In late 2023, the Rev. Emily Carroll from Shady Grove United Methodist Church in rural Louisiana, traveled to the United Arab Emirates to meet up with 100,000 attendees of the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Rev. Emily shares about her experience, the hopeful takeaways and what we all can do to be better stewards of God’s creation, because, as she puts it, this conversation affects all people.
Guest: The Rev. Emily Carroll
- Carroll is the state field director of Green the Church Louisiana.
- She is pastor of Shady Grove UMC in the Louisiana Conference of The UMC.
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This episode posted on April 5, 2024.
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Transcript
Prologue
In late 2023, the Reverend Emily Carroll from Shady Grove United Methodist Church in rural Louisiana traveled to the United Arab Emirates to meet up with 100,000 attendees of the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Reverend Emily shares about her experience, the hopeful takeaways and what we all can do to be better stewards of God's creation because as she puts it, this conversation affects all people.
Crystal Caviness, host: Reverend Emily, welcome to “Get Your Spirit in Shape.”
Rev. Emily Carroll, guest: Good afternoon. How are you today, Crystal?
Crystal: I'm doing well, and thank you for being our guest. I'm excited about this conversation.
Rev. Emily: I'm excited for the invitation and just to be able to be in this space, and so I await to see how the Holy Spirit will move in such a space as this.
Crystal: Amen. You are the pastor of Shady Grove United Methodist Church in Louisiana. That's one role. Another role you have is that you are the executive director of Green, the church Louisiana. So I definitely want to find out what that's about. But you've recently returned from the United Nations Climate Change Conference that was held in late 2023 in the United Arab Emirates. And man, I was reading about that, what a fabulous opportunity. So we have a lot of things to talk about, but before we jump in, why don't you share just a little bit about who you are and what you're doing there in Louisiana?
Rev. Emily: Great, great. As mentioned, as you have already mentioned, I'm serving as pastor of Shady Grove UMC in Mansfield, Louisiana. So it's a rural area in the northern part of Louisiana, and then do a lot of work with Green The Church. I'm excited to be a part of the Louisiana Annual Conference where my bishop is Dolores Williamston. So there's always many moving pieces as it relates to the work that I do. I relocated or actually located myself to Louisiana about six years ago. Had never lived here before, but to be close to my mother. And so this is home for both my mom and my dad. And so to be in Louisiana as a resident has been very rewarding, very interesting, very challenging. And so I'm glad to be in this space on this morning.
Crystal: Well, for you not to have been in Louisiana very long, it seems that you have just hit the ground running with getting involved in all of your ministry there. So tell me just briefly about Green The Church. I know that it is not, there's Louisiana Chapter, I guess might be the way to say that, but it's throughout the United States, correct?
Rev. Emily: Correct. So Green the Church is a national initiative that taps into the power and the presence of the African-American Church as it relates to climate. And so of the things about Green, the church that I love, is we take an intentional mode and intentional actions to speak to black churches as it relates to their involvement, their presence, their need for resources as it relates to the environment and climate change. And so with this, we utilize this work or we do this work of green the church by way of three pillars. The first one is amplifying green theology every time we do anything, but then these black church spaces, we are in essence bringing into the conversation what it is that God has to say about the planet that we live in, the climate, the earth, the people, the food. And then the second pillar is building sustainable practices.
And so those sustainable practices are everything from solar and wind to food sovereignty. We as church folks, we love to do food pantries and they are needed, but it's time for a next move and looking into food sovereignty, what it is that we can do to empower individuals so that they can have healthy food at their disposal. And then this third pillar that we have is called Building Power for Change. And that arm of what we do deals with advocacy as it relates to influencing policymakers for rules and standards and any type of laws that need to be changed that would better our situation. Now, what I mean by that, those rules, those standards, those laws that will in essence reduce the amount of pollutions that is in the air, those standards or rules that will help as it relates to getting more green infrastructure in place so that we are able to operate on renewable energy versus energy sources that contaminate that air.
So that's Green the Church, big picture. And so what we did a couple of years ago was that we began to have our build affiliate chapters. What would happen is that this work has been happening since 2009-2010. We've been in this work 2009, 2010, and we would do these massive summits in various states. It could be in Chicago, in Baltimore, in St. Louis, in California. We would travel from place to place to do these summits, and as we would do them, we would make sure that they were ecumenical. We would make sure that they were speaking to whatever was the issues in that particular land. When we were in Baltimore, Maryland, our focus, our theme was that about water. So it just kind of depended, but whatever we did, we always made it ecumenical so that it wasn't about one particular denomination. What I want to say about myself is that myself and my brothers who started off Green the Church, we are all ordained clergy, and we graduated from Morehouse School of Religion at the ITC in Atlanta, Georgia.
