Renewal, Stories from America's Religious - Environmental Movement, is a wonderful new film. I hope millions of people will watch it and that we will all be moved to align our lives and take action in accordance with our deep spiritual beliefs and our connection with the Earth.
This documentary is inspired by the many Americans who are answering a spiritual call to confront the enormous challenges of environmental degradation. From within their Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and Muslim traditions, these men, women and children are finding ways to become caretakers of the Earth.
With great courage, they are re-examining what it means to be human and how we choose to live on this planet. The religious-environmental movement grows as people from diverse traditions work to build a sustainable future. Renewal is their story.
-Marty Ostrow and Terry Kay Rockefeller, Producers
This film includes eight wonderful stories of people, in spiritual community, waking up to the beauty and value of our Earth and taking positive action.
A Crime Against Creation Evangelical Christians bear witness to mountaintop removal and the destruction of Appalachia.
Going Green Greenfaith, an interfaith partnership, helps congregations take the first steps to environmental action.
Food for Faith Muslim tradition and charity forge bonds between urban communities and sustainable farms.
Ancient Roots The Teva Learning Center and Adamah bring environmental education together with Jewish tradition.
Compassion in Action Green Sangha, a Buddhist community, leads a campaign to save trees.
Eco-Justice The Holy Spirit inspires a battle against industrial contamination in small town Mississippi.
Sacred Celebration Catholics and Native Americans embrace religious ritual in their struggle to protect land and water.
Interfaith Power and Light Across America people of all faiths mount a religious response to global warming.
These deeply moving stories are interspersed with lovely visual poems of the beauty of nature.
Renewal is available for purchase for $20 at
http://www.renewalproject.net At this same site you can learn more about the film and the people and projects connected with it.
I highly recommend that you buy a copy and watch it with your friends and family members and your communities of faith and spiritual connection.
As you watch it, notice what you feel called to do.
In Ancient Roots, the story of the Jewish environmental education camp, a teacher suggests to the children that they each make a covenant with the earth.
What is your covenant? Maybe it is a small personal action, maybe it is lifelong project that will involve many others.
Last weekend David and I had an envisioning retreat. We are merging our creative pursuits of photography, art, writing, teaching and our passion for the sacredness of life on our Earth into a new big project. It is part of our soulful covenant with the Earth.
What is your soul calling you to do?
What do your soul and the Earth want together?
True self-care involves caring not only for our personal well-being but for the well-being of our families, communities, and for this Earth we share.
Like personal self-care, planetary self-care is most sustainable and transformational when it is love-based, not fear-based, when it stirs us to action through a sense of hope rather than desperation and when we are motivated by beauty and wonder rather than dread.
Your actions do make a difference.
Each small action matters.
Listen for your piece and begin it today.
Let me know what you think of the film and let me know any changes that it inspires you to make.
lea@leahouston.com
