May 2017 Connections

Connections ideas • news • events May 2017

Issue 3 Vol. 4

CREATION

CARE THE DIOCESE OF SOUTHERN OHIO www.EpiscopaliansInConnection.org

Creation care

is about connection

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Care for

danger not as something to be escaped from his edition of Connections focuses on but to be redeemed. The reign of God is our care of creation. This quintessencreation must about reconciliation, not escape; connection, tially human vocation is summed up in never be a not separation. So we pray for restored comEucharistic Prayer D: "You formed us in your munity at every level, from the subatomic to own image, giving the whole world into our care, substitute for the global. This is why we can offer prayers so that, in obedience to you, our Creator, we for healing without implicitly rejecting our might rule and serve all your creatures" (BCP, p. care for people. bodily vulnerability, and pray for peace with373). Our relationship to the created order is not Nor can care out disdaining the dynamics of realpolitik. uncomplicated, however. Sometimes the material We are always involved in a complex array of world can strike us as alien. Hurricanes overfor people be relationships, all of which must be managed whelm us. Viral and bacterial infections invade in a situation of sin and dysfunction, but all our bodies. Hills slide. Nature is not always obvian excuse for of which can be entrusted to God's charity. ously our friend.

This year, Easter and Earth Day coincide.

Then again, sometimes our genuine desire environmental This conjunction is an opportunity for us to care for creation competes with other urgent degradation to see how resurrection, care for our felgoals. For instance, the Episcopal Church has low humans, and care for the creation go been following Native American resistance in together. Easter offers the promise of a new South Dakota to an oil pipeline being routed life, but not a life in isolation. We are raised through sacred tribal land. Meanwhile, Native with Jesus into a deeper engagement with American tribes dependent on coal mining are one another forever. But this is not just about the relation of hoping that President Trump will reverse President Obama's curbs on the extraction of coal and gas. In one case, the protec- human beings to human beings. It is about human engagement with the whole creation. Love of neighbor includes love tion of a fragile eco-system, fraught with spiritual meaning, for the deer, the spiders, white butterflies, cardinals, musktakes center stage. On the other, economic survival is the rats and dandelions (to name a few of the neighbors sharing major driver. Our own diocese is no stranger to the tension the Breidenthal home's narrow footprint). between conservation and economics. For instance, we have There is an ancient Easter hymn that brings this home: experienced passionate disagreement around fracking.

Salve festa dies, known to most Episcopalians as "Hail thee What can we learn from these tensions? Care for creation festival day" (Hymnal 1980, H175). The original Latin text must never be a substitute for care for people. Nor can care for people be an excuse for environmental degradation. We are was composed in the sixth century by Venantius Fortunatus. rediscovering that love of neighbor includes love of the created This hymn reflects on nature as she responds to Jesus' rising from the dead, and in so doing provides a powerful witness to order of which we are a part, and love of the created order is deeply connected to our love for one another as human beings. early Christianity's commitment to creation care. It is, after all, a two-way street: if Easter matters to the natural order, God's justice demands that we attend to both categories of then the natural order should matter to us. What binds them neighbor at the same time, not as competing claimants but together? Love of neighbor – our connection to one another as as a single whole. That is to say, caring about restoring wetmembers of the human race, and our further connection to the lands and reforestation is not unrelated to getting jobs for exoffenders, or extending health care for the poor. Why? Because world that God has made.

(Editor’s note: See a new translation of Salve festa dies writcreation care is about connection. It's about what we are conten by Bishop Breidenthal on page 4.). nected to in our environment, and therefore it's about how we are connected with each other, as fellow beneficiaries of God's grace in creating us in the first place.

Mainstream Christianity has always affirmed this, inasThe Rt. Rev. Thomas E. Breidenthal is the Bishop much as it has said yes to our having bodies and to our being of the Diocese of Southern Ohio. Contact him at completely grounded in a material universe. We acknowledge tbreidenthal@diosohio.org. the danger that our embodiment exposes us to, and we give thanks for the doctors, nurses, scientists and first responders whose work is to address that danger. But we regard that

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The fresco of Resurrection of Jesus in Chiesa di Santa Rita by Giulio Campi (1547), Cremona, Italy

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efore the Fifty Days of Easter are over, I’d like to share with you a new translation of the ancient Latin Easter hymn, Salve Festa Dies, written by Venantius Fortunatus in the sixth century. That hymn is known to many of you as “Hail Thee, Festival Day.” I did this translation while on my sabbatical last year, at the suggestion of Stephan Casurella, Organist and Choirmaster of our cathedral. He put me up to it after I confessed to disliking “Hail Thee, Festival Day.” “Why don’t you just write a new version?” he asked. So I did, and he wrote a beautiful tune to sing it to, and it was the processional hymn at the cathedral on Easter Day. I offer it in thanksgiving for the countless ways we are invited into resurrection light, and with all my good wishes to you for a splendid Pentecost.

SALVE FESTA DIES

(TRANSLATED FROM FORTUNATUS) THOMAS E. BREIDENTHAL

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This day of days with joy we claim And praise our risen savior’s Name, Who, having conquered the abyss, Now owns the stars themselves as his.

This Jesus nailed upon the tree Was God poured out for you and me: The Father and the Spirit join With Jesus the eternal Son.

Dear Jesus, maker of the earth, And instrument of its rebirth: The ground of being brought you forth Eternal mirror of God’s truth.

A world reborn lifts up its face, Still weeping but surprised by grace.

What once was lost now stands restored Refulgent in its risen Lord.

So now to God the three in one The universe lifts up its song For mercy’s triumph over hate: Now no repentance comes too late.

When we were sinking deep in sin You took our flesh, became our kin, And entering on the path of death Became in us God’s living breath.

The harrowed earth explodes in bloom For him who burst forth from the tomb; The poor and the oppressed take heart From him who dying took their part.

So we this day to Christ our friend Lift up our praises without end, Who ransomed us from Satan’s hand And guides us to the promised land.

To you, O Christ, we lift our hearts In thanks for all this day imparts, And for prevailing in the strife, We thank you, Jesus, Lord of life.

CREATION CARE

A HUMAN ISSUE P

erhaps we’ve all heard enough by now about how divided we are as a nation. The thing that astounds me is how taking care of the planet has become a political issue. We have the honor of living in this beautiful ecosystem and we are tasked with taking care of it. Environmental concerns should not be labeled as being liberal issues. They should be liberal, conservative, republican, democratic, libertarian, etc, issues. Human issues.

This planet was brought into balance against astronomical odds. Environmentalism is about all of us living in and caring for the amazing ecosystem that God gave us.

Plants synthesize carbon dioxide (CO2) and water during photosynthesis. In the process of breaking down CO2, plants release oxygen into the atmosphere. Oxygen is a waste product for them, which is a lucky thing for us. This is how it’s always been. But herein lies the problem.

Through industrialization, we are now producing CO2 at an alarming rate. The rate just goes up and up with the increased prevalence of cars, jets, model farming, etc. To make matters worse, the plants that release oxygen back into the atmosphere also are disappearing at an alarming rate. Through deforestation, we are losing trees and plants at an unsustainable pace. Coral bleaching and other ill effects of warming seawater are threatening marine plants, which comprise a huge amount of earth’s oxygen. The CO2 for oxygen exchange that has been happening for around 3.4 billion years is being thrown out of whack. If this course continues, then the question isn’t “if” it’ll destroy the planet as we know it – the question is when.

Jesus clearly taught that we must be good stewards of the gifts we have been given. Often in Jesus’ teachings,

there are dire consequences for not being a good steward. People who side with big business and encourage them to produce products as cheaply as possible regardless of the consequences to our planet simply baffle me.

We ran an ad once in eConnections about a climate change conference that was being sponsored by Ohio Interfaith Power and Light. Shortly after that, I received an extremely angry email from a person who said they were sick and tired of all our liberal propaganda. Even if those of us who do believe in climate change are wrong, the goal of our efforts is simply trying to be good stewards of the planet. Is that such a bad thing?

Even if you don’t believe in climate change, you think global warming is a hoax and you hate Al Gore, we still are charged to be good stewards of what we’ve been given. Deforestation is not good stewardship. Pumping toxins into the atmosphere at alarming rates is not good stewardship. Overfishing and polluting our oceans is not good stewardship. As hard as we try to do the right things, we are all guilty – sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly. Healing can only begin when we admit our guilt and start working toward better solutions for the earth.

Feel free to send me your emails complaining about this article, but please don’t blame it on my being a liberal. I’m only human.

David Dreisbach serves as Director of Communications for the Diocese of Southern Ohio. Contact him at ddreisbach@diosohio.org.

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On Laudato Si’

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Caring for our common home all about connection

n June 2015, Pope Francis issued his second encyclical letter entitled Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home. In the modern Roman Catholic Church, a Papal encyclical is a specific type of papal document, a letter concerning Catholic doctrine and generally reserved for significant issues of high priority, which are then added to the Church’s body of teaching. Encyclicals are usually written in Latin and, like all papal documents, the title of the encyclical is usually taken from its first few words. This letter begins with “Laudato Si’, mi’ Signore,” or “Praise be to you, my Lord.”

Encyclicals are typically addressed to Church leaders who are in communion with the Holy See, but in Laudato Si’, Francis addresses “every person living on this planet,” as he stresses we are all united by a concern for the Earth and the environment.

Laudato Si’ is available for downloading and reading online, or is available for purchase through several publishers. It’s a long document, but a relatively short book, (246 paragraphs) making it an easy read and an excellent starting point for group study and discussion. Some published versions include discussion questions, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has created an excellent discussion guide to be used in small groups. (http://www.usccb.org) The document is broken into six main points/chapters. Pope Francis incorporates a number of common themes throughout each section, but the main one is his conviction of the interconnection between everything on the planet.

Early in the introduction of the letter, Pope Francis gives a nod to his Papal guide and inspiration, Saint Francis of Assisi, and his care and concern for all of creation. Saint Francis is, he says, “the example par excellence of care for the vulnerable and of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and authentically… He shows us just how inseparable the bond is between concern for nature, justice for the poor, commitment to society and interior peace.”

To Francis, “each and every creature was a sister united to him by bonds of affection. This is why he felt called to care for all that exists.”

Degradation to our water, soil, air quality, etc. most directly impacts the poor and vulnerable of our society, because their very means are most dependent on our ecosystem. A true ecological approach, writes Pope Francis, “always becomes a social

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approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.” (49) When we speak of the environment, he says, we are actually talking about the relationship between “nature and the society that lives in it. Nature cannot be regarded as something separate from ourselves or a mere setting in which we live. We are part of nature, included in it and thus in constant interaction with it.” (139) Our society, therefore, through “nongovernmental organizations and intermediate groups, must put pressure on governments to develop more rigorous regulations, procedures and controls.” (118) And, he continues, “continuity is essential, because policies related to climate change and environmental protection cannot be altered with every change of government.

Results take time and demand immediate outlays which may not produce tangible effects within any one government’s term.”

Change is necessary, and humanity needs to move toward a new lifestyle of care and awareness of the other, Pope Francis challenges. “We lack an awareness of our common origin, of our mutual belonging, and of a future to share with everyone. This basic awareness would enable the development of new convictions, attitudes, and forms of life. A great cultural, spiritual, and educational challenge stands before us, and it will demand that we set out on the long path of renewal.” (202) The shift begins, Pope Francis concludes, with renouncing our present culture of self-centeredness and instant gratification.

“Disinterested concern for others, and the rejection of every form of self-centeredness and self-absorption are essential if we truly wish to care for our brothers and sisters in the natural environment,” he writes. “If we can overcome individualism, we will be truly able to develop a different lifestyle and bring about significant changes in society.” (208) Connections editor Julie Murray serves as Associate Director of Communications for the Diocese of Southern Ohio. Contact her at jmurray@diosohio. org.

