Earth Healing Initiative: Duluth, MN - Medicine Cabinet Clean-Out Day

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The EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge is underway with about 40 projects in hundreds of communities across eight states including Duluth, Minnesota

In Duluth, "Medicine Cabinet Clean-Out Day" offers residents free, safe disposal of unwanted medications.

The Earth Healing Initiative has put our local interfaith liaison in touch with Duluth officials.

Hes Rev. Doug Paulson - a campus pastor at the University of Minnesota - Lutheran Campus Ministry.

Medicine Cabinet Clean-Out Day in the Duluth, Minnesota area is April 26.

The drive-thru event runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District (WLSSD) HHW Facility (2626 Courtland St.) in Duluth.

Gina Temple-Rhodes, the districts environmental program coordinator, said "residents should bring medications in their original containers.

Temple-Rhodes added that mercury thermometers and medical sharps - that are packaged safely in rigid containers - will also be accepted free of charge."

Two previous collections included Minnesota's first-ever medication collection in October 2007.

The Western Lake Superior Sanitary District "collected a total of 591 pounds of unwanted pharmaceuticals from 391 households, enough to fill 6 55-gallon drums," Temple-Rhodes said.

The districts event coordinator - Susie Darley-Hill - said medication is only accepted during special events due to U.S. drug laws.

She said if medication must be disposed of during other times, it can be destroyed, sealed and placed in the garbage."

District environmental program coordinator Gina Temple-Rhodes said the first collection event really showed us that there is a lot of unwanted medication lingering in medicine cabinets all over the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District area.

She said residents told us they had been storing the medications for years because they didn't know what else to do with them. This collection event offers an easy, safe answer to the disposal question."

Western Lake Superior Sanitary District Executive Director Kurt Soderberg said "unwanted medication should not be flushed or poured down the drain.

Soderberg said "although many of us were taught to dispose of medicines this way, we now know that flushing them is not a good idea."

Greater Cleveland, Ohio residents participate in EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge

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Greater Cleveland area - Cuyahoga County - participates in EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge

Thousands of residents in Greater Cleveland, Ohio are recycling unwanted computer electronics during the annual "Recycle Your Computer Month."

In the past 8 years, the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District has sponsored many collections that garnered over 1,900 tons of computer equipment.

"This is the 9th year that we have provided free computer recycling to Cuyahoga County residents," said Cristie A. Snyder, District Program Officer.

"In 2000, we started collecting computers with a one-day Round-Up twice a year," said Snyder, adding a couple years ago the opening of a local recycling facility allowed the District to switch "to a month-long promotion that allowed our municipalities to run their events as needed."

The e-Waste computer collections are sponsored by the District in collaboration with local city service departments.

Residents in 59 municipalities can drop-off their old and broken unused computer equipment at over 45 participating city service departments during the month of April, Snyder said.

All equipment collected will be taken to RET3 job corp, a non-profit computer recycling and refurbishing company based in Cleveland. Computer donations are tax-deductible.

Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District

Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District "Recycle Your Computer Month"

Cleveland Interfaith Earth Healing Links

Interfaith Earth Healing Initiative homepage

EPA GLNPO Official challenge link

List of events for EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge

EPA Press Release on challenge

EPA "Flow of the River" Blog for Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge

Earth 911

 

 

Earth Healing Initiative: Faith groups face tipping point; learn Native American respect for planet

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Environmental tipping point: Faith communities have a duty to protect the Earth, and Native Americans, other Indigenous peoples can teach us a lot about respecting nature

(Marquette, Michigan) - The new non-profit Earth Healing Initiative, based in Michigans Upper Peninsula, is honoring faith-based and Native American environmental projects across the Great Lakes.

The interfaith Earth Healing Initiative (EHI) is currently collaborating with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to promote the Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge involving about 37 projects in eight states including providing faith community volunteers where needed and spreading the word about the event in churches and temples.

Faith communities across the Great Lakes basin will be involved in the challenge and other Earth Day events.

The EHI is one of several faith-based environment projects created by the non-profit Cedar Tree Institute in Marquette, Michigan.

