By Jane Ellen Nickell, TAF Membership Chair

MAY DAY IS NOT WIDELY CELEBRATED IN THE U.S., but its various meanings speak to this moment in time. Originally a Pagan agricultural celebration marking the beginning of summer, May 1 was also designated as International Workers’ Day in the late nineteenth century.

Pagan rituals are rooted in nature. In fact, the word “pagan” comes from the Latin paganus, meaning “rustic” or “country dweller.” Christian conversion and persecution drove Paganism deeply underground, but it has emerged in the last few decades in new and creative forms, especially among people seeking a spiritual practice that resonates with the natural world.

May Day was observed by Celts and other ancient Pagans as part of the Wheel of the Year, which includes the solstices, equinoxes, and the cross-quarter days, which are the points midway between. Marking the midpoint between the spring equinox and the summer solstice, May Day is called Beltane by Celts and Walpurgis Night in Germanic regions. Celebrations include “bringing in the May” by gathering wildflowers and spring greenery and dancing around bonfires or a Maypole.

Today these customs are celebrated in Europe more than in the U.S., where we’ve shed many aspects of agricultural life. The Old Farmer’s Almanac reports that some farmers still adhere to May Day as the time to move bees and to plant turnips and cucumbers, but for most of us the day has little significance.

Many colleges celebrated May Day into the 1950s, including West Virginia Wesleyan College, where my mother reigned as May Queen in 1951, despite having a case of the three-day measles! Many years later she enjoyed another May Day custom, when a fellow teacher showed up at her door every year with a May basket. Traditionally, people would gather flowers, candy, and other goodies to fill a May basket, then leave it on the doorknob of a friend.

IN MANY COUNTRIES, INTERNATIONAL WORKERS’ DAY IS ALSO CELEBRATED ON MAY 1 or the first Monday in May, but it has no relation to May Day festivals. In the early days of the labor movement, workers around the world demonstrated for eight-hour workdays, labor unions, and safe working conditions. The movement chose May 1 as the day to celebrate workers to commemorate the anniversary of the Haymarket affair in 1886 in Chicago, where several people died after police sought to disperse workers striking for eight-hour workdays. Because of its close association with socialism, the May Workers’ Day is observed more in Communist countries, whereas the U.S. and Canada observe Labor Day in September.

Dating to the early days of air travel in the 1920s, the distress call “Mayday” has yet another origin story. Charged with finding a word that could convey an emergency situation, Frederick Stanley Mockford, officer-in-charge of radio at Croydon Airport, England, thought of the French phrase “M’aidez”—“Help me”—which sounds like “Mayday” in English. After testing it during cross-Channel flights between England and France, the International Radiotelegraph Convention of Washington, D.C. adopted the voice call “Mayday” in 1927 as the radiotelephone distress call, in addition to SOS.

THE THREE MEANINGS WE ASSIGN TO MAY DAY ARE UNRELATED, but all seem relevant to this current moment. We are distressed by news about the latest government action to defund important government offices or organizations that do not conform to the Trump agenda. Genuine fear for our country, the global order, and the planet we all call home makes us want to cry “Mayday! Mayday!”

The Trump administration disregards nature’s inherent worth and sees it only as a resource for increasing human wealth. As promised, the president pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement on his first day in office, followed quickly by declaring a “national energy emergency” to justify accelerating gas and oil expansion and overturning Biden policies supporting renewable energy.

More recently the administration has sought to revoke Inflation Reduction Act funding for green energy and increase coal production. They have redefined the Endangered Species Act to allow development and drilling in sensitive habitats, and slashed funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the most reliable source for climate data for monitoring by states and other entities.

We are on the precipice of irrevocable climate disaster, and the policies of this administration are only making things worse. Our cries of “Mayday! Mayday!” may fall on deaf ears in the halls of government, but in towns and cities across the country, people are turning out by the millions to protest and commit to action at the grassroots level.

Third Act and other organizations are promoting renewable energy as the cleanest, most affordable energy sources available. The recent Earth Day celebration, with the theme “Our Power, Our Planet,” called for the world to triple renewable energy by 2030. Designed as an Earth Day counterpart near the autumnal equinox, Sun Day (September 20-21) will be an all-out effort to promote solar energy.

ON THIS MAY DAY, THE CONNECTION TO NATURE IS CLEAR. As did their ancient ancestors, modern Pagans know that celebrating natural cycles and seasons helps us identify more closely with the natural world and appreciate its many life-sustaining gifts. As far back as John Muir, who started the Sierra Club, environmental action is often motivated by love of nature. With that in mind, you might celebrate May Day by sharing a gift of flowers with someone, adding some native plants to your own yard or garden, or just spending some time outdoors.

International Workers’ Day is also relevant, because front-line workers are the most impacted by climate change and many recent federal policies. Many working-class people have felt left behind by cultural elites that don’t speak for them and economic structures that put basics like home ownership out of reach. They supported Donald Trump because he gave voice to their concerns, but the policies of his government are hurting many of the very people who elected him.

Safety and environmental regulations are deemed burdensome to business, but deregulation puts workers at risk, including many migrant workers who may also fear deportation. Government workers are losing jobs for no clear reason, and a proposed overhaul of the Civil Service would strip 50,000 federal employees of job security.

As part of ongoing demonstrations against the current administration, a May Day “Day of Action” is planned this year, with events across the country designed to defend working families. Perhaps you are taking part in one yourself. To read more about it, visit the May Day 2025 website.

On this May Day, you may feel tempted to throw up your hands and cry “Mayday! Mayday!,” but we hope you will celebrate the other meanings of the day by taking action to defend the natural world or vulnerable workers who are most at risk.

About Jane Ellen Nickell

Rev. Dr. Jane Ellen Nickell lives in Meadville, Pennsylvania, where she retired after serving as Chaplain at Allegheny College for 16 years. In that role she worked with students of all faiths, or of none, and taught Religious Studies, including a course on Religion and Ecology. She is the author of We Shall Not Be Moved: Methodists Debate Race, Gender, and Homosexuality. In retirement she serves as part-time Minister of Care and Outreach at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Meadville and blogs at A Nickell for Your Thoughts.

