The Sustainist

Great Streets

This fall, at North Figueroa Street (Highland Park area) in Los Angeles, a festival call FIGJAM will be planned, presented, and attended by residents and organizations of that community. The festival seeks to “build support for and identify sites for ‘people street’ and ‘green street’ style infrastructure; generating replicable ideas for supporting and promoting local businesses, community connections; and new cultural activities.”

FIGJAM is one of eight projects that received the Great Street Challenge Grant.  This grant program is a partnership between the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office and ioby.org, a crowd-resourcing platform for citizen-led, neighbor-funded projects. Grant recipients will initially be awarded $10,000 for their projects and then work with ioby.org to raise additional funds. For every additional dollar raised, the Great Streets Challenge Grant Program will match those funds dollar for dollar, up to an additional $10,000, for a total of $20,000 in city funds per project. 

Other grant recipients include: Connect the Dots: Van Nuys, Street Beats (Hyde Park), Complete the Street (South LA), Pacoima Street Values, Make it Mar Vista, and Re[visit] Re[seda] (Northridge) and Nuestra Avenida Caesar Charvez Reimagined (Boyles Heights).

“I launched the Great Streets Initiative to activate public spaces, provide economic revitalization, increase public safety, enhance local culture, and support great neighborhoods,” said Mayor Garcetti. “I’m excited to see how these projects will enhance our effort to create vibrant places where Angelenos can come together as communities.”

Here is the description of another project called Street Beats:

Street Beats is a project of Community Health Councils, Trust South LA, Ride On! Bike Co-Op, and Studio MMD to bring a showcase of music and community to the Hyde Park neighborhood of South Los Angeles. Street Beats will be a one-day free and public event to re-envision our streets by activating the intersection of Crenshaw Blvd. & Florence Ave. with an interactive music experiment, food, art, and temporary pedestrian amenities. Through a community festival, Street Beats seeks to highlight the importance of street safety and the power of public space.

Go to http://www.lamayor.org/greatstreetswinners to find out more about each project.

I am excited and curious about these projects across Los Angeles and will track their progress this fall and eventually attend some of them.  These are great ways to development the currency of wellness – social, physical, economic and ecological - for the neighborhood. 

My challenge to my readers is this: How can you a create project like these to make the street on which your church community is located into a great street? You don’t have to wait for the mayor of your city to initiate such a project. All you need is your passion for the wellness of your neighborhood, the resources you already have, other partners in the community and a bit of creative imagination.   If you need help or ideas, go to ioby.org, of which the founders said that they have the “intent on changing the world. One block at a time.”

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: August 6-11, 2015 Seattle, WA Gracious Leadership Training Intercultural Competency KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training November 1-5, 2015 Memphis, TN Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training www.kscopeinstitute.org

Reflection Questions for Proper 13 (Year B) 2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a    What did you learn from this passage about challenging powerful people to be ethnical? Psalm 51:1-12    What does it mean for you to be renewed with the right spirit? Ephesians 4:1-16   How do you speak the truth in love? John 6:24-34   What is the bread of life?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org

Talking to Trees

Hi tree on the corner of Punt Road and Alexandra Avenue and that little street that goes up the side,

How are you? How old are you?

I’ve always wondered about you ever since my slightly strange driving instructor (who always smelled like cat food and peppermints) told me you were his favourite tree.

 I hope they don’t knock you down.

The City of Melbourne, Australia, has about 70,000 trees. Through a project called Urban Forest Visual, each tree is assigned an identification number and an email address. The original intent was to help residents report tree vandalism or branches dropping.  Melburnians love their trees because trees cool the city’s summertime temperatures by 4C.  Projecting that about four in 10 of Melbourne’s trees will be lost over the next 20 years due to old age.  The Urban Forest Visual project would help track the lives of these trees in order to protect, nurture and eventually replace them.  Also, the city had planted 12,000 new trees in the past four years. 

Now the trees are receiving fan mails from around the world! 

I love the idea of talking to trees because this is a way to develop our currency of relationship with the earth.  In order to write an email and in my case, to actually talk, in person, with the trees in my garden and my neighborhood, I have to have a relationship with the trees.  When I have a relationship with a tree, I pay attention to its wellbeing.  I notice how the tree relates to the season – when does it flower and bear fruit, do the most growing, change color, lose its leaves and sprout new leaves?   When I have a relationship with a tree, I also notice changes as it reacts to climate change, pollution, drought, storms, etc.  Our tree friends tell me important things about the wellness of earth we share, so listen to them.

So, walk the neighborhoods around your homes, your churches, your workplaces, and our schools and invite your neighbors to establish relationships with the trees.  Engage your neighbors in dialogue with each other and with the trees and learn how we are inter-dependent.  Develop a plan with your neighbors to take care of the existing trees and to plant new ones. 

