Black history can be viewed through many lenses.  Most often the lens of environmentalism is not on the forefront of people's minds.  Communities of color suffer the most as they have borne the brunt of climate change, had factories and pipelines built in their neighborhoods affecting their health, and have had a lessened ability to get resources that help mitigate the adverse health effects that come with all of these things.  This means that a whole sector of black environmentalists have cropped up to do the work on the ground and help their communities.  As a faith based environmental organization.  Creation Justice follows the responsibility God has given us to care for God’s creation.  This includes our fellow humans, we are called to care for those who have not been cared for. 

Throughout the month, we have been highlighting and uplifting black voices that have been and are doing environmental work every month of the year.  As a wrap up to this month of uplifting voices, highlighting resources and linking articles that speak to the experiences of black people in the environmental sector, we wanted to compile a list of all those things as more!  Here is a comprehensive list of everything we uplifted this month and the extra things we wanted to share with you but didn’t have time for because a month is only so long.  


Articles:
5 Black Environmentalists You Should Know About, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/black-environmentalists_n_5190393 
Why Environmental Protections are Important to Black History Month https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-environmental-protections-are-important-to-black_us_58a4a30be4b0cd37efcfefe0 

Blogs:
Blog on urban farming, https://www.intersectionalenvironmentalist.com/ie-stories/urban-farming-breathing-life-into-low-income-communities 

Podcasts:
How to Save A Planet

Social Media Handles: 
Black In Marine Science, @blackinmarinescience 
Intersectional Environmentalist social handles: @greengirlleah, @intersectionalenvironmentalist and on twitter, @isxenviro
Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, @ayanaeliza
Kendra Pierre-Louis, @kendracanwrite

Resources:
Intersectional Environmentalist, https://www.intersectionalenvironmentalist.com/ 
OPAL Environmental Justice Organizing People/ Activating Leaders https://www.opalpdx.org/ 
Outdoor Afro, https://outdoorafro.com/

Today is my last day as Executive Director of Creation Justice Ministries. My heart is full as I reflect with gratitude on the powerful ecumenical relationships we have built in service to our shared mission.

I give special thanks to our member communions, represented through our Board. You have built powerful ecumenical community, and those ecumenical relationships lie at the heart of Creation Justice Ministries identity. Special thanks to our devoted officers: Board President Rev. Rebecca Barnes of Presbyterian Church (USA), Vice President Bishop Carroll Baltimore, Vice President Deacon Sergei Kapral of the Orthodox Church in America, Treasurer Ruth Ivory-Moore of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and Secretary Rev. Sarah Macias of the Alliance of Baptists.

I am thankful for Creation Justice Ministries staff and volunteer colleagues Amanda Robinson, Annika Harley, Helen Smith, Avery Davis Lamb, Dr. Jim David, and Andrea Folds. This team does not hesitate to go the extra mile to ensure the Creation Justice community is educated, equipped and mobilized to protect, restore, and more rightly share God's creation.

Thank you to the many (many!) coalition partners who have accompanied Creation Justice Ministries in the season of growth we experienced during my five and a half years as Executive Director. To the Washington Inter-religious Staff Community: You have been instrumental in my spiritual formation as well as professional development. To environmental justice community leaders: When you speak from your experience for yourselves about ecojustice realities on the ground, you call our country to accountability for racism and economic injustice. I have learned so much from you about intersectionality and leadership that centers people who are most impacted. I have especially been formed by my work with the Next 100 Coalition, founded on the centennial of the National Park Service to center diversity, equity, and inclusion issues in our US public lands and waters. To Indigenous leaders: Thank you for profoundly broadening as well as deepening my understanding of the spiritual significance of our human relationship with God's creation. I have been forever changed for the better by my time building spiritually-rooted alliances with Indigenous leaders who are out front in efforts to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Bears Ears National Monument, the sacred land at Standing Rock, and the Grand Canyon. To the many coalition partners working on public lands stewardship, endangered species protection, ocean conservation, and climate action: Thank you for many ways you have shared your policy expertise, scientific knowledge, and communications capacity.