Spring holidays offer possibilities for bringing earth care together with religious observance. Here are some resources to help you consider sustainability as you prepare for Passover or Easter, or to celebrate Earth Day in your faith community.

Passover (April 12-20)

As Jews observe Passover, there are many resources to connect to the earth and practice sustainability. Former TAF member, the late Rabbi Ellen Bernstein, wrote a haggadah entitled The Promise of the Land that centers the Passover story in the natural world. Focusing on the very soil out of which Judaism grew, this haggadah explores the Seder’s earthly grounding and ecological meaning.

The Jewish environmental group Adamah provides online resources for considering sustainability throughout the eight days of Passover. You will find activities, rituals, recipes, and tips, including several haggadah supplements.

With Dayenu, Adamah also created a Climate Action Shabbat Guide to help families and congregations take meaningful climate action and align Shabbat practices with sustainability and Jewish values throughout the year.

Easter (April 20)

Christians can also keep earth care and sustainability in mind as they celebrate Easter. Derrick Weston reflects on the implications of Jesus’ death and resurrection for all creation in this blog post, and the National Catholic Reporter offers tips for celebrating a creation-conscious Easter. The Creation Justice Ministries website has a hub of resources, where you can search by theme or liturgical season and find sermon ideas, scripture reflections, songs, and prayers.

To continue your sustainable focus through the year, Creation Justice Ministries offers 52 Ways to Care for Creation 2025, with actions for every week of the year, including Holy Week, Easter, and Earth Day. Their 2025 resource, The Power of God: From Extractive Theology to Transformative Faith, can help your congregation think about God’s power and how we interact in the world. Download it for free from their website.

Earth Day (April 22)

The theme for this year’s Earth Day celebration is “Our Power, Our Planet.” As Third Act is doing with its plans for Sun Day (September 20-21), Earth Day is focusing on the need to transition to renewable sources of energy, which have become the most cost-effective sources of power. The transition will create jobs, eliminate the need to import fossil fuels, and avoid the health hazards and greenhouse gas emissions that come from burning fossil fuels.

The Earth Day website provides toolkits, fact sheets, sample petitions and press releases, and guidelines with samples prayers and sermons for faith communities. A map of Earth Day events around the world can be filtered by “faith,” so you can locate an action near you or post one that you are organizing. For Earth Day events sponsored by other Third Act Working Groups, visit thirdact.org/working-groups/events.

Also focusing on renewable energy, Creation Justice Ministries will host an Earth Day prayer service based on their 2025 resource, The Power of God: From Extractive Theology to Transformative Faith. Held online on April 22 at 10:00 AM PT / 1:00 PM ET, the service will lead participants into a time of prayer and reflection, centered around seven original pieces of music produced for the resource. Register here.

Sustainable Woodstock is hosting an Earth Day conversation with advocate and activist Rev. Mariama White-Hammond on Wednesday, April 23 at 3:00 PM PT / 6:00 PM ET on Zoom. Pastor and Founder of the New Roots AME Church in Dorchester, MA, Rev. White-Hammond is former Chief of Energy, Environment and Open Space for the City of Boston. Read more about her and register for this virtual presentation with Q&A online.

In addition the United Church of Christ will hold its Annual UCC Earth Day Summit  on Saturday, April 26, on Zoom, from 11:00-2:00 PM PT / 2:00-5:00 PM ET. The Jim Antal Keynote Lecture (named for TAF member Rev. Dr. Jim Antal)  will be delivered by Katharine Hayhoe, one of the world’s leading climate scientists and an evangelical Christian. Dr. Hayhoe will be joined by a panel of frontline grassroots leaders. Learn more and register here.

Faith communities can also search these websites, which include Earth Day resources, including those from past years:

• Creation Justice Ministries offers resources to help Christian congregations observe Earth Day in worship and through the life of your church.
• United Methodist Creation Justice Tips for April include ways to show love of God by loving earth, and can be shared in church newsletters, bulletins, or social media and in your personal communications.
• Interfaith Power & Light has a map for climate action events through the month of April, and resources from previous years.
• For additional religious events, visit One Earth Sangha or the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology.

by Jim Antal, TAF Coordinating Committee Member

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.           – Joshua 1:9

For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.          – Esther 4:14 

PERHAPS YOU AND I HAVE BEEN CALLED for just such a time as this—called as humble yet bold emissaries of God’s truth at a time when history itself is swinging on a hinge. Perhaps you and I and the congregations of which we may be a part have been given everything we need to engage the hydra-headed polycrisis as we recognize the interplay between (at least) the climate crisis; the abandonment of truth, science, and history in favor of alternative facts and conspiracy theories; the ascendency of white Christian nationalism; and the rise of authoritarian plutocratic leadership.¹ 

These crises are not accidental. They are driven by values. 

As people of faith, we too are driven by values. While we gather in congregations to worship, we also gather in congregations to strengthen our values and rededicate our lives to witnessing to our values. 

The recent election has triggered both fear and grief in many of us as we watch the powerful, plutocratic purveyors of the polycrisis assume positions of political leadership. But if we have been called to just such a time as this, we would do well to embrace both fear and grief as unexpected and perhaps unfamiliar allies. We can welcome as our guides Gen Y climate activists like Greta Thunberg, who reminds us that once we start to act, hope is everywhere. Preachers can draw upon sources like Brian McLaren’s Life After Doom and Britt Wray’s Generation Dread to fashion sermons that offer wisdom and guidance.

Let us not forget the poet’s reminder: “In a dark time, the eye begins to see.”

Sixty-two years ago, that courageous champion of justice and harbinger of hope Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded us of “the fierce urgency of NOW.”  Whether under Eisenhower, Kennedy, or Johnson, King was clear that America needed “a revolution in moral values.”  In keeping with Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who railed against those who would “abort their conscience,” and following King, who “refused to segregate his conscience,” now is the time for people of faith to amplify the call of conscience as never before.

