Please Join
Interfaith Moral Action on Climate in
"A Pray-In for the Climate"
in front of the WHite House
January 15, 2013
the 84th birthday of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
{Note: This action occurred on January 15, 2013; the video date of 1/15/12 is an error.)
- 11:00 am - Gathering at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church (1313 New York Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20005)
- 12:00 pm - Religious Procession to the White House - (5-minute walk to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20500)
- 12:30 pm - Prayerful Vigil at the White House Asking that our President and our nation find the strength and wisdom to
Please note: Some participants may feel called to risk arrest by nonviolently disregarding the conventional regulations and assuming positions of prayer in the area near the White House fence. As they do so, others of us will create a powerful circle of prayer and engage in the religious task of ‘witnessing.’
[If you are interested in risking arrest, please Sign Up Here.]
Civil Disobedience Instruction and Training will be offered on 1/15/13 at 10:00 AM at the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, (1313 New York Ave., NW, Washington, DC) prior to the 11:00 AM service there.
Event Flyer (Here)
Press Release ( Here)
Article: "A New Climate Vision on MLK's Birthdyn
by Fr. Paul Mayer
Sign Up (click here) to indicate your intention to Participate, or your Support for this Action
Sign Up (click here) to Endorse the “Call to Action: Pray-in for the Climate" (see BELOW)
FAITH LEADERS PARTICIPATING
- Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, Chairperson, Buddhist Global Relief
- Patrick Carolan. Executive Director at Franciscan Action Network
- Rev. Richard Cizik, President of The New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good
- Rev. Bob Edgar, CEO, Common Cause; Former head of National Council of the Churches
- Rev. Michael Ellik, Judson Memorial Church, NYC; Occupy Faith/Occupy Sandy
- Green Hevra Community members
- Dr. James Hansen
- Allen Johnson, Christians for the Mountains
- Rev. Philip Lawson, Pastor Emeritus, Easter Hill UMC Church, Oakland, CA; National Council of Elders
- Rev. John Merz, Vicar, Ascension Episcopal Church Brooklyn, NY; Occupy Faith/Occupy Sandy
- Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, Social Justice Organizing Program, Re-constructionist Rabbinical College
- Iman Johari Abdul-Malik, Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center, Washington, DC
- Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist Community
- Jacqui Patterson, NAACP – Director, Environmental and Climate Justice Program
- Chett Pritchett, Interim Executive Director, Methodist Federation for Social Action
- Rabbi David Saperstein, Director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
- Dr. Rajwant Singh, Sikh Council on Religion and Education
- Rabbi Daniel Swartz, Temple Hesed of Scranton, PA
- Father Louie Vitale OFM, Franciscan Friar, Co-founder Nevada Desert Experience
- Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., President, HipHop Caucus, Washington, DC
Endorsing Leaders and Organizations include:
The Bridge in Tampa
Dominique Browning, Co-founder, Mom's Clean Air Force
Sister Simone Campbell, Executive Director, NETWORK
Christians for the Mountains
Environmental Headlines
Episcopal Peace Fellowship
Franciscan Action Network
Green Zionist Alliance
Hindu American Seva Communities
Suzan Shown Harjo (Cheyenne & Hodulgee Muscogee),
President, The Morning Star Institute
Interfaith Center of New York (ICNY)
Interreligious Eco-Justice Network of CT
Jewish Peace Fellowship
Fred Krueger, National Religious Coalition on Creation Care
Chief Oren Lyons, Faith keeper, Turtle Clan, Onondaga Nation
Bill McKibben
Mom's Clean Air Force
The Very Rev. James Parks Morton, former Dean of the Cathedral of St.
John the Divine; Founder, The Interfaith Center, NYC
National Council of the Elders
National Religious Coalition on Creation Care
People of the Onondaga Nation
Promoting Enduring Peace
Religious Organizations Along the River (ROAR)
The Shalom Center
Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice in the National Capital
Region
Call To Action: A Pray-in For the Climate
Dear Friends,
We are facing a Climate Cliff, and we are calling upon religious and spiritual leaders, other believers and all people of good will to join us to address its danger by participating in “A Pray-in for the Climate” in front of the White House on Tuesday, January 15, 2013.
Super-storm Sandy, the drastic droughts in our corn country, record-breaking Arctic ice melt, and unheard-of floods in Vermont, let alone disasters in Australia, Russia, Pakistan and Africa, all warn us: the disruption of our planet will not wait for our “normal” political paralysis to end.
We are inspired by the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose 84th birthday we celebrate on January 15th:
“We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.... Over the bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: ’Too late’.”
If we go over the Climate Cliff now, our grandchildren will live in misery and suffering.
Fifty years ago, our country faced a crisis of racial inequality in the USA that was a basic threat to justice and democracy. Religious communities and others acted, and we made a difference.
Today’s deepest crisis is the danger facing the web of life upon our planet, including the human race - especially the poorest and most vulnerable. We are especially concerned by the effects on local communities and our planetary future of destructive, extreme energy extraction: mountaintop removal, fracking, Arctic and deep sea offshore oil drilling and tar sands mining.
Out of our moral commitment to protect and heal God’s Creation, our religious communities need to be calling for a set of first-step changes that will sow the seeds of greater change, by committing the President and Congress to vigorous action. And we should pose those demands in such a way that we are addressing not only our government, but also religious communities throughout the country.
What can we do? When can we take the next careful steps back from the Cliff? One time and place will be mid-day on Tuesday, January 15th in front of the White House. Interfaith Moral Action on Climate (IMAC) is planning “A Pray-in for the Climate.”
IMAC is a collaborative initiative of religious leaders, groups and individuals that came together in 2011 in response to the pressing need for more visible, unified, prophetic action to address the climate crisis. As people of faith and spirituality, we feel compelled by our traditions and collective conscience to take action on this deeply moral challenge.
Please note that some participants may feel called to risk arrest by nonviolently disregarding the conventional regulations and assuming positions of prayer in the area near the White House fence.
We expect to be joined by survivors of Super-storm Sandy and their religious leaders from communities like the Rockaways and Staten Island in New York.
January 15th is close enough to Inauguration Day (January 21) to make the connection with what the President should be doing in his second term, and far enough away that the action won’t drown in the media swamp.
And, it is the actual birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The action will be carried out in the spirit of his work. We will gather at 11:00 am at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, a few blocks from the White House. At noon, we will walk there in a religious procession and join our voices in a prayerful vigil. We will be praying that President Obama and all of us find the strength and wisdom to lead our country and world away from the Climate Cliff.
What will we be urging that the President do to meet the needs of this critical hour in planetary time? He must break the silence by taking necessary actions, such as these:
- Permanently refuse permits for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, because tar- oil is among the most dangerous of the planet-heating forms of carbon
- Call a National Summit Conference on the Climate Crisis that includes leaders of business, labor, academia, religious communities, governmental officialdom, science, and other relevant bodies
- Publicly support and advocate for a carbon fee that will generate hundreds of billions of dollars, with provisions to ensure that working families and the poor are not harmed by higher carbon prices; for an end to subsidies to the coal, oil and gas industries; and for substantial subsidies for research, development, and use of renewable, sustainable and jobs-creating clean energy sources.
We invite and urge you to join us on January 15th at the White House.
To our President and Congress we address the prophetic words of Dr. King spoken at another moment of crisis: “This is a time to break the silence!”
With blessings of shalom, salaam, pax, paz, peace,
The IMAC Steering Committee
View or download Letter of Invitation
| mlk_pray-in_press_release_final.pdf |
| imac_pray-in_for_the_climate_flyer.pdf |