• About
    • Mission
    • Staff
    • Work with Us
    • Board of Directors
    • Members and Partners
    • History
  • Campaigns
    • Take Action!
    • Climate Resilience
    • Ocean
    • Public Lands >
      • Public Lands & Church Camps
      • Public Lands: Prayers and Sermons
    • Pastoral Care for Climate Retreats
    • Conservation >
      • What is 30 x 30?
      • California
      • Grand Canyon
    • Youth & Young Adult Engagement
    • Water
    • Endangered
    • Energy >
      • Coal
      • Ideas for Toxic Free Living
    • Climate Change >
      • Climate Change - Get Involved
  • Donate
    • Monthly Giving
  • Resources
    • Resource Hub
    • Resource Hub (blog)
    • Earth Day Resources
    • Racial Justice Resources
    • Video Resources
    • Events >
      • Pastoring for Justice & Healing in a Climate Justice
      • Pastoral Care for Climate North Carolina
    • Services
    • News
  • Blog
  • Policy Statements/Letters
  • Faithful Climate BIPOC Fellowship
  • New Page
CREATION JUSTICE MINISTRIES
  • About
    • Mission
    • Staff
    • Work with Us
    • Board of Directors
    • Members and Partners
    • History
  • Campaigns
    • Take Action!
    • Climate Resilience
    • Ocean
    • Public Lands >
      • Public Lands & Church Camps
      • Public Lands: Prayers and Sermons
    • Pastoral Care for Climate Retreats
    • Conservation >
      • What is 30 x 30?
      • California
      • Grand Canyon
    • Youth & Young Adult Engagement
    • Water
    • Endangered
    • Energy >
      • Coal
      • Ideas for Toxic Free Living
    • Climate Change >
      • Climate Change - Get Involved
  • Donate
    • Monthly Giving
  • Resources
    • Resource Hub
    • Resource Hub (blog)
    • Earth Day Resources
    • Racial Justice Resources
    • Video Resources
    • Events >
      • Pastoring for Justice & Healing in a Climate Justice
      • Pastoral Care for Climate North Carolina
    • Services
    • News
  • Blog
  • Policy Statements/Letters
  • Faithful Climate BIPOC Fellowship
  • New Page

West Virginia Healing Waters Retreat

10/20/2019

0 Comments

 
On October 14-15 in Charleston, West Virginia, Creation Justice Ministries co-hosted a Healing Waters Retreat alongside West Virginia Interfaith Power and Light, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Lutherans Restoring Creation, the Episcopal Church, the West Virginia Council of Churches, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, the Wilderness Society, and the Sierra Club. The gathering brought together front line water activists, people who have personally lost access to safe drinking water, scholars, and faith leaders from West Virginia and Flint, Michigan. Twenty-one participants spent 24 hours together to build solidarity and better understand the struggle for safe, affordable drinking water. 

​Rev. Jeff Allen, Executive Director for The West Virginia Council of Churches
(Council) read a letter written in 2016 from the Council to the people of Flint. “A Church that extends the Incarnation always asks, ‘Who is sick? Why are they sick? Who is hungry, why are they hungry?’... When we ask who is thirsty, why are they thirsty? We believe that these questions have power in and of themselves, reminding us of our neighbors and our failure to love manifested in neglect, exploitation, classicism and environmental racism.” 


After the narration, Krystina White, the Chief Operating Officer of Black Millennials for Flint and Harold Woodson of the Bethel United Methodist Help Center presented the group with an overview of the Flint water crisis and the state of the city today. Harold came with the perspective of a Flint resident who has been there since the beginning of the crisis and now works tirelessly through his ministry to provide water and nutritious food to citizens of Flint. Krystina White spoke about the lead policies Black Millennials for Flint focuses on throughout black and latinx communities nationwide. 

The evening wrapped up with a water blessing facilitated by Janet Keating of Green Shepherd. 
The next morning, Lutheran Disaster Response coordinator Pastor Sherri Schafer spoke about her work responding to disasters caused by the disrupted watersheds in West Virginia. 

On Tuesday, Susan Farrell of the Wilderness Society shared the recently launched fossil fuel threat mapping tool. This database and interactive map show available data about fossil fuel sites on public lands. The database also shows the Environmental Protection Agency data on bodies of water that the sites have polluted. The group zoomed in on nearby decimated Kayford Mountain as an example site, and lamented the permanent damage caused by mountaintop removal mining throughout the state. 


This session wrapped up with civic engagement actions. Attendees participated in West Virginia Interfaith Power and Light’s postcard campaign to advocate for the passage of the RECLAIM act. Additionally, participants were invited to sign-on to a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency urging Administrator Wheeler to uphold methane pollution standards instead of rolling back protections, as is currently proposed. 


Annika Harley of Creation Justice Ministries
said she left the retreat “inspired and committed to continue to work in solidarity with communities that have lost access to safe drinking water.”
​

Picture
Fresh water advocates from Flint, MI, Washington, DC, and West Virginia tell their stories in a world cafe workshop.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    About this Blog

    This blog shares the activities of Creation Justice Ministries. We educate and equip Christians to protect, restore, and rightly share God's creation.

    Archives

    March 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    June 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    February 2016

    Categories

    All
    Climate Justice
    Conservation
    Energy Ethics
    Indigenous Peoples' Rights
    Oceans
    Public Lands
    Racial Justice
    Resilience
    Season Of Creation
    Superfund Sites
    Water

    RSS Feed

Creation Justice Ministries

 Address

110 Maryland Ave. NE #203
Washington, DC 20002

Email

info@creationjustice.org

Phone

Picture
‪(240) 528-7282‬


  • About
    • Mission
    • Staff
    • Work with Us
    • Board of Directors
    • Members and Partners
    • History
  • Campaigns
    • Take Action!
    • Climate Resilience
    • Ocean
    • Public Lands >
      • Public Lands & Church Camps
      • Public Lands: Prayers and Sermons
    • Pastoral Care for Climate Retreats
    • Conservation >
      • What is 30 x 30?
      • California
      • Grand Canyon
    • Youth & Young Adult Engagement
    • Water
    • Endangered
    • Energy >
      • Coal
      • Ideas for Toxic Free Living
    • Climate Change >
      • Climate Change - Get Involved
  • Donate
    • Monthly Giving
  • Resources
    • Resource Hub
    • Resource Hub (blog)
    • Earth Day Resources
    • Racial Justice Resources
    • Video Resources
    • Events >
      • Pastoring for Justice & Healing in a Climate Justice
      • Pastoral Care for Climate North Carolina
    • Services
    • News
  • Blog
  • Policy Statements/Letters
  • Faithful Climate BIPOC Fellowship
  • New Page