Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power & Light (WAIPL): AC Churchill

Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power & Light (WAIPL) transforms faith into action for the well-being of communities and the environment. We organize people of faith to advocate for strong environmental policies and provide strategic guidance to religious communities working toward environmental justice.

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Transcript

Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power & Light (WAIPL): AC Churchill

[00:00:00] Intro: Welcome to the Holden Village Podcast. Holden is a community of education, programming, and worship located in the remote wilderness of the Cascade Mountains. These snapshots provide a glimpse into the learnings taking place in our community. Let's tune in to this week's highlight. 

[00:00:22] Dev: Welcome to another edition of the Holden Village podcast. I am with one of our wonderful week five faculty members...AC Churchill. How would you like to introduce yourself?

[00:00:36] AC: Yeah, so I think I'd introduce myself by saying...hello, I am Reverend AC Churchill. My pronouns are they/them...I am the executive director at Earth Ministry, Washington, Interfaith Power and Light. 

[00:00:48] Dev: How many times have you been at Holden? 

[00:00:51] AC: This is my second year. I was up here last year with my staff...we were there for the last week...so coming in at this point is interesting to see the village in a little different light...definitely a larger community up here at the village this week. 

[00:01:09] Dev: Would you ever consider living in a community like this or have you in your past or? 

[00:01:15] AC: Yeah. Living kind in an intentional community is definitely an appealing thing for me. Maybe not as remote as Holden is, but I remember in seminary...one of my courses...a group came in to talk about a neo monastic...so a new monastic movement of intentional community. Maybe not with the same kind of monastic kind of guidelines in terms of what each member of the community...vows or things.

But there is a covenant with people that are joining together in intentional community. And that actually is quite appealing to me. It probably helps that I'm an extrovert and like being around people, but the idea of like being connected with people and communal...feels healing...and I like the idea of it. 

[00:02:05] Dev: I've always been drawn to the monastic lifestyle. I think my first three months at Holden were actually quite monastic...how I treated this place...this was a place where like I would meditate three hours a day...do saunas like religiously...just have this like very purging like experience. 

[00:02:28] AC: I like the idea of being able to share meals with people...or share...you know...I have people that are close by that you could go over and sit on somebody's porch...or have them come over and play games...and just live life together. That style of living is not...doesn't happen as often in predominantly white communities. I see it happening a lot more in communities of color...where there is just this open...I think there's an openness in white communities. I just think that the idea of like we share space and people come over.

[00:03:02] Dev: We don't have as much fun.

[00:03:03] AC: Well, there's much more of a...yes, we can do this, but it has to be structured...like we'll schedule it. 

[00:03:09] Dev: If we just took calendars away from white people...things would just...it'd be like de-calendarizing or de-scheduling.

[00:03:19] AC: I think it's interesting because so much within the white community is focused on the individual...like individual person...individual family unit...even if it's kind of extended family...it's still kind of individualized. And you see that within a Christian perspective...cuz that's where my training is...and where I'm ordained in as an ordained pastor within the disciples of Christ tradition...you see this hyper focus on individualism in terms of like individual salvation...individual connection to God...your individual beliefs. 

Whereas in other communities it feels much more like communal...like this is a communal healing. You look back more into...towards like Jewish traditions. It's a lot about what the divine has to say to the community...and how do we respond as a community. 

[00:04:10] Dev: Joseph Campbell would call it the lone cowboy myth. He thought that...as Americans went to that western sunset...you know...pioneers...he claimed that that's where the individualism started. It probably started a lot sooner than that, but maybe within the context of this country...that could have been a thing. In regards to what you are teaching? What would you like to say about that? And has that differed from what you did last year...or are they very similar topics?

[00:04:39] AC: The work that we do at Earth Ministry, Washington IPL...and the courses we're teaching this week are really trying to help Individuals and communities identify and understand their particular story. Why is it important for you to care for creation...and to not only care, but to advocate on behalf of creation? And for us...that also means advocating for inhabitants of creation. So not just the trees...and the water...and the air, but those communities who are being impacted by environmental harms...including creatures...but also the humanity.

How do we not only identify how and why it's important for us to do this work, but for us to then join together? To create change. So ultimately in order to create change...you need capacity building...and momentum. And so joining with people of like-mind to do the work...whether that's in an individual congregation...or faith community...which we'll be talking about today. We'll be having conversations on how Earth Ministry Washington IPL supports individual faith communities to establish teams...establish like projects and visions...what they wanna do to bring eco spirituality or eco justice into the life of their faith community. 

And then that continues on into our advocacy work and the work that we do across Washington state. And we'll talk a little bit about advocacy work that's happening on a federal level, but primarily I will give attention and nod to the other IPL's that have state affiliates...cause we're part of a national network. 

[00:06:22] Dev: When it comes to eco justice or eco spirituality, are there specific terrains or elements that are particularly dear to your heart...or however that question comes to you when you wanna talk about it.

[00:06:44] AC: The piece that really connects to me is not necessarily elemental, but it's an element that I feel like is critical, which is the element of anti-racism. That's for us at Earth Ministry, Washington IPL...we've been on this journey and even more intentionally over the past five to six years...have been on this journey to expand, from our roots and our origins of environmental stewardship...to embrace the next piece...or an additional piece...which is environmental justice.

And environmental justice in itself inherently connected to anti-racism movements and environmental racism. So the harm that's caused to communities who are already impacted...historically excluded...and who already experience racism on different levels...but now it's the added piece of which communities get the landfills...like put next to them. Which communities have higher heat indexes because they were redlined...and so don't have as much of a tree canopy coverage. 