Rev. Jon Magnuson said it is important for people of faith to do their part to protect the environment adding the Christian is at a tipping point in its relationship with itself and the Earth - adding the church needs to be here.

Quoting nineteenth century theologian and social reformer Walter Rauschenbusch, Magnuson said if a man or woman wants to be a Christian - she or he - must stand over and against things as they are - and condemn them in the name of a higher conception of life revealed by Jesus.

I believe the environmental crisis that we are now involved in is a great tipping point in the churchs own evolution of its self-understanding, Magnuson said while sitting on the stoops of his Marquette home near the shores of Lake Superior.

Roman Catholic theologian Thomas Berry talks about three rivers converging at this time in human history, said Magnuson, who is the executive director of the Cedar Tree Institute and the founder of the Earth Healing Initiative.

The first river is an avalanche and explosion of scientific knowledge that is pointing to the interconnectedness of everything, Magnuson said.

The greatest polluter of Lake Superior has recently been identified as a major factory in China, he said.

We have what we call atmospheric loading here where contaminants are carried over by wind currents and then deposited in rainfall, said Magnuson with seagulls from Lake Superior squawking overhead.

But along with the interconnectedness of everything, the second stream (mentioned by author Thomas Berry) is the health crisis that is facing us - the CDC (the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta) suggests now that 80 percent of all cancers are environmentally triggered, Magnuson said.

The third river is what Thomas Berry calls Indigenous wisdom - wisdom from the native communities around the world that is resurging, Magnuson said. For instance, their protection and use of plants - both in Latin and South America as well in parts of north America - the protection of sacred sites, he said.

We realize now these are connected to protection of plants, animals and an ecosystem that hilds great medicinal qualities for communities and individuals, Magnuson explained.

So these rivers are coming together, said Magnuson, raising his hands and interlacing his fingers in a gesture representing the merging of Berrys three great rivers.

It is an historic time - it is a tipping moment - a tipping point - the church needs to be here, Magnuson said.

Magnuson recognized the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin near Green Bay that has three projects connected to the EPAs Earth day Challenge and thanked the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) and other northern Michigan tribes that have participated in other Cedar Tree Institute events like the four-year restoration of Upper Peninsula wild rice beds by at-risk teens and tribal elders.

KBIC CEO Susan Lafernier, above, attends April 2006 press conference with Upper Peninsula bishops and other faith leaders to announce the creation of the Northern Michigan University EartyhKeeper student team.

The KBIC participated in the three Earth Keeper Clean Sweeps that saw the public turn in over 370 tons of hazardous waste, pharmaceuticals and electronics across northern Michigan.

The annual Earth Day (2005-2007) collections were part of the interfaith Earth Keeper Initiative.

The Native American community has been a partner with us from the very beginning on everyone of our projects, Magnuson said. They have not only sent volunteers but on one particular instance they provided several trucks to be able to haul polluted materials and hazardous waste.

So we are thankful to many of the tribes here in northern Michigan for being partners and we look forward to working with tribes in the Earth healing Initiative, Magnuson said.

The Cedar Tree Institute co-founded the Upper Peninsula Earth Keepers who work closely with ten faith traditions on a wide range of environment projects that include college students, at-risk teens, American Indian tribes and others.

The CTI Earth healing Initiative is developing the same relationship with the same faith communities in northern Michigan and others across the Great lakes.

The faith communities include Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist Church, Unitarian Universalist, Baha'i, Jewish, The Religious Society of Friends (commonly known as the Quakers) and Zen Buddhist.

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Related Links:

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Interfaith Earth Healing Initiative homepage

EPA GLNPO Official challenge link

List of events for EPA Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge

EPA Press Release on challenge

EPA "Flow of the River" Blog for Great Lakes 2008 Earth Day Challenge

Earth 911

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Theologian and social reformer Walter Rauschenbusch:

Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918) was a Baptist minister among the poor and the industrial workers of New York city

Rauschenbusch began his first long-term pastorate at the Second German Baptist Church in New York, in a poor and dangerous neighborhood called "Hells Kitchen," on 1 June 1886.

