxon or B.P” because the disasters are no longer natural but “corporation-made.” If your congregation has money in Chase, Citi, Bank of America, or Wells Fargo, they say, “chances are your dollars are being funneled into the fossil fuel industry.”
Attend the online event to find out how to start working with your bank on divestment.
Sacred Earth, Stained Profits: a Faith & Finance Roundtable (Zoom)
October 22, 9:00AM PT / 12:00PM ET REGISTER HERE.
Yom Kippur Column Highlights Dayenu Work in Fossil Fuel Divestment
“The Union for Reform Judaism announced this spring that it would divest from fossil fuel companies,…prompted in part by Dayenu, a Jewish climate advocacy group. In a 2022 report, Dayenu estimated that the biggest American Jewish institutions hold about $3.3 billion in fossil fuel investments,” wrote Los Angeles Times climate reporter Sammy Roth in a column published just before Yom Kippur (Oct. 11-12).
Quoting Rabbi Jennie Rosenn, Dayenu’s founder and CEO, Roth continued, “We should not, as a Jewish people, be investing our money in and perpetuating the fossil fuel industry when we know they are the bad guy. …This is not who we are.”
‘Voting: A Sacred Right, A Holy Obligation’
In TAF’s October Going Deep essay, United Church of Christ minister The Rev. Dr. Jessica McArdle explains that “voting is a three-fold calling.” Read her essay on GrayPac.org.
IN CLIMATE NEWS …
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Study refutes claim that LNG is ‘cleaner’
Although the fossil-fuel industry claims that natural gas is a “cleaner” alternative than coal, a major new peer-reviewed study released in early October shows this is simply not true. “Overall, the greenhouse gas footprint for LNG [liquefied natural gas] as a fuel source is 33% greater than that for coal,” according to the study's abstract.
“LNG is produced largely from shale gas,” says the study. “Production of shale gas, as well as liquefaction to make LNG and LNG transport by tanker, is energy-intensive, which contributes significantly to the LNG greenhouse gas footprint. The production and transport of shale gas emits a substantial amount of methane as well.”
“The idea that coal is worse for the climate is mistaken—LNG has a larger greenhouse gas footprint than any other fuel,” says the study’s author, Robert Howarth, an environmental scientist at Cornell University. “To think we should be shipping around this gas as a climate solution is just plain wrong,” he told The Guardian. '“It’s greenwashing from oil and gas companies that has severely underestimated the emissions from this type of energy.”
Britain's last coal-fired power plant has closed.
Meanwhile, in U. S. …
The UK’s last coal-fired power plant, in Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Nottinghamshire, ended operations Sept. 30, ending Britain's 142-year reliance on coal, and “proving that major economies can wean themselves off the dirtiest fossil fuel,” said the The Washington Post. The plant had been in operation since 1967.
It’s a massive movement,” said Dave Jones, an electricity analyst at Ember, a London-based think tank. “The fact that the first country in the world to have a coal power plant, to lean so heavily into coal starting the industrial revolution, is now out of coal is extremely symbolic.”
Meanwhile, here in the U.S., operators of the the Gibson power plant in southwest Indiana, the second-largest coal-fired power plant in the country, originally scheduled to close in 2035, is now proposing that it remain open until 2038 and get a retrofit to be able to run on natural gas or coal, according to a plan Duke Energy Indiana floated in early October.
Marvelous microbes to the rescue
Katharine Hayhoe in her Aug. 6 Talking Climate news tells us there’s “a type of cyanobacteria that consumes carbon dioxide ‘astonishingly quickly.’ According to the BBC, they live in underwater hydrothermal vents near a volcanic island fittingly named Vulcano.
“Scientists have also found microbes that can consume plastic,” she wrote “— …and that can consume methane…”
More climate headlines …
Oct. 5: Tributaries of the Amazon River in Brazil have dropped to the “shallowest levels ever recorded.” See photos and read article.
Sept. 23: California sues ExxonMobil, accusing it of lying about plastics being recyclable “in a decades-long campaign of deception.” Read article.
Sept. 2: ‘Norway cuts back on tourism to protect nature’: A Norweigan marketing firm recently shelved a campaign to bring foreign tourists to the country, noting that although it welcomed tourists to Norway, “nature must be protected with a clear strategy for visitors before they [are] invited.” Read article.
Aug. 25: ‘A Wisconsin Tribe Continues Its Fight to Remove a 71-Year-Old Line From a Pristine Place.’ Read article.
Upcoming Events
Click on the link to register for the online events.
October 22: Hope & Joy Gathering with Doug Abrams. (Zoom), 4:00 PM PT / 7:00 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.
October 23: TAF Contemplative Practice with Stephanie Wagner. (Zoom), 11:00 AM PT / 2:00 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.
October 29: TAF General Meeting: Contemplative Service and Check-in. (Zoom), 4:00 PM PT / 7:00 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.
November 21: TAF Contemplative Practice with Dan Quinlan. (Zoom), 11:00 AM PT / 2:00 PM ET. REGISTER HERE.
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