One of the things that we recognize is that our wealth of networking from pastor preachers across the nation was vast, and we were like, how can we do this work in a way that's influential and powerful to the ministers? And so that's what we do, and National continues to have very great moving pieces throughout the nation. And then here in Louisiana, there's more of a state focus, which is definitely needed in a state that is so industrialized, and so there's high levels of poverty, there's high levels of industry, and then there's high levels of inequality to the air that we breathe.
Crystal: Reverend Emily, what does that type of work look like in your local church at Shady Grove UMC? What does Green the Church look like there?
Rev. Emily: What happens right now this year, a lot of what it looks like is Pastor Carroll preaching sermons and they don't know which way I'm coming. Some might call it a green sermon, someone might call it a social justice sermon, but it does involve making sure that the congregation is aware of everything from the policies and the actions to the injustice, some injustice that they see, some that they don't. I'm in northern Louisiana, so there's not as much traction and there's not as much coming together as bodies to combat the issues as far as social justice movements. I say that in comparison to a place like New Orleans. New Orleans, you have Cancer Alley, you have a whole lot of fight that is taking place from community and awareness and stats to help support whatever the causes may be up in the northern area, not as such.
We have the industries, we have the plants, we have the petrochemicals, we have the air that smells funny and looks funny, and we don't know what's going on, but we don't have as many pockets of individuals having that fight. So what that looks like now at Shady Grove is more of an environmental justice component, an awareness component, and then for people to gain insight and have opportunity to do action items, whether that is comment cards or the like, we also do a thing called a senior Lunch and Learn. That happens not on a Sunday. And during that senior Lunch and Learn, we've had conversations that fall up under the pillars of when the church, we'll have lunch and we'll have a conversation that is just for senior citizens. Those over, we lowered it to 55. Those over 55 who were able to come. And so a lot of times it might be healthy eating, it might be as far as your health and your wellness.
So we'll bring in a doctor, we'll bring in individuals from the Ag Center, agricultural Center of the university just to talk about how you as an individual can better your life. All of is, for me, is more a passion about loving on God's people and how they can have lives that are thriving instead of just merely surviving. So the umbrella, it becomes somewhat large, but it is still a love and it is still the work of being aware of our environment and how it has an effect on us and how we as God's children are responsible to continue to take care of it. Some people use the translation dominion over it or authority over the land. I like the translation that looks at the word as the action as being stewards, people who are working the land, people who are working for the betterment of the land.
Crystal: I like that word too, stewards. It feels a little more like a partnership, doesn't it?
Rev. Emily: Yes, exactly. Exactly, exactly. Like a partnership. And that's most important as I think about the work that we do, a partnership, a partnership where we have responsibility in the Social Principles for The United Methodist Church, it literally opens up under the Social Principles and it's a section on the natural world. It literally opens up all creation is the Lord's, and we are responsible for the ways in which we use and abuse it. And I like that opening because it's so apropos to this conversation and to the work that I do as a pastor that I do as an advocate, that I do as a director of a nonprofit.
Crystal: I actually printed that section of the Social Principles out to talk about. So thank you for reading my mind and going out because we're going to, this is very United Methodist being involved in this work. Yes. So if it catches somebody by surprise, I want to just assure them this is who we are as United Methodists. And the social witness definitely extends to Creation Care in a very broad and important way.
Rev. Emily: Yes, definitely.
Crystal: So to that kind of segue, you were a part of a team from the General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church that traveled to the United Arab Emirates last fall, last early winter to the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Tell me about that experience. Well, first, how did you get to be a part of that team?
Rev. Emily: So actually now I want to tell two stories. One story, I was in DC doing some advocacy work, and I was at a reception and I'm at a reception, and there is this CEO of Interfaith Power and Light. I don't know if it's an agency that, you know, we're at a reception that's given by another agency that deals a lot with policy and advocacy. We're talking about COP 27, which took place in Egypt. We're talking about travels and we're doing what we're doing. And she mentions that she'll be going to Dubai. And I was like, Ooh, I wish I could go to Dubai. That would just be awesome. And so we're just talking, we're having small talk. And literally that same weekend, I was in DC also for a event that Green the church was doing. We were at a university, we were going to be at a university and we were doing a workshop.