[00:07:49] Dev: Do you work primarily with indigenous tribes? Or are there other minority groups that you work with as well? 

[00:07:59] AC: We are seeking to be accomplices to Northwest Native Nations...who identified that our support would be helpful. So I think there's this wanting to make sure that we are invited into spaces...that we don't just come into spaces. So, we have developed relationships with a number of northwest native nations...and primarily follow their lead as to what issues that they need support in...and what areas that we can help leverage the communal engagement that we have...to help support the work that they're doing.

We work with a couple in Northwest Washington...a couple in southeast Washington. and primarily our work there has been around salmon, orca and river recovery. The conversation there is really around the dams and the Lower Snake River...the four dams. And advocating for us...it's important to advocate for a just transition so that we acknowledge that we ultimately...that there needs to be a free-flowing river. That there need to be considerations of how farmers and the AG industry can do what needs to shift in order for their lives to also continue...and for them not to be forgotten in the transition. It needs to be a just transition for us. 

But we do work with other communities. It is a growing edge for us to work with communities who are not white. We predominantly work with white faith communities. We do participate and follow the lead of several coalitions of color, but are not part of those coalitions because we are white led. So we follow their lead and we learn from them.

[00:09:53] Dev: Beautiful. This next question's gonna be slightly off the cuff.  But it actually means a lot to me. In the work that I do with the world and with people like yourself who are doing such great work in the world. What makes you laugh and how are you able to have a sense of levity within the very serious work that you do.

Cause I find that in a lot of activism arenas...people get very dour very quickly. In my opinion, it becomes like the downfall in the actual actions that happen. Like you have to have some sense of lightness to it. So I'm just curious for you...what does that look like to you?

[00:10:36] AC: Yeah. I think laughter's critical and there are a whole host of things that that make me laugh from silly, ridiculous puns to like...

[00:10:48] Dev: You're about the pun off? Do you do those? 

[00:10:50] AC: No, I'm not that quick-witted. The only one that comes to mind right now is...I hear that if you shenan once you shenan-again...like it's so silly.

[00:11:07] Dev: So yeah, that makes me think of like Shena O'Connor.

[00:11:12] AC: But you know...so I think silliness...embracing what we often see as like childlike spirits of just being playful. I love to play. I love to be silly...and I love good banter...back and forth....and I think it's absolutely critical to the work. Because you're right. If the work becomes overwhelming...like how there's so much to do...how can we possibly keep going? Or is it even making a difference? Like finding moments to just laugh and be...I think for me those really come out the most when listening to other people's stories...and taking time just to build community with people.

I find myself in a place where like the fullness of who I am just gets to be present. And I get to laugh with friends and family. And, you know, I'm a fan of ridiculous B comedies. They don't have to be good. They just have to make me laugh. 

[00:12:15] Dev: Our summer theme here is Eden is calling. How would you like to talk about that? What does that mean to you? Feel free to treat it as a silly anecdote as well... cuz for me...Eden is certainly laughter.

[00:12:31] AC: Yeah, I think it's interesting cuz it's both...could be looking back at like what scripturally is viewed as this on the surface...this like utopia...but for me it's more of this vision of what could be. Like this place of community and communal awareness of interworking and interdependence...and it's not necessarily without conflict or tension...but it is this communal commitment to working for the healing of all. So like...when we're thinking about Eden...like Eden for who...and who was getting left out...and there were possibilities for like experiencing the fullness of the divine.

You know...in everyday ways...and there's still people struggling to survive. I don't know. I'm really influenced by a couple of quotes...one from the theologian...Frederick Ner...he says...your life and my life flow together as wave flows into wave. And if there's not joy in peace and freedom for you...there can be no joy or peace or freedom for me...and so this idea that Eden for only some...is not Eden...and that's not just for humanity. Eden for only some of creation is not Eden. And so...how do we work towards Eden...or work towards experiencing elements of Eden now? But that also doesn't continue to perpetuate and exclude people. 

[00:14:09] Dev: And that reminds me of like in Buddhism...there's the notion...Bodhi Sattva...like the person that will forego their own nirvana in order to be able to still be amongst the people and help out...because if you really believe in unity...that act of service is a part of your own enlightenment. I love that notion.

[00:14:39] AC: Like the one of the thousand hands, right? I love that concept...or that idea of not even sacrificing, but like you having the ability to move towards something that you've been moving...and then to say...this is also part of my journey...is to work towards communal. Yeah. It can communal enlightenment or communal.

[00:15:01] Dev: Exactly. Awesome. Well, this feels very conclusive to me. Thank you for the work that you do and taking the time to have this conversation...and being in the village...and all the things. 

[00:15:14] AC: I'm honored to be here...to represent Earth Ministry, Washington, IPL... and to be representative of my colleagues who are not able to be here this week...and the ones who do this work...along who I do this work alongside...and the communities...the faith communities across Washington state that really do the grassroots work.

We help to organize faith communities and faith leaders. And it really is the individual faith communities who do the grassroots work of knowing what's happening in their communities...and helping us to then be able to communicate that...to build momentum so that we can have transformation. So honored to be part of all of that work. 

[00:15:58] Dev: Wonderful. And in case the loud stomping from upstairs gets into the editing of this...just letting all you listeners out there...there's a wonderful group of teenagers playing live action clue. And so that's a part of our world and we embrace that as well. 

[00:16:19] AC: Let the children come, you know. 

[00:16:21] Dev: Let the children come. 

[00:16:25] Outro: Thanks for joining us. Be sure to view the links in the description for more information or visit our website to find out more about the village. We hope you will make a pilgrimage to Holden. Blessings and peace to you.