We’re Glad You’re Here!
By Pat Almonrode and Ace Leveen, Co-facilitators
Welcome to Third Act Faith and to this inaugural edition of our newsletter. We’re very happy to have you aboard as we work to protect and restore both our fragile climate and our endangered democracy. As the Interfaith Working Group for Third Act, we intend to bring the wisdom, insight, and moral authority of our many faith and spiritual traditions, and the experience we’ve gathered over our 60+ years, to bear in this important work. As our Call to Action puts it:
These are times of great peril: our democratic institutions are under assault; mistrust, division, deception, greed, and inequality are rampant; the land and the very sky are burning and the waters that sustain all life are drying up in some places and flooding in others.
In the face of such urgent calamity, it is more important than ever to offer a strong and clear faith-based perspective to the work of restoring and protecting our climate and our democracy. Within and across our faith traditions, we will work to prayerfully discern how to be of service in these efforts.
Many of you have been a part of this effort from the start in 2021; others of you have joined more recently. We value the experience and seek the input of all: novice or veteran, clergy or layperson, member of an organized religious community or solo spiritual seeker. Everyone has gifts to bring to this work, and all those gifts are urgently needed.
Our structure
It may be helpful to say a word or two about our structure, and about how we do our work. Third Act has a small but dedicated and energetic national staff – we think of them as Third Act Central, which of course includes founder Bill McKibben and his volunteer Advisory Council. They set the organization’s national campaigns and speak for Third Act on the national level. Central also puts on national programs and trainings.
The work of implementing Third Act’s national campaigns is done by the (aptly named) Working Groups. Currently, there are location-based Working Groups in Virginia, Nevada, the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City and Maine, to name a few. There are also two affinity-based Working Groups, our Faith group and an Educators group, and plans for others, including one for lawyers and another for Artists. The affinity-based groups draw their members from all over the country: as of this writing, the Faith Working Group has at least 185 members in at least 35 different states and the District of Columbia.
Each Working Group is administered by its own volunteer Coordinating Committee. Our committee currently has 17 members.
Our work moving forward
Working Groups implement the campaigns set by Central, but each group is also encouraged to develop its own activities that support Third Act’s overall goals. You’ll read in this issue about some committees that are already at work, and you’ll see proposals for two new committees. All can use members. And we’re looking for other ideas.
The next few months
Between now and next March, our work will be focused on preparing for the 3.21.23 Day of Action, and we’re looking for ideas for impactful events and activities that plug into those plans. You’ll have opportunities to share your ideas in upcoming General Meetings on Zoom – watch your email for the date of the January meeting.
So please check out the rest of this newsletter, follow us on Facebook and Instagram, at thirdact.org/working-groups/faith/ and (for now) on Twitter. And you can always reach us at thirdactfaith@gmail.com.
THIRD ACT NEWS
Banking on Our Future Pledge
Big banks play a key role in propping up the oil and gas industry that is polluting our atmosphere. Seventy percent of the country’s financial assets belong to Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation, so if you don’t want your money to be used to bankroll climate destruction, take the pledge.
On the Third Act website you’ll find two pledges: one for those who hold accounts with the country’s Big Four Banks – Bank of America, Chase, Citibank, and Wells Fargo, and one for those who are not currently customers. Let's use our collective action to hit the fossil fuel industry where it hurts and help protect a livable planet.
Banking on You
The Third Act Faith Banking Committee needs volunteers. If you’re interested in joining a small team to creatively channel information on the Banking on Our Future campaign and the Day of Action between Third Act Central and our working group, contact us. If you have specific knowledge about reaching a particular faith community, be it a congregation or denomination or diocese, and would like to be a faith community liaison, contact us. Learn more about these roles here.
