“As you know, we live in a fearful society that is devoured by anxiety. And we imagine in our anxiety that there are extreme “security” measures that will make us safe.

“Sortie”

But if this is God’s world and if the rule of love is at work, then our mandate is not to draw into the cocoon of safety; rather it is to be out and alive in the world in concrete acts and policies whereby the fearful anxiety among us is dispatched and adversaries can be turned into allies and friends.”

Walter Brueggemann

in “Mandate to Difference: An Invitation to the Contemporary Church

February 13 / 14 has been designated as “Global Divestment Day(s).

From a blockade at the International Petroleum Conference in London to hundreds of people dumping their dirty banks on the same day in Australia, the photos and videos are already pouring in from our friends on the other side of the globe. Click here to see (and share!) some of today’s early photos on Facebook:

Today people are demonstrating that there are thousands of people around the world who know that fossil fuel divestment is both the smart thing to do and the right thing — and those people are willing to take action in their own communities. We know that if it’s wrong to wreck the climate, then it’s wrong to profit from that wreckage.

Earlier this week, the fossil fuel industry launched a concerted counter-attack on the divestment movement, only to have their efforts fall rather flat. This (perhaps apocryphal) Gandhi quote feels more apt than ever: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

Let’s show the world that we’ve got the guts, the heart, and the numbers to win against the power and money of the industry driving the climate crisis.

Let’s make fossil fuels history.

For information on what one courageous church community is doing, check out: http://www.trinitystpauls.ca/climate-justice/

East End Against Line 9

February 7, 2015

The National Energy Board (NEB) yesterday gave the green light to Enbridge Inc.’s contentious Line 9B pipeline, despite the company’s failure to make necessary safety improvements.

The decision means that critical safety measures will not be implemented before Enbridge starts running highly volatile tar sands crude oil through the 40 year-old pipeline.  The pipeline crosses every tributary to much of southern Ontario’s water supply.

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A Toronto neighbourhood is taking the unusual step of asking the Auditor General of Canada to get answers to the urban community’s oil train concerns.

Paul Clarke  – Feb 4th, 2015

Oil trains rolling past a Toronto west end homeowner’s backyard at dusk. Photo by Safe Rail Communities.

A Toronto neighbourhood group, alarmed by what appears to be a surge in oil trains rumbling past their urban backyards, is taking the unusual step of urging the Auditor General of Canada to intervene to help it get answers to safety concerns.

The group, called Safe Rail Communities, says it has been asking basic questions to CN, CP Rail and the federal government about the safety of transporting these explosive fuels, but found the responses lacking.

“We’re getting stonewalled,” said Helen Vassilakos, co-founder of Safe Rail Communities, who lives near the train tracks.

“Transport Canada is refusing to speak with us and the minister is actually refusing to send anyone out to our meetings.”

Full story from the Vancouver Observer at: http://www.vancouverobserver.com/news/oil-train-trouble-toronto-citizens-demand-answers

Theology in the Vineyard

In 1977 Grand Chief John Kelly appeared before Royal Commission on the Northern Environment in Kenora. He titled his submission We are all in the Ojibway Circle. It is a stunning summation of environmental awareness of the primacy of the great economy, the earth as our nourishing but fragile mother.It is contained in John Ralston Saul’s last book The Comeback. It is a strong indictment of the “white man’s” insatiable greed for more territory, for the theft of land.

The Ojibway signed a treaty in 1873 trusting the government which said that it needed the land as a passage way to the west. The tribe was happy to share the land. Treaty #3 territory was then surrendered to the provincial government. There were no benefits to the tribe. The thievery continued “and more recently by industry.We atil possess certain things of value which the white man covets.” “The Ojibway” Kelly…

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