greenRELAY - Youth and Environmental Justice at St. Mary's Los Angeles
Anson from Irvine, CA
At St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, I designed and implemented a youth environmental justice program. Young people from across the Los Angeles area gathered for a weeklong training at St. Mary's. They have been learning about environmental issues, attending community meetings, blogging about their neighborhoods, and sharing their visions of justice in their communities at http://greenrelay.org. The participants are proud of their work and excited that people from across the country and the world are reading the stories of their communities.
Topics: Carbon Children/Education
I am an Episcopalian and a vegan. I went vegetarian for spiritual reasons (not Christian, since I didn't know of any precedent or respected tradition to support it at that time) about 9 years ago. I gave up eggs and dairy as soon as I found out how battery hens and veal calves are kept in close confinement, along with other agricultural practices that I didn't want to support, and could live just as well without supporting. But shortly afterward, I discovered two clergypersons: J.R. Hyland (an evangelical pastor who wrote the "Humane Religion" magazine articles and God's Covenant with Animals), and Andrew Linzey (an Anglican theologian, who wrote a pamplet, "Toward a Prophetic Church for Animals", Animal Gospel, Animal Theology, and many others). Andrew introduced me to the Anglican Society for the Welfare of Animals. That was when the (mis)treatment of animals became a Christian concern for me.
