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Engaging people in congregational life using social media – climate justice example

How can you use social media to engage people in congregational life?  It isn’t by bombarding them with boring cut and pasted invitations to attend!

In this excerpt from my weekly live Q&A / office hours in our UU PLANET Community group, I share an example of using social media to engage people with a specific worship service and upcoming area of focus for the congregation. Because it is dangerously HOT, HOT, HOT in Boston I use a climate justice focused service and launch of a new climate justice ministry as an example.

Organizations I used in this example:

Note that YES, we do need to work on addressing the root causes of climate change, but I think a special focus for our congregations should be helping to re-connect humanity,  cultivating and articulating a vision for how we do “climate disruption” together, and working to address associated injustices.

 

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Delta 5 Activists Go to Climate Trial Armed with Necessity Defense

BREAKING : According to my colleague, climate activist Tim DeChristopher, the judge in the Delta 5 case is allowing the use of the Necessity Defense. This is the legal defense which DeChristopher was denied in his prominent trial for disrupting an illegitimate Bureau of Land Management oil and gas auction in December of 2008. DeChristopher served 20 months for his act of civil disobedience.  Updated 1/8/16

Next week, on January 11th, the  activists known as the Delta 5 are going to trail for their civil disobedience.  A year ago, in September 2014, they blocked a train used to transport oil at the Delta rail yard in Everett, WA.

This is yet another instance of average citizens people like you and me putting their bodies in the way of business as usual for the fossil fuel industry.  Perhaps something we all need to be doing as the fossil fuel industry seems “hell bent on killing the planet” to quote Bill McKibben.

In this video the Delta 5 — that’s Abby Brockway, Mike Lapointe, Patrick Mazza, Jackie Minchew, and Liz Spoerri — explain why they took this action.

My colleagues at the new Climate Disobedience Center are supporting the Delta 5 through this trial.   See related Detla 5 posts on the center’s website:

Wherever you are, you can help these activists by following the trial, sharing related news, and if you can,  support their legal fund.

On Twitter
Look for tweets with hashtag #DELTA5 and retweet.  Here are a few to start with:

Facebook
Share some of the Facebook posts from the Climate Disobedience Center.

Read More
Learn more about the Delta 5 case on their website at delta5trial.org.

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Climate Change: An Invitation to New Life?

An inspirational and challenging talk from TedxNewBedford by Climate Disobedience Center founder, Jay O’Hara.

Video Description:
Published on Dec 2, 2015

The climate crisis pushes us into an existential crisis of the soul. While it is natural for us to shirk that discomfort, Quaker and climate activist Jay O’Hara suggests embracing that loss is the gateway to powerful action. Through the lens of his own loss and action, he exposes the paradox of faith that may give us the chance to build the new world we need, and the movement needed to get us there.Jay O’Hara is a Quaker and native of Cape Cod. Inspired by Wendell Berry, he moved back to his hometown in 2007 to pursue a faithful response to the climate crisis, while working as a sailmaker. He is the founder of Climate Summer, a transformational summer training program for student climate activists. Called to bolder action to stop the burning of fossil fuels, in 2013 he, along with Ken Ward, blockaded 40,000 tons of coal destined for the Brayton Point power plant with their small white lobster boat named the “Henry David T”. The ensuing legal proceedings garnered national attention when Bristol District Attorney Sam Sutter reduced and dismissed the charges against the two, calling climate change “one of the gravest crises our planet has ever faced“. Most recently he co-led the faith-based “Pipeline Pilgrimage”, and has co-founded the Climate Disobedience Center with members of the Lobster Boat Blockade team.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

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Massive Faith Contingent Calls for Climate Justice at People’s Climate March

New York – Among the 310,000 participating in the People’s Climate March on September 21, 2014 was a huge faith contingent. Thousands of people from diverse faith traditions marched to bring attention to global warming as a moral issue and to issue a call for climate justice.

Positioned near the end of the line-up and after waiting in a staging area for hours to march,  the People’s Climate Faith Contingent was led forward by a wooden Ark carrying interfaith leaders.

Below is a video of our section of the march, followed by photos of some of the faith groups participating.

It was amazing to march with Christians, Quakers, Humanists, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Pagans, my fellow Unitarian Universalists, and others in solidarity.

Continue reading → Massive Faith Contingent Calls for Climate Justice at People’s Climate March