An excellent description and photos of the September 7 “Greening Black Churches – Why Climate Change Matters” event from today’s Sacramento Area Congregations Together Newsletter (photos below at the end of this article):

“On Saturday, September 7, over 100 people gathered at South Sacramento Christian Church to hear Rev. Dr. Ambrose Carroll speak on Greening the Black Church: Why Climate Change Matters. Pastor Lynne Herron of New Creation Church opened with a reflection and Rev. Lucy Bunch of Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento described the history of ACT’s environmental justice work.

“Rev. Carroll remembered reading The Green Collar Economy by Van Jones. “When I read this book, I felt that Van Jones was articulating the civil rights issue of our time.” The environment is part of all of the issues we organize around including gun violence, early death, mental health, housing, and education. Rev. Carroll suggested that our ability to love each other is tied to the ability to have hard conversations and that at this time in history, hard conversations need to be held. As he spoke about the history of Green the Church, he described himself working in one environmental organization with people of color, but no people of faith, and in another environmental organization with people of faith, but no people of color.

“Rev. Carroll formed Green the Church to “wake up the sleeping giant of the black church” and had their first summit in 2014. He described the three pillars of the work of Green the Church: amplify green theology, promote sustainable practices in churches, and build power for change at the local, state and federal policy levels. Their current goal is to certify 200 congregations as sustainable by end of 2020.

“Green theology is a call to move our theology, remember our history, embrace some ancient practices, and embrace nature. Green theology would call for green storytelling and green sermons, such as Rev. Carroll’s favorite “green sermon” about using what you got – telling the story of his grandmother who reached into bare cupboards and created delicious biscuits. He reminded us that of the importance of getting our hands in the soil to understand the God of nature, and that the stigma against the natural order started when we began to treat “soil” like “dirt.”
“Rev. Carroll traced the intertwined threads of social justice and respect for the environment through teachings of many faiths and history: “The same line of thinking that tells you to respect the environment is the same line that tells you to fight for social justice.”

“He encouraged congregations to examine renewable energy development, building efficiency including energy audit and water audit, composting and recycling, transportation to and from church; food sovereignty and growing food on church grounds, looking at diet and nutrition, health and wellness, resilience and disaster preparedness.

“Rev. Carroll urged those gathered to live life as if it is cyclical, with a beginning and an end and to live life with a responsibility to future generations.

“A panel discussion with community environmental leaders followed including Rev. Carroll, Nailah Pope-Harden, LaTanya Mosley, and Herman Barahona. They talked about the importance of imagination to begin to create a greener future, the importance of educating residents on the impact of the environment on their health, and the impact of air pollution on communities including West Arden Arcade and South Sacramento.

“At the end of the afternoon, each panelist was asked for their Take Away. These included:
Networking, talking to each other and connecting
Come to the table: How can we use our differences to better the community?
Everyone needs to pick up the mantle and do something-we can’t just check out.
We have to become very comfortable with conflict and tension as we work for justice.
We need one another. We need to engage and car for each other. We have more in common than we have different.”

If you would like to plug into this work in some way, please join us at:

The first meeting of our new Climate Change Environmental Justice Subcommittee.  September 23 @ 6:30 p.m. at St. Francis of Assisi Parish, 1112 26th Street (Library).

Or

Our Sacramento ACT Environmental Justice Committee meeting: October 2 @ 7-8:30 p.m. in our UUSS Library.

For more information contact: