Multi-Faith Delegation for “People vs. Fossil Fuels” DC Action

As people of faith and spirit, we are responding to the call from Indigenous and front-line communities to show up and risk arrest in DC the week of October 11. We know that when faith communities stand up for justice, our voices are powerful, and that public pressure is necessary to make sure President Biden follows through on what the science demands – stopping fossil fuel projects.

This week of action outside the White House, organized by the Build Back Fossil Free campaign, includes five days of peaceful, nonviolent direct action from October 11-15. You’re invited to join our multi-faith delegation in DC from Monday, October 11 through Wednesday, October 13. More details are below – and once you sign-up, you’ll receive a toolkit with a detailed schedule and other resources!

We are excited to have representation from many different faith and spiritual traditions across the country for this powerful action. Even if you’ve never participated in civil disobedience before, you are warmly invited to participate – there will be trainings and resources in place to make sure you are prepared! We are excited to build and deepen relationships with each other, so this crew can show up for Indigenous and frontline climate justice struggles for many years to come.

Our rough schedule for the multi-faith delegation will look like this:
• Sunday, Oct 10th/morning of Oct 11: Arrive in DC
• Monday Oct 11th: Support the Indigenous-led first day of action at the White House, with a Multi-Faith Delegation meet-up and dinner afterward. In the evening, we encourage clergy to join the NVDA (nonviolent direct action) training and prepare for tomorrow’s action.
• Tuesday Oct 12th: Clergy participate in the White House action, wearing religious and spiritual clothing. Other people of faith support the action. Afterward, we have a Multi-Faith Delegation meet-up and dinner. In the evening, we encourage people of faith (not clergy) to join the NVDA training and prepare for tomorrow’s action.
• Wednesday, Oct 13: People of faith (not clergy) participate in the White House action, wearing shirts or holding signs showing their faith tradition. Clergy support the action if they’re still in town. Afterward, we will have a closing Multi-Faith Delegation meet-up to debrief the experience, talk about next steps, and have dinner.
• Thursday, Oct 14 – Friday, Oct 15: Travel home or stay to support the rest of the White House actions!

We hope that when you arrive home, you will report back about your experience to your faith or spiritual community, and take action with them on Oct 17th and/or 18th for the global day of action, Faiths 4 Climate Justice. In the US, we will be building on the momentum of our powerful DC presence to bring our faith communities to distributed events at federal buildings in our own communities, calling on President Biden to say no to fossil fuels. This is a powerful way to send the climate message home in the weeks before the critically important Glasgow COP26 climate talks in November! You’ll get more details about this after registering.

You will be responsible for lodging and transportation when in DC, but if you need financial assistance, please indicate below! We want to help you make this trip possible for you.

By signing up below, you will get added to communications about the multi-faith delegation and will be added to the GreenFaith and MNIPL lists.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfccfk5mkxKrPc6NOfcGKuUK_zit6ULkGQE6dT2NtrfeidQag/viewform