Mission

The Earth Justice Ministry’s purpose is to promote environmentally sustainable practices, educate about and advocate for environmental justice, and help with environmental projects, especially in conjunction with our partners and affiliate organizations.

Activities

Although we cannot endorse or back any particular candidate, we can educate the community about legislation and issues. We may lend financial support to one or more of our partners, but we work with them primarily to accomplish mutual goals and projects.

We educate by bringing in speakers and showing films about environmentally relevant topics, like the effects of the Border Wall, the damming of rivers, the reversal of environmental legislation at all levels from local to international, and the polluting effects of fossil fuel, nuclear product extraction, and concentrated animal farming operations.

We advocate by writing and calling legislators to curtail these practices and by joining with our partners in putting on presentations.

We meet monthly, generally on the second Sunday after the worship service. You can contact us at earthjustice@phoenixuu.org to be placed on our email list, or subscribe to the UUCP Compass newsletter, where you will find regular updates about what’s going on, as well as opportunities to become involved.

Partner Organizations

• Unitarian Universalist Ministries for the Earth (UUMFE) uumfe.org
  UUMFE is led by Aly Tharp, who presides over webinars and sends out UUMFE news. This used to be an office within the UUA. At some point, it became defunded. It then became its own nonprofit, which still connects to the UUA through Reverend Karen Bramer, www.uua.org/environment. She works for the UUA and deals with Green Sanctuary issues. She also moderates webinars and recommends readings and discussion groups on environmental justice issues. We monitor their publications and messages and notify our members of their activities and concerns.
• AFN-Social Justice Commission arizonafaithnetwork.org/social-justice
  The Arizona Faith Network is a group of approximately 45 churches representing a myriad of denominations in the Valley. The Social Justice Commission deals with poverty, racism, criminal justice, prison reform, and environmental justice issues such as access to electricity, education, good health/clean air, water, food, and medical care. The Cherishing Creation Collaborative now is the group that oversees environmental issues, such as protecting the Grand Canyon and Oak Flat, extreme heat measures, climate change, clean energy, and cleaning up air and water.
• Unitarian Universalist Justice AZ (UUJAZ) uujaz.org
  This nonprofit has teams to work on different justice issues in AZ. One of our members has participated in a number of the monthly Zoom meetings of the Water Team. It has primarily advocated for the addition of ecological water definition to water conservation legislation, to help keep rivers flowing in AZ. It is also looking at pricing.
• Chispa chispaaz.org
  Chispa is an Hispanic arm of the League of Conservation Voters whose main goal is to develop local, Hispanic, grass-roots leaders for many issues, primarily environmental. They researched the incidence of asthma and respiratory diseases in inner city school districts (14%-45% in heavily Hispanic neighborhoods, compared with 8% citywide). They, and Eco-Madres, successfully convinced the Board of the Phoenix Union School District to purchase one electric bus and work to get 5 more.

Affiliate Organizations

• Arizona Interfaith Power and Light (AZIPL) azipl.org
  Doug Bland leads this Arizona chapter of the national Interfaith Power and Light Organization (IPL). IPL was formed to address environmental problems and to help churches get energy-efficient appliances and practices. It still gives out money awards to 5 Cool Congregations per year. AZIPL participates in many environmental events and conducts a yearly week of Environmental Awareness, culminating in a Preach-Off. AZIPL is actively partnering with Chispa, Sierra Club, 30 by 30, AFN, Wilderness Society, and more!
• Sierra Club sierraclub/arizona
  Sierra Club is a valuable local resource for information about legislation, films, talks, rallies, demonstrations, and all issues environmental. They hold an annual Environmental Day at the Legislature, put out a newsletter during the time the AZ Legislature meets, and have speakers about environmental topics. They mobilize youth groups for climate change jobs. We monitor their publications to notify our membership of their activities and concerns.