Journaler #4

[Official] JOURNAL

5/17

How to celebrate a classmate’s birthday:

Instead of having him drive the Happy Bus, let him ride on a MARTA bus and a jitney bus

Hand him a Breeze Card that provides access to trains underground and above ground

Take him on a walk through more downtown than he’s accustomed to

Show him Ted Turner’s condo and restaurant and solar-arrayed parking lot

Introduce him to really tall escalators

Buy him a burger to go with his free milkshake

Share his birthday cupcakes

Unlock the ladder that leads to the roof and climb up there with him

Assure him that if you could do his homework for him, you would

Multiple good reminders of diversity

Good start on lunchtime devotions, though there’s room for growth…

Transportation is linked to congestion and commutes and commerce, to pollution and jobs and ethnicity, to federal and state and local government, to fear and forethought and faith communities

Vote Yes on July 31 Transportation Investment Act—it’s not perfect but it’s better than nothing and perfect is not on the horizon around here

Feeling the need for debriefing.

Journaler’s Privilege: Need some advance warning system re sunscreen…

Pat Murphy, whose got major Practical Vision Mojo, welcomed us to East Decatur Station. And we welcomed Kate McGregor Mosely into our midst

The Medic has the blog up and running

Lots of high finance for the Bursar today

The Thanker’s work garnered a cupcake bonus

Finally got a photo with everybody (even our two Photographers) in it

The Journaler is getting briefer…

Do two-minute writing. Read two articles. Sign up for devotion. Say your prayers (and send those final birthday wishes)

Tomorrow is Sabbath Eve, y’all.

Journaler #3

Official JOURNAL

5/16

The degree to which it ain’t simple.

Akin to money, it takes energy to make energy. Burn coal to boil water to create steam to turn turbines.

Medic: Water and power are linked. (In that statement, we acknowledge that he meant “energy” when he said “power.” But we’re also talking about all those other worldly powers.)

When we burn something, we produce CO₂. How to sequester (now there’s an unsettling word) it? National Center for Carbon Capture is run by Southern Company. Hmm.

How do you store energy? Well, coal would be one way…

Hippie Meatloaf as a life-changing experience. Good to have the esteemed Dr. Bill Brown with us.

How to change people’s behavior? MADD did it. JFK did it. Can the church do it? Be part of the public process; maximize electricity the way we must also maximize water

What do pastors say to congregants? What do congregations do differently?

Our Presbytery has a lobbyist, Wendell Phillips. The church is to be engaged in life.

The bulk of energy-use growth isn’t here. The rest of the world wants the goodies we have; they can’t possibly want the problems, though.

All current technologies are bridge technologies. Bridge to…?

“Don’t tell the people they can’t have it.” Yeah, but what if they can’t?

GIPL
Help churches change behavior. Use faith language of our tradition:

Stewardship: The Earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. Love creation. Nature Deficit Disorder—go outside

Interconnectedness

God saw everthing that God had made and indeed it was very good.

For God so loved the world (not just us)

Awe The heavens are telling the glory of God (Hubble pix) Psalms

Justice: Ezekiel 34:17-19, consider the consequences of my actions on others

GIPL has over 700 “Partner Congregations.” How has that occurred?

Assume congregants do not understand climate change. There are some easy things people can do.

“We are drifting into a world of adaptation apartheid,” Desmond Tutu

We’re blowing up mountains. We’re going to have to move some mountains to address these issues.

“This work is possible.” What can we do as Christians? Talk about it. We’re so afraid of offending. But creation care is part of our calling.

Mercury regulation only since 1999—really??

Environmental Working Group report on mercury; Seychell Islands mercury study

Journaler’s Privilege:

Donning safety goggles & hardhat to enter the coal-fired plant somehow felt kind of duck-&-cover, no?

Bursar’s drawing may belong on the blog.

Photog’s photos: black-&-white plus only one color—now there’s a metaphor just looking for a meaning.

Foodie took over the driving—way to go, CM.

Worshiper’s got a plan for theology and worship. And not a moment too soon. I mean, if the only hope is eschatological, then why not drink the koolaid? Ah, so that’s why we have a Medic.

Turning off lights; unplugging appliances; shortening showers; noting alternatives to some plastics while lamenting inescapability of others; aiming for 8:20 AM at The Happy Bus That Rolls For Jesus

Journaler #2

[Official] JOURNAL

5/15

Looking for hope on a Tuesday morning

Yesterday’s coffee awaits us. Not sure that’s the best example of making good use of resources.

