Environmental Justice

The Eighth Day Project

Our Eighth Day Project Curriculum — facilitator’s booklet, guide and brief DVD — is now available! It is designed for a six-week small group process and can be adjusted to the needs of your group or congregation. Please contact us for a copy, at . We will be happy to share it with you and we look forward to hearing about your experiences and actions!

Throughout the Bible, God calls us not just to be good stewards, but to love and rejoice in the creation, as God does. Jesus loved the natural world and went into the wilderness to grow closer to God, as well as warning us against many of the actions that lead to environmental devastation, particularly buying and hoarding too many goods. God gave us clear directions on how to relate to the Creation and to our fellow human beings in our use of resources. As a culture in North America, we’ve overstepped those bounds fairly regularly, and people and the earth are suffering as a result.

It is at the heart of our faith to repent - to turn away from destructive behaviors, and to act humbly in ways which God has shown to us. Our devastation of the created world and our injustice to one another in the way that we use the earth is a clear place where our faith as Christians calls us to take action. “Being green” is a secular way of saying, live faithfully - with restraint, with concern for justice, and with love, rather than exploitation and selfishness. When we apply those principles to our use of natural resources and to our economy, we can restore justice and abundance in the earth. It does take a while! The grace of God is that you get to feel the change to freedom and abundance in your own life very quickly, even though redeeming the world as a whole is rather a bigger project…and we call that the Eighth Day Project!

We work to develop a network of committed Christians within and between congregations and secular organizations. We’re members of the Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports and proud to support their solution to the ports pollution and the economic exploitation of truck drivers; we also work with denominational organizations, ecumenical groups, individual churches, other faith-based justice groups, and secular organizations. Our goal is to help Christians understand the connections between faith and environmental sustainability — and between environmental sustainability and economic justice. We believe that the dilemma between environmental sustainability and economic well-being is a false dilemma — and that, to the contrary, whenever we find the earth abused, we also find people being exploited; whenever people live in poverty, the earth is also being misused.

Current Projects and Events

  • We’ve expanded our original four-week small group program on faith and environmental justice into a six-week program, with a reader’s guide and facilitator’s guide. The curriculum is focused on Scripture, individual experience, and action, and the goal is to help church members create a community of support as they work for change. Particular issues addressed include greenspace and wilderness preservation, food availability, and the ecological effects of overconsumption. It’s free, creative, highly adaptable and includes a facilitator’s guide as well as a participant’s guide. If you think your church would be interested in running the curriculum, please contact Jennifer at .
  • Food, Faith, and Farming: Faithful Choices for Our Bodies, Our Neighbors, and Our Planet
    North Oxnard United Methodist Church, 1801 Joliet Place, Oxnard
    April 26, 2008, 2-5:30 PM
    How does what we eat really matter - and what does it really cost, now and in the future? Join us for an afternoon of learning and prayer on the issues of how our culture of food production and food choices impacts our bodies, our planet, and our life together - and why it matters to God and to our spiritual journey. Breakout sessions on organic farming, nutrition, farm policy, and more. Come meet your neighbors, and learn about the ways in which our agricultural system injures the planet and our society. We’ll be joined by partner organizations who will share with us the stories of local farmworkers and the challenges they face from poverty, illness, poor housing, and economic exploitation. It all fits together in surprising ways! We’ll worship together and share a simple meal at 5 PM. We request a $7 donation to offset the cost of food, but no one will be turned away. We’ll also be taking up a collection for a local organization that serves Mixteca-speaking migrant workers. RSVP soon to reserve your spot and let us know how many people to cook for! For RSVP or more information, contact Virginia at or Jennifer at .
  • Working with Echo Park United Methodist Church on their Community Living Room Project. Echo Park was one of the churches where we held our first, Spanish-and-English version of our small group curriculum. The group was particularly interested in creating a more welcoming, clean, and trust-inducing environment in their urban neighborhood, and with the help of the Community Beatification Grant Program and landscape architect Steve Cancian, Progressive Christians Uniting is organizing the community design process and managing the project of placing a “community living room” on the sidewalk in front of the church. A Community Living Room is a micro-park with benches and plantings for a heavily urbanized area, designed to help the community members feel more at home and to connect with one another in their own public space. We’re honored and excited to be working with Echo Park UMC on this project!
  • Reflection and Action Hikes and more wilderness preservation work in the San Gabriel Valley, with the help of our partners at the Sierra Club. Check out the photos from our hike last year!
  • Developing a plan for “Green Team” congregational organizing and resources with the Episcopal Ecological Network, and creating a training workshop for lay and clergy leaders on ecological thinking and activism with the Southern California Ecumenical Council…watch this space for more information!

 

 

Past Projects:

  • Partnered with California Interfaith Power and Light to show An Inconvenient Truth at 40 area churches
  • Our first Reflection and Action Hike, with the Sierra Club, drew almost 50 people from all over the Los Angeles area
  • Piloted a four-week small group curriculum at two Los Angeles-area churches; it’s now expanding into a six-week curriculum!
  • Organized our first free conference, “Faith, Activism, and Environmental Justice,” in April, 2007, with Bill McKibben as our keynote speaker, and with speakers on wilderness preservation, local food availability, and ports-related air pollution. Approximately 200 people attended, with representatives from environmental organizations throughout Los Angeles.

Keep in touch as new events and opportunities develop on the horizon — and please with your ideas and questions!