Eco-Act 011: Recycling with Purpose

Recycling: keep it up

and fine-tune

We recycle automatically, probably giving our action little thought. If we notice it at all, we might get a flash of satisfaction: we’re doing something right—avoiding the landfill, helping to reduce greenhouse gases, to keep our water and soil clean.

And we do make a difference. According to Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), we recycle nearly 40% of our garbage. Even better, we recycle close to home, reducing transportation costs, energy consumption, and emissions:

• 28% of our total recycling is done in Seattle (including 100% of our glass and metal).

• 38% is recycled in the Northwest or US (including 100% of our plastic, 75% of our cardboard, and 45% of our paper).

• Only 34% is shipped to Asia (the rest of our paper and cardboard).

Here’s some good news: by paying closer attention to the containers we acquire when we shop, we can up our recycling game a bit more. Consider, for example …

• Metal containers are lightweight and can be recycled again and again.

• Glass containers are recyclable, and the process of transforming old glass containers for new uses is energy-efficient, according to the Viv Business Club. But glass is heavy, so recycling it can be less profitable for the utility if transportation distance is significant.

• Plastic containers can be problematic. While many are recyclable, others might not be (single-serve yogurt containers, for example). Non-recyclable plastic containers must be removed during processing, an added expense, and end up in the landfill.

• Buying foods in bulk, using our own containers, avoids buying anything to recycle in the first place. PCC and many other grocers provide shoppers this option. You might also want to check out Scoop Marketplace in Seattle, which specializes in this kind of shopping.

So, when our grocery stores offer packaging options, we can consciously choose metal or glass. We can choose to (re)use our own containers. And when it comes to plastic containers, SPU is clear: we can “Use Less Plastic (the Best Option for the Environment).”

Here’s a final request from SPU as we prepare containers for recycling: make sure they’re empty, clean, and dry. Food residue can produce mold; moisture can damage paper fiber. Materials thus contaminated either lose value or become unusable.

Here’s the bottom line: we’re already acting positively, AND we can fine-tune our recycling actions with purpose and awareness to do better. Reasons for hope!

Eco-Act 010: Exploring Waste

knowing our waste

and where it goes

For the next subtopic within our eco-faith initiative, we are taking a deep dive into waste (of all kinds!) — and simple things you can do to learn more, act, and reduce waste. This post and eco-act invitation is really just an introduction to waste. Later, we will delve more into plastics, e-waste, toxic waste, consumerism, and maybe even sprinkle in a few more ideas about food waste and compost! Ultimately, we also hope to offer ideas on how you can live a lower waste lifestyle (any things you already do??).

So to start, let’s get a lay of the local systems and municipal offerings. We are privileged to live in a city where residential and commercial compost is taken by Seattle Public Utilities (or other commercial providers), people are (mostly) cognizant of sorting waste, and zero or low-waste lifestyles are encouraged (reusable water bottles or mugs, etc). Wherever you are located, it’s important to get acquainted with the resources your city provides! Here are a few great Seattle resources to get started:

• Where Does It Go? List: This detailed tool gives a breakdown of where to toss everything from dryer sheets to asbestos by Seattle Public Utilities.

• Buy Nothing Project: Started in 2013 on Bainbridge Island, two friends created what has now become a global gift economy phenomenon! Read more here, and be sure to check their group locator page, as well as Covid-19 statement.

• Eco-Collective: This is an amazing zero-waste store in Ballard that has many home essentials and a bulk bar (full of oils, shampoo, cleaning solution, spices). They do rigorous product testing and give detailed product info about end-of life disposal as well.

Finally, what is the importance of waste for Christians anyway? As waste continues to have devastating impacts for our global neighbors who receive legal or illegal waste generated by the US, for sea creatures and ecosystems, and for the land in general that gets polluted with industrial toxins, we’d point to the Gospel according to Matthew:

“In everything do to others as you would have them do to you” (7:12), and

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (22:39)

And that should be reason enough. We hope you’ll join us by sharing some ways you are reducing or reusing waste. Let us know in the comments below, or email Adrienne!