I am so very grateful for the Creation Justice community. We are tens of thousands of people active in our own respective congregations and communities, united by our love for God's creation and each other. Together in 2021, we are shifting into a new time in our country's history: one in which climate action, conservation, and racial justice will come to the fore of public policy and social change-making. We feel the fierce urgency of now to confront the ecological crisis before us. Now more than ever, our ministry must be rooted in faithful community, as I articulated in my acceptance speech for the National Council of Churches Excellence in Ecumenical Leadership Award.

My Prayer for the Creation Justice Community
Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer: I pray that your animating words "Let there be life" touch every Creation Justice community member in a fresh way in 2021. With your help, God, may we each echo Christ's call for just relationships among all of creation, amplifying your saving grace so it reverberates through this Earth, which is so desperately in need of your divine healing. Strengthen the Creation Justice community in our commitment to Christian unity, to foster eco-justice transformations, and to raise a collective witness in the public arena.
Amen.

After the holiday season you will likely have leftovers from Christmas & New Years. A great way to be a steward to the Earth is to consume your food.  Did you know that Americans throw away 25% of the food they buy? Not only is this a waste of money but it is also harmful to the environment. Producing food takes land, water, and heavy machinery. By eating your leftovers you are not only saving money but also preventing energy waste from food production. Not to mention you are keeping them from taking up space in a landfill. ​

Each month, the Creation Justice Ministries team will update www.creationjustice.org/action with a new set of timely events, advocacy opportunities, and education resources. Set a reminder to check this website monthly, and take the actions that are possible for you and your community.

February is Black History Month and there are many ways to celebrate and get involved. Follow Creation Justice Ministries on social media to follow our Black History Month campaign. We also recommend that you check out these organizations who are making black history: Outdoor Afro, Black Millenials for Flint, & the NAACP Environmental and Climate Program.

World Water Day is this week! Support various campaigns and check out the water resources provided by Creation Justice Ministries. 

Our ecological crisis is a spiritual crisis. We are facing systems of greed and racism that require a moral response. Give to faith-based organizations that devote time and resources to caring for God's creation. Consider becoming a monthly recurring donor, to help the organization build a strong, predictable grassroots funding base for their work. If you don't yet contribute to Creation Justice Ministries, consider joining the #CreationJustice Monthly Giving program.

Cut five minutes off your shower to save water. According to a study done by Harvard the average American shower uses 2.5 gallons per minute. You will save 12.5 gallons of water if you shorten by just 5 minutes. Or, consider turning the water off while you lather up and only turn it on to rinse. ​

This year is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day! Make use of the Earth Day Sunday resource developed annually by Creation Justice Ministries. This year's theme is "The Fierce Urgency of Now" and is all about how to live faithfully in urgent times. This year's theme is "Environmental Racism, Public Health, & Eco-Justice" and past years can be found through www.earthdaysunday.org.

Did you know one in five species is threatened or endangered? There are many things everyday people can do to save God's creation from extinction. Check out www.creationjustice.org/endangered to find materials to raise awareness in your faith community.

We recommend titles by members of the Creation Justice community, including:

• 50 Ways to Help Save the Earth: How You and Your Congregation Can Make a Difference by Rev. Rebecca Barnes of Presbyterian Church (USA), who is also our board president.
  
• Creation as Sacrament: Reflections on Ecology and Spirituality by Fr. John Chryssavgis of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
  
• Rooted and Rising: Voices of Courage in a Time of Climate Crisis by Rev. Dr. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas of the Episcopal Church and Rev. Dr. Leah Schade of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
  
• Climate Church, Climate World: How People of Faith Must Work for Change by Rev. Jim Antal of the United Church of Christ
  

Check out this guide to learn how to compost at your home, or go here to see if your neighborhood has a curbside compost pickup option.

Make environmentally sustainable choices this Thanksgiving. Cook your food in reusable cookwear instead of the disposable aluminum foil cookwear. Also, replace paper napkins with cloth during your meal. Reduce your leftover waste by replacing plastic wrap with beeswax wrap or stretchable rubber lids.