AS WE SEEK TO BE ATTENTIVE TO GOD’S CALL in a time such as this, we must provide one another with the selfless courage and abundant joy that is ours when we join with others to safeguard God’s creation, the least of these among us, and democracy itself. Rarely can this work be done by people acting on their own. As both Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe remind us: we need to stop acting as individuals.

That leads to the role—the vocation—of the congregation in a time such as this.

Yes, the role—the vocation—of the congregation, if it seeks to be faithful, must be responsive to major changes in its neighborhood, its country, and in the world. While worship attendance in America has dropped precipitously over the past few decades,² it remains the case that about 24% of Americans attend worship at least once a week. That’s an enormous number. It took only 10% of Americans showing up in the various actions and teach-ins of the first Earth Day in 1970 to prompt Congress to create the Environmental Protection Agency and pass the Clean Air Act; and two years later, pass the Clean Water Act; and a year after that, pass the Endangered Species Act.  

So, on any given weekend, 24% of Americans can be found in worship, seated alongside neighbors with whom they sing from the same hymnal and listen to the same sermons. 

IMAGINE IF ONLY HALF OF THOSE CONGREGATIONS were to hear regularly from their pulpit—in prayers and in sermons—how the climate crisis threatens everything they care about—everything they love—along with an invitation to gather after worship to join with others to take action in response to just one of the ways the climate crisis is impacting their particular neighborhood. 

Imagine if only half of those congregations added to their worship service a monthly opportunity for a member of the congregation to offer a brief testimony in which they shared how they or their family recently took action to address the climate crisis, and why they were motivated to do so out of love. ³

Imagine if only half of those congregations convened an adult education forum in which they learned that for many of them, their most significant contribution to the climate crisis is their choice of where they do their banking, and where their congregation does its banking, and how they could choose more climate friendly alternatives. ⁴

Imagine if only half of those congregations were to discard their vague understanding of hope as optimism and replace it with an embrace of hope that takes the form of courage; hope that is grounded in truth; hope that comes to life through collective action; hope that emerges when we resist injustice; hope that propels us to confront the powers and principalities; hope that allows us to give ourselves to a future of a just, livable world at peace.

Imagine if only half of those congregations, recognizing God’s call to people of faith to safeguard creation, the least of these among us and democracy itself, set aside “business as usual” and began to contact the White House and their members of Congress—as well as their state and local political representatives and leaders—to advocate for policies and bills that are consistent with God’s call to restore creation and uphold the Golden Rule.

Imagine if only half of those congregations—in their prayers and in their sermons—paid as much attention to collective salvation as they do to personal salvation. Imagine if those congregations were to align themselves with the prophets and seek to reinvent the social order, beginning with their town and community. Imagine if those congregations and their leaders met this moment by supporting, reinforcing and, when necessary, challenging their local and regional leaders to make their communities more resilient (Tikkun Olam), beginning with addressing the various injustices visited upon people of color, indigenous communities, and poor white communities.

AS MANY HAVE RECOGNIZED AND HISTORY CONFIRMS, religion is the most powerful force on earth. David Brooks suggests that for people of faith, religion is the “means” by which many people make awe and wonder part of our lives. 

I would add that religion can be the means by which we rightly recognize God’s role as creator and humanity’s role as responsible stewards; that religion can be the means by which we recognize our interdependence with all of creation, and that religion can be the means by which our conscience incorporates justice, truth, hospitality, and integrity into our lives and our life together. 

It is long past time that people of faith accept God’s call to stop humanity from running Genesis in reverse. Let us welcome this Kairos moment as an opportunity for congregations to embrace a new vocation. 

God’s call to protect creation is at the core of our vocation as people of faith. As countries throughout the world anxiously await headlines that detail how the Trump administration plans to roll out its demolition of environmental protection, let congregations throughout the United States receive God’s call to protect creation as they joyfully engage new liturgical practices and courageously undertake community acts of witness that are truth telling, justice seeking, and creation restoring.

FOOTNOTES:

About Jim Antal

Rev. Dr. Jim Antal serves as Special Advisor on Climate Justice to the General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ. Antal’s 2023 book, Climate Church, Climate World (Revised and Updated), is being read by hundreds of churches. From 2006-2018, Antal led the 350 UCC churches in Massachusetts as their Conference Minister and President. He has preached on climate change since 1988 in over 400 settings and has engaged in non-violent civil disobedience on numerous occasions.

AS WE ENTER THE DARK DAYS OF WINTER, many of us feel like we are living through a dark time as well. But as Kamala Harris said in her concession speech, “Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.” Our General Meeting on December 17 featured contemplative readings and music, along with periods of silence, to help us welcome the blessings of darkness. You can view a recording of the service on our YouTube Channel.

With the longest night of the year right around the corner, the gathering welcomed the darkness. Just as surely as our bodies need the night’s rest, the Earth needs this dormant period of winter. In the months when our part of the Earth is tipped away from the Sun, seeds lie beneath the ground, awaiting the warmth of spring. Trees stand bare, flowers die away, and grasses stop growing. In the midst of this drab season, evergreens remind us that this time is not about death, but is simply a different phase of life, as the Earth cycles round to a season when nature will again flourish with new life.

These winter days invite us to embrace the darkness and to balance our activism with rest and quiet reflection. In our winter celebrations, we engage the wisdom of ancestors through stories of how they survived difficulty. Through rituals of light, we look for signs of hope that, like the evergreens, promise a resurgence of life to come.

THE GATHERING OPENED WITH  Morten Lauridsen’s beautiful song, “Sure on this Shining Night,” after which TAF co-facilitator Betsy Bennett greeted participants and welcomed the evening, using the traditional Jewish prayer Ma’ariv Aravim, “the God who brings on evening.”

