I posted a few thoughts and a lot of pictures on a separate page. i’ll add to it. I just want to say that I had a good time talking with people, and really connected with a few, including two guys that arrived on the same shuttle bus that I was on. It was like deja vu to be back in the Washington DC area so soon after my trip last November, and I wonder if it’s going to become a tradition.
Click here for more.

Thank you to all who came to our “Engaging Religion” session. Since there was so little time, I didn’t have time to talk about a lot of things. But I did want to offer some live links to the videos of the speakers at the HOPE Conference, since I mentioned (Part 1) of our Presiding Bishop’s address. Check them out here.

I also mentioned that I had a transcript of (the Rev.) Steve Keplinger’s talk, which the audience had trouble hearing. It’s linked at the bottom of this page, along with others that are worth reading.

Here is a list of “humane humanitarian” charities to suggest, if your church is inclined to “send a cow” to a poor family in the developing world.

These are probably posted elsewhere, but I dug them out for the sake of any AR2008 visitors who came to our session, because they might be of interest. They were posted on a widely-read Episcopal blog site:
Climate Change, Hunger and Industrial Animal Agriculture
By Christine Gutleben and Lois Wye and
When a pet dies
By Jean Fitzpatrick
And here are a few other church-based animal-friendly resources, etc.
The Anglican Diocese of Newcastle’s animal resource page
The Episcopal Diocese of Washington’s animal resource web page
“Amen” publication of the Liturgical Commission of the Episcopal Diocese of New York on Animal Rites, with mention to ASWA & ENAW
The Presiding Bishop’s Easter Message that mentions diet, alludes to one of our Baptismal promises, “Do you renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?”, and makes reference to hamburgers, cattle-produced methane as it affects climate change.

I’ll add more later.

I’m posting some articles from last Spring about the HOPE Conference, along with a link to some recently posted videos of the talks.

Since it takes a while to watch them, I just watched the ones by the bishops so far. Part 1 of the PB’s address should be of particular interest to animal people, for various reasons. I’ll let you watch it to figure out why I think so. (Hint: She talks about the need to eat lower on the food chain, and goes into detail about the demise of the oceans, fish and other sea life. She is one of two Episcopalians, who isn’t an “animal person”, who has had the conviction and the courage to speak openly about the “other” Inconvenient Truth, about the impact of animal agriculture on climate change, and how our food choices affect people in the developing world.)

Healing Our Planet Earth’s website
Here’s the page that links to the videos of the various speakers’ talks.

Here’s an article I found. In the paragraph that says,

“Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori addressed the conference, her second speech to a Seattle gathering in as many days. On Friday night (April 11), she spoke at the dedication of a new work at the Seattle Art Museum’s Olympic Sculpture Park, encouraging the crowd to create “a climate of change” through embracing the Genesis Covenant — a plan to reduce the carbon footprint of churches, synagogues, and mosques, and their members, by a minimum of 50 percent by 2015.”

the hyperlinked word “addressed” links to a .pdf file of (one of) her talk(s).

I’d also like to recommend Bishop Charleston’s address, especially Part 2, because what he is proposing with The Genesis Covenant is something I would like to see happen in the not-too-distant future with an animal issue (similar to what the Multi-Faith religious leaders did with “A Religious Proclamation for Animal Compassion”, but involving religious bodies, and not just representatives of them.