Winter Waters 2012 – February 18

faithenvironment — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:07:16 +0000

You are invited to

Winter Waters 2012

Saturday, February 18, 2012 – 6:30 to 10:00 pm

Celebrating the Spokane River,

Honoring our Watershed Heroes:

Mary Verner

distinguished Spokane Mayor and City Councilwoman 2004-2011

Deb Abrahamson

founder of the tribal grassroots environmental organization

S.H.A.W.L. Society

Winter Waters 2012 is a benefit to support the Spokane River advocacy of Sierra Club’s Upper Columbia River Group and Center for Environmental Law & Policy.

Patsy Clark Mansion, 2208 W. Second Ave., Spokane

Wine & Desserts, Silent Auction, Awards Ceremony

Tickets: $25.00

For tickets and information, call 509-209-2899

e-mail rsvp@celp.org

Interfaith Power and Light Offers Resources for Preach-In

faithenvironment — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 17:38:44 +0000

Register for Preach-In on Global Warming

Interfaith Power & Light (IPL) is inviting faith leaders from across the country to give sermons and reflections on global warming the weekend of February 10-12, 2012. As the date approaches, IPL will be offering a variety of resources free of charge to those who register, including:

Denomination-specific liturgical and thematic notes to help in the preparation of sermons, reflections, devotionals, Bible studies, and youth activities

Ready-to-go sample sermons on global warming

Global warming fact sheet and bulletin insert

Valentine’s Day postcards for policy makers

Free film: 30-minute DVD, Preaching for the Planet, normally $15, sent free of charge

Give a sermon or host a discussion

In addition to sermons and reflections, congregations can choose to screen the free film and host a discussion about putting faith into action. Resources will be available to those who register.

Send valentines to policy makers

Leading up to the event, participating congregations will receive Valentine’s Day postcards to mail in to their representatives, encouraging political leaders to love their neighbors and the Earth by supporting policies that protect climate and curb greenhouse gas emissions.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call your state Interfaith Power & Light leader or Andrée Duggan in the national office at 415-561-4891, or write to andree@theregenerationproject.org.

Visit our website to register today! There is no obligation and the program is free of charge.

Interfaith Power & Light • www.InterfaithPowerandLight.org

FEN Fall Event – November 8

faithenvironment — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 23:32:05 +0000

The Faith and Environment Network (FEN) has been working since 2005 to engage people and communities of faith in caring for creation. It has connected concerned people of faith with environmental organizations and provided education on environment issues.

FEN is at a point in its history at which the FEN board thinks a major evaluation and planning for the future should take place. If you are reading this we trust you are a person who cares about the environment; therefore, we invite you to participate with us and hope you will join us in initiating this process.

On Tuesday, November 8, 2011, from 6:30 – 9 pm, we will gather in the Guild Rooms at the Cathedral of St. John, 127 East 12th Avenue (corner S Grand and E 12th), for a public event to consider the future direction of FEN.

For these past six years FEN has operated with a small board of committed people and in three of those years with a part-time staff person. We have an annual Creation Care Conference in the Spring (the last few years in conjunction with an Earth Hour observance), and other educational and motivational offerings at other times. We have attempted to connect people and communities of faith with the work of other environment groups and their projects, and we have maintained an educational and informational website.

We who have served on FEN’s board are all also involved with other environmental groups. For us it is a commitment that grows out of our faith and spiritual commitments. There are some efforts by established religions and their judicatories to make connections between faith and care of creation, but we have seen very little effect on these fronts. There are a number of national and regional organizations doing this work as well. Our questions are (1) whether there continues to be a need for a local organization like FEN, and, if so, (2) what is the work we should be doing to promote and accomplish the agenda of responsible and faithful creation care by people of faith.

If you have questions about the event, you may contact Tom at (509) 607-7115 or Evita at (509) 220-6532.

Neighborhoods, Uplift, Permaculture and the Economy

faithenvironment — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 17:29:48 +0000

“Neighborhoods, Uplift, Permaculture and the Economy.”

This Presentation is the first evening of the “Inland Northwest Permaculture Convergence”

http://inlandnorthwestpermaculture.com/

Neighborhood leaders and city staff will be interested in this presentation planned for Thursday, November 3, beginning at 7:00, at the Salem Lutheran Church, 1425 West Broadway. The event is free and open to the public.