And that workshop was going to be with a gentleman who is over the Black Food Security Network. And so I'm there at that conference, and I was there because I was helping develop a Green the Church DMV affiliate chapter. They were doing an event and they had invited me to come speak and to also just bring some words of welcome from Green the Church National. And one of the steering committee members came up to me. Her name is Laura Kigweba. She is in essence, the organizer for Church and Society for The UMC. And so she also serves as a steering committee member at that time. And so she says, well, Pastor Carol, I just wanted to ask you something and I'm not sure if you're going to be available. And she said, I've been thinking about the work that you're doing, and I submitted your name, submitted my name, submitted my name where, and she said, I submitted your name to be a delicate for COP 28.
And I just lit up and I lit up. She said, so do you think that you'll be able to go? You can get back with me. I say, I don’t have to get back with you. Oh, I will make time to go. Well, I didn't know if you needed to check your family or the church. I say, everybody will understand because this is an opportunity. So she was just aware of the work that I had been doing as both A UMC pastor and then the work that I had been doing with Green the Church. And she is the one that recommended my name to John Hill, which is the interim secretary over at General Board of Church and Society. And it just went from there. She also mentioned, and I will say this, she also mentioned that COP and the COPS that take place, COP 28 is the 28th year of this convening of the partner.
So it happens for the last 28 years. And she said that one thing that she had noticed that there was not often representation from African-Americans. She said that would often be representations from persons from Africa and persons from South America, different persons of color. But she said very seldom persons who were African-American who are doing the work. And she wanted me to experience it and definitely to represent, I would say a genre or an element of persons who weren't always able to be in that type of space so that the stories that we have could also be shared. But then also just as a UMC preacher who is doing this work. So the delegation was in essence an individual from Zimbabwe Chamiso, and she's an environmentalist and she deals with deforestation. And then also there was Becca who does some work as a scientist. She's United Methodist also then Laura, who's an organizer, and then John Hill himself. And I realized that I was really the pastor that was a part of the delegation in that group. So yeah,
Crystal: You were there. Your group was there with, I think the number was a homeless 100,000 people who had gathered all of these people representing governments, heads of state, public and private companies, faith-based organizations, environmental, non-government organizations, all of you there kind of single-minded, I guess. I mean, well, is that true? That's what it seems like.
Rev. Emily: Yes. I mean it is because in essence, we were all believers of climate change and we were all in essence wanting to do something about climate change. We wanted voices to be heard and we wanted to be in this space in place where we had an element of hope that things can change. And there is this author, her name is Tricia Hersey, she says, the very act of trying to look ahead to discern possibilities is an act of hope. And I say that because I mean, it's been 28 years of convening. We do see elements in our space and place across the nation where there is an essence, there is an essence, a dynamic where things are getting better. But then there's also this thought that there's such a big issue and how can we really tackle it? But I say that we are all on the same mind because we all sacrifice time, attention, resources to be in this place with a hope of combating climate change.
So yeah, we were all there. I like to say I grew up in a Baptist space before I became a pastor in The UMC, but we were all there on one accord and like-minded, and I am glad that I was able to be there in such a space. And so being in that space though, it was a matter of they sectioned off the space of Dubai. You had different pavilions in different areas. There was one area where all you witnessed was negotiations. Negotiations. For me, it was almost like a church meeting. And so with that church meeting you had though, or with that set of negotiations, you had different people from different parts of the world sitting at tables and they had the little placards to represent what country that represented. And there would be conversation and negotiations from everything from a small document that deals with a couple of paragraphs of the global stock take.
The global stock take was in essence took place this year. And it was an analysis of the Paris agreement that was put into place a couple of years back. This was the year 2023 when there was analysis to be performed. And so that's the global stock take. I had a badge as a observer, which gave me access to the negotiations so that I can actually witness them. There were ways to influence because the persons who were sitting at the tables with these placards, they were walking around eating lunch, they were walking around in different spaces, they conversations on the side took place. Being able to follow these negotiations and having access to them was advantageous to see the work that's needed, the diplomacy that's needed, the goals. And it was also exciting because one of the things that did happen at Cox, because people said, oh, you've been doing this for so many years, what is happening?
So there was a development of what's called a loss and damage fund. Forgive me, because prior to my ministry work, I was a financial auditor with the state of California. So there's a part in my brain that misses numbers. So I found myself at cop kind of attracted to some of the climate finance to the loss and damage in addition to a lot of the other spaces. But the loss and damage was an essence of fun that they had been talking about for a number of years because there's a realization that the countries that are more advanced are the countries that do more pollution. The countries that are more advanced are more industrialized. So you have countries like the United States, you have countries like actually Dubai, you have Europe, you have different places that actually do more damage to our earth, and they acknowledge it because they're more industrialized, the more industrialized, the more offset of fossil fuels that are put into the air.