Avoid flushing medicines and other dangerous chemicals in the toilet or washing them down the sink. Instead, find your local med disposal location and take them there. This will help keep water clean and drug-free for other people drink and animals and plants to live in and consume. ​

Most of my life I have lived in rural Appalachia. For me, that means walking a far distance to catch the school bus, and then riding it over one hour each way. It means grocery shopping only a few times per month and never letting your vehicle get below a quarter tank of gas. I have no idea what it is like to have fresh and clean water readily available. This has been an issue for my community for ages, but the covid-19 pandemic has brought the lack of access to light in new ways.

Since the age of six my family has not had enough water and the small supply has been riddled with iron that turned my blonde hair orange. When I was teenager, I became very ill from contaminated well water and required extensive antibiotics to rid my body of the bacteria.

I live in a small unincorporated area located in Clay/Braxton/Nicholas County, West Virginia that is called Wilson Ridge. My neighborhood has thirty homes, a church, a foster home, local farms, and a fruit and vegetable nursery. None of them have permanent access to water, and as I learned through phone interviews as part of a community organizing project for my Master’s degree in Social Work, most of them do not have clean water. Many rely on wells that do not produce enough water to sustain them all year long. Most of the residents live in poverty, and most of the families are aged sixty or older and are increasingly living in poor health. Some of the elderly require clean and sterilized water for feeding tubes and other health conditions.

For the past 10 years the community has been told that city water is coming to our neighborhood-yet the promise has not been fulfilled. Until my community organizing class at Concord University, and creating a relationship with Creation Justice Ministries, I perceived my lack of access to water as normal, and the price to pay for living in a rural area.  I have always felt helpless to any other outcome. Not having access is how I have always lived.

My family’s current water situation consists of letting rain water come off our home gutters into a cistern that is located in the ground under my home. Our well produces very little. We preserve every bit of well water that we can. During dry times, my husband has to haul city water in the back of a pickup truck from a fire hydrant two miles away from our home. The only tank we can afford is a 250-gallon tank and the average person uses at least 80 gallons per day. Our home houses five people, so it is easy to see how frugal we are with our water. Showers have to be five minutes or less with a shower head that limits the amount of water coming out for preservation. My oldest son has what I have determined as a long-term trauma from having to take very quick showers all of his life. This is evidenced by his behavior in taking one hour showers (or longer if permitted) when he stays somewhere that has permanent access.

Access to clean, drinkable water is a human right that my community is being denied. Most are living in poverty and do not have higher education. We are being denied this right due to our silence and lack of power. Whether 500 or 30 people are served, access to water is still a right that we should not be denied. Money or lack thereof is the driving factor for not gaining access.

Covid-19 has been a scary time for everyone, but for those of us without water access the risks skyrocket. We rely on bottled water for drinking as the water in our cistern is not suitable for drinking due to bacteria presence. During the hoarding phase of the pandemic- there was not always water available to those who most needed it. Further, clean water is needed for hand-washing and sanitation, which we must now do an extraordinary amount of during this pandemic.
 God has also continued to provide the rain, and we have not gone without water for laundry and showers during this trying time. Due to social distancing, I have been taking a few gallon jugs of water per week to my place of employment and filling them up for cooking purposes. It is embarrassing to explain to people that I need clean water for cooking. While the lack of clean water has been problematic for years- the covid-19 pandemic has heightened the need for readily available clean water and spotlighted the needs of these communities. Water is a human right and a gift from God. All people should have access to clean drinkable water. It is past time my community and others without clean water in West Virginia, gain access.

Bryanna Baker-Meckley is a resident of Duck, West Virginia. Baker-Meckley is a Mental Health Therapist with a focus on Substance Use Disorder. She is passionate about water issues after being introduced to the notion that her community should not have to live without access to water. Concord University and Creation Justice Ministries helped Baker-Meckley to understand that having access to water is a human right.