Jan Spencer, from Eugene, Oregon will make a slide presentation that touches on a wide range of topics and issues relating to current events and trends including the economy, resources, life style and the environment.The focus of the presentation is taking action to create a culture and economy that is uplifting and fits within Planet Earth’s capacity to sustain. Spencer calls attention to suburbia – the infrastructure, open spaces and people who live there. He identifies many tools and assets to work with, readily available to millions of people for redefining our culture and economy, actions with little or no permission required.Spencer has been transforming his own quarter acre suburban property in Eugene for over ten years. The grass is gone and so is the driveway. There is edible landscaping all over. Both the main house and detached bungalow have solar space heating features. The rain water catchment system can store 6500 gallons of water. The place gives new meaning to the term “home economics.” Hundreds of people have visited the place over the years and many have adapted what they have seen at Spencer’s place for their own use.

Jan has been on the board of his neighborhood association for ten years and has gained a keen interest and awareness of how a variety of mainstream city programs can be repurposed to more ambitious and timely outcomes.

Several of the most important tools to work with for making these timely changes are neighborhood programs and associations, emergency preparedness/mapping your neighborhood and Neighborhood Watch.

The presentation shows and tells real life examples of people making changes at home and in their neighborhoods to live more local, green, safer and more secure. We will have a look at N St. Co op in Davis, California; Neighborhood Mapping in Port Townsend, Common Ground Garden in Eugene, Shareit Square in Portland and more.

Key words – transforming suburbia, place making, community cohesion, work parties, permaculture, existing assets,,,,,,

Jan has also designed and produced three colorful posters in sequential form [like a slide show on paper]. They are available on his website http://www.suburbanpermaculture.org/Poster/Paypal%20Poster.html

1] Transforming A Suburban Property

2] Front Yard Gardens – A Simple Act, Impressive Benefits

3] Creating Safer, More Secure and Healthier Neighborhoods

So please join us on Thursday, Nov 3 and please forward this message to those interested in the well being of our culture, economy, community and neighborhoods.

5:30 – 6:30 Potluck

6:30 – 7 Mix and Mingle, Check Out Table Displays from Participating Organizations

7 – 8:30 Presentation Title – “Neighborhoods, Uplift, Permaculture And The Economy“

8:30 – 9 Mix and Mingle, Close

For more information, visit www.suburbanpermaculture.org

August Film Series

faithenvironment — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 16:51:40 +0000

On the first three Wednesdays in August (3^rd, 10^th, and 17^th) The Faith and Environment Network will offer three films addressing three critical environmental issues we face as a nation (and as a species).

The August 17 showing of “Source to the Sea” is being co-sponsored with the Center for Environmental Law and Policy. CELP Executive Director, Rachael Paschal Osborn, will be with us for a discussion on current water/river issues inWashingtonState and important upcoming legislation.

You are invited to attend and as you are able to stay for conversation after the films. The programs will be shown at The Commons (home of Indaba Coffee and The Book Parlor) at 1425 W. Broadway Avenue (2.5 blocks west of the County Courthouse), at 6:30 pm. Excellent Indaba Coffee will be available (bring your mugs).

August 3 DIRT, The Movie

DIRT! The Movie takes you inside the wonders of the soil. It tells the story of Earth’s most valuable and underappreciated source of fertility–from its miraculous beginning to its crippling degradation. The opening scenes of the film dive into the wonderment of the soil. Made from the same elements as the stars, plants and animals, and us, “dirt is very much alive.” Though, in modern industrial pursuits and clamor for both profit and natural resources, our human connection to and respect for soil has been disrupted. “Drought, climate change, even war are all directly related to the way we are treating dirt.”

DIRT! the Movie brings to life the environmental, economic, social and political impact that the soil has. It shares the stories of experts from all over the world who study and are able to harness the beauty and power of a respectful and mutually beneficial relationship with soil. The movie teaches us: “When humans arrived 2 million years ago, everything changed for dirt. From that moment on, the fate of dirt and humans has been intimately linked.”