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: July 20-25, 2015 Los Angeles, CA Gracious Leadership Training Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training August 6-11, 2015 Seattle, WA Gracious Leadership Training Intercultural Competency KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training November 1-5, 2015 Memphis, TN Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training www.kscopeinstitute.org

Reflection Questions for Proper 12 (Year B) 2 Kings 4:42-44    What did you learn from this passage about sharing blessings? Psalm 145:10-19    How is the faithfulness of God expressed? Ephesians 3:14-21   How does it mean for you to be filled with the fullness of God? John 6:1-21   What did you learn from this story about living the spirituality of abundance?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org

Prayer and Action

During a discussion on the Charleston shooting in church last Sunday, the question of prayers came up.  How can prayers be helpful in times like these?  How can prayers lead to actions that heal?  

One of the reasons I pray is that the events in my life do not make sense and I am at a loss as to what I can think, say or do about them. What do I do about the “culture” that produced someone like Dylann Roof or James Holmes?   What do I do if I allow myself to connect with the pain and loss of the shooting victims’ family? 

As a person of faith, when I am at a loss, I turn to God and pray.  The moment I say “O God” I am connecting with God’s story.  In the Jewish faith, one of the principle stories is God liberating Israelites from slavery.  In the Christian faith, the key story is God becoming a human being in the person Jesus to show us the grace, forgiveness and justice of God. God becomes a character in the human story that acts in ways that transform events of our lives, re-patterning our lives to resemble God’s pattern.  When I pray, it is like entering an alternate reality through which I can recount our stories of pain, suffering, destructions, hopes and dreams in light of God’s story. I can then re-imagine a different outcome according to God’s narrative, which is the pattern of the holy.  I then become an active character steering the next step of our story toward the holy.  Prayer for me is not just talking to God; prayer also leads to actions. Prayers help me find the energy and courage to act to liberate, sustain and heal our communities.

As community leaders, we have an awesome responsibility in telling the story of God, because these stories of the divine, higher power, the holy, etc., when embedded into our minds, are the stories with which we pray.  I am not just talking about leaders of faith communities.  How many political speeches have we heard that ended with “God bless America?” What is the story of God there? If I live in a community that consistently tells stories of a vengeful god who punishes people with violence, then my prayers will lead me to destructive acts.  If I live in a community that imparts stories of God’s unconditional love and forgiveness, my prayers will lead to do the same. 

What are your stories of God?  Where did you learn these stories?  How do these stories impact the way you pray?  What action do these stories lead you to? 

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: July 20-25, 2015 Los Angeles, CA Gracious Leadership Training Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training August 6-11, 2015 Seattle, WA Gracious Leadership Training Intercultural Competency KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training November 1-5, 2015 Memphis, TN Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training www.kscopeinstitute.org

Reflection Questions for Proper 11 (Year B) 2 Samuel 7:1-14a    What did learn about your relationship with God from this text? Psalm 89:20-37    What does it mean to imagine God a Father? Ephesians 2:11-22   What would your community be like if Christ is truly the cornerstone? Mark 6:30-34, 53-56   What does it mean for God to speak peace to you? Ephesians 1:3-14       How are you being adopted by God? Mark 6:14-29       What did you learn from this text about power and authority?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org

Stories to Live By

“Momentous events of these recent weeks have brought our nation new progress in overcoming racism and homophobia.” Bishop J. Jon Bruno of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles began his article for this week’s diocesan newsletter, “President Obama's eulogy for the Charleston shooting victims underscored the urgency of controlling weapons while also teaching ethical and culturally competent behavior. In the Episcopal Church, the election of Michael Curry as our next Presiding Bishop brings new perspective, much as the General Convention's provision of marriage rites for same-gender couples echoes the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling for marriage equality. I give thanks for this progress, and I pray that we as a nation and a church now will move into new, intentional efforts to address poverty, immigration reform, and gun violence, in particular.” 

As the official narratives of the United States as a nation and the Episcopal Church changed, there are persistent debates.  For example, some Episcopal Bishops will not allow gay marriage to take place in their dioceses.  Debate over whether the Confederate flag is a symbol of racism or patriotism loomed after we saw pictures of Dylann Roof, the alleged killer of the Charleston shooting, waving a Confederate flag.  These debates are signs of a nation and a church struggling to heal their broken stories.

Daniel Taylor, in his book Tell Me A Story, wrote, “Stories can be broken.  The stories we live by sometimes fall apart.  They no longer adequately explain our experience or give us enough reason to get up in the morning.  Even worse, we sometimes come to doubt there is any story to our lives at all. . . .  The best cure for a broken story is another story.”  When we find the changed narrative of our communities unsettling, that could mean that the stories that we lived by are no longer adequate.  The fear of losing the meaning of our lives is real.  Then how and where do we find another story that will sustain us in this changing time?