Reviewed version of Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home published by Our Sunday Visitor www.osv.com.

How you can take action to protect God’s Creation Here are a few simple action items suggested in the discussion guide for Laudato Si’: On Care For Our Common Home, published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (http://www.usccb.org)

TAKING ACTION AT HOME Lifestyle changes you can make as an individual or family to reduce your own consumption in order to better protect God’s creation: 1. Use fewer paper and plastic products – e.g. use a re-usable water bottle 2. Reduce water consumption – e.g. take shorter showers, wash dishes by hand, etc.

3. Don’t cook more than you will consume 4. Compost (instead of disposing) food waste 5. Recycle 6. Reuse instead of disposing 7. Use public transportation, carpool, walk, or ride a bike 8. Conserve electricity – e.g. turn off lights and buy energy-efficient appliances 9. Plant trees TAKING ACTION IN MY PARISH, AT SCHOOL, OR AT WORK Institutional changes you can make in your parish, faith community, school or workspace: 1. At Catholic institutions, ensure that learning about care for God’s creation is part of formation for both adults and youth. Educational resources, homily helps, and more are at www.usccb.org/environment.

2. Do an energy audit to identify where energy consumption could be reduced. Such an audit will benefit both the earth and your institution’s budget!

3. Consider going solar. Explore whether efforts are happening in your local community to form solar cooperatives, in which institutions purchase affordable solar energy in bulk.

4. Implement recycling and composting.

5. At events where food or beverages are consumed, and in cafeterias, replace disposable cups, plates, and silverware with washable or compostable items.

6. Donate leftovers to local soup kitchens, or cook only what will be reasonably consumed.

7. Offer employees benefits for using public transportation or carpooling.

8. Conserve electricity – e.g. turn off lights and air conditioning during nonbusiness hours and buy energy-efficient appliances.

9. Plant trees on your institution’s property.

10. Take the St. Francis pledge. (www.catholicclimatecovenant.org/pledge) 11. Find out about and join efforts to care for creation in your local community.

12. Find out what other faith communities across the United States are doing to care for God’s creation: www.wearesaltandlight.org/success-stories-act

Copyright © 2015, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. All rights reserved.

TAKING ACTION IN MY STATE 1. Encourage lawmakers to improve and update public transportation options. When effective and far-reaching public transportation systems are in place, fewer cars clog the roads to emit greenhouse gases and air-polluting contaminants.

2. Join local efforts of groups working with elected officials and community leaders to explore ways your local community can do business in sustainable ways, reduce harmful emissions, and use renewal energy.

3. Organize or participate in local and state Earth Day celebrations to raise awareness of the challenges of climate change and move towards sustainability.

4. Pay attention to legislation going before the state legislature that concerns climate, emissions, or energy policies. Urge legislators to remember that people who live in poverty in your state may suffer the most from climate change and that legislative measures should include provisions that address disproportionate economic impacts, e.g., in heating and transportation costs.

5. Consider how we can allow the Holy Spirit to move us toward innovative, creative solutions that create jobs and care for people and God’s creation.

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Energy Stewards™:

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Putting faith into action

inimizing our energy use helps the congregation with an extra $9,000 us be good stewards of the gifts a year that has been re-directed to help and resources that God has fund mission programs. entrusted with us” says Keith Mills, Other actions taken at Fairmount chair of the Earth Stewards group at Presbyterian include replacing old appliFairmount Presbyterian Church in ances with Energy Star rated models; Cleveland Heights, when discussing installing LED lighting wherever ecoenergy efficiency for houses of worship. nomical; installing an on-demand water Fairmount joined the Ohio Interfaith heater; sealing air leaks; maintaining Power & Light Energy Stewards™ proheating and cooling equipment in good gram in 2012 to help track and reduce repair, using occupancy sensors; and energy usage, and has since made great just turning off equipment and lightstrides in conserving energy. ing right after use. Fairmount’s Energy Launched in 2008 as an affiliate of Stewards™ program energy use charts the national Interfaith Power & Light are posted for congregants’ awareness network, Ohio Interfaith Power & Light and to share in these efforts. By reduc(OhIPL) provides resources and proing their energy use in these least grams to congregations looking for ways expensive ways first, Fairmount is now to put their faith into action around ready to consider the installation of a environmental stewardship, education solar energy system to continue their and advocacy for creation friendly policy stewardship of God’s creation. at the state and federal level. OhIPL Another congregation that has believes that climate change is a deep taken advantage of the OhIPL Energy crisis that calls out for both moral and Stewards™ program is Peace Lutheran practical responses, and promotes enerChurch in Bowling Green. Pastor gy efficiency, energy conservation and Deborah Conklin credits their ongoing the use of renewable energy. Through partnership with Energy Stewards™ for the Energy Stewards™ program, OhIPL helping the congregation audit, monihelps congregations improve energy tor and reduce their energy use. They efficiency – finding the least expensive, upgraded their facility to LED lighting fastest solution for saving energy, saving and continue to make smart energy conmoney and preventing greenhouse gas sumption choices. A generous behest to emissions. the congregation has recently been used Fairmount Presbyterian reduced to install solar panels. As Conklin says, annual electricity use from The new solar panels at Peace Lutheran 185,000 kWh to 120,000 kWh Church in Bowling Green. in four years. This is equivalent to 1330 tree seedlings grown for ten years, or the amount of carbon dioxide captured by 48.6 acres of US forest in a year. And the reduction annually provides

“the Earth is what we all have in common, and we should take care of it.”

Knowing that energy NOT used is the cleanest and cheapest energy, both these congregations focused on energy efficiency actions as a first response to their energy stewardship. OhIPL is pleased to announce our newest energy stewardship opportunity, made possible as a result of the Duke Class Benefit Fund for customers throughout the Duke Energy territory in partnership with Energy Optimizer’s and Green Energy Ohio. Participants in this program will have the entire cost of a Level 2 energy audit waived in full if any energy-saving measures are implemented and/or initiated within 120 days of receiving the Energy Audit. Many financing options exist for implementing energy-saving measures, including paying for them through the resulting savings.

To start taking steps towards energy efficiency, such as having an energy audit and introducing low cost energy efficiency measures, your congregation or faith community can join the OhIPL Energy Stewards™ Program.

As Sara Ward, Executive Director for Ohio Interfaith Power & Light says, “Stewardship and protection of the environment are a key responsibility of our many faith traditions. Improving energy efficiency is a simple, yet effective way for persons of faith to take action.”

For more information, visit the Ohio Interfaith Power & Light website at www.ohipl.org or contact Sara Ward at sward@ ohipl.org.

Letting our light shine – longer, brighter, and cheaper

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scension and Holy Trinity, Wyoming, is reducing our huge electric bills even though the lights are on more and more to support a growing array of community programs and ministries. Here’s how: we’re installing LED fixtures in hallways, classrooms and offices.

And we're getting a huge discount on the work by taking advantage of a Duke Energy rebate program that covers up to 75% of the cost of parts and labor, one of an array of rebates offered by utility companies throughout the state (see page 12).

Replacing fluorescent ceiling lights with LEDs is the first action taken under an energy audit done for A&HT last summer by the Rev. Craig Foster, when we joined the Energy Stewards program of Ohio Interfaith Power and Light. The energy audit calculated that interior lighting accounted for 45% of our electricity use, and our electricity bills over the past 12 months had been almost $14,000.

As we add LEDs, we’re letting our little lights shine brighter. Case in point is the windowless Muscle Room used by the A&HT Preschool for scooters and active play. When fluorescent fixtures in the Muscle Room started to fail this winter, parishioner John Fitzwater (aka Fitz), a contractor who does all kinds of repairs for the parish at a generous discount, advised that this was the right time to spring for LED. He installed the new fixtures on a Wednesday when the school was not in session, and got a rave review the next morning.

“The new lights look great!” wrote Preschool Office Manager Cindy Stegman. “The new lighting made the muscle room feel like a new and larger room. The children were very excited as they were approaching the room, and then dashed in to see the change. It was very cute!”

“Das Licht! The old fixtures together used 1200 watts. We are now at 448 watts,” Fitz texted jubilantly once they were installed. That’s a 63% savings in electricity costs!

As part of the project Fitz also replaced four fixtures in a gloomy adjacent room where the youth group and junior Continued on next page

Ascension & Holy Trinity parishioner John Fitzwater installing new LED lights with college student Luke Honican. “Fitz,” a contractor, has completed a number of improvements for the parish at a deep discount, including brightening hallways and offices with the new LEDs. “I enjoy making sure the work is high quality and aesthetics. It’s lovely to be able to use my skills to make a difference in the lives of the people we serve."

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Children from the AH&T nursery school enjoying our bright new LED lights in the Muscle Room.

Continued from previous page high Sunday School classes meet in a huddle of mismatched sofas. The room is much brighter. That may not please teens at 9 a.m., but the inexpensive lighting upgrade is inspiring us older parishioners to take a new look at the potential of a flexible space under the sanctuary.

Our parish launched major renovations in 2013 and LED fixtures were chosen for the kitchen. Fitz has been steadily replacing burned-out incandescent bulbs with LEDs ever since. The parish also installed several new air conditioning units in 2013-14. Though building use and electricity demand has expanded dramatically to support the Preschool, karate classes, guided meditation, Canines for Christ classes, Scouts and other activities in the building, electricity use has been trending down, with Craig citing the initial LED upgrades as the likely reason.

Last summer, we brainstormed how to brighten a dingy hallway in the Preschool wing. Craig had told us about the Duke rebate, so we decided to install new LED fixtures while replacing the yellowed ceiling tiles. The lights made the halls

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so much brighter that we discovered we didn’t need to repaint the walls, which would have meant covering up hand-painted murals and taking down hundreds of dots of Velcro that the teachers use to display posters and children’s artwork.

The total cost of the hallway lighting project was $3,572, for which Duke sent us a $2,100 rebate. We got 63% of our expenditure back, have a brighter, safer space, and lowered our carbon footprint and energy expense.

The next step is to let our light shine by teaching parishioners and neighbors how to cut their own electricity use. Many thanks to Craig for compiling the list (page 12) showing you where to find rebates for conservation measures at home and at church.

Ariel Miller serves as Junior Warden at Ascension and Holy Trinity. Contact her at arielmillerwriter@gmail.com.

New wine for old wineskins W

hen we think of creation care at Church of the Advent, Walnut Hills, we think of two main things: first, that we – our people, our building and our world – are all part of God’s creation, and if God created it, we should honor and take care of it. This gives us a really long view of our actions, since we expect the Church to be around for a LONG time. Second, we think of the potential for reducing our costs by operating our building and procedures to use as little energy as possible. This gives us more to spend on the work of the church.

Advent is an old inner city parish in the Walnut Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati. Our buildings date back from about 1860 to our most “recent” construction in the 1920s. It’s a large physical plant, (25,000 sq. ft) which is much larger than the current congregation needs. Not a good place to attempt energy savings, you might think, but you’d be wrong.

It’s actually a great place to work on because there’s so much room for improvement!

We started out our effort a few years ago by doing some-

thing really simple: looking at and recording our utility bills.

The fancy name for this is “benchmarking;” seeing how well you are doing in a specific area. There’s an old engineering mantra that goes, “if you can measure it, you can control it,” and benchmarking is the first step. We tracked our gas and electricity usage for three years (2013 through 2015) and learned some things. Principally, to our horror, that we were paying about $10,000 a year for electricity and $14,000 a year for gas (mostly heating).

Thus motivated, we did two things in 2015. First, we joined Ohio Interfaith Power and Light and got Craig Foster, Technical Consultant for OHIPL and a deacon in our diocese, to come and do a Level 1 audit of our buildings. The audit was very helpful; Craig’s report listed about a dozen recommendations, some of which we’ve completed, and some we’re still working on. OhIPL also reminds us to keep monitoring our utilities, and they provide a forum for questions to be asked and answered.