Robert T. Handy records that the young pastor began his tenure intending to evangelize first and foremost, but that his education "in individualistic conservatism" had not prepared him for the poor standards of living, lack of education and danger.

Sharpe concurs, informing us that in the eleven years he spent in Hells Kitchen, Rauschenbusch decided "that industrial crises" existed due to the capitalistic system under which the poor struggled, exacerbating sickness, violence, and problems presented by bad food.

http://www.somareview.com/wrestlingwithrauschenbusch.cfm

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url?%5Fencoding=UTF8&search-type=ss&index=books&field-author=Walter%20Rauschenbusch

http://www.rauschenbusch.org

http://www.amazon.com/Walter-Rauschenbusch-Contribution-Social-Christianity/dp/1556354177/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

http://spider.georgetowncollege.edu/htallant/courses/his338/students/kpotter

http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/apr1989/v46-1-bookreview9.htm

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/rausch-socialgospel.html

http://www.rauschenbusch.org/subpages/employment.html
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Roman Catholic Theologian Thomas Berry:

Berry calls himself a "geologian" rather than a theologian.

http://www.northland.edu/NR/rdonlyres/F759A7A1-55B2-4AB5-B8F5-0DF7A9B5AB6D/0/ConvergingStreams4.pdf

Thomas Berry: "The universe is a communion of subjects, not a collection of objects."

http://www.thomasberry.org/Essays/IntroductionToTheSpecialEdition.html
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http://www.earth-community.org
http://www.earth-is-community.org.uk/aboutthomasberry.htm
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Thomas Berry:
http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/tb.html
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A Communion of Subjects By Stephen B. Scharper

(Evening Thoughts By Thomas Berry and Mary Evelyn Tucker - Sierra Club Books. 173 p $19.95)

I n future years, when the history of our lagging environmental consciousness is written, there may well be a special place devoted to the work of Thomas Berry.

Berry, a Passionist priest, cultural historian and self-described geologian, has for almost four decades been writing and reflecting on the place of the human within an awe-inspiring, unfolding and increasingly mysterious cosmos.

His speculations are fueled not simply by intellectual curiosity, but by a deep concern about the baleful plundering of the planet.

Formerly director of the Riverdale Center of Religious Research and founder of the history of religions program at Fordham University, Berry served as environmental advisor to the Clinton administration; and through his numerous lectures, media appearances and writings, like The Dream of the Earth (1988) and The Great Work (2000), proved an inspiration to countless environmental scholars and activists, especially among religious communities.
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http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=5373&s=1
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http://www.natcath.com/NCR_Online/archives/081001/081001a.htm
http://ofm-jpic.org/ecology/relorders/dominican.html
http://www.wie.org/j19/bookreview.asp
http://www.nccecojustice.org/rasmussen.pdf
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Atmospheric Loading - China pollution reaches North America:

http://www.physorg.com/news124991552.html

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/pollution_measure.html

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2008/2008-03-17-04.asp

Air pollution blankets a large region of central China so thickly that in places it completely obscures the surface from the satellites view. As acquired by the MODIS instrument on the Aqua and Terra satellites, early 2003. (Image courtesy NASA)

Coal-fired power plant in the East China province of Jiangsu (Photo by China Resources Power Holdings Co)
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Sacred Sites:
http://www.sacredland.org/PDFs/csr_dl.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_of_life

Sacred Places website
http://www.NorthAmericaSacredPlaces.org
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Scientists Report 80% of Cancer Cases Caused by Environmental & Food
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) released Friday shows that 64 percent ... environment toward cancer risk is about 80-90 percent.

http://www.organicconsumers.org
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Turtle Island Project websites:
http://www.turtleislandproject.org
Other sites:
http://groups.msn.com/WhisperingTurtle
http://turtleislandproject.wordpress.com

Turtle Island TV - Video sites:
(blipTV)
http://turtleislandtv.blip.tv
(youtube)
http://www.youtube.com/MunisingWhiteHorse
(myspace)
http://www.myspace.com/TurtleIslandProject
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United States

For Earth Day 2008 residents and communities around the Great Lakes are being challenged to collect and recycle electronic waste and to properly dispose of unwanted medicines.

