Come early May, I will be returning back to the U.S. after living and working in Jaipur, India since July of last year. I have been teaching English in an open-aired school/mosque located in the heart of Jaipur's Pink City. About 90% of my students live near the school and spend the vast majority of their time in the hustle and bustle of the crowded city. As the rains and heat of summer left in October, the cold weather and the pollution settled in. The air became close to unbearable and, as much as I enjoyed being in school, I was always ready to leave the foggy city area by the end of the day and find fresh air. The thing is, though, as I left to find some respite, my students and their families had to stay in the pollution. Now, I get to return home to the fresh air of Bloomington, Indiana while my students will likely grow up to live and work in the same neighborhood, continually breathing in pollutants that they are unable to escape. I am walking because I know that marginalized communities all over the world, like the one my students are a part of, are hurt the most by the continual burning of fossil fuels. Alongside the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and Fossil Free PCUSA, I want to encourage the PC(USA) to "divest from fossil fuels so that we no longer profit from the exploitation of the Earth and the most vulnerable communities."

It’s time for the denomination to put its money where its faith is. The PC(USA) must join the divestment movement that has already taken trillions of dollars out of the fossil fuel industry. By doing so, the denomination will no longer  profit from an industry that has contributed to climate change. Hurricanes in Puerto Rico, drought in California, rising sea levels along the global coasts — natural disasters exacerbated by climate change which affect Presbyterians and all creation.

Our faith calls us to love God, creation, and neighbor with our whole selves, and June 1-16, 2018 we will love creation with each step we take. The PCUSA Walk for a Fossil Free World will take us from Louisville, Kentucky (the headquarters of the Presbyterian Church [USA]) to St. Louis, Missouri, in time for the PC(USA)’s 223rd General Assembly. Our goals are to: 

1. Call upon the PC(USA) 223rd General Assembly do divest from fossil fuels
2. Center the voices and experiences of people already affected by climate change
3. Reduce our own carbon footprint as we travel to GA

You're invited to join! More details about the Walk can be found at PCUSAwalk.org