Environmental Racism: What is It, and How Should the Church Respond?
A Panel Discussion Co-hosted by The Clergy Emergency League and The Wisconsin Council of Churches

This event took place on May 11th. See below for a link to the recording.

The Clergy Emergency League and the Wisconsin Council of Churches invite clergy, church leaders, and community partners to join this important discussion about the church’s response to environmental racism. Our distinguished panel will share their reflections on the role of the church in addressing this intersection of systemic racism and environmental justice. Why should congregations care about environmental racism? How can a church’s ministries address this issue? What are biblical and theological ways to frame environmental racism? What are the challenges – and opportunities – for living out the gospel by taking up the work of dismantling the twin oppressions of white supremacy and ecological destruction? This panel discussion will help us cast a vision for repairing communities of color and the Earth as a way of co-creating the Realm of God.

Co-hosts:
The Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade, co-founder of the Clergy Emergency League
The Rev. Kerri Parker, director of the Wisconsin Council of Churches

Our panelists:

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Rev. Melanie Mullen (she/her) serves as the Episcopal Church’s Director of Reconciliation, Justice & Creation Care, charged with bringing the Jesus Movement to the concerns of the world. Prior to joining the Presiding Bishop’s staff, she was the Downtown Missioner at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, Va., leading a historic southern congregation’s missional, civic, and reconciliation ministries. Before receiving her Masters in Divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary, she studied history as an undergrad at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, with a Bachelors and graduate program in Africana Women’s Studies at Clark Atlanta University. Melanie worked in campaign fundraising and development, raising more than $10 million for leadership PACs, the Congressional Black Caucus, and US Congressional and gubernatorial races from Louisiana to Connecticut; and she served as Development Associate for the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, with a focus on poverty advocacy.

The Rev. Nelson H. Rabell González (he/him/el) was born in Puerto Rico (1972). He is an ordained minister of Word and Sacrament in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (2002). He has a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering (1996). He worked as a Manufacturing Process Engineer at Motorola in Puerto Rico (1996-1998).  He also holds a Master in Divinity (2002), and a Sacred Theology Master in Bible and Lutheran Studies (2007) from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (now United Lutheran Seminary). He is currently in the process of obtaining a Doctor in Ministry Degree from Garrett Evangelical Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. He currently serves the immigrant community of San Joaquin County as the Mission Developer of Misión Latina Luterana.  After the death of George Floyd and Brianna Taylor, Rev. Rabell co-founded A New Lodi, an anti-racist 501c3 non-profit organization, whose mission is to amplify the voices of marginalized communities in the city of Lodi, CA. He is married to Dr. Fabiola Ramos, who is both a dentist and an epidemiologist. They have two children: Hiram (21), and Sofía (19). Their rescue dog’s name is Lucas.

Dr. Natasha DeJarnett (she/her) is an assistant professor in the Christina Lee Brown Environment Institute at the University of Louisville Division of Environmental Medicine researching the health impacts of extreme heat exposure and environmental health disparities. In addition, she is a professorial Lecturer in Environmental and Occupational Health at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. Dr. DeJarnett is a graduate of University of Louisville, where she completed her PhD and Masters of Public Health, both concentrating in environmental health sciences. Prior to becoming an assistant professor, Dr. DeJarnett was interim associate director of Program and Partnership Development at the National Environmental Health Association, leading the areas of research, climate and health, and children’s environmental health. She also previously served as a policy analyst at the American Public Health Association (APHA), where she led the Natural Environment portfolio, including air and water exposures along with climate change. Dr. DeJarnett is a member of the EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee, is chair of the Governing Board of Citizens’ Climate Education and a member of the Board of Directors of Physicians for Social Responsibility.

The Clergy Emergency League (CEL) is a grassroots network of 2,500 clergy speaking out against the abuses of power at the federal, state, and local levels. Specifically, we resist the fusion of politics with radical, right-wing, fundamentalist Christianity, and the growing power of racist white nationalism and a militarized police state. We provide support, accountability, resources, and networking for clergy to prophetically minister in their congregations and the public square in this time of political upheaval, social unrest, and partisan division.  Learn more at www.ClergyEmergencyLeague.com.

The Wisconsin Council of Churches (WCC) is a network of Christian churches and faith-based organizations committed to working together across our many differences. Exercising holy imagination, we help each other make courageous choices that lead toward peace with justice, the vitality of the church, and the well-being of our neighbors.The Council connects 21 Christian traditions, which have approximately 2,000 congregations and over one million church members in Wisconsin. Join with us as we pray and work together for the unity and renewal of the church and the healing and reconciliation of the world.

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