August 10 THE STORY OF STUFF &

THE STORY OF BOTTLED WATER

In The Story of Stuff, using a quick-paced cartoon format, Annie Leonard, an international sustainability and environmental health expert, tells the history of an item, virtually any item–where its parts came from, the upstream life; where it goes when we are through with it, the downstream life; and what it really costs. Leonard develops the theme further with a specific item in The Story of Bottled Water—where the water comes from, where the used bottles go, what bottled water really costs, and how we were persuaded to buy it through an advertising technique called manufactured demand. These “stories” expose the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world.

August 17 SOURCE TO SEA: THE COLUMBIA RIVERSWIM

On July 1, 2003 Christopher Swain became the first person to swim the entire 1,243 mile length of the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest. His swim brought stories about the river’s disrupted ecosystems and dislocated peoples to over twenty-thousand North American schoolchildren, and to a worldwide media audience of over one billion people. A group of thirty-plus Northwest filmmakers, led by Andy Norris, followed Swain’s swim, and created a modern history of the Great River of the West. The result was a ninety minute film that one reviewer called, “a heart-wrenching tale of a man and a river.

The film includes stunning pre-inundation footage of Celilo and Kettle Falls, as well as a broad spectrum of interviews with tribal members, agency representatives, fishers, authors, nonprofit leaders, and citizens who trace the natural history and present-day challenges of the Columbia River in their own words. One educator described it this way: “The interviews weren’t just riveting, they made this grown man cry.”

Bike to Worship

faithenvironment — Tue, 10 May 2011 23:03:58 +0000

Each year in May municipalities and bicycle organizations around the world observe “Bike to Work Week,” a time for commuters to leave their cars at home and ride bikes to work. It has led to many improvements for bicycle commuters and pleasure-riders in cities across theUnited States. The Federal Highway Administration says that 65% of all driving trips are made within two miles of home. Biking is a carbon-neutral, healthy, and cost-effective alternative. By biking two miles to and from work twice a week, one can reduce carbon emissions by roughly ten pounds. Spokane Bike to Work Week is May 16 to 20. The Faith and Environment Network is encouraging all people of faith to consider setting aside a weekend day on either side of that work week, or another weekend of your choice, as Bike to Worship, whether Saturday or Sunday. You may work a little harder getting to church or synagogue or temple, but you will give the air and the earth a bit of a rest. On the other hand, you may find that you are better rested and happier after a bike-ride than you are being shut up in a car.

Talk to your local faith community leaders and engage them for such a day and event in recognition of God’s good gifts to us and our stewardship of them. For more information on Bike to Work Week in Spokanego to the Spokane Bikes website http://spokanebikes.net/wordpress or to the page that lists that week’s Spokane activities http://spokanebikes.net/wordpress/?page_id=48 . For more information on Bike Month go to the League of American Bicyclists website http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/bikemonth/ .

Celebrate the arrival of spring weather, finally. Happy biking.

Honoring All Creation on Good Friday

faithenvironment — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 12:55:50 +0000

What a gift to have so many options offered to honor all of Creation on Good Friday this year, which is also Earth Day. Check out the Anglican Church of Canada’s web site for quick and easy resources you can bring to your church for this Holy Day. There is also a short homily and a solemn intersession that can be inserted with a collect.

http://www.anglican.ca/relationships/action/greening/earthdayliturgy2011/

Please share this link and these ideas with one another and consider how some of them might be incorporated into our prayers and awareness. In this time of unpredictable environmental challenges, it is past time to put our prayers and concerns in the open.

God’s Peace…

Evita Krislock, Faith & Environment Network

From Earth Hour to Earth Day: Making Time to Honor Creation

faithenvironment — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 21:47:39 +0000

As reported in the Spokesman Review, for an hour Saturday March 26, members of the Faith & Environment Network and others in Spokane joined millions of people and thousands of businesses around the world in shutting off their lights in recognition of Earth Hour. Spokane’s Mayor Verner encouraged Spokane businesses and residents to participate and to embrace alternative energy that could boost our local economy. “In the state and nation, Spokane increasingly is recognized as a leading clean-energy city,” Verner said in a news release. The Faith & Environment Network’s Evita Krislock also noted that “part of the message of Earth Hour is to stand with people all over the globe and say ‘The Earth matters. Every single thing we do has a consequence.” Read the full article in the Spokesman Review here.