Our second action was to revamp our heating system, which Continued on next page Church of the Advent’s “Green Team” poses with its new hot water heating system. Left to right: Tom Williams, Don Osbourn, Tom Cunningham, the Rev. Stacy Salles, Ken Wright.

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Continued from previous page was an old, inefficient steam system. God was good to us, because it turned out that the husband of our deacon at the time was an HVAC engineer. Tom Williams sat down with our Green Team and laid out a number of choices and helped us through the bewildering process of selecting a new system. We were also blessed by the generous bequest of a devoted parishioner, Rick Wagner, which gave us capital to work with, and by a cooperative installer, Certified Boiler Repair. We ended up modifying our steam system to operate with hot water, and replaced our old steam boiler with two much smaller, more efficient hot water heating units. We also installed programmable thermostats. By fall of 2016 we were ready to turn on the new system and our gas usage this winter was about 60% of our historical winter average! (see chart) Comfort levels have been the same or better than for the old system.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY REBATES IN SOUTHERN OHIO Many gas and electric suppliers offer incentives to use energy efficient products. These web links will get you started. Make sure to look at the whole web page and follow all the instructions. Most of these links are for Residential Customers but all companies have commercial programs as well.

Contact Ohio Interfaith Power and Light for further help: http://www.ohipl.org/contact-us/ Duke Energy – Electric https://www.duke-energy.com/home/savings Vectren – Natural Gas https://www.vectren.com/Save_Energy/ Residential_Rebates_&_Incentives/Residential_ Rebates.jsp Dayton Power and Light – Electric https://www.dpandl.com/save-money/ Ohio Edison/First Energy – Electric https://www.firstenergycorp.com/save_energy/ save_energy_ohio.html

Gas use at Advent has shown a significant drop in 2017 since the installation of our new hot water heating system.

Through OhIPL we also learned about rebates for conversion to LED lighting, and a few months ago we had all our old lighting in our parish house converted to LED. Duke Energy paid for about 70% of that, leaving us only about $2,000 to pay.

What advice can we give to others? a) Start now; b) Even an old building can be made more efficient; and c) There are several valuable resources out there for congregations, including OhIPL. We recommend using them.

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Ken Wright serves as Junior Warden of Church of the Advent. He can be reached at pkenwright3@gmail.com.

AEP Ohio – Electric https://www.aepohio.com/save/residential/ programs/ Columbia Gas - https://www.columbiagasohio. com/ways-to-save Rural Electric Cooperatives – contact your local company or http://www.yourenergyadvisor.coop/saveenergy.php

You'll find all these links live at dsoConnections.org.

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“And it was good” – but not so much anymore!

od created the heavens and the earth and everything on it – and it was good (Genesis 1:1-25).

And then God created man and woman (Genesis 1:27) – to either ‘to work it and keep it’ (Genesis 2:15) or ‘have dominion over all’ (Genesis 1:28).

But, we, the people God created as part of His creation, have made a big mess of it. As world populations have grown, we have not been good stewards of our planet. We have polluted the air, dirtied the water, raped the earth and removed essential elements without concern for replacement and renewal.

The American Indians and many other people remind us that the earth does not belong to us; we are to preserve it (Genesis 2:15) and pass it on to our children. We have a responsibility to preserve both the Earth and everything in it.

However, we have treated the earth like it belongs only to us; many animals are becoming extinct and whole areas of the earth are no longer suited to grow the food needed to feed the people of the

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earth. There are millions of people in the world who lack clean drinking water; others are starving to death due to constant war and living habits that strip the earth of its nutrients suitable for growing food. Major corporations are appropriating clean water to bottle and sell at exorbitant prices. Global warming, accelerated by human activity, is destroying the world’s eco-balance and eliminating thousands of miles of shoreline.

We are in the midst of a crisis of our own making. But not is all lost – yet.

Creation is a process that is still happening. We can choose to repair creation or destroy all that is being created anew.

There are many things that we can do to stop earth’s decimation: 1.Look at your carbon footprint •Use less fuel – walk instead of drive •Open the windows instead of turning air conditioning on •Choose more fuel efficient automobiles •Support the development of clean alternative fuel sources 2. Go “green”

• Use renewable/reusable products •Participate in your local recycling program • Boycott genetically-modified foodstuffs •Use cloth shopping bags (or paper, but not plastic) • Buy locally-grown fruits and vegetables We are stewards of this world we live in, and it is time for us to take this responsibility seriously. God gave us this earth and we must care for it so that we can pass on to future generations the beauty and bounty that was given to us.

It is no longer someone else’s responsibility – it is ours! And the time is now!

The Rev. Deniray Mueller serves as the legislative liaison for the Diocese of Southern Ohio and convener of the Social Justice and Public Policy Commission. Contact Deniray at deniray@deniray.com.

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Wherever you are is home And the earth is paradise Wherever you set your feet is holy land . . .

You don't live off it like a parasite.

You live in it, and it in you, Or you don't survive.

And that is the only worship of God there is. ~ Wilfred Pelletier and Ted Poole (from Earth Prayers: 365 Prayers, Poems and Invocations from Around the World, p. 61)

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WATER Common good or commodity?

The demand for water is expected to increase 55 percent by 2030 and at the same time global water resources may only meet 60 percent of the world’s needs.

“Africa, India, the Middle East and Australia already are in crisis,” said Maude Barlow, a former United Nations senior advisor on water, and an author, political activist and policy critic. Some say “the solution to the water crisis is to commodify water,” she added, during a March 23 session on “Waters: Commons or Commodity” during Water Justice, a global conference taking place at Trinity Church Wall Street in New York City and webcast worldwide March 22-24.

The conference aims to offer actionable guidance for individuals, congregations and the larger faith community surrounding the need for water justice initiatives in areas of access, droughts, pollution, rising tides and flooding. Water Justice is the 46th annual conference organized by the Trinity Institute, past conferences have addressed racial justice and economic inequality.

If the Great Lakes, the largest surface freshwater system

on Earth, “were pumped as mercilessly as ground water, they would be dry in 80 years,” Barlow warned. Russia’s Aral Sea, once the fourth-largest freshwater lake in the world, is now 10 percent its former size. Half the waters in China, a water-rich country, have disappeared. Sao Paulo, the second largest city in the world, is drought-stricken because rapid destruction of the Amazon rainforest has decreased vapor clouds that used to carry water to central and south Brazil.

All of this, Barlow said, is happening as corporations, governments and the World Bank contemplate a global waters market, where water futures can be sold like oil and gas.

“Is it [water] a human right, a public trust or a private asset?” asked Barlow. “We have to fiercely protect it everywhere as a commons,” she said. “Water shouldn’t be put into the market. That doesn’t mean the private sector doesn’t have a role. But the central question is who owns water itself, and who has access to it and who does not, and in places around the world now this is a life or death situation.”

The United Nations says water is a human right, and Continued on next page

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Continued from previous page Barlow was instrumental in moving the intergovernmental organization to make that determination. On July 28, 2010, the U.N. General Assembly recognized the human right to water and sanitation and acknowledged that access to both are “essential to the realization of all human rights.” The resolution passed with 122 nations in favor, zero against and 41 abstentions, including the United States and Canada. (Both the U.S. and Canada have since adopted the resolution.)

Still, saying water is a human right doesn’t mean it’s protected or that everyone has access to it. As examples, Barlow mentioned Detroit and Baltimore, two cities that have turned off residents’ taps.

In Detroit, a financially strapped, hollowed-out inner city, residents’ water rates tripled and many poor people couldn’t afford to pay their water bills; in Baltimore, city officials maintained it was necessary to have a system in which everyone pays “their fair share.”

As Christiana Zenner Peppard, a professor at Fordham University, a theologian and freshwater expert, pointed out in her response to Barlow’s talk, a human being can survive less than seven days without water.

“Water is not replaceable by any other thing; it is the baseline for human, ecological and the planetary system,” she said. “You cannot talk about water and justice as two separate

things.”

In terms of religious values and water ethics, “it’s foundational to life and understood as finite,” and at least from the Christian point of view, access to water is caring for “the least of these.”

The Roman Catholic Church, she said, has been an advocate for water as a human right since the early aughts; in his encyclical on the environment, Pope Francis said that water shouldn’t be commodified.

The world’s water crisis manifests in many ways, from rising waters, to drought, to waters polluted by toxins, to the proximity of a drinking water source. Following Barlow’s talk and Peppard’s response, Trinity’s audience heard from three storytellers living on the frontlines of three different water crises.

Three years after the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, residents continue to rely on bottled water for their drinking and hygienic needs, said Nakiya Wakes, an activist and spokesperson for Flint Rising, a coalition of community organizations preparing Flint residents for the long-haul.

In April 2014, under the leadership of an emergency manager and to save $5 million, the city’s water supply was switched from Lake Huron via Detroit’s municipal water system to the Flint River, a more corrosive source. At the same time, the emergency manager, seeking to save $100 a day, ordered that the water not be treated with a chemical to prevent lead from leaching out of the city’s aging pipes into the water running through them and destined for residents. The state had, mistakenly, told Flint officials that federal guidelines did not require the chemical treatment, according to the New York Times.

Almost immediately following the switch, residents began to complain about the water’s color, taste and smell, and the skin irritation caused by bathing in it, yet government officials maintained the water was safe. It wasn’t until January 2016 that a federal state of emergency was declared and residents were told to use only bottled or filtered water for drinking or bathing.

While still drinking tap water, Wakes miscarried twins, she said, and both her son and her daughter have elevated lead levels in their Continued on next page

Continued from previous page bodies; her daughter’s hair began falling out, her son has had behavioral problems, and both children had rashes on their bodies.

“We have been lied to for too long and we don’t trust our government,” she said. “Three years later we are drinking bottled water … we don’t have access to clean water in the United States of America. They call Michigan “Pure Michigan” and we are being pure poisoned.”

The Rev. Brandon Mauai, a deacon in the Diocese of North Dakota and a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Nation talked about the Episcopal Church’s support for the Standing Rock Sioux Nation as it and its allies fought against the route of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The 1,134-mile pipeline was originally routed near Bismarck, North Dakota, but changed after residents expressed concern an accident would contaminate the city’s drinking water. Instead, the pipeline crosses under the Missouri River at Lake Oahe, a reservoir that provides water for the Standing Rock reservation and others downstream.

In September 2016 federal officials stopped construction of the pipeline on lands bordering or under Lake Oahe belonging to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency responsible for permitting on public lands and waterways. In December, President Barack Obama blocked construction on the disputed segment of the pipeline.

In one of his first actions following his inauguration, President Donald Trump instructed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to move forward with the pipeline’s environmental review to speed up the process. On Feb. 8, the Corps gave permission to the company developing the pipeline to continue construction.

“That really deflated us on Standing Rock,” said Mauai.“But

I’m hoping this [conference] will raise awareness across the world because it’s not only happening at Standing Rock, there are other places where this is happening, in Navajoland and other reservations in the United States. And I’m hoping that Standing Rock made an impression, that people are going to say ‘Okay, this is huge because it’s a threat to the tribe’s water source and those around it.’”

Even if the oil is flowing through the pipeline, though, the story isn’t over, said Mauai. “We will continue to speak to whomever will hear us. The church will continue to take an active role, we were active in the cleanup … we’ll go forward whatever the tribe needs from us as a church we’ll be there to assist however we can,” he said.

Thousands of Episcopalians joined others in support of the Sioux Nation, most recently during March 10 Native Nations Rise demonstration and rally in Washington, D.C. Archbishop Winston Halapua, one of three primates of the Anglican Church in Polynesia and Aotearoa New Zealand, responsible for New Zealand-based Samoan, Tongan, IndoFijian, and Fijian congregations, talked about his childhood and growing up in Tonga, where his life was in sync with the tide cycle.