Be like the baboons. What happens if you cannot depend on the way the elders have done it? We can adapt quickly, if not painlessly. There are lots of ways to be a primate. Don’t get stuck thinking that the way things are is the way they have to be.

Christopher Southgate’s book re predation. Mufasa was right.

Water

Most of the planet’s surface; most of our bodies. Mostly salinated; only 2.5% is fresh, most has been frozen into ice that’s now melting into the sea. Oops. Cleansed via hydrologic cycle and via aquifer system. Over the past century, large dams have been re-allotting water. Most water used inefficiently in agriculture.

We have no designated “map navigator”…

In addition to the massive amounts of energy that none of us felt comfortable asking our guides to quantify, the plant uses gravity and microbes. Wish we could have seen the Luxury Uptake Train—I’m envisioning microbe manicures. Fascinating tour and nobody used the word, “Armageddon.” “Water Wars,” yes. Sunghee diligently photographed sewage. And us.

I hope Bursar tipped well. Driver/Encourager got applause. Postmaster very diligent with those thank-you notes! Theologian  suggested “Grace & Peace” as the sign-off for the note—way to go, Theology & Worship Meister.

No more throwing of keys. And NO darts, y’all.

Dr. Dabney Dixon (she was great)

Noah’s Ark

We Care Because…

Figure out what you believe, figure out how to articulate it, figure out how to stand and say it aloud.

“So, how do we say, ‘No.’?” Politics, economics, getting together at the closest place, Walk with God groups, church can be center for neighborhood activities, live intentionally (interplay with ritual), heartfelt ideas—what would a different way to live be? Reduce plastic and junk mail as a church activity (call the order line), as a way to build community with a different focus, have a garden: it’s engaging. CSAs—it’s a community activity, it’s fellowship

Two important groups to tap: new retirees given something real to do; Gospel Geeks for God

off-the-grid church; solar energy or solar hot water

Biodiversity: The IUCN Red List

Smaller areas have fewer species. Contiguous space more beneficial

40-50% of drugs originate as nature’s design. We don’t have the ideas; we lose the library of species.

Redundancy vs. Rivet Poppers—dueling metaphors for extinction

Hope of the whooping crane

What seems normal to us can be nefarious

N Pacific Gyre (AM and PM mentions)

The church as an ecosystem. Unity in diversity. Paul’s archipelago of island churches. Model sustainable community. Think in neighborhoods as well as congregation.

Listen to people and do what they want to do; capture the energy that’s organically within the culture. There are enough problems to go around—net energy use is a biggie but if folks can get behind sustainable food rather than recycling, or stripmining rather than climate change, so be it.

It’s not the church’s job to fix things; it’s the church’s job to bear witness.

Jesus is a problem (that is not news…)

So, what does the church have to offer that the rest of the world does not have but does need:
Different story: God is present; God is returning; the church can model how to die; practice of self-limitation for the sake of the Other (God in creating; Paul’s value). How does that exist in times of mega-churches sucking resources

Get back into small communities: love, care for each other, fellowship, basic NT stuff

People with the knowledge are trying to help us with this message—easily available online

Support good public servants.

Svante Arrhenius—simply don’t entertain the bullshit

“7^th Generation” concept is more accessible if you place audience as the middle generation.

Remember the ultimate source of our power (well, that would be God, but we’re talking coal)

Addressing emotions, hopes and fears rather than facts, which can be denied. Journaler’s Privilege: surely, this isn’t hard for the church…I mean, we don’t speak of our faith in terms of facts, do we?

visuals work—that I knew; that this portfolio of issues was especially hard for the church is something I didn’t know. Prof wants our 2-minute writing exercise for the day. Remember: no high heels tomorrow!

Journaler's #1

[Official] JOURNAL

5/14

Organic food, recyclable stuff (how are we sorting the trash?)

Devotion as setting the tone for the day

JOBS:

see email

SPECIALTIES:

See email

Walk, children, walk.

(songs of sustainability)

What did I learn? What are my questions?

As individual and as group—what is most important to say?

Thursday, 5/31, will begin at 5:00 for debriefing including the Encourager.

We hope CAMS is not sustained. It is a loser.

CAMS reading list is “mostly resources.” Read as much as we can to get into the topic.