T&J Edition 7: The Church's Call to Justice

Dear Union Community,

This last Sunday, Ashish Joy preached a powerful word from Matthew 8, looking at the social, economic, and community response to Jesus as he met two men possessed by demons. (It was excellent, you should watch it if you missed it!) What one could imagine being a time of rejoicing as these two men are healed from demon-possession and the demons were banished into a legion of pigs, we see rather that the community wants Jesus to leave. In a moment when Christ brings healing and wholeness to these two men, the community wants nothing of it. Why?

Ashish shared a very personal reflection on his experience with race, being East Indian living in the United States and confronting his own journey acknowledging the lived experience of Black Americans, as well as the deeply embedded caste system in India. It was a deeply personal reflection, acknowledging privilege and complicity and systems at play, and an invitation for all of us to reflect about our own histories, both individually but also communally as the church. In this quote from John M. Perkins in "Dream with Me: Race, Love, and the Struggle We Must Win," we can see how the (white) church has responded very similarly to the community in Matthew 8, and John M. Perkins is calling us out. 

“I am all for churches being a part of the nonviolent marches and protests that have happened in the wake of violent killings, but these protests happen only after a tragic event has taken place.

I want the church to be what prevents these acts from ever happening.

I want the church to be the community that is so dedicated to loving our neighbors, to caring for the poor and neglected, and to living out true reconciliation that these killings do not even take place.”

It is not only enough to weep and ask why after tragedy has occurred. Christ is calling us, the church, to step up, to participate in dismantling these systems that bring oppression and death and poverty and neglect,  and actively be a part of the change that will bring wholeness and healing. The church has to acknowledge our complicity and silence of the past. We are a reflection of that community who declined to be involved in healing and wholeness in Matthew 8. But we are invited to participate in the hard work of dismantling systems of oppression, beginning today and continuing past this moment of anguish. This is our God-given mission as defined in Micah 6:8, to "seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God." Let's continue to strive to be the church that Christ has called us to be. 

Do you have a reflection you want to share? Please feel free to respond and share! We would love to hear what you have been processing, and how you have been learning and responding in this time. 

Below are some ways that you can continue this work in your life. Please reach out to this community if you have questions, need resources, or just want to talk.

Pressing towards justice.

LEARN

• Diversify your newsfeed. Add the South Sound Emerald Weekly Round-Up to your news cycle to read news and stories of those living in the South end of Seattle. Sign up here to receive a weekly round-up in your inbox.

• Read this Seattle Times article about a local Grays Harbor farmer, and notice that he mentions the same theme that John M. Perkins does in the quote above.

• Listen to this podcast by Scene on Radio "The Land That Never Has Been Yet", and take a second look at the history you were taught. (This is the same podcast that did the excellent series "Seeing White", another great tool for this work.)

• Read books by authors of color. This is a great tool for adults, but for children as well, to read stories about characters that are not predominantly white.

• Pick a book, article or podcast from this extensive list of Healthcare Equity and Anti-Racism resources created by the University of Washington. 

• This article was passed along by Mary Ehrlich, and she says this:

  "I think it would be great to share this article. It caught my attention after Ashish’s sermon." 

  Thank you for continuing on this journey! Please continue to share resources and reflections. 

  https://www.nytimes.com/issue/magazine/2020/07/02/the-7520-issue

ADVOCATE

• Sign this petition, Justice for Elijah McClain, and make phone calls to Colorado officials to demand these officers are held accountable.

• Register with the Washington State Poor People's Campaign to know what to advocate for and when to mobilize.

ACT

• Continue to make lunches for SYM & ICS, roll hundreds burritos on Saturdays, and deliver meals to Compass House. Contact Adrienne or Renee for safe distance service opportunities.

• Help distribute boxes of fresh produce from Food Lifeline to families in need. Looking for Friday morning/afternoon pickups and deliveries. Contact Adrienne if you can help!

• Join your school's PTA! Make a commitment to join your school's PTA this year, and be present at meetings to ask questions that center the kids and families of color in your community and further the demands of the NAACP Youth Council.

