Fall-Winter 2021 Earth Letter

The Fall-Winter 2021 issue of our publication Earth Letter is available here! Join Earth Ministry/WAIPL staff and community members as we reflect on our collective successes and continued resistance to fossil fuels.

Read the Fall-Winter 2021 issue of Earth Letter.

Below you can see excerpts from articles in this issue of Earth Letter. We are honored to feature a piece by Lummi Nation member Sul ka dub (Freddie Lane) who shares his stories and photos from this summer’s Red Road to D.C. Totem Pole Journey. You’ll also see my own reflection on ten years of Earth Ministry/WAIPL’s faithful advocacy on halting coal, oil, and fracked gas infrastructure. 

Other articles by Joelle Novey, the Rev. Dr. Marilyn Cornwell, and Maddie Smith speak to a faith-filled and hopeful response to injustice perpetuated by fossil fuels. Finally, the chair of our board of directors, Rev. Laura Baumgartner, and our Interim Executive Director, Nancy Osborn Nicholas, provide an update on Earth Ministry/WAIPL’s leadership transition and future. Many thanks to Deacon Clare Josef-Maier who served as guest editor for this issue!

It is our hope that these stories both feed your spirit and inspire continued action. We’ve come so far with untangling our ties to fossil fuels and have held the “Thin Green Line” against massive global industries. There is still much work to do, but your faithful advocacy has shown how much we can accomplish when we raise our voices together.

Onward,
Sr. Jessica Zimmerle (she/her)
Program & Outreach Director


Stories from the Red Road to DC Totem Pole Journey

by Sul ka dub (Freddie Lane)

Photo credit: Sul ka dub

“The totem pole isn’t what is sacred,” said Jewell James. “What is sacred is each and every one of you gathered here today. That’s what is sacred,” he reminded the
crowd. There is a sacredness to humbling your spirit that I felt when coordinating all of the logistics as road manager, fundraiser, driver, speaker, Facebook Live
technician, and documentary filmmaker – it was always a challenging balance as a guest in other communities.”

A Decade of Faithful Advocacy on Fossil Fuels

by Sr. Jessica Zimmerle

Photo credit: Sr. Jessica Zimmerle

“Lummi Elders, elected leaders, and youth stood in a line after being presented with ceremonial blankets. Behind them was the Salish Sea, the source of Lummi lifeway and spirituality. Before them was a large cardboard check that had the words “NON-NEGOTIABLE” painted across the middle. Below that was a sign with “COAL TRAIN” crossed out in a big red X. In front of that sign, logs were stacked for a fire.”


Envisioning a Future
Without Fossil Fuels

by Joelle Novey

Photo credit: Lawrie Cate

“When I think about what would have to change to enter a world beyond fossil fuels, I think of a powerful quotation from Pope Benedict from Pope Francis’ encyclical teaching on ecology, Laudato Si: “the external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast. When we look out at deserts expanding, at storms raging, and fires ravaging because of a climate damaged by our burning of fossil fuels, this teaching suggests that climate change is a symptom of an underlying illness, which we can only diagnose by looking internally. What is the human imbalance to which the climate crisis testifies?”

Fossil Fuel Divestment
is Sacred Work

by Maddie Smith

Photo credit: Peg Hunter

“Together with other young Unitarian Universalists, I recently took up the important work of asking the Unitarian Universalist Common Endowment Fund (UUCEF) and Unitarian Universalist congregations to divest from fossil fuel companies and banks that fund fossil fuel projects, particularly the Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline in Minnesota. Despite a resolution passed at the 2014 Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) General Assembly calling for UU institutions to divest from fossil fuels, this work remains unfinished. Re-awakening the UUA divestment movement came out of the discovery that the UUCEF had holdings in Enbridge, the company building Line 3, and many banks that have loaned billions of dollars to the company.”