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Time’s up: Walking in pursuit of climate justice

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Guest commentary by Alison Wood, written for the Presbyterian Outlook in the midst of the PC(USA) Walk for a Fossil-Free World from Louisville, Kentucky, to St. Louis where General Assembly will be held.  We’re learning all kinds of things on the #walk2divest: It takes us two hours to walk five miles, with a snack break in the middle. Ten miles in a day is an easy goal; to finish 15 or more we have to push our pace a little. As a group, we like flavored potato chips better than plain. We learn that Casey often breaks out in dance, Ashley often breaks out in song and three people have broken out in poison ivy. We learn how to identify poison ivy. There are 14-25 of us on the Walk for a Fossil Free PCUSA at any given time. We are walking from Louisville to St Louis in preparation for the 223rdGeneral Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in pursuit of climate justice. The youngest walker has been 11, the oldest walker in their 70s. On the walk so far, we … [Read more...]

Tagged With: fossil fuels • GA223

Leveraging MRTI’s Christian witness to climate change

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Guest commentary by Kerri Allen We live in times where moral ambiguity can have devastating and even deadly consequences.  When it comes to the reality of climate change, there is no ambiguity of the disastrous impact of human degradation of the planet. Right now, the first government-funded climate change refugee resettlement is taking place in the contiguous United States.  Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana, the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw band of Native Americans, has lost 98 percent of its land since 1955.  Just in the past two weeks, a Harvard University study estimates that over 4,500 lives were lost as a consequence of Hurricane Maria. Well over a decade following Hurricane Katrina, white New Orleans has recovered; black New Orleans has not. See a pattern here?  The devastating effects of climate change are undeniable, as is this disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable communities throughout the globe. While the effects of climate change are black and white, the … [Read more...]

Tagged With: fossil fuels • GA223

Showing up and walking

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Guest commentary by Angela Williams, written for the Presbyterian Outlook in the midst of the PC(USA) Walk for a Fossil-Free World from Louisville, Kentucky, to St. Louis where General Assembly will be held. “What are y’all doing?” “We’re walking to St. Louis!!” This conversation happens about every mile or so, typically from someone in a car that slowed down along highway 50 or someone mowing their grass. We usually get looks of confusion or exasperation. Why would anyone choose to walk from Louisville to St. Louis? Certainly there are more scenic routes to take. The story of why I walk begins three and a half years ago on the streets of Tacloban, Leyte, a city on an island that was my home in the Philippines for my year of service as a Young Adult Volunteer (YAV). I was in Tacloban for an ecumenical memorial service remembering the thousands of lives lost when Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan wreaked havoc one year earlier. At the time, Typhoon Yolanda was the strongest storm to … [Read more...]

Tagged With: fossil fuels • GA223

Caring for aging parents: Ministering to others, tending to self

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Guest commentary by Lynne Clements Sleepless nights, temper tantrums, meal-time struggles, day care crises, bathroom messes, doctor’s appointments and loads of laundry. If you live with an infant or toddler, this list might seem all too familiar; yet this list also describes life when providing care for an elderly person. Or two. Which is exactly the situation I found myself when my 94- and 95-year-old parents came to live with my family after my dad had a stroke. In my small house. While I continued to work full-time. For weeks. Then, late one afternoon my mom had a stroke in my living room and died a week later. Nothing in my life had prepared me for any of this, much less doing so while caring for other people and their families. I felt alone and numb. I was frequently exhausted and spent, and yet I kept going. After all, what else could I do? In the six months since my mom’s death and my dad’s remarkable recovery and successful transition to assisted living, here … [Read more...]

Tagged With: family life

Mental health matters: The role of congregations

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Guest commentary by Kathy Dale McNair Good mental health is important. But what does faith have to do with it? A lot. All of us go through life experiences that challenge our mental health. But mental illnesses are more serious than the common ups and downs that most of us experience. Anxiety is the number one mental illness in America. Depression is second. With mental illness, the desire to be part of a faith community, to worship, to participate in outreach activities and even the desire to pray can fall away. Most people with a mental illness isolate and withdraw from normal activities. They feel hopeless and helpless, weighed down and shut down by the stigma attached to mental illness. Mental illnesses are disorders of the brain, affecting behavior and mood. Although behavior and mood disorders are the identifying markers, mental illness is felt in the whole body. Mental illness is an illness just like cancer. Just as there are many kinds of cancer, there … [Read more...]

Tagged With: mental health

The church speaks in tongues

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Guest commentary by Andrew Taylor-Troutman The church speaks in tongues. I know you immediately think of what’s known as glossolalia, the strange utterance of an unknown language made famous by Pentecostals. But all churches speak many languages. There is the Hello!-How-do-you-do? chit-chat in parking lots, whether paved or gravel, which are rhythmic exchanges between friends and strangers. This tongue spreads into the pews. (Hopefully, not during the prelude!) Perhaps topics such as sports are batted around. Surely the finer points of whether it has rained too much or too little are discussed. And– if we are honest – there is also gossip.Originally, the word was godsibb, which meant God and kin (like a sibling). But gossip has come to mean slander and the Bible warns against this speech for reasons painfully clear to anyone who has ever been shamed by a Christian brother or sister. Two of the holiest words from our tongues are: I’m sorry. Also: Help me. Yes, all … [Read more...]

Tagged With: Pentecost

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