• Donate! Make a contribution to your local food bank as their shelves are decimated by the ongoing needs related to the pandemic.  

• Provide monthly financial support to CHOOSE 180 or DADs in the work they are doing to support communities who continue to experience disproportionately the negative effects of COVID.

--

Truth & Justice Studio MISSION STATEMENT :: Truth & Justice creates space to educate and mobilize people by lifting up marginalized voices as catalyst for social change. We are a community within Union Church in Seattle, WA. 

Prayers of the People: July 5th, 2020

Adrienne Elliott shared this prayer with us on 1st Sunday:

Triune God,

You know what we ought to pray for better than we do. In this time of great yearning for a world more expansive like your Kingdom, strengthen us with hope. 

Not a hope that is shallow, with sentiments of “thoughts and prayers” but an embodied hope. Cast a vision of what is possible in the healing of polarities across political, ideological, and economic divides. Strengthen us to thoughtfully and openly pursue conversations that are difficult. Help us be good listeners and to boldly speak and act against the dehumanization of Empire and the ways the Church perpetuates Empire’s false hierarchical kingdom. Help us be agents of change in de-centering the US Church (and Christian Nationalism) as we are (re)formed by global examples of the Church on the margins radically caring for the Stranger, Outcast, and Other. 

Help us discern how to be your hands and feet locally in our neighborhoods and city. Give us clarity that we might be and find living hope amidst this global pandemic -- we pray for those who are affected by unemployment, for our healthcare system, and those who are essential workers. We pray for continued education, confession, and sustained action for racial justice as we continue following the lead of Black activists, educators, and healers -- especially those who are LGBTQ+. God of Memory, we long for a true accounting of history: for the rights of Indigenous people as original caretakers, water and land protectors, to be remembered and right relations made. We are grateful for the ways we are able to practice a Kingdom economy with others in providing tangible needs for those who are housing insecure, hungry, or out of work.

Gracious God, these and so many more are what we live and pray in hope for. We ask for your loving healing and liberation. May it all be so. 

Now, hear this Blessing of Hope by Jan Richardson:

BLESSING OF HOPE

So may we know

the hope

that is not just

for someday

but for this day—

here, now,

in this moment

that opens to us:

hope not made

of wishes

but of substance,

hope made of sinew

and muscle

and bone,

hope that has breath

and a beating heart,

hope that will not

keep quiet

and be polite,

hope that knows

how to holler

when it is called for,

hope that knows

how to sing

when there seems

little cause,

hope that raises us

from the dead—

not someday

but this day,

every day,

again and

again and

again.

—Jan Richardson, The Cure for Sorrow

A Note from Renée

Dear Beloved Friends,

One morning this week I arose early in a state of deeper melancholy.

“Here we still are,” was my pressing thought, “Still.”

As I sipped my morning coffee and paused with my emotions, I found that images of you — my dear Union family — were filling my heart and mind. At first, I felt such sadness for the passing time without the ability to see you, except on screen and occasionally in person from a distance. As one of our younger friends reminded me, “We didn’t get to slide together on Father’s Day!” The void experienced when we cannot share life together is real.

And, yet, as I continued to take time to think of YOU and pray for YOU by name, my sadness turned to a joy that I can only describe as JOY OF THE SPIRIT. James B and I often talk about the myriad ways our lives are more full and rich because of our journey with YOU, our Union family. We truly cannot imagine our lives without you, dear friends and co-sojourners. Through you we’ve grown in our understanding of God’s grace, learned to take risks for God’s justice that all people might flourish, and experienced refreshment through your laughter, insights and life stories. Through you we’ve experienced connection in the Spirit, reminding us that we NEED each other’s gifts and personalities. We are not the same; together we reflect the fullness of God.