Collections are being held in large cities and surrounding areas like Chicago, Milwaukee and Cleveland.

Cities/Collection sites include locations in eight states:

Illinois:

Beecher, Bolingbrook, Channahon, Chicago, Elk Grove Village, Glenview, Joliet, Park Ridge, Romeoville, Shorewood, West Chicago, Wheaton

Indiana:

LaPorte, Fort Wayne, Rushville, Valparaiso

Michigan:

Benton Harbor, Traverse City

Minnesota:

Duluth, Madison, New Ulm

New York:

Syracuse

Ohio:

Cleveland, Perrysburg, Sandusky, Springfield, Warren

Pennsylvania:

TBA

Wisconsin:

Appleton, Brillion, Chilton, Keshena (Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin and College of Menominee Nation), Milwaukee, New Holstein, Oshkosh, Racine, Waupaca

Rosebud Reservation Teen Suicide Crisis: TIP holds Michigan concert for White Buffalo Calf Womans Society fight again domestic violence/teen suicide

"Cowboys and Angels": A free northern Michigan benefit concert to battle domestic violence and teen suicides on one of the nation’s poorest American Indian reservations


(Munising, Michigan) - For the second time in four months, a free benefit concert will be held for the nation's first Native American domestic violence shelter to help battle an alarming increase in teen suicides on the Rosebud reservation.

The "Cowboys and Angels" concert will be held on December 15 in the tiny northern Michigan town of Munising.

Three more Rosebud Teens have killed themselves since the first concert in mid-August.



The Turtle Island Project (TIP) in Munising is organizing the concert to benefit the White Buffalo Calf Woman Society (WBCWS) in Mission, South Dakota.

The WBCWS battles domestic violence, sexual assault and an alarming increase in teen suicides on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, the home of the Sicangu Lakota people.

Performing on Saturday, Dec. 15 from 7 - 9 p.m. at the Falling Rock Cafe and Bookstore in downtown Munising, Michigan will be Pastor Lynn Hubbard with John Evans on guitar.

Pictured on guitar is Turtle Island Project director/concert organizer Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard of Munising, MI

The concert will include original songs written by Rev. Hubbard and traditional songs of the season.

The WBCWS was founded 30 years ago by a group of courageous Native American women including current executive director Tillie Black Bear.

Rev. Hubbard said women around the world continue to be beaten and murdered every day and the WBCWS "is a beacon of hope in that raging sea of violence."

"The White Buffalo Calf Woman's Society and its domestic violence shelter serve a critical mission on the Rosebud reservation," said Dr. Hubbard, pastor of the Eden on the Bay Lutheran Church in Munising, MI. "The shelter aids women and children with dignity and is trying to get more depression counselors for the teens."

"Violence against women and children is prevalent in all segments of society," said Rev. Hubbard, co-founder of the Turtle Island Project that addresses Native American and environment issues. "This violence crosses all lines - without regard for social, economic, race, and creed of the victims."



"Generations to come are affected each and every time a child or woman is murdered," said Tillie Black Bear, WBCWS director. "Tribal people have a sacred responsibility to make sure that we create a world that our future generations of relatives will want to be born in to without fear for their safety.”

Figures from the Rosebud reservation alone are shocking: 21 rapes in the past 18 months; 462 attempted teen suicides and 18 deaths during the past two years - most teenage boys - caused tribal officials to declare a "state of emergency" in March 2007.

Poverty, depression, a lack of jobs, drugs, alcohol and other social problems are among the reasons behind Rosebud teen suicides.

The August 2007 TIP concert in Custer, SD raised money for the WBCWS

This is the TIP's second benefit concert this year for the the WBCWS. Two Upper Peninsula folk groups, White Water and Duo Borealis, held a free concert on August 12, 2007 for the WBCWS at the Custer Lutheran Fellowship church in Custer, S.D.



