Social Justice Saturday: Responding to the Climate Emergency-Learn
The Bishops of Massachusetts are urging us to respond to the Climate Emergency with four steps:
Pray—Learn—Act—Advocate. Today we highlight LEARN.
Congregations are encouraged to convene conversations and educational events around such topics as:
how tackling the climate crisis connects with efforts to alleviate poverty, fight racial and social injustice, and defend human life;
how eco-theology and eco-spirituality can guide us in the days ahead;
how to cultivate the values and practices that liberate us from the consumerism, hyper-individualism, and violence of the dominant culture.
Monday Music: All Who Hunger Gather Gladly
Social Justice Saturday: Responding to the Climate Emergency--PRAY
The Bishops of Massachusetts are urging us to respond to the Climate Emergency with four steps:
Pray—Learn—Act—Advocate. Today we highlight PRAYER.
TO ALL THE CHILDREN
To the children who swim beneath
The waves of the sea, to those who live in
The soils of the Earth, to the children of the flowers
In the meadows and the trees in the forest, to
All those children who roam over the land
And the winged ones who fly with the winds,
To the human children too, that all the children
May go together into the future in the full
Diversity of their regional communities.
Thomas Berry
Social Justice Saturday: Climate Justice
When the bishops of the Episcopal dioceses in Massachusetts recently declared a climate emergency, their declaration read in part:
“We honor the call of our church’s presiding bishop, the Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, to care for God’s beloved world. We recognize that accelerating global warming and mass extinctions are destroying God’s creation, threatening to make our planet uninhabitable. We likewise recognize that the climate crisis affects low-income communities and communities of color first and hardest…”
They continue, “We strongly urge congregations across Massachusetts to pray, learn, act, and advocate as we build a bold and faith-filled response to the greatest moral challenge of our time.”
This summer’s floods, extreme temperatures, wildfires, and intense storms underscore the reality of this climate emergency. We will be highlighting in future Social Justice Saturday posts specific ways we as individuals and as congregations can respond to this emergency as we pray, learn, act, and advocate.
Monday Music: New Wine
Inspired by this Wednesday’s Forward Day by Day…
Social Justice Saturday: A Small Needful Fact
Ross Gay is the author of Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015), winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kingsley Tufts Award.
A Small Needful Fact
Is that Eric Garner worked
for some time for the Parks and Rec.
Horticultural Department, which means,
perhaps, that with his very large hands,
perhaps, in all likelihood,
he put gently into the earth
some plants which, most likely,
some of them, in all likelihood,
continue to grow, continue
to do what such plants do, like house
and feed small and necessary creatures,
like being pleasant to touch and smell,
like converting sunlight
into food, like making it easier
for us to breathe.
Ross Gay
Monday Music: Surrounded - Fight My Battles
Social Justice Saturday: John A. Powell - Beloved Community
As humanity faces global environmental and social collapse, our fear of the “Other” can be magnified by unstable contracting economies, radically shifting demographics, and new social norms. Can humanity overcome these divisions and come together to protect our common home? john a. powell, a nationally respected voice on race and ethnicity, leads UC Berkeley’s Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, holds the Robert D. Haas Chancellor’s Chair in Equity and Inclusion, serves on the UC Berkeley School of Law faculty, and is author of Racing to Justice.
This speech was given at the 2014 Bioneers Annual Conference. Since 1990, Bioneers has acted as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world's most pressing environmental and social challenges.
For more information on Bioneers, please visit http://www.bioneers.org.
Monday Music: Alone With God - 3 Hour Peaceful Meditation Music
Social Justice Saturday: Podcast - Sounds Like Hate
Sounds Like Hate
An audio documentary series from the Southern Poverty Law Center, that tells the stories of people and communities grappling with hate and searching for solutions. Focuses on people who have been personally touched by hate, to hear their voices and be immersed in the sounds of their world. Explores the power of people to change — or to succumb to their worst instincts and takes a deep dive into the realities of hate in modern America: how it functions, how it spreads, who is affected and what people are doing about it. Learn more.
Illustration by Zoë van Dijk
Social Justice Saturday: John Amaechi on Privilege
Check out this great short clip on privilege by psychologist, best-selling author and former NBA basketball player, John Amaechi.
Poems for Pride - Born Frees by Pamela Sneed
Social Justice Saturday: 103 Things White People Can Do For Racial Justice
The Social Justice Saturday posts, as part of the Red Door, began a year ago, in June 2020. Early on we posted a list of 75 Things White People Can Do For Racial Justice. Today that site has expanded to 103 Things White People Can Do. Want to take an action that supports police reform efforts? Are you an educator looking for additional ways to take meaningful action? Want to buy books from black bookstores or support black businesses? Links in these areas and much more!
We invite you to check out the list and determine what new, specific actions you can take this summer!
Poems for Pride - Black Parade
Another Poem for Pride from Poets.org by Darrel Alejandro Holnes
Monday Music: Summer Hymn Sing from 2020
Check out this Summer Hymn sing another St. John’s put together last year!
Social Justice Saturday: We Need a Revolution
"Let no one tell you we don't need a revolution. The old ways do not work. We need a Holy Spirit-birthed revolution, a revolution of goodness, a revolution of compassion, a revolution of love."
Listen to Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry give a sermon at Washington National Cathedral below.
Poems for Pride: i love you to the moon &
Poems for Pride Month
Celebrate Pride Month by reading and sharing poems highlighting LGBTQ voices and experiences from Poets.org
*********
i love you to the moon &
not back, let’s not come back, let’s go by the speed of
queer zest & stay up
there & get ourselves a little
moon cottage (so pretty), then start a moon garden
Chen Chen is the author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions, 2017).
with lots of moon veggies (so healthy), i mean
i was already moonlighting
as an online moonologist
most weekends, so this is the immensely
logical next step, are you
packing your bags yet, don’t forget your
sailor moon jean jacket, let’s wear
our sailor moon jean jackets while twirling in that lighter,
queerer moon gravity, let’s love each other
(so good) on the moon, let’s love
the moon
on the moon
Monday Music: Welcome Happy Morning!
Welcome Happy Morning
Social Justice Saturday: Culturally Responsive Teaching Resource
Culturally Responsive Teaching and Reflection in Higher Education is now available in paperback. The essays explore the challenges and opportunities in creating a socially just and inclusive learning environment in colleges and universities. Rather than a list of “right answers,” authors integrate personal reflections and questions to engage readers in a critical discussion of issues related to social justice and inclusion.
The book includes chapters by a diverse group of authors and a variety of perspectives. A valuable resource for learning and reflection for educators in many settings.