Taylor proposed that healthy life-sustaining stories should have four qualities: they should be truthful, freeing, gracious and hopeful.  These stories are truthful in the way they reflect the reality of how the world really is, not what we think it should be.  Understanding what is real will free and motivate us to act in order to change ourselves and the world.  When the stories that we live by are unfettered with falsehood, and if they free us to act in the world, “then we are more likely to be a source of grace to others, and therefore, receive grace from others.”  Finally, every life-sustaining story contains the possibility of a desirable outcome.  If the characters in the story made it through circumstances similar to our own, then so might we. 

As community leaders, we have a responsibility to tell stories that are truthful, freeing, gracious and hopeful.  What truthful stories do we tell our children about their family history?  What freeing and gracious stories do we tell our church members about the Church?  What truthful and hopeful stories do we tell our communities members of our neighborhood, our city, and our nation?  We might need to recover some stories that has always been there but have been neglected.  We might need to revise an old story to retell it with newfound truth.  We might need to discover new ones from voices that had been ignored in the past but possesses the truth and freedom and hope that have never been told.  These stories can enable people to reclaim the freedom to heal their broken stories.  These stories can enable them to choose to replace their broken stories with healthier and life-sustaining ones.

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: July 20-25, 2015 Los Angeles, CA Gracious Leadership Training Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training August 6-11, 2015 Seattle, WA Gracious Leadership Training Intercultural Competency KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training November 1-5, 2015 Memphis, TN Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training www.kscopeinstitute.org

Reflection Questions for Proper 10 (Year B) 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19    What did you learn from this text about ritual and thanksgiving?   Psalm 24    What does it mean for you to open your doors and invite God to come in? Amos 7:7-15   How do you discern God’s plumb line for your life? Psalm 85:8-13   What does it mean for God to speak peace to you? Ephesians 1:3-14       How are you being adopted by God? Mark 6:14-29       What did you learn from this text about power and authority?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org

A 4th of July Dialogue

What does it mean to be a citizen of the United States of America?  I thought this would be an appropriate question to ponder as we approach July 4, 2015.  As more and more candidates announced their intention to run for president in 2016, this question becomes even more significant because as a citizen, I have the privilege to vote for the candidate of my choice in 16 months.  Some candidates boast about how much money they have raised for their campaigns. Some candidates say outrageous things to get attention.  The news media report on the latest polls that show who is the front runner, who is going to vote which way, etc.  In the middle of all this, no one is asking why the people of the United States go to the poll every four years in November.  How do I evaluate each candidate based on what they say, what they believe and what they promise to do?  How do I decide which candidate will lead my beloved country toward greater environmental, social and economic sustainability in light of the reemerging racial conflicts, horrifying shootings of innocent people, church burning, destructive environmental changes and many more issues.  I propose that we go to the origin source and learn from the documents that shaped the founding of the United States such at the Declaration of Independence.

Declaration of Independence

Preamble

 

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed,

that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. 

During your July 4 celebration, invite your family and friends to sit down and listen to this text and have a meaningful dialogue using the following process:

1. Inform participants that parts of the Declaration of Independence will be read 3 times. After each reading, participants will be invited to share their reflections using the Mutual Invitation.  If participants have not been introduced to the Mutual Invitation process, describe it clearly. 
2. Invite participants to capture a word, a phrase or image that stood out for them from the document while the text is read out loud the first time.
3. Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his or her word, phrase or image briefly.
4. Invite participants to consider the following question as the text is being read for the second time:
   What does this document say to you about what it means to be independent?
   - as an individual?
   - as a nation?
5. Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his or her reflection.
6. Invite participants to consider the following question while listening to the text being read the third time.
   As a result of listening to this document, what are you being called to do or change as a citizen of the United States today?
7. Using Mutual Invitation, invite each person to share his or her reflection.

Upcoming Opportunities to Study with The Sustainist and learn more about Holy Conferencing: July 20-25, 2015 Los Angeles, CA Gracious Leadership Training Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training August 6-11, 2015 Seattle, WA Gracious Leadership Training Intercultural Competency KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training November 1-5, 2015 Memphis, TN Holy Currencies: Creating Sustainable Missional Ministries KI Catalyst (Facilitator) Training www.kscopeinstitute.org

Reflection Questions for Proper 9 (Year B) 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10    What did King David need to make a covenant with the elders of Israel before God?   Psalm 48    What does it mean to live in the city of God? 2 Corinthians 12:2-10   How can one be weak and yet strong? Mark 6:1-13   What did you learn from this text about power and authority?

Eric H. F. Law
Kaleidoscope Institute
For competent leadership in a diverse changing world
www.kscopeinstitute.org