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Related websites:

White Buffalo Calf Woman Society, Inc.
http://www.wbcws.org/

Turtle Island Project main website:
http://www.turtleislandproject.org/

Turtle Island TV (blipTV)
http://turtleislandtv.blip.tv/

Turtle Island TV (youtube)
http://www.youtube.com/MunisingWhiteHorse

Turtle Island (myspace)
http://www.myspace.com/TurtleIslandProject

Turtle Island Project websites/Blogs:
http://groups.msn.com/WhisperingTurtle
http://turtleislandproject.wordpress.com/
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Rosebud Tribe official website:
http://www.rosebudsiouxtribe-nsn.gov/
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email:
TurtleIslandProject@charter.net

Un-edited message from jailed American Indian rights activist Leonard Peltier

While many proud Americans stuffed our bellies with Thanksgiving turkey - it is a day of mourning for many Native Americans who feel the celebration represents the end of their freedom and way of life.

This is an important message from jailed American Indian activist Leonard Peltier.

Respectfully,
Greg Peterson aka YoopernewsmanVolunteer media advisor for the Turtle Island Project in northern Michigan.
TurtleIslandProject@charter.net

Please forward the following message - please do not edit.
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National Day of Mourning Statement, by Leonard Peltier November 22, 2007

The Leonard Peltier Defense kindly requests that you please forward this announcement in its entirety, please do not modify, edit, remove or add to this announcement.

Respectfully,
Leonard Peltier Defense Committee

Thank You United American Indians of New England ( LPSG )

On behalf of Leonard Peltier and the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, we would like to thank the United American Indians of New England, LPSG for their continued support and solidarity.

This year's National Day of Mourning is dedicated to Leonard Peltier.

Since 1970, hundreds of other Native Americans from across the country and their non-Native allies have been converging on Plymouth Harbor to let people know that Thanksgiving is a "Day of Mourning" that marks the genocide of thousands of Native Americans, the theft of Native Lands and the assault on Native Cultures.

Today, Thursday, November 22, 2007 hundreds of people will gather and march on Plymouth Harbor and join in solidarity as various tribal elders and members speak of the importance of Unity among all Indigenous Peoples.

Elder Bert Waters will read the following statement from Leonard Peltier:

National Day of Mourning Statement from Leonard Peltier:

November 22, 2007

Greetings my Relations, As I sit here in my cell, thinking about you, and gathering my thoughts, I can't help but appreciate you remembering me.

I was told just the other day that people in Oklahoma protested Oklahoma's 100 year celebration of its statehood.

They protested or demonstrated and also celebrated their 100 years of survival of an adversed government that has violated all treaties and has gained control of most of their land.

I support those Indian people.

It also brings to mind those who - like Columbus came and did the same, take our lands, and also what has happened to all people all over the world- the Jews, the Palestians, as well as other indigenous countries and peoples.

Yet I have to say that America shares most of the responsibility to do the right thing.

What happened to the teachings or commandments of: Thou shall not lie Thou shall not kill Thou shall not steal

I can't remember all the commandments but what I do know is They have lied They have killed They have stolen.

They have mistreated our Mother- our Mother Earth, our rivers, our land, the air we breathe and the water we drink.

I consider global warming the wrong that has been done to our people.

Even the Mexican people state in their own way, "We did not cross the border, the border crossed us".

The Mexican people are Indian people. I have no doubt the Indian people of South America, North America, Central American will join in unison to make all the America's better.

A circle of Life is what dictates that the earth shall renew itself every spring. We have said this for generations.

Go back and read our Elders sayings as we have been trying to tell Europeans that came here- to honorour traditional ways and to honor our Mother Earth and keep the Circle of Life.

Chief Seattle said: "Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect." Chief Seattle, 1855

This is just one of the many quotations from our ancestors.

Now today we have global warming.

We take no pride of solace in saying " We told you so."

But we do hope that the people of Europe and all around the world will start looking at the Native way of life.

Our Elders teach us that when we take from this earth, we must give back.

