When: Thursday, November 16, 2023 6:00 PM pacific

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Please join us November 16^th at 6pm Pacific/9pm EST with Kim Stanley Robinson.

Kim Stanley Robinson is acclaimed as our greatest living science fiction author, with 20 novels addressing how we can get to a better relationship with the Biosphere. His recent novel, The Ministry for the Future, projects how a climate-disrupted near future might unfold and how the world might respond with an empowered United Nations Minister enacting a best-case scenario for dodging the mass extinction event. Stan writes: “Until the tap runs dry it’s hard to imagine climate change as a lived experience. I try to write for when it really strikes you…the power of imagination is strong enough to change our behavior in the present…the world is a science fiction novel that we are all writing.”

Invited to address the world’s leaders at the United Nation’s Glasgow COP meeting, and the forthcoming 2024 UN Summit of the Future: Multilateral Solutions for a Better Tomorrow (where the General Assembly is also likely to establish a UN Special Envoy for Future Generations, inspired by his writing), Dr. Robinson is respected for his knowledge of the intersectionalities among political theory, science, economics, finance and history. He writes: “We need to employ a kind of eco-realpolitic that refrains from too much rigorous judgment… There are roughly 2,600 gigatons of fossil fuel assets. If they are burned into the atmosphere, we are dead. Biophysical reality says those assets must be stranded, and economic reality says that can’t be done without causing a super-depression. As part of saving civilization, you have to keep money stable. It’s as simple as that.” He will be interviewed by fellow UN COP Episcopal Church Delegates Bishop Marc Andrus, Episcopalian Bishop of the California Diocese and Dr. M. Paloma Pavel, co-founder of Breakthrough Communities.

We are thrilled to welcome Aisea Taimani as our guest musician. Aisea is a Tongan American Creative Artist based in the Bay Area. He works alongside the love of his life, Elmira Taimani. Aisea is the Minister of Music at New City Church, Oakland, and is Curator of Arts and Worship at Valley Presbyterian in Portola Valley. He writes: “SPEAK what you BELIEVE like you BE-LOVE it. BE the LOVE that you BELIEVE before you SPEAK it. No one is an island. We’re a part of the whole.” Aisea and his band, Minor Islands, have released three full albums exploring themes of faith, justice and cultural identity. Find his music here.

For more information and to see past recordings, click here.

Co-sponsored by the Center for Climate Justice and Faith at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, a graduate school of California Lutheran University and member of the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA. The PLTS Center for Climate Justice and Faith equips leaders to cultivate the moral, spiritual, and practical power to be effective advocates for climate justice. Through certificate programs, community organizing trainings, and a concentration in climate justice and faith for MDiv students, the center has prepared 124 people from 26 countries to address the climate crisis while simultaneously advancing racial and economic justice. Sign-up for the monthly newsletter to receive updates on application deadlines and events.