The songs “Dark of Winter” and “O Beautiful Darkness” were paired with A Winter Prayer, by Joyce Rupp, to help us recognize that along with nature, “we are … terminal buds waiting in repose, to be energized in our vigilant dormancy.” May Sarton’s poem “The Invocation to Kali” reminded us that destruction and creation, death and birth all occur in darkness. The contemplative service closed with Irish priest and poet John O’Donahue’s blessing “For Light.”

Breakout groups considered questions about both darkness and light:

• Question #1: What causes you fear or stress in this dark time? How can you use the darkness to prepare for what comes next?
• Question #2: Where do you find light? How could you share light with others?

Following breakout groups, participants shared their appreciation of darkness and of silence as places of rest. Others noted the importance of working with others, and that they find light in community and in being outdoors, echoing Kamala Harris’s observation that the deep darkness makes the stars appear even more brilliant. Some named books that help them through difficulties, some of which are on our Reading List for Difficult Times. One person described their conversation as a group hug, despite it being mediated by technology over great distances.

The evening closed with Jan Richardson’s poem “Where the Light Begins” and a musical setting of the poem by Susan LaBarr, as we concluded our time of conversation, while continuing to move towards healing for ourselves and our broken world.

View the recorded service on our YouTube Channel. 

For more reflections on darkness and light, see the recent “Going Deep” essay by TAF co-facilitator Betsy Bennett, and a reflection by TAF member Jane Ellen Nickell in our News & Views newsletter in December 2022. 

Learning to Walk in the Dark: Because Sometimes God Shows up at Night
By Barbara Brown Taylor
Drawing on her own experience, Barbara Brown Taylor describes how we learn to fear the dark and encourages us to explore the gifts of darkness, where we may have some of our most profound spiritual experiences. Her insights can guide us through these challenging times, where we may find unexpected blessings and deepen our encounters with God, each other, and ourselves.
—Jane Ellen Nickell

Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth
By Debra Rienstra
Learn how communities of faith – particularly smaller ones – can name and embrace their gifts in ways that strengthen their resilience and help them engage in meaningful ministry amidst cultural and planetary upheaval.
—Jim Antal

Life after Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart
By Brian McLaren
Brian McLaren shows us how to face the worst outcomes of climate catastrophe and emerge fiercely defiant, brave and kind. A must read for anyone seeking to live faithfully.
—Jim Antal

Night Magic
By Leigh Ann Henion
In order to “know the night with greater intimacy,” nature writer Leigh Ann Henion takes us on hikes through mountain, woods and ponds, to see salamanders crossing rural roads to return to mating streams, glowworms under leaf mold, and moths disoriented by artificial light. Her book is a wake-up call to push back against the ever-increasing light pollution that endangers their lives.
— Mary Johnson

Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred
By Victoria Loorz
Finding solace in nature is an antidote for our difficult times. With an eco-spiritual lens on biblical narratives and a fresh look at a community larger than our own species, Victoria Loorz uncovers the wild roots of faith and helps us deepen our commitment to a suffering earth by falling in love with it—and calling it church.
— Ruah Swennerfelt

Sacred Earth Sacred Soul: Celtic Wisdom for Reawakening to What Our Souls Know and Healing the World
By John Philip Newell
In these difficult times and as we enter the darkness of the winter solstice, we are helped by John Phillip Newell as he explores  how Celtic spirituality—listening to the sacred around us and inside of us—can help us heal the earth, overcome our conflicts, and reconnect with ourselves.
— Ruah Swennerfelt

Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures
By Katherine Rundell
This is the perfect book to read in the aftermath of a planet-threatening election. In times like these, terror and rage will carry us only so far. We will also need unstinting, unceasing love. For the hard work that lies ahead, Ms. Rundell writes, “Our competent and furious love will have to be what fuels us.” This is a book to help you fall in love.
—Margaret Renkl, The New York Times, 11/18/24

How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days
By Kari Leibowitz
If you long for the same kind of happiness a snowy day gave you as a kid, “How to Winter” will help you recapture that feeling. If you need a cold weather mood-booster, that’s here, too.
— Terri Schlichenmeyer, “The Bookworm”

by Betsy Bennett

MANY YEARS AGO WHEN WE HAD YOUNG READERS in our household, one of the HarperCollins “I Can Read” books called The Drinking Gourd was part of our family book collection. The story of two families — a white Quaker family and a Black family that had been enslaved and was trying to get to Canada — introduced children to the history of the Underground Railroad. The title of the book referred, of course, to the Big Dipper, which points the way to the North Star that could orient people and help them find their way to the northern states and Canada. In a perilous situation, the stars pointed the way, as they can whenever people cross unfamiliar terrain or sail on open water.

In the days after the November 5 election, I became viscerally aware of the perilous situation we are in as a nation. With many of the guardrails and guideposts of our system seeming suddenly to be gone, I felt disoriented.

My disorientation brought to mind an image from Psalm 107 of “wandering in a trackless waste.” In the Psalm, God makes princes who have oppressed people “wander in trackless wastes”. Right now in the U. S., though, it feels like the oppressive princes are just fine. It’s the rest of us who wander in the trackless waste of our political and societal landscape.

When so many of the incoming administrations’s proposed policies and appointments call for our attention, where do we focus?

What terrifies me most is the expected reversal of our gains in mitigating climate change. Looking at what’s already happening to the Earth’s climate — and what probably lies ahead — brings on true existential anguish and profound grief. Humankind will live — or not — for generations with the overheated, unstable climate the American people chose by electing a climate-change-denying President.

But climate change isn’t the only issue. Whole groups of people now fear for their immediate security and survival: undocumented immigrants — and documented ones who can easily get caught up in large-scale deportations; people in the the LGBTQ+ community; women and girls; disabled people; people with a variety of ethnic, racial, and religious identities; journalists; writers and artists; and all those condemned as “less than” by those coming into power.

So where do we direct our attention? When everything looks uncertain, what do we try to stabilize first? When the landscape and terrain are unfamiliar, what is left to guide us?

The stars shining in the December night skies remind us to look for guiding stars in the deep darkness. Truth is our guiding star.

