Organizing for Environmental Justice

On Saturday, 70 people came out to Broad & Washington to be inspired by Lisa Sharon Harper—Director of Mobilizing for Sojourners—to organize for environmental justice. Lisa explained that environmental justice is beyond just caring for creation. It is mobilizing for clean air, water, and land for everyone, not just those who can afford to live wherever they want to. She explained that in the United States, the poor consistently live in areas that contain higher rates of environmental toxins and less access to fresh food, resulting in lower life spans and more disease.

In the face of this racist and classist policy, Lisa encouraged us with evidence that people of faith are fighting for change. Our work with the Land Bank Bill here in Philadelphia is evidence of that change. Lisa helped us to identify "core spiritual lies" that keep people accepting of the status quo here in Philadelphia. Some of the lies that groups identified included "affluent people deserve better" and "without a commitment to profit we won't survive" and "it doesn't matter what I do—I'm too small to change the system." Lisa said that if we can confront spiritual lies with spiritual truth, we can unlock a movement. She gave us spiritual truth to stand on from the Bible that is confirmed by the movement of the Holy Spirit among us. Reporting: Rachel Sensenig

Multiplayer Mode

Joining the international fundraising efforts of Extra Life for the first time, Circle of Hope Marlton & Crescent hosted a Sponsor-a-Nerd 24-hour gaming marathon on November 2. Twenty-one gamers registered online as part of the Circle of Hope team and then raised money for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (and a couple of other children’s hospitals) by finding donations through sponsors, just like their more athletic counterparts might do for a charity run.

On the day of the event, participants started arriving at MC at 8am where we had repurposed the space into a gaming haven. We brought in extra couches, hooked projectors up to gaming consoles, set up several tables for board games, and created an area for the computer gamers. The variety of games stretched from bestselling titles to bins of obscure tabletop games to stacks of NES cartridges that still smelled like the 80s. People were free to play whatever they wanted at any given moment, but we also held tournaments for which participants competed for donated prizes and tried to unlock achievements. If you would have walked in Saturday night, you would have seen a room of forty to fifty people variously watching the Power Rangers Movie projected onto a wall, battling it out in Super Smash Brothers, demoing the Occulus Rift, facing off in Magic the Gathering, concluding a five-hour Settlers of Cataan tournament, or trying to destroy one others’ towers in the PC game Tower Wars. And many of these gamers were playing with/against people they had never met before.

By the time we emerged with blurry eyes at 8am the next day—actually 25 hours later thanks to Daylight Savings Time—there were only about ten of us still standing. The more important number, though, was the $2,330 our team ended up raising to help kids at CHoP receive treatment regardless of their family’s ability to pay. And remember, we weren’t doing this alone. Through the collective efforts of other gamers in the region, CHoP raised over $71,000. And as if that number isn’t mind blowing enough, over $3.8 million dollars was raised for various children’s hospitals throughout the world as a result of the Extra Life event in a simple reminder that what we can do alone pales in comparison to what we can do together. Reporting: Randy Ribay

October Love Feast

On Saturday, October 26th, Circle of Hope celebrated its October Love Feast, a time of looking over the past quarter as well as celebrating new people who have decided to partner with us through making a covenant. 

Before the Love Feast began, several people—John Geating, Brianna Serrano, Anna Rhoades, Stephanie Carter, Cameron and Becca DeWhitt—were baptized in the cold waters of the Wissahickon.

The Love Feast was a time of celebration where we worshiped Jesus with original songs by our music leaders, pop songs, and songs from around the world. We also heard from Aaron Foltz and Tricia Fussaro. Aaron shared a story in his life regarding a time he saw great gentleness in a co-worker, and Tricia shared a personal account of anxiousness due to pregnancy, all of which was related back to a theme of overcoming fear and seeing beauty around us by resting in and celebrating Jesus.

The night of celebration and sharing ended with Communion, a breaking of bread and serving of juice, for those who attended, and a emotional finale of worship and prayer.

All told, 10 people covenanted with Circle of Hope, which included:

From Broad & Washington: Brianna Sérráno, John Geating
From Frankford & Norris: Stephanie Carter and Cameron DeWhitt, Becca DeWhitt, and Lindsay Li
From Marlton & Crescent: Stevie Neale and Juan Rodgriguez
From Broad & Dauphin: Tori Hayes, Donovan Hayes