Religion and the environment will merge when the Jewish Community Relations Council presents “Make a Difference: Environmental Action for your Home and House of Worship.” The free event will be held Thursday, July 31, at St. Louis Community College – Forest Park’s Mildred E. Bastian Center for the Performing Arts. Networking will begin at 6:45 p.m. followed by the program from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
The Rev. Dr. Gerald Durley, an Atlanta-based international civil rights and environmental activist, and KSDK Channel 5 Meteorologist Mike Roberts are keynote speakers. Durley serves on the national Interfaith Power & Light board and is the former senior pastor of the historic Providence Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta.
Prior to Providence, he served as an associate pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. served as co-pastor until his death. Durley will address why he says climate change is a civil rights issue at the event, a topic he touched on in a Huffington Post blog post published last August.
He wrote: “When your children suffer from asthma and cannot go outside to play, as is the case for many in Atlanta, it is a civil rights issue. When unprecedented weather disasters devastate the poorest neighborhoods in places like New Orleans, New Jersey, and New York, it is a civil rights issue.”
The event is co-sponsored by the JCRC’s Jewish Environmental Initiative, the Missouri Interfaith Power & Light, and the U.S. Green Building Council-Missouri Gateway Chapter. The U.S. Green Building Council will give away free energy audits as well.
The program will be followed by breakout sessions on greening your home and house of worship. The house of worship breakout session will feature speakers Rabbi Randy Fleisher of Central Reform Congregation, Cindy Gross-Bethel of Lutheran Church, and Polly Rutherford of St. John’s United Church of Christ. The Home breakout session will feature Kathleen Engel, formerly of HomeNav and Home Green Home.
Gail Wechsler, director of domestic issues and social justice at the Jewish Community Relations Council, hopes to have a “packed house.” She expects that at least 100 people will attend event.
R.S.V.P. at www.tinyurl.com/July312014 Contact Gail Wechsler at 314-442-3894 or gwechsler@jcrcstl.org
Follow this reporter on Twitter: @BridjesONeil
Email: boneil@stlamerican.com