When we can’t immediately see the truth, this can sound too abstract; using truth as a guide may not sound very helpful. But if we are intentional about seeking the truth and holding onto it by spending some time in contemplation once we glimpse it, it becomes clear enough to serve us well.

“Believe in truth” is one of the lessons from the twentieth century that can help us resist authoritarianism, writes Timothy Snyder in his book On Tyranny. Following the work of Victor Klemperer, Snyder says truth can die through propaganda and repetition of lies. Part of our practice of seeking the truth and witnessing to it is being aware of these methods of obscuring the truth, and being vigilant in the way we hear what is being said and in what we ourselves say.

ELECTION DAY CAME JUST AFTER THE HALFWAY POINT between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice. Ancient Celts observed this halfway point as Samhain. Many branches of Christianity celebrate it as All Saints Day. Most of us know this point — where we turn from the lightest part of the Northern Hemisphere’s year to the darkest part — as Halloween.

As we Third Actors entered the ever darkening weeks between November 1 and the Winter Solstice, it felt as if we were also entering a dark period of our history — one whose duration and depth of darkness we could not yet know.

For people of many faiths, the days of the year with the least daylight are made rich with meaning through celebrations that come around the time of the Winter Solstice. Along with our sacred stories, we have candles, lights, gift-giving, and special meals and social gatherings to help us to live meaningfully and even joyfully in the dark chilly days of December. Our celebrations and religious practices don’t make the hours of darkness any shorter, but they can make it easier to bear these colder days when the sunlight is low and short in duration.

One of the Scripture readings for Christians during Christmastide is John 1:1-18, known as the Prologue to John. It speaks not of the infant Jesus but of Christ as the primordial Word through which all things came into being. “What has come into being in him was life,” writes John, “and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” It is, of course, the very nature of light to overcome darkness, as darkness is simply the absence of light.

As we go toward the Winter Solstice, some of us are grieving, some of us are anxious, some of us are stunned, and some of us are angry and ready to get to work.

WHEN OUR THIRD ACT FAITH COORDINATING COMMITTEE MET on November 6, the consensus was that we needed some time to grieve and get a better sense of what the next administration is planning before we decide on our focus for the future. We need to see what Third Act Central is prioritizing so we can discern how people of faith might best be able to support that work. Our work in the coming months, whatever that looks like, will reflect not only these realities, but also the synthesis of what individual members of Third Act Faith see as our own call at this time.

Whatever the work of Third Act Faith in the years ahead looks like, our light in the darkness will be truth — the light common to all the world’s great faiths. Just as the darkness cannot overcome light, the lies about people and science and basic facts cannot overcome the truth.

I’M FEELING A CALL TO BE SOME SORT OF WITNESS TO THE TRUTH in speaking and writing, in praying and preaching. To that end, I’m intentionally bringing the reality of the climate crisis to mind each day. Choosing to ignore the reality and let extreme global warming happen doesn’t seem like a faithful option. Others who feel called to engage in traditional political action and protest will be bringing the light of truth into the darkness through public actions. Those who quietly give money to organizations and candidates whose purpose is to protect the lives of other people and of other species will be putting their money on the light of truth being more powerful than the darkness of lies. No matter what form our work takes, discerning what is true — and consciously keeping the truth before us — must be at the core of all we do. It will both orient us and strengthen us.

At our age, we elders have wisdom resulting from lots of experience in distinguishing truth from lies and nonsense. For many of us, retirement has freed us to speak and act more openly. And we are way past the stage of needing to impress others or trying to fit in! Members of Third Act Faith also have a foundation of religious teachings and spiritual practices of which seeking and speaking truth are an integral part.

Despite our initial disorientation, we are perhaps more ready for the work ahead on behalf of our democracy and our climate than ever before. When we feel lost in the darkness of threats and lies and abuses of power, we have the light of truth to guide us — and the company of others who also bear the light of truth — to help us see clearly and support one another as we find our way.

About Betsy Bennett

The Rev. Betsy Bennett is one of the co-facilitators of Third Act Faith. Retired from serving as Archdeacon of the Episcopal Diocese of Nebraska and teaching philosophy at Hastings College, Betsy teaches courses in creation care and diaconal ministry at The Bishop Kemper School for Ministry. She enjoys traveling with her spouse, visiting their children and grandchildren, watching birds, and writing at Connected Passages on Substack.

The weeks and months leading to this election have been anxious, to say the least, and Donald Trump’s re-election increases that anxiety for a large portion of the voters, especially those of us who care about the climate crisis and the rapidly closing window in which we can avert catastrophe.

As we consider the role of faith in this challenging moment, we should remind ourselves that faith communities can still be people of hope, no matter the election results. Even in an election such as this, hope should not be lost, even if opportunity is. But we may have to dig deep to find it.

It helps to distinguish between optimism and hope. Optimism is the expectation that such goodness is right around the corner. Hope contains a determined conviction that the world can be better, good, and just, and that we can be better, good, and just, even if it’s not right around the corner.

Or, as Vaclav Havel writes:

Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

This is not to say that a prevailing November vote for bigotry and selfishness will someday prove good or is somehow God’s will in the moment. What always makes sense though, is persistent love and the fight for justice. Determined hope does not rely on how things turn out but rather upon what is right. This means we don’t do what we do only in the expectation that it will work. We do it because it is right. Doing right always makes sense, not just in a practical, human management sense, but because doing right and practicing love make sense all the time and everywhere.

This has always been the wisdom of religious traditions with long experience. The Psalms are masterful in joining lament with hope:

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God. (Psalm 42:11)

Buddhist Joanna Macy writes in her book, Active Hope:

Active Hope is about becoming active participants in bringing about what we hope for. Active Hope is a practice. Like tai chi or gardening, it is something we do, rather than have.

Wisdom, wit, and courage always matter in the moment, whether big or small. We humans, wrapped in ignorance as we often are, cannot really grasp the import of our actions in the moments we take them. We can’t tell if a moment will actually become big or small. Thus, love, as that in which we place our hope, always makes sense no matter the moment. To act in love is to act with hope.

