Happy 3rd Anniversary to this Newsletter!
I launched this newsletter - and my website - on Pentecost, June 5, 2022. In that time, I changed its name, moved platforms, and published over 160 posts. And grown a lot, thanks to you!
Hello Faith. Climate Crisis. Action community!
This post comes to you a day early, Thursday, to coincide with the day three years ago when I launched this newsletter. On Pentecost Sunday, June 5, 2022, the first issue was delivered to email inboxes, and my website was launched. What a whirlwind it has been! I tried to count the number of words I have written in 161 posts, but quickly lost track. And whatever the number is, it doesn’t include the words I edited out, or the drafts that have been started but not yet finished. In case you’re curious, I am working on essays about what the climate crisis will look like in 2050, the “myth of clean energy” (a post-colonial liberationist analysis) and what role individual climate action can meaningfully play in the larger climate movement. With each of these, as always, I will reflect on them in light of our faith and the call to a discipleship of climate action.
This has been an intense few weeks for me as a pastor, with several funerals on top of a number of worship services to lead. Thus, instead of something new (lately all I seem to be writing are funeral sermons), I want to do a ‘throwback Thursday’ and reprint that very first edition of this newsletter (originally called Following in the World). It never made its way to Substack when I migrated over a couple of years ago, and so most of you haven’t seen it before. Enjoy!
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Throwback Thursday: June 5, 2022
Welcome to this first issue of the Following in the World newsletter! I am glad that you are here.
The title Following in the World, which is also the name of my blog found on my website, refers to how we allow what we believe most to shape our life and actions in the world. For Christians like me, that is called discipleship. It is about exploring the relationship between our beliefs, values and actions, and moving toward transformative change in the world and in ourselves.
What you will find in this newsletter are thoughts, resources, and inspiration to encourage you as you follow in the world, seeking to mitigate climate change, heal ecological devastation and be transformed in the process. I will be providing links to my blog posts, reflections on scripture, book recommendations, ideas for discipleship actions you can take, and more. Please let me know what you find meaningful and what else you would like to see. Enjoy!
Announcement!
My website, jessicahetherington.ca, is being launched at the very same time as this newsletter has landed in your inbox! It is the place where I introduce myself and the ecotheology ministry that I offer, share my blog and other writings. This is also where you can find me to schedule me to preach, offer a workshop, lead Bible study, and more. Please check it out!
Scripture Reflection: Matthew 4:18-22
18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. 19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21 As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. 22 Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him. (NRSV)
When the IPCC released its latest report in early April and announced that it was “unequivocal” that we are headed for a 3ºC warming world due to climate change unless we take radical and immediate measures to limit greenhouse gas emissions, this text from the Gospel of Matthew came into my head. Jesus calls to Peter and Andrew and asks them to follow him. “Immediately,” they drop everything and do so. Jesus then asks the same thing of James and John, and they, too, “immediately” drop their work and begin to follow Jesus.
These first disciples were all fishermen; this was a major industry in Jesus’ time, and Peter, Andrew, James, and John were gainfully employed. They owned all of the equipment they needed for their work, including nets and boats. Yet, they dropped all of it at the word of Jesus, someone they didn’t know before now. Without any preparation or discussion in advance, they left behind what they knew to begin a life of discipleship with Jesus.
Immediately. This word in the scripture passage is what I notice when I reflect on the report from the IPCC. The data about global warming is dire; greenhouse gas emissions must be immediately and drastically reduced in order to mitigate climate change and prevent further catastrophe for people and the planet.
Immediately. We are being called, like the first disciples, to drop all that we know, to drop our usual ways of doing things, of burning fossil fuels, overconsumption, and more, and follow a new path. We are being called by climate scientists around the world to drop our nets, leave our boats, and move, however unprepared we may feel, toward a new way of living.
Immediately. As people of faith, isn’t this call also coming from God? Isn’t God, working through the work of the IPCC and voices of climate activists and others around the world, saying the same thing? Drop your nets; drop what you are doing, and follow God. Drop your nets and find a new way of living that limits global warming. Drop your nets and find a new path of discipleship that seeks to restore our relationship with the natural world.
Drop your nets and follow God.
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Reading for Transformation
There is so much out there to read and learn! Here I suggest two books: one that was useful to me in writing my PhD dissertation, and a more recent volume that I have come across.
Christianity and Ecology: Seeking the Well-Being of Earth and Humans, ed. Dieter T. Hessel and Rosemary Radford Ruether (Cambridge: Harvard University Press for the Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions, 2000).
This is a large volume of essays by ecotheologians across Christian traditions and areas of expertise. It offers a comprehensive overview of the diverse themes, focuses, and concerns of scholars responding to the ecological crisis. The essays are highly readable and approachable. It is an excellent book for anyone exploring faith and ecology, wherever they are in their knowledge and interests. This book is part of a larger series published by the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology; volumes have been published on Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Indigenous traditions, and more. (Link: https://fore.yale.edu/Publications/Books/Religions-World-and-Ecology-Book-Series).
More Powerful Together: Conversations with Climate Activists and Indigenous Land Defenders (Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2020).
I found this book at a branch of the Ottawa Public Library recently. The author is an activist-scholar who draws on her experience in climate activism and indigenous land defence movements within Canada as a basis for her research into exploring what these two areas of activism, in conversation together, can teach us about transformational change. In the book, stories are interwoven with scholarly analysis to draw out the best wisdom about the importance of relationship building in working for change.
Have you read either of these books? If you have, please let me know what you think of them. If you have other titles that you have found helpful, I would love to know what they are. Please let me know!
Discipleship in Action
The news about the ecological crisis, especially the climate crisis, can be overwhelming and discouraging; it is easy to feel that there is little we can do. This isn’t true! There is so much that we can do, concrete actions that we can take now, in response to God’s call upon us as people of faith. Here is one idea.
Eat more Plant-Based Meals
Reducing our meat consumption, especially red meat, is one of the most effective individual actions that we can take to fight climate change and the ecological crisis. Whether you eat a lot of meat or a little, or none at all, here is a delicious soup that is easy to make at any time, for lunch or supper. And my kids all like it, so that gives it two thumbs up!
Easy Chickpea Soup
Ingredients:
1Tbs olive or canola oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp turmeric
2-398 mL cans of chickpeas
1-798 mL can of diced tomatoes
2 cups vegetable (or chicken) broth
2 cups water
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
Sauté the onions and garlic in the oil for 2-3 minutes.
Add the rest of the ingredients, bring it to a boil, then lower the heat and cook for 7-8 minutes.
Purée the soup (I use an immersion blender), and serve.
So easy and delicious! I like to serve it with homemade cornbread and a side salad. Discipleship in the kitchen. 😊
Earth Community in Pictures
While my family and I love to go canoe camping and hiking in forests further out of the city, it is vital to me that we realize that the natural world of which we are part is all around us, inside and outside the house. Recently,we went for a walk along the Ottawa River, on the Gatineau side, behind the Canadian Museum of History. One thing that I love, in addition to experiencing the wildness of the natural world around me, is witnessing my children experiencing it, too.
Congratulations! Positive changes much needed inour world.