Sea-level rise continues to claim whole islands in the Pacific, where the Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia is establishing a “clear resilience strategy” to strengthen its response to future natural disasters in the Pacific islands.

“Water is a reflection of God; you and I don’t live without water,” said Halapua.

Lynette Wilson is an editor/reporter for Episcopal News Service.

This article was originally published March 24, 2017. www.episcopaldigitalnetwork.com.

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Stop: Renew a right relationship with Creation We are stardust, we are golden We are billion year old carbon And we got to get ourselves back to the garden Lyrics from “Woodstock,” written by Joni Mitchell

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s we move into the 21st Century, new technology in industry, travel and communications is being developed at a rapid pace. Advanced technology has enabled us to make precision measurement, to calculate monstrous data in microseconds; conversations are exchanged at lightning speed; we are caught in an avalanche of unfiltered information from all over the world – leading to a brain-freeze and personal stress. Technology is evolving at break-neck speed.

Unfortunately, the evolution of a healthy human response is dragging its anchor. Is there an escape hatch on this runaway train of technology?

Yes! Turn yourself away from the techno and cyber temptations and distractions. Stop. Now is the time to reflect upon the creation stories found in Genesis. The scripture underscores what God created us to be, for God has done marvelous things. Consider the certainty that our tradition reveals the gifts that set us apart from mere creatures – giving us remembrance, understanding and the ability to follow God’s desire.

Turn and realize that this is the time for everyone to renew a right relationship with Creation.

In the beginning, God created the sky, day and night, water and oceans, earth and plants, creatures and humanity to live together in harmony. On the sixth day, “God spoke, ‘Let us make human beings in our own image, make them reflecting our nature – so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle and, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of the Earth. God created human beings; he created them Godlike, reflecting God’s nature. He created them male and female” (Genesis 1:26-27). Humanity has been created by the Love of God to reflect the nature of God and given the responsibility to care for God’s creation. Genesis 2 reveals the intimate creation of humankind. Creation is a holy hands-on action by God, which

Photo courtesy of John Holliger draws humankind from dirt into a very close relationship with both God and earth. “God formed Man out of the dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life. The Man came alive – a living soul!” (Genesis 2:7). The earth is the root of our being. Born out of the dust of the earth, we share the lineage with all that has been created. We are one with the earth, the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. Our tradition proclaims the common gifts that God has given to humanity to set us apart from other creatures and enables humanity to carry out the work to care for creation. God “blessed us with memory, reason, and skill. [God] made us rulers of creation. But we turned against [God], and betrayed [God’s] trust; and we turned against one another (Eucharist Prayer C, The Book of Common Prayer, page 370).

Now is the time to stop, turn around and renew a right relationship with Creation.

Continued on next page

Continued from previous page According to William P. Brown in The Seven Pillars of Creation: The Bible, Science and the Ecology of Wonder, (Oxford Press, 2010) if the time span of creation, in the universe to the deepest dark depths of the Earth’s oceans, is scaled to a period of one year, humanity first appears on Earth twenty seconds before midnight on the last day of the year.

We have been on this planet for a very short time in comparison to the period when all the rest of creation appeared.

Remarkably, within the short time left on the clock, we are witnessing the destruction of the environment created for us. Ongoing pollution of the air, water and soil not only has injured the health of all of God’s creation but also has broken our right relationship with Creation and God.

Reprinted with permission, King Features Syndicate.

Whether people proclaim that God created this world in six days or embrace the theory that the Earth was created over fourteen billion years, everyone can admit that a lot of divine love and energy have been expended to create this planet that supports our existence. A lot of energy and the use of our memory, reason and skill have produced many life-giving achievements. Technology indeed has made our lives easier.

But, new iPhones, electronic gadgets or Xboxes can distract us from immediate concerns and important relationships.

For example, the cell phone has become an appendage of our being. We cannot leave the house without it. It is within an arm’s reach wherever we are. Cell phones are ringing in movie

theatres, in stores, during public meetings and church services and during our private quiet times.

In Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods – Saving our children from Nature-Deficit, (Workman Publ. Co. 2005) Harvard professor Edward O. Wilson points out that human beings are innately attracted to nature. Biologically, we are all still hunters and gatherers, and there is something in us we do not fully understand that needs immersion in nature.

I suggest that the need for our immersion in nature is driven by the intimate relationship we have with the soil, the dust from which we were first created. The need for our immersion in nature is our response to what we share with the created order and to God’s imperative for us to be good stewards of the Earth.

Remember the time when outdoor play was the norm? Many people tell stories about their childhood, about the tree house or fort, the special woods or ditch or creek or meadow where they played or had wonderful adventures. These have become special places where people may have had their first sense of awe and wonder about the greatness of the world, seen or unseen. But the times are a changing. Middle school children were interviewed in San Diego and asked to describe their favorite playground. The pupils all agreed that their favorite playground is a room filled with electric sockets on the walls – a place to plug in all their electronic devices and games easily. Conclusion: A child in nature is an endangered species, and the health of children and the health of the Earth are inseparable; the same holds true for adults. Direct exposure to nature, whether you are young or old, is essential for good physical and mental health and for development at all ages.

Go outside! Put down the book, place the cell phone in your pocket or purse, and turn off the smart screen and computer.

Go outside! Take an outdoor Sabbath. The garden waits. Feel the soil between your figures and toes – the dirt from which we were first created. Breathe in fresh air. Enjoy the gift that surrounds you. We have been created to reflect God’s nature.

God first created us to be stewards of creation; and with God’s help, “we got to get ourselves back to the garden”.

(Scripture passages from from The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language, Eugene H. Peterson, NavPress, 2002) The Rev. Frank Edmands is a retired priest of the diocese. He is a GreenFaith Fellow and chair of the Episcopal Ecological Network. Frank also serves on the boards of Ohio Interfaith Power and Light and Procter Center. Contact Frank at fedmands@sbcglobal.net.

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Go Native!

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t seems that spring is here to stay and I long to go out and get in the dirt! It’s time to start thinking about what to plant in your garden. We all love a pop of color and annuals are a great way to get that. But let’s think more long term about the flower selection for our garden. There is no more land being made, so each of us can create a healthy habitat just by the plants we choose for our gardens. What you choose can make big difference for birds and other wildlife.

At the Procter Center, we have made a concerted effort to transform our gardens with native plants. From the front beds to the side courtyards, you can find a plethora of native plants. Each is labeled with the common and scientific name, so if you see one that you like you can make a note of it and plant it in your garden.

As we think of our great earth and the challenges she faces with an ever-growing human population and climate change, we must act not only for the sake of the planet but for our future generations as well. One area of concern is for pollinators. They are vitally important to our eco-system and our food source and I encourage you to do all you can to support them. One way to do that is to embrace native plants.

You will be blessed with the presence of bees and butterflies in your garden. Some great native plants for pollinators are Wild Bergamont (Mondara fistulosa), Scarlet Beebalm (Monarda didyma), Sweet-Scented Joe-Pye-Weed (Eutrochium pupureum), Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), BlackEyed-Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), Eastern Purple Cone flower (Echinacea purpurea) to name a few.

Why do native plants matter anyway? Naturalist Marina Richie explains in an article for the National Audubon Society, "Why Native Plants are Better for Birds and People," “More native plants mean more choices of food and shelter for native birds and other wildlife.

To survive, native birds need native plants and the insects that have co-evolved with them. Most landscaping plants available in nurseries are exotic species from other countries.

Many are prized for qualities that make them poor food sources for native birds – like having leaves that are unpalatable to native insects and caterpillars. With 96 percent of all terrestrial bird species in North America feeding insects to their young, planting insect-proof exotic plants is like serving up plastic food. No insects? No birds.

For example, research by entomologist Doug Tallamy has shown that native oaks support more than 530 different species of butterflies and moths alone. The non-native ginkgo tree supports just three. Caterpillars are the go-to food source for migrant and resident birds alike. In the 16 days between hatching and fledging, a clutch of Carolina Chickadee chicks can down more than 9,000 of them.”

The article goes on to tell us that by using native plants, we can create a better world for people, save water, control flooding, use fewer chemicals, reduce maintenance and create beauty. Who wouldn’t want to do that? By taking this small step you can make a big difference for you and your loved ones, future generations and wildlife.

To learn more, go to Audubon.org and search native plants.

If you would like to attract birds to your yard, Audubon has a great database where you can search birds, native plants and where to buy them by zip code.

At the Procter Center we are committed to creating habitat for birds and other wildlife as well as creating a sustainable future for the Center. Watch as we reduce the grass that is mowed by creating a beautiful habitat for all to enjoy.

Amy Boyd serves as Executive Director at Procter Center. Contact Amy at aboyd@proctercenter.org.

Backyard BIodiversity Imagine a backyard that’s less work, grows food and is good for the environment. Biodiversity is simply an ecosystem that supports a wide array of life. Here’s the catch – it needs to be plants and animals that are native to the area where you live. The loss of biodiversity across the globe is causing extreme environmental problems as well as creating health problems for humans.

We all must be committed to doing whatever we can to stop the destruction of ecosystems around the world, and there is something easy we can do and it starts in our own backyards. Chances are, if you are like most Americans, then your yard is completely wrong for where you live.

We mow, fertilize, weed and spray herbicides to have a lawn filled with plants that don’t belong there. We work very hard to keep nature out of our well-manicured lawns. I’ve wanted to explore biodiversity for my own backyard for years, but I felt overwhelmed and didn’t know where to start. Then I attended a lecture at the Cincinnati Civic Garden Center by Solomon Abbay Gamboa of Indigenous Landscapes, a local biodiversity expert. Solomon was kind enough to let us use his diagram (next page) that outlines how to create a biodiverse backyard ecosystem. All the plants he recommends are native to Southern Ohio. ~ David Dreisbach

"We often try to quantify the value of biodiversity with the number of potential medicines, foods, and 'ecosystem services' like clean air, and clean water. What's also important is the unquantifiable; watching uncountable vibrant life forms be born, dance, and transform. Having the opportunity as child or adult to nurture the earth while nurturing ourselves as we pick the many fruits of the kind of labor that flows with nature and her laws.

That means working with indigenous plants that not only support our health with beauty, life lessons, fruits, shoots, leaves, seeds, and roots, but also support our greater biological community who share indigenous bonds and interdependency. Don't take my word though, plant a garden of indigenous plants and see how it enriches your life."

- Solomon Abbay Gamboa Indigenous Landscapes

Passionflower. Anti-anxiety herb (Stems/leaves), use 3-8 grams of dried herb brewed below boiling for 12-15 minutes taken on an empty stomach. If you have dried stems, boil for 5 minutes, either air or oven dry, and smoke with 1 to 2 inch of stem doses at a time for instant anti-anxiety effect. As with nearly all herbs, shouldn’t be used daily nor long term.

biodive

abbreviated P.F on the diagram Elderberry. The bundles of berries have medicinal qualities, wine potential, and can be a very enjoyable fruit when sweetened. Very ornamental and fast growing with large flat white flowers in June. abbreviated E.B on the diagram Chesapeake Blackberry Patch. A completely sweet, non-tart blackberry that rivals store bought blackberries. abbreviated C.B.P on the diagram

f o h c t e k s s ’ n o m Solo to build a one waryse backyard biodive hern Ohio. in Sout

Chinese Chestnuts. The nuts are sweet, and considered by some to have the best taste of any chestnut.

Chinese chestnuts have evolved over a long period of time in coexistence with the bark fungal disease chestnut blight and have evolved a very successful resistance to the blight. abbreviated C.C. on the diagram

ersity

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Wild Plum. This species is highly ornamental, attracts a ton of pollinators in late March/early April, and typically have good to great quality fruits. These are small trees about the size of redbuds that can create thickets through runners like sumacs. Fragrant blooms in the spring. abbreviated W.P on the diagram

Hybridized Hazelnuts. Large shrubs that produce larger nuts with thinner shells with the disease resistance and hardiness of the American Hazelnut. Looks similar to the straight species American Hazelnut. abbreviated H.H. on the diagram

Pawpaw. A small tree that produces mango-shaped, banana-like fruits with non-edible seeds inside. The pulp is the prize. Use like bananas in all recipes. abbreviated P.P. on the diagram

The ground cover around the circle areas is a mix of native wildflowers and grasses to create the basis of the low maintenance landscape. The proper mix should only need to be mowed down once a year in the fall.