So how does this apply to this critical moment of opportunity and political crisis? How then should we hope?  Even if our optimism gets crushed in the moment, our hope need not be. Various moments, fleeting as they are, do not determine what makes sense in life. Our faith does. Even if this election ushers in a dark and violent season, our hope can remain fundamentally unchanged. We can still get up and do what we have always done – that which is loving, wise, savvy, and just. In the moment, no matter the moment. We can practice Active Hope.

Should we seek to capitalize on moments of opportunity and turning points of change? Yes, that too is what hope does. And how do we do that? For concrete examples of active hope, we need look no further than our guest speakers at TAF General Meetings over the past year.

When we spoke with Katharine Hayhoe in November 2023, she spoke directly to the importance of hopeful action when we become discouraged, saying, “Anxiety, grief, despair are natural, rational emotions, but the question is, what do we do with that? Do we use those to fuel our determination to fight for a better future out of love, and to bring other people to that fight with us?…I’m convinced that together we can do it, but we can’t do it if we stay stuck in paralyzing anxiety.”

Instead, she said, we should engage in the ​​positive feedback cycle of action and hope: action breeds hope, hope breeds action. She also reminded us that we don’t need hope when things are going great, but that hope comes out of suffering, and the worse things get, the more we need it. Hope, she said, “recognizes that we’re in a bad place, and…that there is a better future possible. What hope does is connect where we are to that better future, and it shows us what we can do to move along that path.”

Speaking directly to concerns about the presidential election, she reminded us that 99.9% of elected officials in this country serve at the local, county, and state level, not the federal. Many of those officials control energy decisions, and so working with such officials, particularly those we may even know personally, is hopeful action. It is hopeful action to move toward climate solutions from the ground up, wisely keeping in mind what Hayhoe said, that the federal level may be the last to change.

In addressing our polarization, the religious leaders who led a preaching workshop in August 2024 suggested that congregations are among the few places where people gather around common beliefs, although they might hold different political views. If appropriate, your congregation could provide space for conversations that can help us move forward together, while providing guidance and parameters that guarantee safety for anyone who chooses to take part. Speaking at our September 2024 meeting, George Lakey said we cannot learn to handle conflict by avoiding it.

Each of us must respond to this moment as we are led, recognizing that we are in different places, spiritually, emotionally, and geographically. Third Act and Third Act Faith remain committed to fighting for climate and democracy, even in the face of obstacles emerging from this election. Because that is what hope does. As George Lakey put it, “We’re in it together, and we can do together what we cannot do alone.”

AT OUR SEPTEMBER GENERAL MEETING, QUAKER ACTIVIST and author George Lakey brought a lighthearted tone and infectious laugh to a serious topic: his 60-year fight for peace and justice spanning the Civil Rights movement, anti-war efforts during the 1960s, and more recent campaigns with Earth Quaker Action Team. George shared insights gleaned from this work, his Quaker faith, and his training as a sociologist – among them the importance of having a vision of the transformation you seek, and the need for being patient with the often slow pace of social change.

George learned the value of community early, he told us, when he and fellow peace activists felt called to sail a boat into South Vietnam with medical supplies for hospitals treating civilian victims of the Vietnam War. George consulted his Quaker community about the wisdom of putting his own life in danger this way when he had three young children depending on him. But his community affirmed that God was calling him to go, and they committed to care for his family if anything happened to him.

He described being beaten up multiple times and being confronted at knifepoint after “street speaking” against the war, using the incidents to show us the importance of teamwork, and explained how they reinforced his commitment to remain nonviolent. “Each time that I remember to remain nonviolent when I’m threatened, it strengthens me, it gives me power, and it builds in my own subconscious a kind of track record of memory and belief in myself, such that I can take on the next thing,” he told us.

He talked about the polarization our country is experiencing, and encouraged listeners to not fear conflict. “We never learn to do conflict well by avoiding it,” he pointed out, adding that this was a lesson he learned from his piano teacher, who said, “You’ll never learn to play the piano well by avoiding practice.” In addressing conflict, it is not necessary to engage with those who are most opposed to you, he explained, telling us to instead approach people in the middle – those who are “undecided, or are timid and cowed by the situation…and try to win them over to support you.”

THE BIGGEST PROFESSIONAL MISTAKE HE MADE as a sociologist, he went on, was thinking of polarization as a negative social factor that would inhibit progress. That idea was challenged when he studied the social progress achieved in Scandinavian countries, and learned that the advances had emerged a century ago when Nazis were marching in the streets and Scandinavian countries were in turmoil. Our own country made similar progress in the 1930s and 1960s, he reminded us – also times of social unrest.

George said he found the key to this apparent contradiction when visiting a Quaker sculptor in England. The artist showed him the forge where he heats the metal to the point that he can transform it into whatever shape he wants, and that was George’s “aha moment.”

“Man, you saved my brain,” he told the sculptor. “That’s the metaphor I’ve needed! Polarization is a blacksmith forge, heating a society and making it possible for people to make major advances that they in other periods of time cannot make. Whoa!”

George documents that revelation in his book Viking Economics and warns that polarization in our country may increase in coming years. Yet he is hopeful that such conflict will ultimately lead to progress, as it did in Scandinavia. Still he cautions that successful social movements need a vision of the society they want to see, and cannot just complain about what they don’t like.

DURING THE Q&A PERIOD FOLLOWING THE TALK, a participant asked George about the difficulty of changing large capitalist institutions such as the banks that Third Act targeted on 3.21.23 and Summer of Heat. In his response, George stressed the importance of choosing a target that is winnable. He recounted the efforts of the Earth Quaker Action Team, which he co-founded, to lobby PNC Bank to stop funding mountaintop-removal coal mining. They started small, sitting on the lobby floor and worshiping in a few banks in one state, then expanded until they were holding simultaneous worship at banks in 13 states. They also disrupted a shareholder meeting by holding their own meeting at the same time and place, having purchased enough shares to be there. The effort took five years, but eventually PNC agreed to stop funding the destructive mining practice.

