Pennsylvania Interfaith Power & Light

What’s on Your Climate Change Reading List This Season?

The steady stream of books over the last decade addressing climate change seems to have increased to a flood in the last year to 18 months. It appears to be one of the new hot topics. Authors are tackling many topics: from the politics of climate change denial, through practical solutions to make your own household or society more sustainable, to messages of hope and inspiration in the face of potentially catastrophic environmental change. We even have one of the major science fiction writers of this era weighing in with a vision for the future.

What have you read recently that you found informative, sobering, or inspiring? What are you currently reading? What do you have on your bookshelf or bedside table waiting for you to find time to start? If you aren’t reading as much as you want to or think you should, what are the impediments besides not enough hours in the day?

Register Here

This discussion will be an opportunity to share and perhaps get some ideas for next books. You might come away with a gift idea for that uncle who is the climate change denier. Maybe we will even feel inspired to start a climate change reading group.

Tune in on Zoom Tuesday evening December 14 at 7 PM. If you can’t attend but would like to get a recording, please register and we will eventually get you the recording or at least the Chat list of recommended reading.

The Philadelphia chapter of PA IPL is very active. Chapter volunteers plan workshops, services, and work in coalition with many other groups bringing faith voices to climate justice and clean energy transition efforts, and they bring climate justice voices to faith work. Their monthly meetings are on the second Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM, and are open to everyone. Particular meetings may focus either on planning or on a particular program.

Green Holiday Gift Ideas for a Healthier Planet

On Monday, November 22nd at 7:30pm, the PA IPL Main Line Chapter welcomed Steve Beebee, owner of the Community Eco Store in Phoenixville, PA, an all-volunteer boutique for Eco-friendly lifestyles. He offered ideas and information about green products that can make great holiday gifts without making a big negative impact on the Earth in a program that followed November’s Main Line IPL Chapter meeting. Watch here and be inspired!

The holidays are coming—and they are a great way to show your loved ones you care about them, and the future of the planet! For our November 22nd program, we heard about shopping options that allow for a more healthy planet.

As we enter the third night of the eight days of the Festival of Light, Pennsylvania Interfaith Power & Light wishes a very happy Hanukkah to all who are celebrating.

As a scholar of religious and cultural history by training, the festival of Hanukkah is of particular interest to me. The commemoration of the recovery of Jerusalem and the rededication of the Second Temple and the Maccabean Revolt more than two thousand years ago bears many levels of varying meaning across the Jewish diaspora. I would tonight like to lift up but one which struck me on the first night of Hanukkah.

The tradition, the miracle, of the amount of one night’s pure olive oil being used to light the menorah for eight nights in the Second Temple speaks profoundly to several important elements of faith and our connection to the environment and our Creator. For many people of the Mediterranean the olive tree, and the resources it provides in both oil and olives, is universally held as an important symbol of life, longevity, and memory. Olive trees can last for 500 years and take time and care to cultivate, yet they survive, grow, and thrive in fairly dry climates with minimal soil. They are handed down from generation to generation and they, like many landmarks and forms of nature, provide a connection, deep roots for families and individuals with the land and their heritage.

The burning of the oil as a symbolic ritual, necessitating pure olive oil, and providing continuous light during the period of rededication and restoration of the Second Temple, speaks to the constancy of faith and its connection both to culture and the bounty of the earth. New oil took time to collect, press, and process. Cultivating and reaping the bounty of our planet takes time and care, but if done properly it can sustain all of us physically and spiritually.

Most importantly, the culmination of these symbols is the miraculous act of the Creator. The burning of the light represents the presence of the Creator in the Temple, in this moment, and in the lives of the Jewish people. The miracle showed through the ongoing flame that each night the Creator held them as they held their faith.

I hope to uplift the idea that our faith traditions can uplift us in the important work ahead of creating connections, working with constancy, and drawing strength from our deep roots to practice Tikkun olam (healing acts) in the garden of Creation.