There is no greater resource on the face of this earth than our children.

America is leading in the wrongful influence of our youth.

Wrong medicine is being offered to our youth, commonly called alcohol and drugs.

It is up to each one of us, to get involved and make a difference in a positive way.

It is time to give back to our children.

I encourage each of you to take it upon yourself to stand up and find someway to help our youth.

The youth of the world are in jeopardy; let us not rob future generations of their future.

The greatest symbol of the Creator is the circle.

I encourage each of you to make the circle complete- the sacred cycle of the family, the cycle of the seasons, your personal cycle of life make them as strong as possible spiritually, mentally and physically.

Stay strong and never, never give up.

I can not say it enough or express my appreciation to each of you how much I appreciate those of you who came here today to remember me and to listen to what this prisoner has to say.

Again I simply say,

Thank you In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier
#89637-132
USP Lewisburg PA
PO BOX 1000
Lewisburg ,PA 17837
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Leonard Peltier Defense Committee
Toni Zeidan-Co-director LPDC

Website:
http://www.leonardpeltier.net

email:
info@leonardpeltier.net

Turtle Island Project: Northern Michigan clergy use Native American teachings to protect environment, fight racism against American Indians

The Turtle Island Project: Centering prayer, jubilation, fighting for the environment, and clergy standing up for social change were all part of ecumenical retreat in northern Michigan

(Munising, Michigan) - A Chicago theology professor told northern Michigan clergy, church leaders, and the public “we live in a kyros moment” involving the environment and other social issues during a recent ecumenical retreat sponsored by the Turtle Island Project in Munising.

“We as human beings have not been good stewards of creation,” said Rev. Dr. George Cairns, co-founder and board chair of the Turtle Island Project (TIP). “Native American peoples are the best living teachers of how to respect the environment.”

The environment and the gifts of nature “are not something to simply be consumed,” said Rev. Cairns, research professor theology for the Chicago Theological Seminary and an ordained United Church of Christ minister.

“The children of a generation or two from now are going to face a very very difficult time,” said Cairns of Chesterton, Indiana.

The TIP project promotes respect for the environment and Earth-based cultures like Native Americans, Celts and others.

The TIP plans including national conferences and Native American roundtables providing a platform for American Indians to speak out on issues of concern to themselves or tribes without interference from whites.

Quoting internet research by several environment groups, Cairns said nearly 15,600 species are threatened with extinction and over the past 500 years humans have forced 844 species into extinction with the exception of a few from some of those groups who remain alive only in zoos, preserves and other manmade facilities.

Cairns noted several 2007 United Nations reports stating that almost one-third of the world's species of animals and plants are expected to be at risk of extinction by climate change within 50 years.

The U.N. studies were reported widely in Europe but received little attention in the U.S. news media. The TIP encourages clergy to become beacons for social change by speaking out about civil rights, environment and other issues.

"The Inconvenient Truth is good news compared to what I read on species extinction," warned Cairns, referring to the controversial global warming film by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore who shared a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“It's not that people are evil necessarily - it’s just that there are a lot of us and we are pushing for places to live,” Cairns said.

One person attending the conference noted that the environmental problem is heightened by the fact people are living longer due to new drugs and better healthcare.

Cairns said it can be disheartening for the average person who wants to respect nature but witnesses some countries and corporations causing more pollution in a minute than a human can prevent in a lifetime.

“They are building new coal-fired power plants in China every week,” Cairns said.

“What’s going on are there are really huge corporations who are trying to hoist off the environmental responsibility to individuals,” Cairns said.

“We need to treat the Earth like we would treat a beloved spouse or friend,” Cairns said.

An event of the TIP's Grand Island Grand Island Conference and Retreat Program, "Quest for Harmony: The Contemplation of Nature in the Christian Tradition" was held on Friday, November 9, 2007 at Eden on the Bay Lutheran Church in Munising.

Cairns demonstrated “centering prayer” that is a method of silent and contemplative prayer.

