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PNC pastor works with national UCC on Mission 4/1 Earth Care

Meighan Pritchard began working on contract with the national UCC in January as the Mission 4/1 Earth Care Campaign coordinator.   She learned about the opportunity from work with national UCC staff involved at the Enviromental Justice Center at Pilgrim Firs.

Meighan Pritchard

The campaign from April 1 through Pentecost on May 19, has three goals: green up, power down and shout out.

The specific goals are in the 50 days to have UCC members and clergy spend one million hours doing earth care activities, plant 100,000 trees worldwide and write 100,000 advocacy letters to elected officials and letters to the editor.

Specific suggestions are online at ucc.org/earth.

Pritchard, who has been working half-time as interim at Prospect UCC in Seattle since March 2012, has long been interested in environmental issues since her childhood growing up in University Congregational UCC in Seattle.  During studies at Pacific School of Religion in 2007 she spent two weeks on a seminary immersion trip to the border of El Paso and Cuidad Juarez, where she connected environmental issues with justice and the frequent siting of toxic waste dumps near communities of color.

Since returning after earning her master’s of divinity in 2010, she became involved with the conference Justice and Witness Ministries Committee.

With that committee submitting a resolution for the Annual Meeting challenging the siting of ports to ship coal from Montana and Wyoming to Asia, she said that activity around that resolution will be included in the 1 million hours of work for earth care.

Pritchard believes that the new ways of extracting coal from mines, transporting it by rail and ship to Asia will have a devastating impact on climate change and health.

“As people of faith, we are called to care for creation and to find sustainable alternatives,” said Prichard, who was impressed by the voices of thousands who wore red and testified against the ports, mining and coal trains as hearings of the U.S. Corps of Engineers about the scope of the environmental impact statements for each of five proposed ports in the Northwest.

Pritchard pointed to testimony of doctors concerned about the health of people along the tracks, farmers and ranchers  concerned about pollution in streams and on land, the Lummi concerned about fishing, and industries concerned that the number of jobs at the ports will be fewer than the jobs that may be undermined.

For information, call 206-370-4142 or email meighan.pritchard@gmail.com.

Copyright February 2013 © Pacific Northwest Conference United Church News

 

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