Green Mountains, Blue Water
Earth Care News Mid-October
VTIPL’s Climate Justice Series – Mission Farm Film Event
Kiss the Ground Viewing on October 18
- Climate Justice Series with film, Kiss the Ground, Sun., Oct.18, Mission Farm & Rooting out Structural Racism in American Agriculture, Nov. 12
- A Message from VTIPL’s President Ron McGarvey
- IPL’s Faith Climate Justice Voter Campaign
- FORUM 2020 Climate Emergency & Interfaith Service, Oct.16 & 17
- Other Events & Information
VTIPL’s Climate Justice Series Continues!
Next events: Sunday, October 18 & Thursday, November 12
Vermont Interfaith Power & Light invites you to participate in the next two events in our Climate Justice Series, following a dynamic Creation Justice Conversation on October 11 (recording link below). Additional information about all of the events is on our website and Facebook page. We invite your participation and ask you to please share our Series info. with your networks.
Kiss the Ground Film Event
Sunday, October 18, 5-7 p.m.
Join us this Sunday for either an in-person or Netflix viewing of the new documentary film Kiss the Ground and Facebook Live event at Mission Farm (Killington, VT) where VTIPL Board member Rev. Rachel Field provides ministry. Explore how the health of our soil is directly related to the health of our planet, and how we can turn back the clock on climate change through regenerative agriculture. For those attending in person, there is limited physically-distanced seating; another option is to view from your car. In-person guests can also enjoy food from sponsor American Flatbread. RSVP for the on-site screening on the event site. Others can stream the film simultaneously on Netflix and join a Facebook Live watch party hosted on Mission Farm’s Facebook page, linked to VTIPL’s Facebook page. The suggested on-site donation is $5/person or $20/family. A trailer and educational resources are on the film website.
Rooting out Structural Racism in American Agriculture
Sunday, November 12 at 7 p.m.
Join VTIPL for a viewing and discussion of Rooting out Structural Racism in American Agriculture, a presentation of the Vermont Law School’s Center for Agriculture and Food Systems. This panel features Monica Armster Rainge, Stephen Carpenter, Sherri White-Williamson and is moderated by Emily Spiegel. Registration event link coming soon. Learn more about VT Law School.
Creation Justice Conversation
On October 11, Pastor Nancy Wright, VTIPL Vice-President, and former VTIPL board member Pastor Arnold Thomas shared powerful virtual presentations about climate change, racial and environmental justice, and the responsibility of spiritual leaders to address these crises. The event also included a Climate Reality Leadership Corps slide show, Truth in Ten. Thanks to event co-sponsor, the Green Team of the New England Synod of Lutherans Restoring Creation. Access Zoom recording. Passcode: #AR0+1eG
Many thanks to our Series sponsors: Mission Farm, VT Sierra Club, and Virginia Interfaith Power & Light. Contact us for more information. Thanks! info@vtipl.org
A Note from our President Ron McGarvey
As a person of faith, I am called to care for Creation. The climate crisis is an existential threat to all of Creation’s living things, with the greatest impact on low-income people and communities of color.
It is essential that we elect leaders at all levels who will act for climate action and racial justice.
Please join me in becoming a Faith Climate Justice Voter and encourage your family and friends to do the same.
Thank you,
Ron McGarvey
President,
Vermont Interfaith Power & Light
Be a Faith Climate Justice Voter
We would like to remind you of resources available for your communities linked with our ongoing partnership with the national IPL organization’s Faith Climate Justice Voter Campaign. As this upcoming election is such a crucial moment to put into action our values and ethics for creating a better world, please read about the Campaign, including sermon resources, take the Pledge to become a Faith Climate Justice Voter, and download the free PDF or order hard copies of the publication, Democracy, Values & the 2020 Election: A Reflection Guide for Faith Communities. Voter Reflection Guide.
Please visit the Campaign website.
Pope’s post-COVID encyclical envisions a less populist, less capitalist world
Laying out a comprehensive vision for how the world should change after the coronavirus pandemic, Pope Francis imagines societies that are more caring, more focused on helping those in need and fundamentally less attached to the principles of market capitalism. In a lengthy and wide-ranging encyclical letter released Oct. 4, the pontiff says the continuing global health crisis makes it “all the more urgent that we rethink our styles of life.” The Pope puts up for discussion “trickle-down economics, the world’s unfair distribution of wealth, continued use of the just war theory and the death penalty, and populist leaders who appeal to people’s basest and most selfish inclinations.” Read more here.
Other Events & Information
Fri., October 16, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. FORUM 2020 Climate Emergency & Interfaith Prayer Service Science, Spirituality, the Climate Emergency and our Future
This Temple of Understanding Forum brings together world religious and spiritual visionaries, Indigenous leaders, scientists, and youth environmental activists to address the urgency of the climate crisis with strategies for inspired collective action. Featured keynote speakers include: Chief Arvol Looking Horse, Eda Zavala Lopez, Chief Oren Lyons, Grandmother Mona Polacca, Prof. Dr. Vandana Shiva, and HH 4th Trungram Gyaltrul Rinpoche.
Sat., October 17, 10 a.m-11:30 a.m. Global Interfaith Prayer Service for the Earth. Information and registration for both events.
October 20, 7 p.m. Racial Justice in VT: Three Black Perpsectives
Three panelists, including Episcopal Bishop Shannon MacVean-Brown, will participate in a webinar about the challenges of working for racial justice within prominent Vermont institutions. Speakers will offer suggestions of what Vermonters can do to promote racial equity. Register here.
October 21, 8:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Renewable Energy Vermont Conference
As we learn to deal with the threat of COVID-19, we can’t afford to lose sight of the existential threat posed by climate change. This 20th anniversary session of northern New England’s leading renewable energy event examines strategies to make climate change a priority in shaping public policy. What are effective ways to mobilize public support for climate initiatives and votes? Information.
October 24, 11 a.m. Called to Climate Action 2020: Uphold & Upheave!
“We are called to uphold our values and upheave injustice!” Iowa IPL invites us to join this virtual event featuring journalist Harry Smith of NBC Sunday TODAY. This interfaith program promotes climate awareness, action, and leadership, and how we all called to help solve the climate crisis. Smith will discuss how he has been called to climate action by sharing environmental stories from around the planet. Iowa college student leaders will lead the event. Info. & registration.
October 25, 1 p.m. Land as a Commons: Building the New Economy
The 40th Annual E. F. Schumacher Lectures features Kali Akuno and George Monbiot addressing the topic “Land as a Commons: Building the New Economy.” Land access, the problems generated by a concentration of ownership, and ways of creating a more fair and equitable system will be addressed. The Schumacher Center’s response to inequities in land access is to call for a voluntary gifting of land into regional community land trusts where uses can be allocated through lease agreements in a socially determined manner outside of market forces. Free with registration.
October 27, 6 p.m. Fall 2020 Button Up Workshop
Join the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission for a virtual Fall 2020 Button Up Workshop. For info. contact Melanie Needle.
And finally…
Attenborough: Curb Excess Capitalism to Save Nature BBC podcast
On the heels of the release of the extraordinary new film, David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet, the veteran broadcaster is featured in BBC Radio 5 Live’s new podcast What Planet Are We On? Sir David explains, “We are going to have to live more economically than we do. And we can do that and, I believe we will do it more happily, not less happily. And that the excesses the capitalist system has brought us, have got to be curbed somehow.”
Podcast link.
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©2020 Vermont Interfaith Power and Light | PO Box 3095, Burlington, Vermont 05408
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