Clearing the mind of extraneous thought and choosing a word to help focus thoughts are among ways to silently pray for twenty minutes two times daily.

“There is no wrong way to do centering prayer,” said Cairns, who learned the art from Father Thomas Keating, one of three Trappist monks considered to be the founders of the technique.

“Centering prayer helps us develop a deeper intimacy with God,” Cairns said. “We open ourselves to God’s movement within.”

Centering prayer creates a “little more compassion and kindness” Cairns' said.

All the world’s religions have some form of silent prayer, Cairns said.

The daily silent prayer, Cairns said, enables him to better face the evil in the world and to strive for social change with a clear mind.

“We can’t do this (fight evil) with just our brains,” Cairns said. “It allows one to engage more fully - we are re-empowered for engagement.”

The calming of entering prayer allows people to become a “full human being” and be “more efficient and effective in our lives,” Cairns said. “You free yourself from blinders. It reveals the dark spaces in the heart that restricts what you are doing.”

TIP co-founder and director Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard said centering prayer revitalizes “individuals like us who spend so much time in our rational brains.”

“You retreat to recharge your batteries to fight another day,” said Hubbard, pastor of Eden on the Bay Lutheran Church in Munising.

Those attending retreat were introduced to “jubilation” a former of chanted prayer or singing that creates unique sounds. During jubilation, people create music through emitting more than one sound or pitch at the same time using a form of humming.

A group of people performing jubilation sometimes creates sounds that no one individual has made because the sound waves collide with each other and the objects in the room, Cairns said.

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Related websites:

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Stories on U.N. reports prepared by about 400 of the world’s scientists on global environment, global warming, and other issues since June 2007:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/10/25/eaclimate125.xml

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/06/nspecies06.xml

http://www.euractiv.com/en/environment/humans-living-earth-means-warns-un-report/article-167935?Ref=RSS

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International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN):

http://www.iucnredlist.org/

http://www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/red_list_2004/Extinction_media_brief_2004.pdf

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Inconvenient Truth & Al Gore official websites:

http://www.climatecrisis.net/

http://www.algore.com/index.html

Pledge to help:

http://www.algore.com/index-splash.html

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Summary of Turtle Island Project websites & TV (video) sites:

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TIP website:

http://www.turtleislandproject.org

TIP Sacred Places website - Upload your own Sacred Place:

http://www.northamericasacredplaces.org/

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Other sites:

http://groups.msn.com/WhisperingTurtle

http://turtleislandproject.wordpress.com/

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Turtle Island TV - Video sites:

(blipTV)

http://turtleislandtv.blip.tv/

(youtube)

http://www.youtube.com/MunisingWhiteHorse

(myspace)

http://www.myspace.com/TurtleIslandProject

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Contact Info:

(All have Skype online video calling)

Co-founder/Director Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard:

Munising, Michigan

Pastor of Eden on the Bay Lutheran Church in Munising, Michigan; does spiritual work on the Lakota Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota

wk: 906-387-2520

cell: 906-202-0590

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Co-founder/President of the Board Rev. Dr. George Cairns:

Chesterton, Indiana

219-395-9347

Research Professor of Practical Theology and Spirituality at Chicago Theological Seminary; ordained minister in the United Church of Christ

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Volunteer Media Advisor Greg Peterson:

Negaunee, Michigan

906-475-5068

email:

TurtleIslandProject@charter.net

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mail:

Turtle Island Project

Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard

PO Box 360

Munising, MI.

49862

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The non-profit Turtle Island Project (TIP) in northern Michigan promotes respect for the environment and Native Americans.

The project was founded in July 2007 and battles exploitation of the environment, racism, and religious imperialism.

The TIP tackles numerous environment and social issues including learning to protect the planet from Earth-based cultures.

Founders are Rev. Dr. Lynn Hubbard., the pastor of Eden on the Bay Lutheran Church in Munising, Michigan who has worked extensively with the Lakota tribe in South Dakota; and Rev. Dr. George Cairns, United Church of Christ minister, an expert in Celtic spirituality and a research professor of Theology at Chicago Theological Seminary.

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