slavery and other injustices. “Like the earliest Christians in the Bible, we support
one another in sacramental community, proclaiming God’s grace through joy-filled action and bold testi- mony. Faith gives us hope, through the communion of saints, including saints across the generations.”
Pat Almonrode
A member of St. Peter Lutheran Church in New York, N.Y., Pat Almonrode came to eco-activism through a gradual and nonreli- gious conduit. When he became
concerned about climate change some five years ago, he started sign- ing petitions and making donations. Ten he joined 350NYC, the local affiliate of
350.org, a grassroots net- work of volunteer-run campaigns in more than 188 countries working to solve the climate crisis. “It was the proposed Keystone Pipeline, however,
‘I want to make a genuine response to the gift of creation and [my] sal- vation. I want to help people realize we have to love each other and we have to love the world.’
that got me up out of my chair and out into the streets,” he said. Te facts of the pipeline disturbed him greatly: “Oil
from the tar sands is the dirtiest in terms of the cost of extracting it and its very high carbon intensity. If built as originally planned, it would have crossed the Ogallala
In his efforts to save the planet, Pat Almonrode (left), pictured with Fletcher Harper of GreenFaith and Elizabeth Ackerman of Riverside Church in New York, helped organize the People’s Climate March last fall.
Aquifer, which provides drinking water to millions of people and irrigates the country’s breadbasket.” Due to his activism against the pipeline and involve-
ment in the environmental committee of the Metropoli- tan New York Synod, Almonrode helped organize the People’s Climate March last September. Currently he’s working to strengthen the connection
and collaboration between his groups and the allies that came together for that march. “When we came together for the People’s Climate March, the varied interest groups, like those advocating for tenants’ rights and the homeless, came out of their silos and recognized the commonalities shared between our issues,” he said. Almonrode’s activism is now tied deeply to his faith:
“I want to make a genuine response to the giſt of creation and [my] salvation. I want to help people realize we have to love each other and we have to love the world.”
Leah Schade
While growing up, Leah Schade expe- rienced God’s presence in the forests of Pennsylvania as much as in church. But she couldn’t find a way to express her distress over environmental desecra- tion until called to pastoral ministry. “It was the arc of my theologi-
cal awareness and sense of call to ministry that gave language to what I witnessed and the change I wanted to bring about,” she said. Schade started an eco-ministry committee 10 years
ago in her first congregation and more recently became an advocate and activist for environmental issues rang- ing from hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to clean air standards. She was also part of a successful attempt to defeat a proposed tire incinerator in her community of Milton, Pa. Besides serving as pastor of United in Christ
Lutheran Church in West Milton, Pa., she teaches courses and workshops in preaching, ecology and ethics and is an adjunct instructor in religion and philosophy at Lebanon Valley College, Annville, Pa. In her upcoming book Creation-Crisis Preaching:
Ecology, Teology and the Pulpit (Chalice Press), her goal is to “show how preaching can help give new life to God’s earth, and that God’s earth can give new life to preaching.” One goal of the book is developing a Lutheran eco-feminist Christology for preaching. Environmental activism outside of the congregation
is important to Schade, such as her service on the Upper Susquehanna Synod’s task force examining justice issues around shale gas drilling. Tis bipartisan group is made up of pastors, theologians, teachers, lay leaders, scien-
18
www.thelutheran.org
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52