Philippians 1:3-6, that Paul wrote to his beloved friends at Philippi while he was in prison and could not see them, expresses truly and deeply our sentiment for you, our Union family:

(We) thank our God every time (we) remember you. 4 In all (our) prayers for all of you, (we) always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Yes, we miss you AND we give such deep thanks for you, experiencing joy when we think about you. The word for partnership, koinonia, means at its root, “shared life.” Even in this time of Covid19, when we are physically apart, we give thanks for our shared life “to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God” as we pray to our Lord who unites us in Spirit.

Please know that we pray for you, our beloved Union family, daily. Every day you are in our thoughts and prayers and often throughout the day. What a joy to know you, to share life with you and to partner in the gospel together.

May you trust that God is doing a good work in you as you seek to trust that Jesus Christ is with you in the midst of uncertainty and challenges. May you trust that the Holy Spirit flows through you to bring hope.

May you trust that we are experiencing koininia together – partners in the Gospel.

In this time of disruption, as we “do” church beyond walls, do you know that God is inviting our Union Church community into partnership with other churches in Seattle to respond together as God’s people of reconciliation and hope as we seek a new day of justice?

So…

1) Will you join with us to pray for this good work that God is doing as we seek to partner with others in our city?

2) Will you let us know how we can pray for you (because we already are praying daily)? Here is my email: renee@unionchurchseattle.org

In the Joy of the Spirit – Renée

(This prayer also blessed me on that melancholic morning)

Eco-Act 009: planting with purpose, awaiting the harvest in hope

Planting with purpose

awaiting the harvest

Throughout this past spring we “planted some seeds:” we shared some ideas about food—growing it, mindfully choosing what to grow, buy and eat, even how to reduce the amount we waste. Our purpose? Originally, it was to take on the seemingly unstoppable, despair-inducing, “game over” force of climate change by identifying positive, “person-sized” steps each of us can take to act with a “game on” attitude instead—to act in hope. These positive steps included:

• Tending a garden (eco-act 003)

• Re-growing scallions (eco-act 001)

• Intentionally replacing a meat-oriented meal with a plant-based meal, regularly or occasionally (eco-act 002)

• “Eating local” as a way of celebrating, supporting and connecting with our local environment (eco-act 007)

• Grocery shopping mindfully to reduce waste (eco-act 006)

• Enlisting worms to make use of food scraps (eco-act 004)

For those who have taken any of these or similar small steps, may they have (re)kindled a sense of environmental purpose, direction and hope in you. May (re)connecting with the rhythms of planting, growing, consuming and conserving given you a sense of your place in them. If you haven’t yet, it’s always the right time to jump in: there’s still time to plant, always time to shop and eat mindfully, always time to let nothing be wasted.

Of course, this spring unfolded into a season sadder, darker and more discouraging than anyone could have imagined. And we were reminded—or perhaps taught for the first time—that climate change is linked to environmental/racial justice, and that it hits marginalized communities especially hard. Acting with purpose and waiting in hope seems especially difficult here because many corrective actions feel systemic rather than “person-sized.” None of us can single-handedly close a factory that pollutes nearby poor neighborhoods, for example.

But we can leverage our individual power by supporting BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color)-owned farms, restaurants, organizations, and other businesses. We can vote, show up at budget/council meetings, and ask more of our school boards. What are some other actions you could take?

• Support Black-owned businesses & communities on Seattle Good Business Network

  • Check out the “Food & Beverage” section; be sure to click on “Additional Black-Owned Food Business Lists”—and look in all three sections

  • Under the “Donate” tab, check out “Black Community Food Initiatives”

  • Under the “Learn” tab, check out “Local Food/Farm Groups”

• Revisit our posts on centering Black Environmental Justice Activists

• Learn Native history & recognize Settler Colonialism as the “original sin” of the US, especially in terms of environmental/social justice

Whether it’s gardening, managing a worm bin, adjusting diet and food shopping habits—or taking a step toward environmental/racial justice, we would love to hear what you have been up to. And we hope that your purposeful act has given you hope.