At a time when many people fear for the future of our country, listeners were buoyed by George’s optimism born of long experience and his analysis about the slow pace of change. As he reminded us in his closing words, “We’re in it together, and we can do together what we can’t do alone.”

To hear George describe these experiences in his joyful, engaging way – including how bank managers responded to Quakers worshiping in their bank lobbies and what PNC shareholders did when demonstrators began to sing “This Little Light of Mine” – listen to the recording of the full meeting on our YouTube channel.

In an excerpt from George’s memoir, Dancing with History: A Life for Peace and Justice, read how George describes the obstacles he and other activists encountered when they sailed into a war zone with medical aid during the Vietnam War. A documentary about his life is due out in November.

By Jessica McArdle, TAF Coordinating Committee Member

“How will we be as a society…as a human family amid so many crises?  The process by which we answer that question is called politics because it involves the ‘polis’- the people, the community.  It is a process that requires an honest and authentic wrestling with who we understand as people of God living in a broken, complicated world that we share and the other-than-human inhabitants of this earth.   “…Imagine if we saw what Moses saw, the burning bush, where the voice of God could help us think through all the political issues of our day.”
   – Rev. Dr. Leah Schade, Preaching in the Purple Zone: Ministry in the Red-Blue Divide

YEARS AGO, IF YOU HAD TOLD ME THAT THE BIBLE is not just obliquely political but overtly so, I would have dismissed such a comment as sacrilege. How could the Bible, the divinely inspired Word of God, be consigned to something as denigrating as politics, which can be messy, misused, and misguided? How could one even suggest that there is anything remotely political in the Bible, or religion itself, for that matter?

That is, until I came across this quote from early twentieth-century writer and theologian Karl Barth: “We must hold the Bible in one hand, and the newspaper in the other.” The activist within Barth was clear that faith is more than a private affair. Faith at its best lives in community, however messy, misused, and misguided that community can sometimes be.

This brings us to this largely misunderstood word: politics. The Rev. Dr. Leah Schade,  who teaches at Lexington Theological Seminary in Kentucky, advises using alternatives, given how loaded the word “politics” is.  So we might ask, “how are we to live in community, given that we are charged to love our neighbors as ourselves?”

It shouldn’t surprise us that the most consequential verse in the Bible isn’t John 3:16, which primarily focuses on personal salvation, but rather the one echoed across religious traditions: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” It is love of neighbor that brings faith to the public square. It is in love of neighbor that religion moves from mere personal piety to social and ecological justice. And it is love of neighbor that, while costly, becomes a source of grace and hope for those unjustly denied God’s providence and mercy. While Jesus condensed the entire breadth of the Law handed down to Moses by joining love of God with love of neighbor, the second part of this commandment expands and makes the implications of faith genuine. This commandment carries the full scope of God’s radical and wholly inclusive love, which holds profound political implications.

Dr. Obery M. Hendricks, Jr., a lifelong social activist and one of the foremost commentators on the intersection of religion and political economy in America, says, “We’re not talking about partisan politics. Politics is about distribution, the distribution of wealth and the necessity of health and well-being, a politics that ushers in structural change.” Returning to Leah Schade’s question, it asks, “[As those charged to love our neighbors as ourselves], how are we to live in community?”

Politics ushers in structural change, so voting is a civic responsibility, sacred right, and holy obligation. Those who claim to be committed to the salvation of a person’s soul but enact unjust laws that obstruct citizens from exercising their civic responsibility and sacred right are not only condescending but contemptible. To speak of being a “person of faith” but engage in such malfeasance is the worst kind of lie.

Voting is a three-fold calling. It’s spoken of as a constitutional right, but conferring the right to vote on all citizens of these United States came – and comes still – at a terrible price.  The voices of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and Thomas Garrett join with the likes of John Lewis, Martin Luther King, Fannie Lou Hamer, and seminarian Jonathan Daniels, who even now attest to the struggle for full participation in civic life, and the necessity to have every citizen’s voice heard, and every vote count.

To vote is also a sacred right. In a TAF essay, Rev. Dr. Jim Antal, advisor on climate justice to the UCC’s general minister and president, writes, “Voting is about what matters and who counts.” It is groundbreaking and astonishingly inclusive, an intrinsic affirmation of human dignity and agency.  Quoting Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock, “Democracy is a political enactment of a spiritual idea…: [t]he sacred worth of all human beings, the notion that we have within us, a spark of the divine, to participate in shaping our destiny.”

To vote is also a holy obligation. As citizens and “sparks of the divine,” we have a holy imperative to commit ourselves to this task. To say, “Oh, I don’t have the time to vote,” “my vote doesn’t matter” or “I can’t vote because I don’t know enough about the candidate(s)” is not only a rebuke of those who struggled or lost their lives so you would have this right, it is to defy the holiest of commandments, which is to love one’s neighbor as one’s self. “What you want for your neighbor is what you would want for yourself,” says Dr. Hendricks, “the same freedom from poverty. The same freedom from injustice.  Yet loving your neighbor in this manner is a commandment that far too many [people who profess to be Christians] ignore.”

I CONSIDER THIS WHEN REFLECTION ON Rabbi Stephanie Kolin’s observation that “The voting booth is particularly holy ground.”  This is an astonishing pronouncement, considering the voting booth may appear to be the farthest removed from anything remotely holy. Voting booths are found in places not at all related to religion: school auditoriums or gymnasiums, civic centers, libraries and city halls. Yet the voting booth is ground zero when making consequential choices.  It is the hallmark of a democracy.

Kolin says the voting booth is holy ground because, on Election Day, ordinary people can pull the levers and speak truth to power. Unyielding behemoths, be they fossil fuel giants, chemical companies, Big Pharma or politicians – who don’t give a damn about the havoc their actions and policies are wrecking upon current and future generations – have to answer to school teachers, custodians, the unemployed and retirees trying to live off Social Security checks. They have to respond to the Black family whose apartment abuts a chemical plant and the diabetic who can’t afford the insulin he needs to survive. They have to answer to the homeless veteran who can’t afford to have a roof over her head and the Hispanic mother of a seven-year-old in the inner city who has acute asthma due to poor air quality.