On December 13, white supremacist groups destroyed the "Black Lives Matter" banners of three congregations in Washington, DC: Asbury United Methodist Church, Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Luther Place. Creation Justice Ministries is a membership organization co-founded by the denominations these congregations affiliate with: the United Methodist Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Creation Justice Ministries Executive Director Shantha Ready Alonso said of the incidents, "As a Creation Justice community, we know the power of places and symbols that shape our collective memory. White supremacists' December 13th desecration of the three churches' signs is an act of violence that goes far beyond the destruction of property. These churches are sacred places that are integral to the Black history narrative of our country, and that continue to proclaim the precious value of Black lives in the eyes of God, and our community." 

All three churches are part of the National Park Service's national register of historic places, and share their rich history with visitors. See: Asbury United Methodist Church (NPS, DC), Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal (NPS, DC), and Luther Place (NPS, DC). Asbury United Methodist Church as well as Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church are both historically Black churches with vibrant, active ministries. They have nourished the souls of great African American leaders such as Mary Church Terrell, Mary McLeod Bethune, Frederick Douglass, and Rosa Parks. Luther Place Memorial Church, and its affiliated N Street Village and Steinbruck Center, play instrumental roles in counteracting homelessness and gentrification in the DC community.

Creation Justice Ministries stands with these churches as they speak out against the incidents of December 13th, and our organization affirms that Black Lives Matter. Please read below the churches' responses to the December 13th incidents.

• Please be aware that there are several fake GoFundMe and Paypal links saying they're raising funds for the churches. If you want to donate, please use the links on the churches' websites. 
• "My Church Will Replace its Black Lives Matter Sign. Will America Replace its Racist Myth?" Washington Post opinion editorial by Rev. William H. Lamar IV, pastor of Metropolitan AME Church
• Public Statement by Rev. Dr. Ianther M. Mills, senior pastor of Asbury United Methodist Church
• Statement on Asbury UMC Vandalism  by Bishop LaTrelle Miller Easterling, Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church
• Letter from Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Metropolitan Washington, DC Synod Bishop Leila Ortiz
• "Statement on Black Lives Matter Signs Burned at D.C. Churches" by Rev. Dr. Susan Henry-Crowe, General Secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society
  
• Statement on the Racist Threats to US Churches by the National Council of Churches USA 12.17.20
  

As religious organizations representing a diversity of faith traditions we profoundly regret that today the United States formally exits the Paris Agreement on climate change, the world’s best framework for action to address the climate crisis. Global climate change presents an unprecedented threat to the integrity of all life on Earth and a challenge to values that bind us as human beings.
 
Even as climate change impacts all of God’s creation, we know that the consequences of climate change both in the U.S. and around the world are felt more keenly among low-wealth communities and among those that have suffered long histories of racial and ethnic discrimination and exploitation. Our principle of the common good calls us to be in solidarity with those most adversely impacted by climate change now while avoiding the temptation to pass this problem along to future generations as a result of our own neglect or narrow interests.
 
The Trump Administration’s abandonment of the Paris Agreement undermines a key pillar of international cooperation against climate change and damages the world’s ability to avoid the most dangerous and costly effects of climate change. It also leaves the U.S. behind in the global transition to a clean energy economy.
 
Christian Reformed Church Office of Social Justice
Columban Center for Advocacy and Outreach
Creation Justice Ministries
Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action
The Episcopal Church
Faithful America
Franciscan Action Network
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Jesuit Conference Office of Justice and Ecology
Leadership Conference of Women Religious
Maryknoll Office of Global Concerns
Maryknoll Sisters Eastern Region USA
Mennonite Central Committee, Washington Office
Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Justice Team
Union for Reformed Judaism
Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice
The United Methodist Church – General Board of Church and Society
United Methodist Women
Young Evangelicals for Climate Action