Prayers of the People: June 28th, 2020

Nichelle Keatley prayed this prayer on our 4th Sunday discussion, “Taking Place Seriously: Where We’ve Been & Where We’re Going”:

Dear God, Creator of All Things,

 We come today, with questions laid before us. While we seek to know the answer of HOW You would use this land for the welfare of the city, we pray first to align our hearts and minds with You. May You meet us here in a time of confession, a time of gratitude and acknowledgement of the blessing this land has been, and a time of prayerful consideration.

Lord, we confess that this land we currently occupy was long inhabited by the traditional and first peoples of Seattle, the Duwamish Tribe. Still present and living in this land today, we acknowledge the complex history our country, state, and city has with the Indigenous peoples - the broken treaties, the stolen land, and genocidal laws - all of which paved the way for us to occupy 415 Westlake Avenue as we know it today. Lord, we confess this history to You, we say it out loud, to honor and respect the Indigenous Peoples who have come before us, and to resist erasing their history from this land.

We are immensely grateful for the land and building that we have occupied these last 12 years. On numerous occasions, it appeared that we would be looking for a new "home", but You, Lord, provided the means and opportunities for us to purchase the building, perfectly appointed in the center of a developing hub in Seattle and a window to the larger world. As we seek to be "for the neighborhood", You have blessed us with relationships in the cafe, partnerships with organizations big and small, and a growing heart and ministry that serves the homeless, feeds the hungry, and seeks justice for the oppressed. We are so grateful for the relationships we have developed with Compass House, Catholic Health Services, CHOOSE 180, DADs, Lake Union Village, Street Youth Ministries, Lowell Elementary, One Parish One Prisoner, the IF Project, and the many other organizations that I have failed to mention. Lord, bless those organizations in the tireless work they do, and we pray that we may authentically walk in partnership with them to bring the wholeness of life that You promise.

Lord, we are thankful for the building and how it has been such a blessing. While at times it has felt small, the life that is bursting forth from our growing number of children and families, the loud second Sunday conversations, community events, weekly women's shelter, and lively Kakao cafe, all of these are representative of the fact that You bring forth life. We are so grateful for a building and location that allows us to come together and celebrate the life that You bring, and is so evident in our gathering together and going out into the community. We are grateful for the flexibility this space has afforded us: a worshipful space that has allowed us to authentically connect with the community through the cafe and the 415 event space, and a gathering place for this Union community as well.

Lord, as we ponder what the future of this space may be, we want to give thanks for the 415 Vision Studio that has met every other week for many months, discerning and listening to God's voice and this community, learning how this space has been used, and carefully planning how we can move ahead in a physically and fiscally responsible manner. We pray that they would remain attentive to Your Holy Spirit, particularly as we find ourselves in a new time of pandemic, economic uncertainty, and a reckoning of how our country has historically under-valued and oppressed our Black, Brown, and Indigenous brothers and sisters. Give the 415 Vision Studio clarity and endurance for the remainder of this process, and a strong sense of peace with whatever final decisions are laid before them.

And Lord, we lift before You the question of how You would use this building and land. May we have Your Spirit of creativity as we consider how we can continue to be "for the neighborhood" in radically new ways that You call us to be. May we seek restoration, healing, wholeness, and transformation for all people. Show us how we can be a place of hope and engagement that brings healing and opportunity and restoration. May we be a part of "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth (in South Lake Union) as it is in heaven." We pray that as we reach out to our neighbors in South Lake Union, we would attentively listen and hear what is on their hearts for people that live in this city, and that we would center the voices of those individuals that are oftentimes underrepresented AND vital to our community. Guard us from developing a "Savior" mentality that many predominantly white churches and organizations can fall into and can be so harmful for communities experiencing oppression. Lord, we seek clarity in how this new building can be a blessing to the community, and how our church can be Your living hands and feet in South Lake Union for years to come.  And we pray for the courage and bravery to live into that calling. 

Finally, Lord, we pray for wisdom and discernment for James B, Renée, and Studio 3 as they weigh the decisions before them over the next year. May Your Holy Spirit be present and guide them and us, communally and individually, today and every tomorrow that you grant us.

Lord, we offer this prayer to you.

Amen