What makes voting a civic responsibility, a sacred right, and a holy obligation is what the writer and theologian Walter Wink wrote of when laying the groundwork for practical non-violence: voting involves neither passivity nor resorting to violence. It echoes the teaching and activism of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mohandas Gandhi, who sought the means for transforming relationships through the peaceful transfer of power. Yet, in particular, it affirms what long-time activist and elder George Lakey wrote of in his book How We Win: A Guide to Non-Violent Direct Action:

We are not dealing with a fad or temporary trend…For decades after World War II, white male inequality in the United States was relatively low, and governance was largely bi-partisan in spirit. Our politics began to polarize at the same time as income inequality began to grow…[As studies show]. For example, the number and wealth of billionaires surged in 2017, and it’s not just a United States problem…Their combined wealth totals over three times the United Kingdom’s gross domestic product. The Children’s Defense Fund estimates that three million children in America live in families and survive on less than two dollars per day per person. The federal tax bill passed in January 2018 (under the Trump administration) increases inequality, adding more fuel to the fire.

As the November election approaches, one of the two people campaigning for the 2024 presidency, poses the greatest threat our nation has ever faced. When Republican Liz Cheney, who was Vice-Chair of the House Select Committee for the January 6 attack on the US capital, was asked about the fitness of the candidates running for this office, she replied, “There is only one stable adult in this race.” Coupled with critical races for the Senate and the House, our nation’s stakes couldn’t be higher.

Imagine if, in the swirl of our nation’s and world’s polarization and fragmentation, we perceived what Moses saw: a blazing bush that was not consumed. When Moses witnessed this, he turned aside to see why the bush was not burned up. And it was then that the Divine intervened, informing Moses that he was standing on holy ground. The time had come to pull the levers and speak truth to power.

The time has come for us as well. Vote as if your life depended on it. For indeed it does.

About Jessica McArdle

An ordained minister with the United Church of Christ, Rev. Dr. Jessica McArdle, has served on the Southern New England UCC’s Environmental Ministries Team for several years. Earlier this year, Jessica turned her attention to helping churches and other coalitions get out the vote for the critical 2024 election. She is active with Third Act Faith and the Environmental Voter’s Project. She posts at thespiritualactivist.blog.

As we approach one of the most consequential elections in history, Third Act Faith hosted an interfaith workshop on preaching an election sermon, led by Rev. Dr. Jim Antal, Rabbi Stephanie Kolin, and Imam Jamal Rahman.  A video of this online workshop is available on the Third Act Faith YouTube channel.

In his introductory remarks, Rev. Antal, a member of the TAF Coordinating Committee, noted that trusted religious leaders have offered election sermons since 1634, in order to reflect on the moral qualifications of those running for office. Many clergy are hesitant about doing that now, fearing they will violate IRS regulations against endorsing particular parties or candidates.

But the ban on such partisan actions does not preclude discussion of politics, which the panelists described as the way we order our life together. As Rev. Antal said, “Engaging public life is as important as any purpose of the church, the synagogue, or the mosque….I think that one of our responsibilities as clergy is to help shape our life together, as a community, as a nation, and as a world.”

In describing the importance of justice in the Jewish tradition, Rabbi Kolin said that Jews are not allowed to pray in a sanctuary without windows so that they are aware of the needs of the outside world. Prayer shouldn’t draw us inward, but outward and upward and towards other people, she said. “Politics and the public square, and prayer and ritual are not so different, if through all of them we’re meant to be thinking about how we take care of each other.”

Citing the Islamic scholar and poet Rumi, Imam Rahman echoed that idea, saying that Muslims around the world form a circle as they bow in prayer, but they must also be of service to each other. “Be a lamp, a lifeboat, or a ladder to others,” Rahman said. “Voting is an act of service to others.”

All three religious leaders noted that congregations offer space where people of different political beliefs and parties can come together to find common ground. In over twenty years of working with a rabbi and a Lutheran pastor as the “Interfaith Amigos,” Imam Rahman said the three have learned that the best way to overcome polarization is to get to know each other.

Noting the unique place of sanctuaries at a time when media and political parties are amplifying ideological differences, Rev. Antal said, “An election sermon can remind our congregants that chief among our many concerns–as people of faith–is our concern for the common good.”

Reports from the breakout conversations also emphasized the importance of loving neighbors, including those with different political beliefs. By creating safe space that is lacking in other parts of society and drawing on their sacred scriptures, congregations can make a huge difference in how American culture navigates the coming months and years.

The panelists and participants offered some specific suggestions for preaching election sermons and for individual actions. Asked to share a relevant scripture passage, Rabbi Kolin offered Numbers 27:1-11, a story about how the daughters of Zelophehad challenged Moses and other leaders to deal fairly with them after their father died. Imam Rahman cited several passages, including a caution to consult your own heart, no matter what religious authorities say, which is mentioned 132 times in the Qur’an.

Rev. Antal compiled a list of resources for preaching an election sermon. He will also be taking part in another panel on Tuesday, October 1, at 4:00 PM CT/7:00 PM ET, discussing “Politics, the Media, and the Church’s Role in Truth-Telling in an Election Season.” Details and the registration link are on the website for the Wisconsin Council of Churches and the Clergy Emergency League, which is sponsoring the event.

Finally, workshop participants were encouraged to compare party platforms and candidates’ positions to specific religious texts or values that they hold dear. Rev. Antal offered a list of moral principles that most religions embrace: addressing the needs of the least of these among us, assuring and advancing justice, promoting the common good, telling and adhering to truth, and preserving and restoring the integrity of creation. These could form the core of an election sermon, and they provide clear guidance to all of us as we prepare to cast our votes in November.

You can also read articles by Rev. Antal on preaching an election sermon and on the sacred right to vote.