Yates Persimmon. Medium sized tree. Bears fruit within 3-5 years. Ultra drought, wind and heat tolerant. For wildlife, plant straight species Persimmon, for food production choose cultivars such as “Yates” or “Prok”. abbreviated Y-P on the diagram

GABRIEL’S PLACE

EDUCATES AROUND CREATION CARE

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abriel’s Place is a nonprofit urban farm located in the Avondale neighborhood of Cincinnati. Avondale is home to 12,500 predominantly African American residents, 42% of whom live below the poverty line. Gabriel’s Place’s mission is to provide a safe, beautiful and spiritually-nourishing place for residents of Avondale to gather in mutual respect to learn, interact and promote peace in the community.

Avondale is a notorious food desert, where it can be especially challenging for our low-income neighbors to access healthy foods to nourish themselves and their families. So at Gabriel’s Place, we focus primarily on providing healthy, sustainable and affordable food for the surrounding community. We address this food insecurity through our ¼-acre garden, the fresh produce that we sell at our marketplace and cooking classes that are open to local community members.

Involving volunteers and community members in our garden is one way in which we foster concern for the environment and encourage hands-on interaction with the outdoors. Farm Manager Dan Whorton teaches monthly gardening classes and welcomes community members to drop by and talk gardening with him. He also partners with an organization called Stepping Stones to introduce adults with developmental disabilities to farming and to give them the benefits of working closely with the earth. They help to plant seeds, re-pot seedlings and tidy the garden. Neighborhood kids drop by to visit the garden and ask if they can pick up our chickens. Other volunteers come and help us harvest produce for our

community dinners. Being outside and engaged in hands-on gardening is good for our volunteers’ mental and emotional wellbeing, and also allows them to see the earth-friendly farming practices we use – such as composting, vermicomposting (composting with worms) and avoiding the use of herbicides and pesticides.

Another way Gabriel’s Place fosters connection to the earth is through teaching cooking classes and demonstrating delicious, plant-based meals at our free community meal, called Share A Meal.

We use fresh produce harvested from our garden and serve the meal restaurantstyle in an elegant dining area. We demonstrate that plant-based meals can be delicious, as well as nutritious. We also equip our neighbors with skills to prepare meals for themselves from fresh produce at our four-week cooking classes.

Gabriel’s Place also offers an eight-week program every summer where local high school students learn about farming and cooking. Past students have gone on to study culinary arts at the Midwest Culinary Institute at Cincinnati State.

Executive chef Michael Vinegar recently partnered with Lighthouse Youth Services to teach a six-week introductory cooking course to the youth with whom they work.

Finally, Gabriel’s Place makes fresh produce available and accessible to our neighbors through our marketplace. We sell organic produce that we have raised on our farm or purchased from local farmers. We price our produce at markedly affordable rates to make it accessible to our neighbors, and we accept payment with EBT and WIC. Founded initially by the Diocese of

Southern Ohio, Gabriel’s Place is now an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit, located in the former St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church at 3618 Reading Road in Avondale. Wanting to keep an Episcopal ministry present in Avondale when St. Michael’s closed its doors in 2008, the diocese worked with community leaders and a coalition of other local partners to create Gabriel’s Place.

Executive Director Trazana Staples occasionally speaks at churches in the diocese about the work that happens at Gabriel’s Place. If you would like to invite her to speak at your church, contact her at executivedirector@gabrielsplace. org. We welcome volunteer help in our kitchen and garden. If you would like to volunteer at Gabriel’s Place, contact Azizah Hillman at marketplacecoordinator@gabrielsplace.org.

Hanna Kahler is a Brendan’s Crossing Fellow serving at Gabriel’s Place.

Contact her at info@gabrielsplace.org. Learn more about Gabriel’s Place at www.gabrielsplace.org.

Prayer Bees

Four years ago, a friend asked me if I would be willing to have a honeybee hive placed in my backyard as part of a project called Bee Compassionate. My yard was one of several places selected for research on hives in suburban environments. Given the man-made toxins on lawns and in flower beds and the growing fear of colony collapse, the question was: could bees thrive in these conditions?

“Sure,” I said casually, “you can put a hive in my yard.

What do I have to do?” “I’ll tend to them for the first month,” she said. “No worries. You can watch and learn.” I was fine with it. It’s always good to learn new things. Before the first month was over, my cavalier attitude quickly changed as I got to know the bees, living in plentiful supply in my yard. After two months, I wondered why it took me so long to realize the wonders of these creatures.

While the more experienced beekeepers were charting the progress of my hive, I was enjoying spiritual renewal from watching the creative process of these pollinators in community. The hive community is amazing! So much can be learned about faithful living from these insects: commitment, loyalty and work ethic, to name a few.

My fascination gradually turned to reverence. I found myself moving my yard chair closer and closer to the hive.

While I was given books like Beekeeping for Dummies, I was drawn to reading The Bees, by Laline Paull, a novel personifying the bees and their tasks, and The Shamanic Way of the Bee, by Simon Buxton, outlining the mystery and spiritual connections between bees and humans. All of this appealed to my natural reaction to these beings as harbingers for the holy, a breathtaking example of ancient wisdom and my most productive visual prompt for contemplative prayer.

There is so much history and legend associated with honeybees, replete with symbolic meaning and mystery. One of the most compelling images comes from an account of Jesus’ crucifixion. Legend has it that as Jesus wept, his tears morphed into honeybees, scattering and flying heavenward.

Resurrection, indeed. Honeybees have often been associated with deities of love. In fact, St. Valentine is said to be the

Jean's beehive. Photo provided.

patron saint of beekeepers. This makes sense to me. For something that started out as a favor to a friend has turned into a source of wisdom and a compelling outlet for prayer. I have been transformed by the beauty of these gifts from God. Check to see if your community supports beekeeping. It’s not legal everywhere yet. The stewardship of honeybees is so important in this complicated world. There are things we can do in good faith to promote the care of our earth! Pollinators are critical to sustaining natural ecosystems, assisting in the reproduction of plant life and food growth. Our advocacy and actions make a difference! And, to me, beekeeping is a particularly holy choice!

Jean Howat Berry is the Director of Formation and Communications at St. Paul’s, Dayton. Contact Jean at jean@ stpauls-dayton.org.

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c mmunity Cycle of Care: Co-creative relationships in

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ake a moment to think about your childhood and the first time you felt independent and free. Seriously – Close your eyes and rediscover that moment and the freedom in it. Was there a bicycle involved? Was your bike the vehicle used to experience a bigger, more awe-inspiring world?

Franklinton Cycleworks (FCW), a non-profit bicycle co-op, takes the freedom and empowerment associated with childhood bicycling and translates it into the adult world. FCW is dedicated to empowering people to get where they want to go, both around town and in life. Located in Franklinton, an under-resourced neighborhood of Columbus, FCW believes everyone is valuable (and valued by God) and has established an environment of dignity and respect regardless of someone’s past. FCW practices creation care by spending time with and showing care to the marginalized in God’s creation.

Since FCW’s founding in 2010, there has been stronger emphasis on people rather than bicycles. FCW seeks to build transformational community through addressing transportation needs and promotes healthy living by providing education, tools and space for bicycle repair and maintenance and fostering environmental sustainability.

Bikes are the means by which relationships begin within the walls of FCW. Patrons are far too frequently at-risk of homelessness or currently experiencing homelessness. FCW remembers the childhood freedom of bicycles and encourages community members to reinvent that freedom to pursue life-improving opportunities. In that way, FCW is a space of co-creation. FCW relies on the community to guide the co-op’s development as much as the Franklinton community relies on us for bike repairs and education.

FCW’s commitment to justice-oriented community development is exemplified (and renewed) by the Episcopal Church’s recent award of a Mission Enterprise Zone (MEZ) grant to

Franklinton Cycleworks to aid in furthering the realization of our vision of transformative community in the world. FCW has had a strong relationship with the Episcopal Church since early in its history. St. John’s, in the Franklinton neighborhood of Columbus, saw the beginnings of empowerment through teaching bicycle repair and called it of God. Since then FCW has been uplifted by St. John’s community, which serves as a source of guidance, wisdom and connectedness to a wider community.

Founding member and current Executive Director Jonathan Youngman is actively involved in the life of the church and feels consistently called by God into deeper relationship with frequent FCW patrons and volunteers. Jonathan receives life-giving hope and a deeper sense of renewed faith through relationships built within FCW’s walls and hopes for transformative community. FCW sought out the Mission Enterprise Zone grant to allow for more intentionality behind community formation and development within FCW programming.

Mission Enterprise Zones are intended to be evangelistic ministries based in communities with populations that are under-represented in the church. Brief, yet informative demographics of Franklinton include: a median household income of $19,200; 37.9% of Franklinton residents do not have a high school diploma; and 46.2% receive SNAP benefits.

FCW is not an organization that imposes an agenda on residents, but meets residents on their own terms. As a result, FCW is an organization that Franklinton-ites feel intimately drawn toward. Through the invitation to perform bike maintenance in a co-learning, co-creative environment, residents are brought into social relationships. In these relationships, residents meet each other's needs that would otherwise fall to the wayside and be left unfulfilled. Caring for a bicycle empowers residents to care for themselves in other ways, which can create a sense of stability. FCW welcomes everyone to the table

Our volunteers show week in and week out Franklinton Cycleworks is about more than bikes. Photo by Josiah Bremer.

and addresses transportation barriers in a supportive environment that meets needs for social belonging.

FCW is incredibly grateful for the opportunities for community growth that will be presented by the MEZ grant.

Additionally, Bishop Breidenthal has graciously provided matching funds of $20,000 to FCW as it seeks to live the Gospel in the streets of the Franklinton neighborhood.

True community building and creation care is about inviting everyone to the table, and hosting a potluck in which everyone shares their gifts. As such, FCW wants to extend an invitation to you to join us in the co-creation of transformational community and to share in the stories of unexpected communal love and communal growth. If you’d like to learn more about FCW or how your congregation might co-create community with FCW, please contact Jonathan Youngman.

Prayers for continued growth and love for all of the past,

present and future volunteers and patrons at FCW are also appreciated. FCW is an imaginative space where the environment and people, especially those most ignored in society, receive the love and care they deserve. The initiatives that will be implemented because of the grant award will continue to serve all of God’s creation.

This piece was co-created by Episcopal Service Corps Confluence Year member Steven Simpkins and Franklinton Cycleworks Executive Director Jonathan Youngman. For further conversations or more information, contact Jonathan at info@franklintoncycleworks.org or Steven at simpki_s1@denison.edu.

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Youth working in the Harvest for Hope garden.

Photo by Alan Armitage.

GROWING F

FOOD 28

JUSTICE

or eighteen years, the St. Paul’s, Dayton, Youth Mission trip has been out of town.

Traditionally it has been a summer week away, for nine years in Athens County and for nine years in the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee. The work in those areas was hard-core, truly dedicated service and formative fellowship. But this year, our week away will be local – into the inner city of Dayton to understand more clearly the issues of hunger in our city. Our mentors will be staff and volunteers of three non-profits that work for food justice every day: House of Bread, the Food Bank of Dayton and Harvest for Hope Gardens.

“Mission trip experiences help move people beyond the abstract to empowerment,” says St. Paul’s rector, the Rev. John M. Atkins. “When given hands-on opportunities intended to heighten awareness of human need, participants discover their own abili-

ties for making realistic and significant changes in our world.

