Hot Oatmeal Bar w/fixin's, Yogurt Bar, w/toppings, Fresh fruit, Bagels
Catered by Sweet Moses Brands, Inc. (Visit their website)

9:40 AM

Texas’ Climate Change Outlook:What does the science say?

Yaira Robinson, Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy, Texas Interfaith Power and Light

(Congregation Agudas Achim, Jewish)

 Yaira Robinson participated in the conference via video:

Colette Pichon Battle, Esq., Executive Director of the Gulf Coast Law and Policy Center,

Organizer for Gulf South Rising (Catholic)

Colette has agreed to share her presentation:

11:00 AM

Colette Pichon Battle, Esq. (Catholic)

Ada Simmons, elder and leader of the Katrina Survivors Network and Dallas Area Interfaith (First Presbyterian Church of McKinney)

Cherelle Blazer, Organizing Representative, Sierra Club Beyond Coal campaign (Ile Omo Ifa Wale)

and Others

Debriefing in small group conversation

Greek Pita Bar- Pita Bread,Grilled Veggies, Mediterranean Chicken, Lemon-Basil Rice, Kale Salad, & toppings bar; Catered by Sweet Moses Brands, Inc. (Visit their Webiste)

Lunch Conversation Tables (main area of focus):

• Barnett Shale Basin Community - Arlington, Midcities, Ft. Worth, Denton and Westward
  (local)
  Facilitator:
  Daniel Melendez - Event Lay Chaplain, Member of Liveable Arlington (Vice President, Pathways UU Church)

• The “Nuclear Option”
  (state, national)
  Facilitator: Mavis Belisle - Dallas Peace & Justice Center Nuclear Free World Committee
  Chairperson (UU Church of Oak Cliff)

• Facing the Community Impacts of Systemic Violence
  (local and global)
  Facilitators:
  Minister Dominique Alexander - Founder and President, Next Generation Action Network
  (Non-Denominational Christian)
  Valley Reed - Executive Director, Kolo: Women’s Cross-Cultural Collaborations,
  Owner and Director of Chrysalis Healing Arts (Earth-Based, Dream-Based & Shamanic Spiritual Practice)

Full Group Conversation:

Sharing insights of lunch groups,  introducing the stories of our breakout group leaders and presenters

Food and Water Justice: How can we build a world where all communities - and all our local

and regional communities - have access to healthy food and safe drinking water?
In what ways does faith compel us to do this work?

How can faith communities take part in this struggle for environmental justice?

What is standing in our way?

What is giving us the inspiration and nourishment to keep on?

Group Leaders:
Pastor Eugene Keahey of Sandbranch, Seagoville, TX  (Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church)
Anita Mills, President of North Texas Unitarian Universalist Congregations,
Permaculture Design Specialist, Coordinator of Common Ground Street Choir (UU Church of Oak Cliff)
Tiffany Stoker, Local Farmer and Permaculture Design Specialist

Aftenoon Break Out Sessions:
How is the Doctrine of Discovery Related to Climate Justice?

The colonization of Africa and the Americas, and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, are all related to a series of Papal Bulls declared in the 15th and 16th centuries that sanctioned colonization and the enslavement and extermination of non-Christian Indigenous populations as God’s will.

The “Doctrine of Discovery” refers to the International and United States laws and policies that still today refer to this theological sanctioning of Christian colonization by European monarchs as legitimate legal precedent.

Through discussing written materials and the cases of coastal-Louisiana Indigenous populations (the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw and United Houma Nations) who are currently losing their homelands to rising sea levels, this session will explore the ways in which this history of oppression is part of the struggle for climate justice today.

Faith-Based Communication and Advocacy

About Climate Action - Our presenter Yaira represents religious communities in Texas State political advocacy on environmental issues through the Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy. She was also recently a presenter at an Interfaith climate change conference hosted by George Washington University and the US State Department, and was in Paris for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) talks last November and December, 2015, as a faith-based advocate for climate action.
In this group, talk with Yaira about the theological underpinnings calling us towards climate justice and explore how to communicate about these humongous topics in a faith-centered and empowering way. Much of this work is about moving from denial or despair to inspiration and mobilization.

Yaira Robinson, Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy, Texas Interfaith Power and Light,

(Congregation Agudas Achim, Jewish)

Looking towards the future and Closing

Optional Multi-Faith Prayer for Peace and Abundance for All People and Future Generations
(Outside, Martin Luther King Park)