yaef2008

We on the YAEF planning committee believe God calls us to care for our environment, and God calls you too! So that we might both be better enabled to faithfully answer this calling, we have compiled some resources. Read! Learn! Educate! Check back often! If you come across some great resources, let us know by sending us e-mail at yaef07@gmail.com or by heading over to the forums! Service Organizations: On Saturday during the forum, we will embark on service trips in the Boston area. You didn't think we were just gonna sit around and talk, did ya? Nope! We're giving back to the community and putting our words into action! Below are descriptions of the organizations we'll be working with.

• Urban Ecology Institute
  • Founded in 1998, the Urban Ecology Institute (UEI) helps communities build healthy, safe and vibrant cities by improving science and civic education for middle and high school youth and by working with urban communities to understand, advocate for, and transform natural resources. UEI connects the green infrastructure of a city with the educational, economic, public health and quality of life needs of urban residents. Through our work, residents connect their passion for their neighborhoods with the daily demands of real life, including concerns about crime, public health, community growth and change, and economic sustainability. With us, communities reclaim abandoned industrial fields and create new urban parks, join together to create open space plans that serve the needs of residents, and build a new generation of civically engaged young people. UEI places community development at the heart of environmental restoration, clearing the path to the green cities of our future. We pursue our mission through three unique, powerful capacity-building programs for communities in the Greater Boston Area.
• The Esplanade Association
  • Enjoy the Esplanade every season, every day. The Charles River Esplanade is a showcase for the myriad facets of Boston, at once active and exuberant and serene and contemplative. On the Esplanade, you can spread out a blanket and read a book with your headphones on or watch a classic movie while you indulge in a picnic supper. You can race a model sailboat or a full-size skiff. You can dance under a late summer moon or ice skate on a snowy afternoon. You can take a romantic gondola ride and even get married under a willow. The Esplanade is one of the most vibrant, beautiful, and versatile parks in urban America. Most important, it belongs to you. Our job at the Esplanade Association is to help you get the most out of it.
• The Emerald Necklace Conservancy
  • The Emerald Necklace Conservancy was created to protect, restore, maintain and promote the landscape, waterways and parkways of the Emerald Necklace park system as special places for people to visit and enjoy. The Conservancy's programs and funding support and complement initiatives by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, City of Boston and Town of Brookline who began the Necklace's restoration in the 1980s.

Denominations: Here are links to many major denominations statements on caring for the environment. Read up! Write letters, make phone calls, encourage your denomination to take or keep a strong stance on caring for the environment!

• American Baptist Churches
• Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
• Church of the Brethren
• Episcopal Church
• Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
• Presbyterian Church (USA)
• Mennonite Church
• Quaker Earthcare Witness
• Reformed Church in America
• Unitarian Universalist
• United Church of Christ
• United Methodist Church

Links:

• Equal Exchange - In addition to being fair trade, many of the products - coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate bars - are organic!
• Earth Portal
• Global Healing
• Wellness Health and Lifestyle Education (WHALE)
• www.religionandnature.com
• http://web.religion.ufl.edu/graduate.html

Links can also be found on the speakers page. Events:

• 2007 National Council of Churches / Church World Service General Assembly
  • The 2007 NCC/CWS GA is looking for Young Adult stewards to serve in various capacities during the November conference. At YAEF, we are all about the church acting as ONE body of Christ. This events provides a fantastic opportunity to observe ecumenical relations. The application deadline is September 14th! Click here for the application!

• 'Caring for Earth': Pre-Synod Day on the Environment (UCC)
  • The UCC's Justice and Witness Ministries and Task Force on the Environment and Energy are sponsoring this pre-General Synod conference. Keynote speaker Jerome Ringo is Chairman of the Board of the National Widlife Federation; he will be joined by the authors of the UCC's landmark 1987 report "Toxic Waste and Race in the United States" Dr. Ben Chavis, Jr., and Charles Lee. Morning and afternoon workshops will address some of the crucial environmental concerns facing the planet, and a new report, "The UCC--Toward a National Environmental Focus" will be released. abridged

Organizations:

• Sierra Club
• Eco-Justice Ministries
• Ecumenical Development Cooperative Society
• Target Earth
• The Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences
• Eco-Justice Ministries
• WCC - Justice, Peace, and Creation concerns

Books:

• Better Off by Eric Brende
• Making Globalization Good by John Dunning
• Ecofeminism and Globalization: exploring culture, context, and religion by Heather Eaton
• Ecotheology: voices from south and north by David G. Hallman
• Reshaping the Built Environment by Charles J. Kilbert
• Globalization and the Environment: Greening Global Political Economy by Gabriela Kutting

We are but a small planning committee! If you have other suggestions, please, let us know!