Through these experiences, God's call for justice and our Christian witness come together, and that's exciting.”

Dayton is among the top 15 hungriest cities nationwide.

That’s a rather shocking statistic! The Food Bank in Dayton provides emergency food for an estimated 70,000 different individuals annually. 40% of those people are children under 18. Dayton Episcopal Food Pantry is one of over 100 partnering agencies that purchase resources from the Food Bank.

St. Paul’s and the other Episcopal Churches in the area collect food for DEFP. Our pantry is a USDA operation, serving anyone in need twice a month. DEFP is non-zip code specific, which allows more flexibility of service.

This summer, we’re sending young members of the parish out to do further research: how do hungry people access food in Dayton and how much of this food is fresh produce? If food is fresh, are instructions given for preparing it? How many people take advantage of prepared meals at House of Bread or another source? Our goal is to get to know the problem, using Dayton as a model community, in hopes of increasing awareness and inspiring donations of money, food items, fresh produce, development of community gardens, additional outlets for accessing food supplies and more.

House of Bread has incredible volunteer participation. Good thing, given their mission: serving a hot, nutritious, lunchtime meals to anyone in need, 365 days a year. Most days, they serve over 200 guests. In the last two years, volunteers have built raised garden beds behind the HOB building in order to supply fresh vegetables during the summer months.

St. Paul’s families will participate in utilizing those beds this year, including spring cleanup, seed sowing, maintaining beds and harvesting food for the HOB’s daily meals. We hope to work with other groups on this project, sharing experiences in the garden to encourage more volunteerism outdoors.

Harvest for Hope is a relatively new non-profit community garden. Their goal is to grow and harvest food in support of hungry families in Dayton. Last year, much of the food grown was donated to House of Bread and Dayton Episcopal Food Pantry. This three-acre garden is a long, narrow slice of land, nestled in a neighborhood in northwest Dayton. It has drawn many local youth with an interest in helping out. Several organizations, including St. Paul’s, hope to come together as an interfaith community to populate the garden with volunteer youth and friends to build community for youth across the city. Discussions have included ideas for construction of a com-

munity pavilion for education, sponsoring interfaith collaborative projects and even offering cooking demonstrations from the garden harvest. There are so many ways that growing food, collecting food and preparing food can feed a community, physically and spiritually.

This work is familiar to St. Paul’s families. We have been giving food donations for many years. In 2016, we received a generous gift from a parishioner – bags with a pantryshopping list printed on the side – to help families remember the pantry on grocery day with donation of specific food items.

This has boosted our donated food quantities quite a bit! Our youth group has served at House of Bread for several years, giving their all and having fun doing it! All leftover food from St. Paul’s events is donated to St. Vincent de Paul or similar.

But this summer we’ll be moving from involvement to immer-

St. Paul's youth will spend their mission time this summer learning about hunger in Dayton and helping care for their most vulnerable neighbors sion, educating our youth and families with formative experiences that promote the dignity of every human being. Sad to say, most cities have a hunger problem to solve. Wherever our teens reside throughout their lives, there will be need. The availability of healthy food and clean water are among the most essential ministries to the people of any community, honoring our charge to love our neighbors.

Our mission trip will take place the week of July 10-14. We would like to invite youth from around the diocese to join us for this mission, particularly those from congregations in the Dayton region. We are in this community together, realizing God’s mission a little at a time.

“Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40 Jean Howat Berry is the Director of Formation and Communications at St. Paul’s, Dayton. She believes gardening to be a gateway to “the beloved community.” Contact Jean at jean@stpauls-dayton.org.

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From Chavez to CIW: The intersection of creation care and farmworker justice Workers run to throw full 32-lb tomato buckets up into a truck, where they will then be handed a token that represents the fact that they’ve harvested one bucket. Workers are generally paid by the bucket, and before the Fair Food Program, a worker would need to harvest upwards of 150 buckets in a day — or one every approximately 4 minutes — to make minimum wage. Photo courtesy of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

C

esar Chavez, legendary labor leader and co-founder of United Farm Workers, was a person of deep faith who practiced nonviolent action in search of justice for farmworkers. Committed to the teachings of Jesus and inspired by the work of Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he mobilized workers, students, religious groups and consumers to peacefully secure higher wages, safer working conditions and better legal protections for those in the fields. Beyond the traditional tactics of pickets, marches, boycotts and strikes, Chavez’s spirituality also led him to engage in the discipline of fasting as a prayerful act for the farmworker movement and declaration of non-cooperation with those who profit from the exploitation of farmworkers.

In the summer of 1988, Chavez engaged in a 36-day “Fast for Life” in response to the harmful impact of pesticides on farmworkers and their families. Regarding his purpose, Chavez said, “During the past few years I have been studyContact: Andrea Foote, Interim Camp ing the plague of pesticides on our land and our food. The evil 30 Director afoote@proctercenter.org

is far greater than even I had thought it to be, it threatens to choke out the life of our people and also the life system that supports us all.”

Through this spiritual act, Chavez firmly linked the work of creation care with that of farmworkers’ rights.

Decades after Chavez’s fast, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) continues to collaborate with farmworkers, students, people of faith and consumers for justice. Founded in 1993, the worker-based human rights organization and its allies utilize the same nonviolent tactics and discipline of fasting to secure dignity and rights for farmworkers. CIW’s anchor initiative, the Fair Food Program, which is a unique partnership among farmworkers, produce growers and participating retail buyers, has lifted wages, improved working conditions, reduced exposure to chemical fertilizers and pesticides and put an end to widespread sexual harassment, forced labor and other abuses for tens of thousands of farmworkers who pick tomatoes, peppers and strawberries in seven different southern states.

While these successes are significant, there is still much work to do. Agriculture fields across the United States are still doused with chemicals. In Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges says, “Growers saturate the soil with chemical fertilizers. More than one hundred herbicides and pesticides are used to prevent fungal diseases, weeds, disease spores, and nematodes. These chemicals often accompany the produce to the supermarket shelves. Some are highly toxic, known to cause damage to the brain and nervous systems.” Thousands of farmworkers also are still not protected by the Fair Food Program and thus do not receive fair wages, safe working conditions and other basic rights it affords. According to Hedges, “Harvesting tomatoes and other produce from the nation’s agricultural fields is arguably the worst job in the country…. There are weeks with no work and no wages…. Workers must bend over plants for hours in blazing temperatures…. They often endure verbal and physical abuse from crew leaders. Women suffer sexual harassment…. The meager pay, along with endemic wage theft and systemic minimum wage violations, keep the majority of workers below the poverty line.”

More than a decade ago the Episcopal Church declared its commitment to the struggle for farmworker justice when the Executive Council adopted a resolution to support the Alliance for Fair Food – a national network of people working in partnership with the CIW for farmworker justice – that calls on the church to “…promote principles and practices of socially responsible purchasing in the corporate food industry in order to advance the human rights of farmworkers by (1) encouraging study and appropriate action on these matters by missions, parishes, dioceses, and provinces of the Episcopal Church; and (2) urge the church at every level to respond to possible calls for boycotts and other actions, shareholder resolutions, and peaceful public witness as means of advancing the goals of the resolution.” During last year’s convention, the Diocese of Southern Ohio affirmed this commitment when it passed a resolution (see box) in support of the CIW’s national boycott of Wendy’s – the Columbus-based fast food chain that has moved its tomato purchasing to Mexico in lieu of joining the Fair Food Program. Just a few short weeks ago members of St. John’s Church in Franklinton were part of a group of 19 students and community members who engaged in a week-long fast to be in solidarity with farmworkers and urge The Ohio State University to cut its contract with Wendy’s as the institution promised to do if the fast food giant failed to join the Fair Food Program.

As the intersectional struggle for justice continues, clergy and parishioners must further engage in what Chavez called a “multitude of simple deeds for justice.” For some, that may mean taking the pledge to boycott Wendy’s, delivering a letter

to a local store manager or showing support for the boycott on social media. For others, this may mean organizing with the CIW, engaging in peaceful public witnesses or participating in an extended fast. Whatever the deed, each is a powerful act of solidarity with farmworkers and helps advance the intersectional struggle for justice that makes another world possible.

Patrick Kaufman is a community organizer who lives and works in Franklinton. For nearly a decade, he has engaged in communitybased food systems work with his neighbors to overcome the economic, environmental, and social injustices they experience and to build an equitable community for all people. Patrick currently serves as Mission Council Member at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Project Coordinator of MTSO’s Community Food and Wellness Initiative, Program Developer of Franklinton Gardens, Voting Member of the Franklin County Local Food Council, and Member of the Greater Columbus Growing Coalition. Contact Patrick at Patrick_kaufman@hotmail.com.

R2016-3: Resolution in Support of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers Wendy’s Boycott WHEREAS, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, an award-winning farmworker-based human rights organization, has taken on the giants of Big Agriculture and built a new system of labor protection called the Fair Food Program, and WHEREAS, in five short years since its implementation, the Fair Food Program has prevented modern-day slavery and sexual violence, improved farmworker wages, and guaranteed basic safety protections for workers, and WHEREAS, the penny-per-pound Fair Food Premium is received annually by approximately 35,000 farmworkers and their families (1), with participating companies having funneled over $20 million in Fair Food Premiums to improve workers’ wages since 2011, and WHEREAS, 14 major fast food and supermarket chains have signed on to Fair Food, including Taco Bell (Yum Brands), McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Chipotle, and WalMart, and WHEREAS, Wendy’s has sought to circumvent participation in the Fair Food Program by abandoning Florida to source its tomatoes from Mexico, buying tomatoes from a grower (2) whose labor camps are associated with extreme poverty, violent abuse, substandard housing, child labor and wage theft, and WHEREAS, The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is leading a nationwide boycott of Wendy’s, to pressure the fast-food giant to join its competitors and participate in a worker-led social responsibility system that links corporate accountability with labor justice from farm to table, and WHEREAS, the National Council of Churches endorsed the Wendy’s boycott last month, therefore be it RESOLVED that the Diocese of Southern Ohio endorse the Wendy’s boycott, and raise our moral voice to call on Wendy’s to protect the human rights of farmworkers by joining the Fair Food Program.

How I became an

ECO-ACTIVIST

The Rev. Meribah Mansfield kayaking in Florida, January 2017

W

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hen I decided to attend the weeklong Kenyon Conference in the summer of 2007, I just wanted to learn more about the UN’s Millennial Development Goals (MDGs). Instead I had a conversion experience.

The bishops of the two dioceses in Ohio sponsored the conference, held at Kenyon College in Gambier; Bishop Mark Hollingsworth of the Diocese of Ohio and our (then) brand-new Bishop Tom Breidenthal of the Diocese of Southern Ohio. It was cool to interact with the bishops in a casual setting, in their shorts and everyday shirts instead of voluminous liturgical vestments. It was a terrific conference. Expert speakers shared information and told stories that brought the eight MDGs alive. As the week went on, I felt called to address the suffering that was going on around the world. Though the MDGs mostly focused on alleviating extreme poverty outside

the U.S., I thought that I could at least work on MDG #7, “Ensure Environmental Sustainability.”

Near the end of the conference, I could see that there was no “call to action” segment on the agenda. I approached the two bishops as they were talking to each other to ask when they were going to issue a call to action to conference attendees. They looked at me and said simultaneously, “That’s your job, not ours. Our job is to make you aware of the needs of the world.”

Well, I asked, would it be OK to ask if there are others who would like to work together to figure out what we could do?

They agreed, and told me they would make an announcement after the Eucharist. But as the Eucharist ended, I could tell that they had forgotten. I felt the Holy Spirit pick me up out of my chair and walk me up to the podium, where I took the

microphone out of Bishop Breidenthal’s hand and announced to everyone that I would be at such-and-such place at suchand-such time if anyone wanted to talk about taking action on what we had heard all week. Then I walked back to my seat and wondered what had just happened.

