By Joel Connelly Seattle Post-Intelligencer April 08, 2010 Angering greens and faith groups, a $5 million-a-year sales tax exemption for TransAlta, the Canadian corporation that owns the Centralia coal plant, has apparently remained in the state budget.
Pacific Northwest Conference News April 07, 2010 Because one act of the state legislature can undo millions of acts of Christian caring for the environment, LeeAnne Beres, director of Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power and Light in Seattle, involves 350 member congregations in advocacy, as well as education and “greening.”
Seattle Channel March 11, 2010 In March, Earth Ministry invited friends and members to a forum hosted by The League of Women Voters about the effects of climate change on women around the world.
By Aiko Schaefer & Kevin J. O’Brien Seattle PostGlobe March 05, 2010 With great attention on Copenhagen and the international climate negotiations last December, it is tempting to think that the issue begins with complicated science and ends with the fate of distant polar bears. We believe that science and polar bears are deeply important, but climate change is also a moral issue about economic justice.
By WILLIAM YARDLEY New York Times January 16, 2010 MILLWOOD, Wash. — State auditors told Millwood Community Presbyterian Church last summer to close its farmers’ market on the church parking lot or the lot could no longer be claimed as tax-exempt. Without hesitation, the church kept the market and paid the $700 in annual taxes.
By Michelle Bearden U.S. Catholic January 14, 2010 Growing up in northern Virginia, Derek Eisel had a front-row seat to a changing world. He watched forests cut down and bucolic pasture land paved over into suburbs. He was told it was "progress," but he wasn't buying it. The effect it had on a young Eisel changed the course of his life. He believes watching nature disappear is when the seeds of his environmental activism were planted.
We begin this issue with a provocative sermon by Rick Ufford-Chase illumined by his long experiences with migrant worker immigration issues. In Goings-On we highlight the many actions that Earth Ministry has taken since our Autumn issue. Earth Ministry’s Board Chairman reviews our financial picture, and makes a suggestion for the coming year. The Saint Francis Sermon Contest participants are highlighted, and the winners (Rev. Anne Hall and Elizabeth Freese) share their sermons with us. Lastly, Jessie Dye presents the Washington State Environmental Priorities Coalition goals for 2010.
By Bishop William Chris Boerger
The Bellingham Herald
November 21, 2009
Extreme weather, rising sea levels, and drought are taking an awful toll on the poorest of people, while leaving no one unaffected. From Alaska to Georgia to Kenya, the bill for global warming pollution is coming due.
Congregational Resource Podcast
October 15, 2009
Don't get wrapped up in the scientific details of climate change, says Jessie Dye, Program & Outreach Director for Earth Ministry. Wrap yourself instead in the earth-friendly roots of your faith tradition; and don't lose sight of the very real benefits that can come to your church's bottom-line. A nuts and bolts discussion on the benefits and modes of greening the congregation.
By Kevin Birnbaum
The Catholic Northwest Progress
October 01, 2009
“The green pope.” That’s the nickname Pope Benedict XVI has earned since his election in 2005, a reputation few environmentalists could have predicted at the time.
Sept 28, 2009
Austin, TX: Deep Conversion Communications founder, Elizabeth Freese, is the winner of the Franciscan Philanthropist Award in Earth Ministry’s national Care for Creation Sermon Contest, held at University Lutheran Church in Seattle on September 27, 2009. The event was a fundraiser, and Freese’s entry, “The Irresistible Sustainable Future,” raised the most money from attendees.
By LeeAnne Beres and Sara Patton
The Seattle Times
September 27, 2009
A DRAFT 20-year power and conservation plan from the Northwest's official power-planning agency contains several groundbreaking provisions, including a call to meet virtually all new electric demand with clean energy. But the plan would not reduce the region's greenhouse-gas emissions at all, and fails to address closure of the coal plants that produce almost all of the power system's climate pollution.
by Rev. Dr. Henry Langknecht
Text: John 20:19-31
Asks the question, "How much did Thomas see before he believed?" If Jesus scars are humanity's and the earth's scars too, then God's mission in the universe extends forgiveness, reconciliation, and wholeness to all of creation.
by Rev. Anne Hall, Seattle, WA
Winner of the People's Choice Award
Text: John 3:14-21
Calls for action to end climate change by examining the world's state in light of the most popular verse in the Bible, "For God so loved the world."
by Jeanie Graustein, New Haven, CT
Explores the values and prayers of St. Francis in light of contemporary scientific understanding.