There are in essence, pollutants, gas or methane, things like that are offshoots when you produce fossil fuels. And so the beautiful thing is when this particular cop started the first day of COP that were commitments, that totaled over $700 million from nations who have the funds to contribute to the loss and damage with the mindset that those funds would go to those countries that were not as developed, but who suffer the most and they suffer the most because hey, we have one son the last I checked, and it's giving off elements of heat and it's giving off elements of weather conditions that are extreme on both ends, and then individuals suffer differently. So that was a commitment that people were excited about. That was a climate finance that they were cited about. And there was also excitement about a phrase that spoke towards becoming fossil free.
And so that's going to be a long and hard one because to actually operate not utilizing fossil fuels is something that a lot of people cannot imagine. Even though we are on the cusp of great innovation and technology as it relates to renewable energy and things of that nature, it was also kind of exciting to see that with America. One of the things that did happen was EPA president Michael Regan physically was in Dubai, and at that time he made comment about one of the standards that became final. It was a methane standard, and in essence, that methane standard would tighten the regulations as it relates to how much methane could be emitted into the air from various industries. So those were some successes, but there's a lot of work to do. And it was exciting to be in a space with one day I'm sitting and there's a gentleman from some part of Africa. He was sitting to my right and then to my left, there's a young lady that was sitting and she was from South America. And so just to be in conversation and to see the seriousness of people across the nation that admit realize that our earth is warming exponentially, that things don't have to be that way, and having conversation about what is it that we can do as individuals to change it. And so yeah.
Crystal:
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Crystal: Reverend Emily, a lot of people might say that these are political conversations or that these are industry conversations. Why are these faith-based conversations?
Rev. Emily: They're faith-based conversations to me, because all of these conversations deal with the people who suffer. People suffer, and sometimes people become far removed from it, but people suffer when the earth is heating too fast. People suffer when, and I'll just say myself, I'm in rural Louisiana. We had the extreme snow snap in 21. All of a sudden, it's colder than it's ever been because it goes both ways. So it's colder than it's ever been. And the infrastructure for the city that we live in was not built to have nine degrees weather. So everybody's water is gone, pipes under the ground of homes, under trailers. They are in essence busting. So you don't have running water. You have individuals who are in their homes not able to get what they need because they're stuck. And it's a disastrous catastrophe that we are not accustomed to. So the infrastructure wasn't built for, but all of it is in essence an offshoot of how even the trees are confused.
I saw blossoms in January. I'm like, why do blossoms in Louisiana in January? Even the trees are confused and not able to breathe and operate how they normally should because our earth is warming too fast and we can do something about it. So it becomes a member base situation because we are, as Christians, we're supposed to love on each other. As Christians, we're supposed to be there for what a person needs as Christians, whether you're a leader, whether you're a laity, we're supposed to care about one another. And so yes, this conversation is about the care, our creation care and the care of the land. But to me, we are caring about the land and we're caring about creation because it can have an effect negatively on God's people.
Crystal: When you got back from the COP28, how did that affect you? Did you come back and I mean, you have a lot of passion, so I can't even imagine your level of passion on the other side of that event, but tell me about what being there did for you?
Rev. Emily: So one of the ways it affected me was I was excited to see what other people were doing in other countries. I love America, but I was excited to see what other persons are doing. I went to one of the pavilions and they showed the big a building that was a civil building for water construction and how this building was going to be a hundred percent renewable energy based on solar. And they were intentionally building it with this mindset. Now, I'm not going to say that it is the most cleanest country. It's one of the most greatest oil producing countries, and I'm not going to be blindsided by that. But I will say that it was encouraging to see what people are doing and what can be done. I will also say just be able to come back and to recognize that this work that I do in Louisiana, there's not a lot of us who do it.
When I have these conversations, a lot of people go to the left and they go to the left. Because if I start talking about terminology such as climate change and terminology such as particulate matter and terminology about environmental this or environmental debt, they're not the most sexy words. And so in essence, they're not much interest. And the other thing that I'm recognizing is that a lot of the advocacy work that we do, and a lot of the conversation is so long-term, the resolve that we want might take years and decades. And I recognize that the average person, they don't really have a mental space or entrance about something that might should happen 10, 20 years from now. They have issues for today. They have issues today where their light bill can't be paid, and they're not concerned about how they're getting energy for their light.
