What a day! Went to the Mass for Creation at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in mid-town at 8:45 am. Afterward made our way (a couple dozen of us from St. Pete's) to the staging area for the faith-groups contingent. There the ranks of Lutherans (in spiffy green T-shirts and holding matching signs printed and donated by the ELCA advocacy office) swelled to perhaps 150, and joined with many thousands of other folks from every faith under the sun. It was inspiring and energizing, and felt like the "foretaste of the feast to come" that we sing about in our eucharistic liturgy. No arguing about beliefs or doctrines, no fretting about whether anyone was compromising their religious purity by associating with all those "others", just ALL of us excited and glad that all the rest of us were there to act out our own faiths through a common commitment to the welfare of the planet and all its creatures.
There was an interfaith service which went on while we were all waiting our turn to join in the march. The first marchers had stepped off at 11:30 AM. We were all feeling a little weary already as it approached 2 PM and we had yet to march a single step. But then came our turn to merge into the main current of the march, and all weariness left. It felt really great that our Lutheran contingent was among the most visible-- and VOCAL-- of the faith groups. We sang, and clapped, and danced as we marched.
It was impossible for us to even begin to guess how many people there were, because at any time we could only see a small portion of the total crowd, but we started to get the sense that it was big. As we neared the halfway point of the march, I received a text from the organizers that initial estimates were over 300,000 people, which was considerably more even than the unofficial hoped-for participation of 200,000. It felt like were part of a really big moment. In fact, shortly afterward we received the word that the march had so exceeded expectations that concern had grown about crowd management at the end of the route, so we were asked to begin dispersing from the route well before we reached the original end-point. And to add icing to the cake, though the crowd was loud and exhuberant, it was exceedingly peaceful.
This evening I attended the Religions of the World Interfaith Service for the Earth at St. John the Diving cathedral in uptown. There was a lot of beautiful music and prayers and such, but what impressed me most was the numerous renowned religious leaders who stood up to commit themselves personally to helping lead the climate change movement and to commit to mobilizing their own communities to do the same. I heard the religious community as a whole saying, "It's time we took our place in the leadership of this movement, because we have something important to contribute, and that is the spiritual power of our traditions."
I know I sound a little overly exhuberant myself, and no doubt there will be disappointments and frustrations ahead, but knowing that is the case, I feel this is the kind of shot in the arm we needed. And I believe both political and business leaders will take note of what happened today and will begin revising their calculus about the most wise and prudent course of action to take as a result.
Stay tuned tomorrow for a report on "Flood Wall Street".
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