If you missed our Spokane Earth Hour event, Earth Day is right around the corner. Another all-day event on Main Street downtown Spokane is planned for Saturday, April 23 to engage, educate, and entertain you with Creation Care related booths and activities. Check out the Earth Day Spokane web site for details and a full calendar of events.

The Miracle of Being Fully Awake

faithenvironment — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 18:32:42 +0000

I live in the country with forest and open fields. I love having the natural world all around me with few of the distractions of city life. And yet even here I seldom take time from the work of making a home of this place in order to be aware of neighbors. Like the field mice which, I realized upon watching our cats, are everywhere, hundreds of them, making their lives and providing themselves as food for many other critters.

As I took time to walk last week—actually walked without a job to do, walked not for exercise but for the sake of paying attention—I found two woodpecker nests with the inhabitant and a great horned owl which I had heard but never seen. I found them for the first time in places I have passed dozens of times without paying attention. And I found, only because I looked, buttercups and Idaho blue-eyed grass and closer to the house the first crocus of the season.

Our slowness to awareness: that is why the Faith and Environment Network will focus tomorrow, March 26, Earth Hour Day, on what it means to be mindful, that is, aware of the natural world around us as well as the ways we impact it. Thich Nhat Than talks about it as “the miracle of being fully awake.” And with the days lengthening and moving toward warmth, what a good time to consider the natural economy of light and darkness with a representative of the International Dark-Sky Association. I hope many of you can make the Faith & Environment Network’s “Earth Hour and Beyond: Called To Care,” Saturday, March 26, 4:30 – 8:30/9 pm, at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, in Spokane (details below).

By Tom Soeldner

Earth Hour and Beyond: Called To Care

A Faith & Environment Network event to raise awareness about climate change and the need to care for creation in our community, Saturday, March 26, 2011,4:30 pm, Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist (127 East 12^th Avenue, Spokane’s South Hill). Please help spread the word to family, friends, and at your church!

This year’s annual event in Spokane will feature:

Artists and naturalists discussing environmental mindfulness including: Lynn Schott, poet and environmental activist from Kettle Falls, WA; Scott Kolbo, Associate Professor of Art, Whitworth University; and Dan Matiatos, biologist and Refuge Manager, Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge.
A presentation on the Dark-Sky movement which seeks to preserve and protect the nighttime environment and our heritage of dark skies through environmentally responsible outdoor lighting,
A time of music, readings, and meditations, and
Turning off of lights in the Cathedral at 8:30 pm in observation of Earth Hour and in solidarity with Spokane and international neighbors.

A light supper will be provided. A donation of $15 is suggested for the event, but all are welcome regardless of donation.

Earth Hour is an event when individuals, businesses, and cities turn their lights off for one hour to take a stand against climate change. At Earth Hour 2010 a record 128 countries and territories joined the global display of climate action. It included the Earth Hour event offered in Spokane by the Faith and Environment Network.

The Faith and Environment Network engages people of faith and their congregations in caring for creation. For further information please contact Evita Krislock (220-6532) or Thomas Soeldner (607-7115).

Earth Hour Event at the Cathedral March 26

faithenvironment — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 22:01:49 +0000

Earth Hour and Beyond: Called To Care

A Faith & Environment Network event to raise awareness about climate change and the need to care for creation in our community, Saturday, March 26, 2011,4:30 pm, Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist (127 East 12^th Avenue, Spokane’s South Hill). Please help spread the word to family, friends, and at your church!

This year’s annual event in Spokane will feature:

Artists and naturalists discussing environmental mindfulness including: Lynn Schott, poet and environmental activist from Kettle Falls, WA; Scott Kolbo, Associate Professor of Art, Whitworth University; and Dan Matiatos, biologist and Refuge Manager, Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge.
A presentation on the Dark-Sky movement which seeks to preserve and protect the nighttime environment and our heritage of dark skies through environmentally responsible outdoor lighting,
A time of music, readings, and meditations, and
Turning off of lights in the Cathedral at 8:30 pm in observation of Earth Hour and in solidarity with Spokane and international neighbors.

A light supper will be provided. A donation of $15 is suggested for the event, but all are welcome regardless of donation.