They just know that they need the light on. And so a lot of times there's this balancing act or this dynamic of utilizing language so that people can see the relevancy. So going to Dubai and coming back, number one, just to notice what is taking place both in technology and in place of some of the individual civil societies, there was a lot of other nonprofit organizations that were there. There were panel conversations and there was a lot of networking. To be able to have conversations with individuals who are like-minded and fighting and to know that there were over a hundred thousand people, it helps me recognize that I'm not in this alone. It's not a silo type of situation. There are many individuals who definitely get it, understand it, want to tackle it and are compassionate about it. And so those are the pieces that helped me lit extra fire under me from a global perspective, from a global perspective. And then I thought about from a global perspective, and I also thought about how within even the social principles, it talks about this dynamic of a global perspective. And so it's not only talking about us as churches in the states or us as individuals within the states, but there's also a recognition of this global dynamic of what happens when we talk about earth because we're not just talking about our state or our church or our conference and things of that nature.
Crystal: It really does have this sense of connectional, doesn’t it?
Rev. Emily: Yes. Yes, it does. And you say that as a UMC, that's the word that we like. We are a connectional body. There is definitely connections all across the board. There's interconnectedness between us as individuals and not only our sister or brother that's in our neighborhood, but our sister and brother that literally is across the waters.
Crystal: Reverend Emily, as we kind of finish up today, is there anything that you wanted to make sure you mentioned about the work you're doing or your experience in Dubai that we didn't yet talk about?
Rev. Emily: I will say that the other thing that Dubai did do is just to encourage me to in essence have more things to do. One thing about this podcast that I have learned to appreciate is that there's a desire to spark thought things that we need to think about or should think about, and then also a desire to consider what can be done. We are going to do literally an event in Shreveport, April the sixth. We're calling it Reigniting Community awareness, where we are bringing in vendors both from energy perspective, so Sierra Club, and then also Shreveport Green and hopefully Swepco, which is our energy company. But in addition to that, we're going to bring in the local library. We're going to bring in the Ag Center, we're going to bring in Cy Port, which is going to do a demonstration for children as it relates to food.
The subtext for this is going to be food justice. And so in essence, we want to talk about the insecurities of a region up here as it relates to food and how when you don't have access to quality, affordable food, how it has an effect on the health of your community. And so that's exciting to do, and I'm excited to help develop it and pray that it becomes something that's beneficial for community to start thinking along this line. And even churches to think along the lines of food pantries are good, but if we can also begin to push this dynamic of food sovereignty, of small gardens, of community gardens, of supporting farmers, of supporting black farmers or minority farmers, because we're all neighbors and we're all interconnected, we are all connected. And so yeah, that's where I am and that's where I land.
Crystal: Well, you're giving so much. You're working so hard for your community, for the world. How do you keep your own spirit in shape, which is that question that we ask all of our guests on the podcast.
Rev. Emily: So keeping my spirit in check, what it requires is literally I do a lot of walking. I'm in a rural area, but I'm finding myself with the necessity. I might roll out of bed. It could be as soon as the sun comes up. And because I'm rural, I might roll out of bed, put some tennis shoes on, a couple of pieces of clothing so that if anything happens, I'm okay. But just taking long walks without my phone, that's the hard part. But that's the needed part because we're a society where our phone is attached to our hip. But to be able to get out into the space, to be able to get out into the land. And sometimes I literally will take my shoes off and walk on the grass. And for whatever reason, that by itself has this ability to center me, to ground me. I don't know what it is about shoes on grass or on a field, but there's a connectedness with the Earth. There's a connectedness with the Holy Spirit. And so for me, that is the thing that I do is take those walks in a rural space where there's trees and grass, I might hear some cows, definitely see some squirrels pray I don't see any snakes. And then just to be able to be in that space without my cell phone so that I can allow some one-on-one time with the elements and one-on-one time with the host.
Crystal: And enjoy God's creation.
Rev. Emily: That's it. And enjoy God's creation.
Crystal: Reverend Emily, thank you so much for being a guest on “Get Your Spirit in Shape.” It was just such a delight to have you here to hear about the important work that you and so many others are doing. And we will link to some sites where other people who are interested can find out more on what they can do in their churches, what they can do, even on a national level. So we'll have that on our episode page for sure.
Rev. Emily: Thank you so much for this time. I have greatly enjoyed this opportunity to talk and to fellowship with you on today. Thank you.
Epilogue
That was the Reverend Emily Carroll discussing her experience at the United Nations Climate Change Conference. To learn more, go to umc.org/podcast and look for this episode where you will find helpful links and a transcript of our conversation. If you have questions or comments, feel free to email me at a special email address just for “Get Your Spirit in Shape” listeners: [email protected]. If you enjoyed today's episode, we invite you to leave a review on the podcast platform where you listen. Thank you for taking the time to join us on "Get Your Spirit in Shape." I'm Crystal Caviness and I look forward to the next time that we're together.
