When: Thursday, April 20, 2023, 7:00 PM
Where: Zoom
Register here

Join the Sacred Earth: Growing Beloved Community webcast on April 20th at 7:00 PM as we welcome the Rev. Dr. Rachel Mash from Capetown, South Africa, Coordinator of the world-wide Anglican Communion Environmental Network. Honored as a presenter at the United Nations and Parliament of the World Religions, she co-founded Green Anglicans, the Care for Creation movement of the Anglican Church, resourcing churches with liturgical and educational materials grounded in earth and justice theology. And she has been instrumental in the creation of the Communion Forest initiative.

When Capetown faced Day Zero of their water climate crisis, Dr. Mash assisted in the creation of a courageous community-wide response which averted disaster. She is known for her bold, creative and compassionate social innovations, and often incorporates arts and culturally rooted expression in her work. One publication for climate education with young people introduces Ryan the Rhino and has captured global imagination.

Dr. Mash writes: “faith communities often start their environmental work with local action or advocacy, but don’t help people to make the link between these actions and their faith. So we end up with a few activists or a “green team,” but the very DNA of the churches needs to change. Transformational change doesn’t take place merely when individuals change, but is strengthened when networks of individuals change. We now have over 50,000 on our Facebook page. We can share stories, encourage others, and help people to feel that their actions are significant because, when joined together with all the other actions, those drops make an ocean!

The starting point for our work is in spirituality-based Care for Creation. We run eco-theology workshops and eco-retreats with clergy and have developed an online course on Eco-theology. If we want to root our environmental actions in spirituality, we need to use terms that resonate with our faith language. So we don’t speak only about environmental work, we also speak of caring for creation; in addition to “ecosystem restoration,” we speak of renewing the web of life.” Rachel works extensively with the Season of Creation to create education and liturgical resources for faith communities.

Join Bishop Marc Andrus and Dr. Paloma Pavel in meeting with this inspiring world faith leader on April 20th. In the spirit of growing beloved community, especially during Earth Week in April, we encourage “each one to bring one”, and reach out to those in your life with whom you are seeking to expand your impact for climate and environmental justice.

Our guest musician for the evening is Kele Nitoto, a second generation African-American percussionist and singer. Born and raised in the Oakland Dance Culture, Kele Has studied with masters of many styles, becoming proficient in West-African, Congolese, Afro-Cuban, Afro-Peruvian, and Afro-Haitian traditional music. He is a full-time teacher of traditional music to at-risk youth of incarcerated parents. Currently Kele performs with Wildchoir, and he is spearheading Oakland Hand Drums, an organization focused on rhythmic education and performance through a cultural and creative lens, which is currently holding classes and drum circles online. Learn more about Kele’s classes here.

Save the Date! – Continuing our Earth Week celebrations, join us on April 27 at 7:00 PM pacific as we welcome Gilbert Otuo-Acheampong, Canon of the Anglican Diocese of Asante Mampong in Ghana. Gilbert is pursuing his Ph.D. at the GTU in Berkeley and we will explore the topic of Sustainability and Preaching using ancient texts from Hebrew scriptures. Registration coming soon.

Please click here to register.

Visit www.faithinformed.org/sacred-earth to view previous videos.

*Part of the Sacred Earth, Earth Day mini-series.