Several of us did get together, one of which was Ariel Miller.

A couple of weeks later, I received an email from Ariel. She had heard that a nun in Cincinnati was working on starting an Ohio chapter of Interfaith Power & Light, and she gave me her contact information. Once again, I found myself going outside my boundaries and telephoning a nun out of the blue.

That nun was Sister Paula Gonzalez, the “Solar Nun” of the Sisters of Charity. She lit up my life and inspired me to get involved. (She was called the Solar Nun because she lived in a chicken coop that she had renovated into a solar-powered home and she drove a solar-powered golf cart around the convent grounds.) I was one of 17 people who attended the founding meeting of Ohio Interfaith Power & Light on October 13, 2007. I became deeply involved very quickly. A creation care activist was born!

Ohio Interfaith Power & Light works to empower a religious response to climate change and to promote energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy. We focus on tangible results in religious communities – putting our faith into action. I love that it is an interfaith effort to care for creation, because, as Pope Francis said in his encyclical Laudato Si, the precious Earth is our common home. I didn’t know anything about energy or greenhouse gas or climate change when I got involved. I only knew that God’s creation and all living things were threatened and I felt a moral calling to ensure a safe and livable planet for future generations. I want to leave my children and grandchildren and everyone else a beautiful world, with clean air and water and thriving ecosystems. It has been said that we don’t inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.

My action became very personal right after the conference. I could hardly bear to go to the grocery store because all I could think of when I saw the vast array of fresh produce was how many people in the world don’t have access to fresh, healthy food. I bought a hybrid car that October (and still have it). My husband, Bruce, and I changed our light bulbs to CFLs and later to LEDs. I learned about Energy Star appliances and about unplugging devices that use vampire power from electrical sockets when they’re not in use.

I don’t eat meat or dairy products, partly because of the huge amounts of harmful methane that those industries release into the atmosphere. We buy locally produced food as much as possible and subscribe to a weekly Franklinton Gardens CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share of produce in order to support local farmers. I spent four years

Left to right: The Rev. Meribah Mansfield, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, and the Rev. Dr. Tony Minor discussing climate change solutions in Washington, D.C., March 2017 helping Franklinton Gardens grow into a sustainable urban farm, so that people living in a food desert have access to fresh, healthy food. We made a loan to a local farmer so that he could buy a green bean picker. We’re intentionally investing according to our values in companies that improve quality of life, not in fossil fuel and other companies that harm the environment. Now we’re exploring options for installing solar panels to power our home by solar energy. When we visited our son and his family in Japan last year, we saw solar panels everywhere. It’s time for the U.S. to catch up with the rest of the world – maybe we’ll start a trend in our neighborhood.

Along this 10-year journey, I have made friends with caring people of many faiths. I have rediscovered my love of nature, instilled in me by my mother. My soul delights in God’s creation; flowers and trees, butterflies and birds, sunrises and sunsets, the moon and the stars, and water in lakes, rivers and oceans. I’ve even taken up kayaking. I’m still wondering what’s happening, and I’m still just going with it. Care for creation has deepened my relationship with God and with my neighbors, and filled my life with the Spirit. Thanks be to God! The Rev. Meribah Mansfield is a deacon serving at St. John’s, Columbus. She is chair of the board of Ohio Interfaith Power & Light. Contact Meribah at meribahmansfield@gmail.com.

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Opinion:

S Fossil fuel divestment the only way forward

cientific facts and studies tell us climate change, also called global warming, is impacting our environment.

The Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states: “Without additional mitigation efforts beyond those in place today, and even with adaptation, warming by the end of the 21st century will lead to high to very high risk of severe, widespread, and irreversible impacts globally.�

A large proportion of climate change is caused by the mining, extraction and burning of fossil fuels, which releases carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane into the atmosphere.

These chemicals cause the earth to retain heat and warm unnaturally. The only proven way to prevent this warming is to not release the chemicals in the first place. There are 2,795 gigatons of CO2 stored in proven reserves of oil, natural gas, and coal below ground. In order to limit global warming to 2 degrees C, we can only burn 1,000 gigatons of these reserves.

Energy conservation, energy efficiency, and the use of renewables like solar and wind are on the forefront of ways to reduce fossil fuel use. The other important strategy is to de-value the fossil fuel reserves by not investing in the 200 companies that own most of those reserves. If investors walk away from those holding fossil fuel reserves and instead invest in renewables and energy efficiency, we have a chance to prevent an untenable warming of our climate and the suffering that will result.

In the summer of 2015, the 78th General Convention of The Episcopal Church recognized this issue and passed Resolution C045 - Call for Investing in Clean and Renewable Energy.

This resolution called on “the Investment Committee of the Executive Council, the Episcopal Church Endowment Fund, and the Episcopal Church Foundation to divest from fossil fuel companies and reinvest in clean renewable energy in a fiscally responsible manner;” and to “refrain from purchasing any new holdings of public equities and corporate bonds of fossil fuel companies”. Unfortunately, the negotiations for this resolution excluded the Church Pension Fund assets of over $11 billion from the call to action. It is important for us all, as lovers of God’s Creation, to understand the importance of fossil fuel divestment.

The resolution also urged “all dioceses and parishes of the Episcopal Church to engage the topic of divestment from fossil fuels and reinvestment in clean energy within the coming year.” We as a diocese have had very little formal conversation on this topic, nor have we made a commitment to divest diocesan funds from fossil fuels. The Trustees for

the Diocese are charged, “to receive and invest funds given to the diocese as endowment.” The Trustees, who manage over $100,000,000 on our behalf, have committed to using Environmental and Social Governance guidelines when making investment decisions, and have invested an amount that is less than 5% of the total endowment in the Rockefeller Global Sustainability and Impact Equity Strategy toward that end. However, they are also taking the approach of “we prefer corporate engagement to divestment.” This is contrary to the leadership shown by the General Convention of The Episcopal Church.

It is time for us, as a diocese, to finish the discussions and take further action for the sake of our children, grandchildren and those throughout the world already suffering from the consequences of climate change. Toward that end, I recommend the following action steps: 1. If you have personal investments begin the research to divest of your energy stocks and set a plan and schedule to do so.

2. If your congregation has an endowment, ask questions about how the funds are invested and how Social and Environmental guidelines are used.

3. Engage the Trustees of the Diocese to ask them to help lead us to more just investment strategies. The financial consultants that assist the Trustees can do the research of how to make these transitions to the benefit of the whole diocese. Ask the Trustees about the results of their efforts at corporate engagement.

My wife, Kathy, and I have divested 65% of our investments and hope to have the final 35% divested by the end of the year. Will you join us in this effort to preserve God’s Creation?

Energy conservation, energy efficiency, and the use of renewables like solar and wind are on the forefront of ways to reduce fossil fuel use.

The Rev. Craig Foster, PE, is a deacon at St. John’s, Columbus, and Technical Consultant for Ohio Interfaith Power and Light. To learn more about divestment and the opportunities that exist, email Craig at cfos@columbus.rr.com

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A CALL TO ADVOCACY EDUCATE, ILLUMINATE AND ELEVATE

I

n telling my story about how I became a creation care activist (page 32), I shared how I felt a call to action to work for environmental sustainability and justice.

After 10 years in this ministry, I feel the “urgency of now,” to quote Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now is the time for all of us to act, for we are all stewards of God’s creation.

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba of Capetown stated at the Trinity Institute on Water Justice in March, “We have lived our lives assuming that what is good for us is good for the world. We must change our lives so that we live as if what is good for the world is good for us. We need to live for the good of community, not for our own personal end, living the ‘we’ instead of the ‘me.’” He called for courageous conversations in churches, urging us to “educate, illuminate and elevate.”

Educate our congregations about climate change and its effect on our world. Incorporate environmental justice into our Bible study and the education of our children. Illuminate our leaders and elected officials about the realities and consequences of climate change. Help them understand the gravity of the threat and work with them on solutions. And elevate awareness of this issue until we come together to work on it.

Makgoba said that we have separated the cry of the poor from the cry of the earth. Activists focus on Exodus and the need for liberation from oppression. The marginalized and the poor are affected first because they don’t have the resources to adapt their way of living. Those who are passionate about the environment focus on the beauty of creation and the need to protect it. Where is the critical breach that we all need to bridge, so that we can work together to find solutions?

Former senator Barbara Boxer and other speakers at the Trinity Institute laid out some of our challenges. Last year was the hottest year on record, for the third year in a row.

Weather extremes are causing devastating droughts, flooding and wildfires. Five hundred children die each day in sub-Saharan Africa from disease caused by lack of access to clean water.

Children were poisoned by lead in the water in Flint, MI, because community leaders put money before human lives. An algal toxin in Lake Erie contaminated the drinking water used

by Toledo and many of its suburbs in 2014, prompting the city to issue a “do not drink” advisory for three days.

The polar ice is melting quickly. Nine of the 10 worst storms in our country’s history have occurred since 2010. By 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in our oceans, when measured by weight. The sea level rose by one foot in the last century and is predicted to rise by six feet in this century. Large coastal storms such as Super Storm Sandy will increase, causing temporary flooding and destruction. The world’s major coastal cities are at risk of being permanently flooded. Contamination of our water supply from the chemicals used in our agricultural system negatively affects our health.

Crops are dying on a widespread basis. Birds must adapt their migratory patterns and thus fight harder for survival. This incomplete litany of disruption to life as living things have known it is just the tip of the iceberg, according to the experts.

As Archbishop Makgoba said, “We ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

Scientists are agreed that this dramatic shift in our climate is due in large part to human activity. So what can we do?

Educate, illuminate and elevate.

• Educate yourself about the issues and their language, and share your knowledge with others. Adapt your everyday behavior to reflect your love of God’s creation and your neighbor. Form a Green Team at your church. Ban the use of Styrofoam and plastic bottles at church and in your life.

Have energy audits of the church and your home, and use the results to take steps to reduce the carbon footprint of both.

Contact Ohio Interfaith Power & Light to learn about its programs and services.

• Illuminate your community leaders and elected officials about the serious issues that we face. Share your knowledge with them. Thank them for what they are doing to protect the environment. Ohio’s Senators Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman are fighting to restore funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), since its $300 million annual budget was zeroed out in the President’s budget request. Ask your senators and representatives to stand up for the EPA, to fight against its proposed 31% budget cut and the elimination of much-needed regulations to protect our air, water and land.

Advocate for the U.S. to remain in the Paris Agreement and to keep in place the programs and standards that will allow the U.S. to reach the goals it agreed to. Advocate for funding for wildlife refuges and conservation programs. Fight for whatever is dear to your heart.

• Elevate the conversation about climate disruption. Get together in small groups and work to raise awareness of issues that matter to your neighborhood and area, and mobilize people around them. Keep going until everyone believes that developing clean energy and protecting the environment are top priorities, until we all act as stewards of God’s creation.

Our work on creation care must be interfaith and bipartisan, because the Earth is our common home. Boxer said that her hope is with religious leaders. We are trusted and are not associated with politics. The urgent need to fight for God’s creation and all of its living things is a moral issue. It’s time for us to come together and have the political will to speak truth to power.

The Rev. Meribah Mansfield is a deacon serving at St. John’s, Columbus. She participated in the People’s Climate March in Washington, D.C. in April.

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Coalition of bishops issue statement in response to Trump’s executive order on climate change President Donald Trump on March 28 signed an executive order instructing regulators to rewrite rules aimed at curbing carbon emissions and other environmental regulations at the center of the previous administration’s policies to combat global warming.

A coalition of Episcopal bishops who have worked on environmental issues immediately issued a statement in response to Trump’s executive order.

“We know there is widespread support for the environment protections and measures that seek to curb climate change across the House of Bishops and in dioceses and congregations across the Church,” said California Bishop Marc Andrus, who drafted the statement.

Bishops from across the Episcopal Church have continued to sign on, including Bishop Breidenthal. The full list of signatories can be seen at episcopaldigitalnetwork.com.

