After two days bringing a lot of new ideas to Compassion, Peace & Justice Training Days, the Rev. Dr. Cláudio Carvalhaes invoked an old hymn to start his third and final day of theological reflections.
If a Presbyterian church is interested in discussing gun violence, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance’s Story Productions has a film for that: “Trigger: The Ripple Effect of Gun Violence” (2014).
On Thursday, Compassion, Peace & Justice Training Days participants heard about the work of people fighting for the survival of marginalized communities in the face of environmental degradation, racism, and rapacious capitalism, which often seemed to be one in the same.
The first day of Compassion, Peace and Justice Training Days planted seeds of thought about the evils of colonization, capitalism and individualism and their effects on the planet.
As you travel on a patchwork section of Interstate 75 in Southwest Detroit and cross the River Rouge, this scene emerges before you: towers and tanks spreading out on both sides of the road, constituting a massive Marathon petroleum refinery.
To hurt the Earth is to hurt the poor, Gordon Aeschliman wrote in “The Green Bible: Understanding the Bible’s Powerful Message for the Earth.” He added: “It shouldn’t be surprising that creation and justice are inextricably linked” and that to keep the garden, as humans are told to do in Genesis 2, is the same notion as the Numbers 6:24 blessing: The Lord bless you and keep you.
Two strong voices in environmental justice and peacemaking have decided to come together in an effort to strengthen their work. Presbyterian Peace Fellowship (PPF) and Fossil Free PC(USA) have announced a formal partnership in which FFPCUSA will operate as a project within PPF. Leaders of both organizations say the move is in recognition of the “crucial link between environmental justice and peacemaking.”
If you talk with people living along the coastline of North and South Carolina, they will be quick to tell you, they’ve had enough rain to last a lifetime. Hurricane Matthew and 2015’s “one-thousand-year rain” have caused some significant problems for many, especially in the Charleston area.
In late June 2016, mere days after winning Peru’s presidential election by a thin margin, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski turned his eyes on the troubled community of La Oroya, where for more than 15 years Presbyterian World Mission and the Presbyterian Hunger Program have joined with partners Joining Hands Peru (Red Uniendo Manos Peru) in seeking justice for city’s residents.