ANSWERING THE CALL
28 arrested at BlackRock
New York, NY - [Green Faith] A multi-faith assembly of religious leaders and lay people were arrested on Oct. 19 at BlackRock’s headquarters in Manhattan while peacefully and prayerfully protesting the financial giant’s ongoing investment in fossil fuel corporations that are actively destroying the earth. The demonstration was a coalition of climate action groups organized by GreenFaith as part of a global action – Faiths 4 Climate Justice. Faith leaders called for an immediate end to new fossil fuel projects and deforestation, and a rapid transition to 100% renewables amid a fair phase-out of fossil fuels. Read more
Third Act Faith at World Bank
Washington D.C. — Third Act Faith teamed up with GreenFaith and other groups in a march and rally in Washington D.C. on Oct. 14 to protest the World Bank’s fossil fuel financing. GreenFaith mobilized the faith community as part of its Faiths 4 Climate Justice initiative in support of the larger Big Shift Global Campaign. Speakers also called on the Bank to halt its financing of factory farming, another major contributor to global CO2 emissions. Read more
GETTING ORGANIZED
Third Act Faith is currently forming and organizing committees through which our goals will be accomplished. The following are now in place and two others have been proposed. If you are interested in joining any of these committees, or if you have an idea for one, contact us at thirdactfaith@gmail.com
Communications - Jane Ellen Nickell, chair; members, Mary Jane Cherry, Betsy Bennett and Dan Terpstra. This committee is handling our social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter), webpage, and newsletter.
Climate Grief/Anxiety - Jami Burns, chair; members, Davida Crabtree and Betsy Bennett. Third Act Central is interested in partnering with our committee, which is at work developing an interfaith liturgy and prayers that will offer hope in the midst of the climate and democracy crises.
Banking - Dan Terpstra, chair; currently seeking members. The committee intends to promote the Banking on Our Future Campaign and is also partnering with existing groups, including Stop the Money Pipeline's Customers for Climate Justice campaign, GreenFaith, and others.
Two committees have been proposed to address the following:
Creation of an Artwork Resources Webpage/List. As proposed by member Ellen Bernstein, this committee is tasked with identifying films, literature, music, paintings, sculpture and any other works of art that can be used by faith communities to cultivate ecological awareness and galvanize action. The committee will create an annotated list of artworks to share with congregations and post on Third Act Faith’s website (still under development). Please let her know if you are interested, and send her titles of favorite works that have inspired your love for nature, the environment and creation.
Living in a Collapsing Society: Member Tim Stevenson is looking for people of faith to join him in developing a “life-affirmative, pro-active approach” for “living in a collapsing society.” In the wake of climate change and other crises that we may be confronting, he says, our communities will need “spiritual people” who can respond with compassion, selflessness, generosity, kindness, and love. He envisions the project beginning with the formation of a group to address a weather emergency, a project that, he says, may be become a model of mutual aid and service.
RESOURCES
Third Act Faith’s Call to Action encourages us to share resources that link faith with climate action and work to safeguard democracy. Please send us any resources that you think would be helpful.
This month, we share the United Methodist Church’s Creation Justice Tips, a monthly list of 10 simple actions that can be included in bulletins, newsletters and other communications. Get ready for Thanksgiving with November Tips.
Online Reads
"Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math"
Bill McKibben uses math to lay out the dire situation we faced in this 2012 article in Rolling Stone following a disappointing climate meeting in Rio.
The Crucial Years
Keep up on Bill’s current work and reflections by subscribing to his Substack newsletter. All content is free, but those who can pay something will help to support his activism.
Also by Bill McKibben:
"Money Is the Oxygen on Which the Fire of Global Warming Burns"
"Could Google's Carbon Emissions Have Effectively Doubled Overnight?"
Books
Solve Climate Change Now
Written by Third Act Faith Coordinating Committee member Don Maruska, this new book turns traditional wisdom about climate action on its head. Instead of pushing people to take prescribed actions, it helps them find their “climate sweet spot” by identifying what they love to do and guiding them to find the climate needs they’d like to address. Don’s book helps us shift from despair about climate change to meaningful action that can make a difference for generations to come.
Also recommended:
The Flag, the Cross and the Station Wagon: A Graying American Looks Back at His Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened by Bill McKibben
Active Hope (revised): How to Face the Mess We’re in with Unexpected Resilience and Creative Power by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone
Generation Dread by Britt Wray
Reality, Grief and Hope: Three Urgent Prophetic Tasks by Walter Brueggeman
POLL
As we consider whether to leave Twitter, we want to know how else we could connect with you. Polls are open for one week after the newsletter is published.