It is our delight to share news with the Creation Justice community that our executive director Shantha Ready Alonso has been honored by the National Council of Churches USA with the J. Irwin Miller Excellence in Ecumenical Leadership award.
Each year, the J. Irwin Miller Award for Excellence in Ecumenical Leadership is conferred by the National Council of Churches USA to a layperson who has demonstrated a commitment to church unity, and who, by living out this commitment through action in the world, has been a witness to justice and other values affirmed by our common faith in Jesus Christ.
The 2020 Christian Unity Gathering theme, "Breathing New Life into Our Nation: Repentance, Re-formation, Reparations," has focused on themes of racial justice, a core value of Creation Justice Ministries, and a passion for our executive director.
We also take this special moment to give a big THANK YOU to Disciples Home Missions, our fiscal sponsor, for their extraordinary demonstration of ecumenical commitment by hosting Creation Justice Ministries. Disciples Home Missions is instrumental in fostering ecumenical leadership!

Hi, I’m Shantha Ready Alonso, Executive Director of Creation Justice Ministries.

In a spirit of Truth and Healing, I acknowledge am “beaming in” to the virtual Christian Unity Gathering from the ancestral lands of Cahuilla people, in Coachella Valley, California.   

I am so honored today to accept the J. Irwin Miller Award for Excellence in Ecumenical Leadership. Thank you to the National Council of Churches for this recognition.

I could not have come to this point without my ecumenical family, for teaching me about Christian unity since birth. Thank you to teachers, mentors, colleagues, and donors who have nurtured my leadership through generous time, scholarship funds, and care.

This is a recognition not just of my leadership, but of the entire, powerful and committed Creation Justice community, who refuse to sit idly by and allow forces of greed and racism to desecrate our one and only shared home, Earth. Together, through our prayers and public witness, we are bringing about eco-justice transformations, and witnessing to Jesus’ call for just relationships among all of creation.

I especially want to express my gratitude to members of the Creation Justice Ministries board, which is comprised of representatives of National Council of Churches member communions. Each of these board members is working toward our creation justice mission within their own Christian communities.
 
Ministry for creation justice has never been more urgent and important than it is today. It is an extraordinary time to be alive. We are the first generation to truly understand the gravity of the climate emergency. We are the last generation with significant power to change its trajectory. Right now, our collective action, or inaction, could contribute to the sustenance, or the exponential suffering of the generation that follows.

As the mother of a toddler, I feel this mantle of responsibility viscerally every day.

There are many ways we can approach the climate crisis before us. I choose for my approach to be rooted in ecumenical Christian hope.

I do so because it brings me so much more clarity and peace to frame my place in this struggle as SAYING YES to God’s truth of unity than to be in a constant battle against all that is going wrong.

And, a lot is going wrong.

Sins of apathy, neglect, racism, greed, misogyny have sown division and profoundly harmed the integrity of God’s church as well as God’s creation.

It is also true, at the same time, that WE ARE ONE.

Any person who spends time observing God’s creation can see how awe-inspiring unique ecosystems are: their wildly diverse parts, all interacting in mysterious ways, add up to a whole, and this whole is our home.  
Christian ecumenism is about accepting God’s gift of unity to the Church – and of embracing our oneness in diverse, dynamic body of Christ, so our oneness in the Spirit can be our spiritual home.

It is up to each of us how we respond to God’s gift of unity, both as members of God’s Church and as inhabitants of God’s Earth:
Will we accept this gift of unity with open hands, and foster anti-racist right relationships, health, and wholeness?
Or will we reject this gift, and suffer in isolation through negligence, domination, and exploitation?

Let us pray:

Creator God, help us say yes to accept your gift of unity...

Say yes to living simply, and learning each day to seek your Godly definition of abundance.

Say yes to rectifying the historic racist injustices that have torn people away from the land, and yes to eco-reparations.

Say yes to embodied, incarnational Christian faith, so no body experiences unequal, sickening burdens of pollution.

Say yes to the healing power of repentance, and humility to learn not only from science, but also from the original caretakers of our communities.

Say yes to compassion through disaster preparation, mutual aid and radical hospitality as together we weather the material and spiritual storms of the climate emergency.  

Say yes to wonder -- notice how every creeping thing that creeps is busily signing its own song of praise

Say yes to God’s gift of unity

Amen.