For Tuesday (5/15): PCR chapters 7 & 8

For Friday

Porter_Strategy_Society_CSR.pdf
The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits.pdf

For David Green (TBD)

1984-JBJackson-Vern-Landscapes.pdf
2008-Bigfoot.pdf

Groundskeeping—this borders on a fetish at CTS

And the jackhammer is a special touch

Institute for Business & Theology was on campus and is now at GSU. Hmm.

Commit to church options…

Keeping Sabbath:

What is a sustainable church—not just rainchains

What is sustainable about the church? What practices would that include? Keeping Sabbath as a militant resistance to consumerism. Sabbath is the pinnacle and goal of Creation. If we don’t keep Sabbath, it’s impossible to have adequate sense of thanksgiving and sense of difference. Lose the watch and the phone; be at church. Find a time—ideally a whole day, at least a significant chunk—no commerce, no extra energy, no non-human powered transportation. Cease regular routine to focus on what God gives us aka the bounty of the Earth/relationship with God. It’s about stopping what we normally do. Rethinking the fabric of our lives. The Sabbath is meant to remind us of who (Whose) we are. How is time/relationship related to all else? We are not the Creator. Sabbath is not just what you don’t do. It’s what we do do. What do you do when the power goes out?

But no leaving food out to heat in the sun, y’all. On a Sabbath, how could Jacob Medic get to you??

Sabbath reading: Brown_Taylor_The Practice of Saying No.pdf

What Saturday activities (eg ranger-led hike on Panola Mt)? When go to church? Go to Atlanta Streets Alive—human-powered event 2:00-6:00 this Sunday?

CDC Crisis Emergency Response Communication training—for when the zombies come.

Pastors ought to know what to do in an emergency. What to do when bad stuff happens.

Guilt. Depression. (Foodie, don’t let us down with the food…)

Has our leader been rubbing folks the wrong way? Nah, seems unlikely. Except for that nasty email to the Beltline people…

Perkins+Wills = international architecture firm (CTS too small)

Pronounce “Gravél” like “Miss Clavel” in the Madeline books

Katherine Moore tour of Atlanta flora and fauna

Maybe some evenings?

Sabbaths = 19^th and 28^th

The goal of Sabbath—it was made for humans, not the other way around. Do what you can…

Climate change isn’t the only biggie. There’s also Peak Oil (today’s video topic), Species loss/biodiversity (we’re currently in the 6^th great extinction), Economic Overshoot (pop growth and sustainability). We’re now at 7 billion, which is double what it was 35-ish years ago. It, obviously, compounds. Human pop could double every 30-35 years. 10 billion seen as the max, if we’re careful, which we’re not. The resources do not exist. Food, housing, energy.

Talking about Climate Change and it’s freezing in here

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

We are converting tons of buried solid carbon into gas that doesn’t go away.

We’re a plague upon the land.

350ppm CO₂ is a goal that might hold us to 2-degree increase. Icecaps and glaciers melting. Sea levels rising but also circulation patterns change. Loss of fresh water. More deluge, more drought, more political upheaval; more fires, floods. It’s been in the zeitgeist for a good 35 years.

Methane sources: animal farming; released via melting polar caps. What we’re doing now has impact on future generations; we inherited a problem and are making it worse. Ah, this is the guilt and depression part. This generation of pastors must be prepared to deal with lots of upheaval and lots of death.

Species extinction frays web of Creation

“Pretty depressing but really well done” = Crude Awakening

We’re so short-term; God is so long-term

“There isn’t anybody who’s clean.”

Those in power hide reality because we don’t want to hear the bad news. Any way to harness that? (Remember the solar panels Carter put on the White House roof? The ones Reagan took down?) Journaler’s Privilege: one thing I learned today is that I absolutely cannot look at Bush or Cheney—I am still that pissed off.

Two things Stan is seeking in a church: connect faith with environment; people who are in interfaith discussion. Quakers? But if you want eucharist or songs or preaching…though power in silence. Some Christians need to get serious about this! Prophesy. Protestants lost track of the Creation.

Alternatives: we need to get a lot more serious about conservation; therefore, we need Sabbath.

Rob Hopkins’ The Transition Handbook, The Transition Timeline, etc. Some “Transition Communities” in GA. Local food and energy and other resources. Get simple. Get local

Rebuild human communities—calling for church—more intimate, interdependent. Sustainable life.

PS: Everything I’ve heard since today’s movie has been filtered through that movie. Mm mm.