When I volunteered to lead morning prayer last Sunday, I had no idea that the subject of the readings would be the apocalypse. The Old Testament reading was from Daniel, chapter 12: ”At that time Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people, shall arise. There shall be a time of anguish, such as has never occurred since nations first came into existence. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some...
Sylvia Earle is an oceanographer and marine botanist who writes and lectures about our oceans and is sometimes called “Her Deepness.” She has led more than 100 diving expeditions and clocked more than 7,000 hours underwater. She was the first female chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and has been a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence since 1998. She belongs to Ocean Elders, a group of scientists that is dedicated to protecting the ocean and and the marine life that live in the oceans. She is also President and Co-Chair of Mission Blue, which is a nonprofit...
Hey. I’ve been thinking alot about climate change recently, the strange weather patterns we have been seeing, and I really think there is no way to overestimate the magnitude of the problems we face. I am especially concerned about how wildlife have become entangled with these unprecedented, human-initiated changes. Hurricanes now come more frequently, and you may have heard about the big winter freeze in Texas in February. Most of the news coverage of the freeze related to homes losing power and heat, and in some cases water. I have relatives in Austin and San Antonio, and I live in...
Last updated: May 21, 2024 It’s remarkable how the coronavirus crisis that first appeared in January has quickly become a worldwide pandemic that has caused much of the world to go into varying amounts of – whatever you want to call it – a shutdown, a quarantine, a shelter-in-place, a lockdown, an isolation? I know that there are different nuances to these terms, but mostly it just means staying at home and going stir crazy. Still, I’m grateful that I have safe shelter, I’m not at risk for losing my job, and I have plenty to eat. For me, it’s...
As Earth Day approaches on Monday, I find myself battling again with despair about climate change and what feels like a large increase recently in the number of extreme weather events that it is causing. Today we are faced with an increasing number of cyclones, wild fires, hurricanes, extreme rainfall and flooding, tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes, desertification and probably a few others that don’t come as readily to mind. According to weather.com, there were 39 weather disasters world-wide in 2018 that caused more than 1 billion dollars of damage each, which is crazy high. The idea that global warming is not...
Earth Day was established in 1970 by Gaylord Nelson, US Senator from Wisconsin, who conceived the idea to hold a nationwide teach-in, in order to call attention to the need for environmental protection. This was partly in response to the massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California that occurred in January 1969. Also in 1969, the Cuyahoga River in north-eastern Ohio that feeds into Lake Erie became famous for being so grossly contaminated that it “caught fire.” At that time in history, cars used leaded gasoline, industrial air pollution regulations had not yet been legislated, and the ocean shorelines, lakes,...
The celebration of the World Day of Prayer (WDP) originated in the 19th century, as women from the US and Canada began developing various means to support the participation of women in missionary activities, both at home and worldwide. As early as 1861, women began founding women’s boards to encourage the engagement of women in prayer and leadership within their mission organizations. Presbyterian women in the US, led by Mary Ellen Fairchild James in Brooklyn, called for a day of prayer in 1887, and a Baptist day of prayer for foreign missions was initiated in 1891. A committee of delegates...