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We live in a time of unprecedented global change spanning scientific discovery, technological innovation, and human development. This extraordinary moment offers an equally unprecedented opportunity to leverage our abundant resources for positive and scalable societal impact. As bishops of the Episcopal Church, we believe that climate change menaces the lifeblood of our economy, our national security, and the very future of humanity and that of many other species, and the United States of America must rise to the occasion to confront this enormous threat, assuming a leadership role in partnership with the community of nations. We consider this a matter of profound spiritual importance and a manifestation of our call to be stewards of God’s creation.

We are faith leaders who believe in the scientific community’s overwhelming finding that climate change is real, human-caused, and undeniably destructive to human society and the priceless ecology of our planet. To effectively address this threat, Americans must act at local, state, national, and international levels to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and support communities impacted by climate change. Since its founding, our great nation has rigorously strived to craft policy based on the best available science of our time. The Trump Administration’s unique departure from this tradition, through the rolling back of critical climate change policy,

endangers the lives of American citizens everywhere.

Climate change mitigation and economic productivity are mutually supported, interconnected goals, and by drastically curtailing our work on climate mitigation, President Trump’s Executive Order on Climate Change leaves America vulnerable to national security, economic, and environmental threats. As we witness the detrimental effects of climate change on national infrastructure, financial productivity, and global stability, we also recognize the inherent economic potential of clean and renewable energy technologies. International economic competitors like China are already seizing proven investments and energy development opportunities in wind and solar to challenge American energy production. Now is the time to look forward –not back –and channel the spirit of American enterprise to mitigate climate change while adopting and developing technologies that harness and sustain God’s creation.

We live in a moment that demands urgent action. In the Episcopal Church alone, our members are already experiencing hunger, drought, and human loss due to climate change.

From the Alaska Native Gwich’in hunter facing food insecurity as winter approaches to the Navajo grandmother praying for drought relief, Episcopalians are eager to confront our changing climate through local action and national policy.

While Obama-era policies can be improved under our current Administration, rolling back environmental safeguards without replacing them with strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions further exacerbates climate change’s impacts. As Episcopal bishops, we call on the Trump Administration to protect the American people through implementing, strengthening, and improving critical climate change policies in our national agenda, building an American dream that courageously confronts the climate crisis. As former Secretary of State and Episcopalian George Shultz said in November of 2016, we must act on climate change “for our children and our grandchildren,” for the generations who come after us on the Earth.

Published by Episcopal News Service, March 28, 2017, www.episcopaldigitalnetwork.com.

Videos WOULD YOU STOP EATING BEEF TO SAVE THE PLANET? CNN's John Sutter traces the carbon footprint of a plate of beef from the heart of Texas cattle country to a cornfield in Illinois. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HO70QhlpMU

AN OLD IDEA IS NEW AGAIN: WATER FOUNTAINS In the United States each year, consumption of bottled water averages 30 gallons per person, and increases 10% a year, even though plastic bottles are an environmental hazard and, in many cases, tap water is as safe, or even safer, to drink. Students at a high school in the Bronx are doing their part to reverse that trend by refurbishing the venerable high school water fountain. https://www.trinitywallstreet.org/trinity-institute/2017/videos You can find all of these live links online at dsoConnections.org

continue

the conversation

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FOSSIL FUEL DIVESTMENT 350: A global, grassroots climate movement www.350.org The Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment: Investing to Curb Climate Change: A Guide for the Institutional Investor www.ussif.org/files/Publications/Institutional_Climate.pdf

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RESOURCES

The Episcopal Ecological Network: http://www.eenonline.org

Ohio Interfaith Power & Light: http://www.ohipl.org Interfaith Power & Light: http:// www.interfaithpowerandlight.org Coalition of Immokalee Workers: http://www.ciw-online.org JustWater2017 Global Partnership: https://www.trinitywallstreet.org/ trinity-institute/2017/just-water

Power Shift: a network mobilizing the power of young people to mitigate climate change http://powershift.org/campaigns/divest

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Addiction + technology RevRN Reflections on Clergy Health

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onfession time – I do not like the movie Bambi. Never have, never will. Never watched it with my kids or grandkids. For me, it is just simply too sad. I do, however, love Thumper, the rabbit that is a friend to Bambi. In the spring a young man’s (or bunny’s) fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love. Thumper, in the movie, becomes endearingly “twitterpated.” Our society has become “Twitterpated,” but not endearingly so.

Twitter/tweet is rather getting out of hand for those other than our feathered friends. And this time, the bird (or tweet) in the hand does not beat two birds in the bush! Thanks to every ready technology, there is a lot of birdbrained activity going on that is hazardous to your health and mine.

Our local news station ran a segment on how many people have been killed while using a mobile device while walking or driving in the past year. You probably heard the recent tragic news of a bus/truck collision in Texas in which 13 innocent older adults were killed by the driver of the truck who was texting. And this – a girl texting on her phone in our local Kroger’s the other day and (wait for it…) she walked straight into my shopping cart and then got nasty with me for “hitting her with the cart and not paying attention!”

Students at our local colleges were interviewed by the news about walking and texting or reading things on their mobile devices. They readily admit that they walk out into traffic without looking for vehicles due to being so engrossed. One young woman was hit and was hospitalized because of that sort of activity. We teach our wee ones to look both ways before crossing the street. This is what we morph into because of addiction to devices?

This Lenten season is the first one that I can recall in my 12 years of ministry that people have acknowledged that they are giving up social media or some other mobile device function for Lent. Not just one or two, but several. Who, reading this, would admit that the first thing you do when awake is check your phone? Who, reading this, won’t get a bit short of breath at the prospect of going media free for 24 hours?

Mobile devices are now being blamed for neck problems and headaches. This malady is affectionately labeled “text neck.”

There is a column in our local paper entitled "Letters from Momma," dealing with God, life and faith. The author this week addressed the question, “Would we have Prayer Neck if we had our heads bowed in prayer as much as we do texting?” Well, now, there is something to ponder. (Not that we would try it.)

So, lest you think that I am a curmudgeon regarding mobile devices, let me assure you I have them all. I would be fibbing if I told you I do not use them a lot. However, in viewing life through the lens of addiction, perhaps it would behoove us to employ some common sense with our usage. Consider how much these devices are controlling our lives versus our controlling their use.

Scripture states that God’s people can be “stiff necked”.

(Exodus 32:9) Seems we come by that naturally. How much worse do we want to make it for ourselves?

The Rev. Ruth Paulus is priest and a registered nurse and serves as rector of St. Christopher’s, Fairborn. Contact her at revrn05@gmail.com.

CONNECTING –

We’re better together PROCTER WELCOMES NEW FARM MANAGER Procter Farm is pleased to announce that Bethany McCarty has joined the Procter staff as farm manager.

Bethany writes: I am excited to join the Procter team as the Farm Manager! I am a 2015 graduate of the Ohio State University, where I earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Agricultural Education.

Growing up, I was very involved in FFA, 4-H, and the Knox County Pork Council. These organizations led me to experience agricultural life by raising market hogs and broiler chickens to show at the Knox County Fair, educating the community about the pork industry, cultivating and harvesting a four-acre vegetable garden, and marketing and selling fresh, local produce every Saturday morning during the summer at the Mount Vernon Farmer’s Market. I am excited to use my education, experiences, and passion for agriculture for ministry and community outreach here at Procter.

Please join us in welcoming Bethany to the Procter team! You can contact Bethany at bmccarty@proctercenter.org.

Welcome Reed!

The Rev. Philip DeVaul, rector of the Church of the Redeemer, Hyde Park, and his wife Krista welcomed their third child, son Reed Baxter DeVaul, on March 31, 2017. Reed was 9 lbs.

4 oz. and 20.75 inches.

Congratulations to the DeVaul family!

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GARDENS A VISION AT ST. JAMES The grounds of St. James, Piqua, are a vision to see when looking at the church from a distance. The gardens in the spring and summer are full of life and vitality. As part of “Mainstreet Piqua,” some of our gardens are kept up by the city, with the help of our garden attendant, Marisa Littlejohn.

Marisa looks after the garden two or three times a week, picking up trash and cigarettes. She also does weeding, pruning and general upkeep of the gardens. Her husband Barney does the pruning of the trees and gardens under the watchful eye of his wife. All of the flowers and trees in the gardens are donated from the parishioners and families of St. James.

Visitors to the church often comment on how nice the gardens look and how well kept they are. Many brides have had pictures taken in the gardens and enjoy the look and feel of the experience. St. James also has a memorial garden where people can sit and think about whoever and whatever they would like – it is very tranquil. Anyone passing by can enjoy our gardens for some relaxing thoughts.

Submitted by Krista Abernathy

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Kids4Peace Interfaith Day Camp 2017

ids4Peace Cincinnati is pleased to announce the Second Annual Kids4Peace (K4P) Interfaith Day Camp July 31 to August 3, 2017. Camp will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. The program is open to current 6, 7, and 8th graders, based on the 2016-1017 school year.

Kids4Peace is an international interfaith youth movement that began in Jerusalem 14 years ago. Kids4Peace Cincinnati is proud to be one of eight American cities that sponsor local and regional camping experiences. We are one of the first to begin the day camp experience for local children. K4P’s mission is “to build interfaith communities that embody a culture of peace and empower movement of change.”

Organizational values include: DIVERSITY in family background, political perspective and religious practice EQUALITY among women and men, religions and cultures SENSITIVITY toward the pain, struggle and risk of living together SPIRITUALITY as a source of strength, courage and wisdom CONNECTIVITY across our global community RESPECT for the beliefs, and choices of others, including those most different Join us for this exciting opportunity to meet new friends, learn about other religions and cultures and make a difference in your community through a fun-filled curriculum that combines significant dialogue with games, art, music, sports and food. Your experience will take place in a variety of interesting locations: Monday, July 31 Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati 8092 Plantation Dr., West Chester Tuesday, August 1 St. Barnabas Episcopal Church 10345 Montgomery Rd., Montgomery OH Wednesday, August 2 Adath-Israel Congregation 3201 Galbraith Rd., Cincinnati Thursday, August 3 A day dedicated to community service Begin at the Clifton Mosque 3668 Clifton Ave., Cincinnati

2016 K4P campers at the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati.

Camp Director Natalie Shribman is a rabbinical student at Cincinnati’s Hebrew Union College. She has extensive experience working within a variety of camps, and has worked directly with religious youth and family educators.

You can contact Natalie at cincinnati@k4p.org with any questions.

Registration is now open through www.k4p.org, or from our Kids4Peace: Cincinnati Facebook page. Tuition is $150 per student. Monies are also available for scholarships as needed.

Judy A. Chamberlain, RN, MSN, is the Chapter Lead for Kids4Peace Cincinnati. She is a member of Christ Church Cathedral and can also be contacted for additional information at cjbconsultants@fuse.net.

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CONNECTIONS

The official publication of the Diocese of Southern Ohio www.diosohio.org

The Rt. Rev. Thomas E. Breidenthal, Publisher David Dreisbach, Art director Julie Murray, Editor Amy Svihlik, Designer Dave Caudill, Copy editor

Submissions: Connections encourages the submission of articles and pictures. We reserve the right to edit material offered for publication. All submissions must include name, phone and email address for verification.

Send submissions to communication@diosohio.org.

Next deadline: June 1

Connections (USPS 020933) is published bi-monthly by the Diocese of Southern Ohio, 412 Sycamore St., Cincinnati, OH 45202-4179. Periodical postage paid at Cincinnati, OH. This publication is sent to all members of Episcopal congregations in the Diocese of Southern Ohio and is funded by mission share payments to the diocesan operating budget.

Other subscriptions are $10 annually.

POSTMASTER: Send changes of address to Connections, 412 Sycamore St., Cincinnati, OH 45202-4179.