School Stike For Climate

Sixteen year old Greta Thunberg from Stockholm Sweeden began a one person student strike in front of the Swedish Parliament last year to draw attention to climate change. Greta has now been joined by thousands of students around the globe and has spoken to world leaders on several occasions, Greta has even done a TED Talk. At the 2018 UN Climate Change Conference Greta said that "Until you start focusing on what needs to be done rather than what is politically possible, there is no hope. We cannot solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis."



In August 2019 Greta sailed across the Atlantic to participate in a climate conference in New York. You can follow Greta Thunberg on Twitter @GretaThunberg.

#fridaysforfuture   #schoolstrike4climate   #climatestrike

And Jehovah God taketh the man, and causeth him to rest in the garden of Eden, to serve it, and to keep it. (Genesis 2:15)

Peace, Love and Light!
Kevin (Cloud)

UPDATED: 08/31/2019

The Woodstock Nun

Sister Susanne Bunn is seen here flashing the Peace Sign in a screenshot from the film Woodstock. Fifty years ago this month Sister Susanne of the Mission Helpers of the Sacred Heart along with two other nuns were asked to go down to Bethel New York in Sullivan County to check out the upcoming Woodstock Music and Art Fair a few days before the opening day. 

According to an interview with the Archdiocese of Baltimore Catholic Review Sister Susanne said that flashing the Peace Sign "was just how I greeted people, speaking their language”.

Sister Susanne also said that someone seeing the happy nun at Woodstock one might infer that if the faith connection is possible in such an apparently unlikely context, “then it has to be connected in my life.”

Sister Susanne Bunn (Photo: Kevin J. Parks)

Today, Sister Susanne is recently retired from directing religious education programs at two churches. One was at Prince of Peace Church in Edgewood Maryland and the other was at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Joppa Maryland.

…As the scripture says, “How wonderful is the coming of messengers who bring good news!” (Romans 10:15)

Peace, Love and Light!
Kevin (Cloud)

(Updated 08/17/2019)

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The Gospel According To Woodstock - The Golden Rule

John B. Sebastian - Woodstock 1969 photo credit Henry Diltz

The spirit of the Golden Rule was evident at Woodstock in 1969 as reported by radio journalist Howard Smith, who said “the hippie philosophies, such as love, sharing with a stranger and an open-minded empathy, are all around us.”

With only about a dozen police officers there to keep law and order for nearly 500,000 people it is amazing that there were no reports of violence during the three days of Woodstock. Security for the three day festival was provided by Wavy Gravy's Hog Farm commune dubbed the "Please Force".

"The one major thing you have to remember is that the man next to you is your brother, and you'd damn well better treat each other that way because if you don't, then we blow the whole thing, but we've got it right there."
-"Chip" Monck, Woodstock Stage Announcer

One lesson that Woodstock taught us is that half a million people can gather in one place for three days and live out the Golden Rule in spite of rain, mud, traffic jams and food shortages.

"So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets."
-Jesus (Matthew 7:12

Peace, Love and Light!
Kevin (Cloud)

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Rock Mass Woodstock 50th Anniversary Edition

Rock Mass on the first Sunday of the month.

Rock Mass for Sunday August 4, 2019 

Woodstock 50th Anniversary Edition

“It was about spirituality, about love,

about sharing, about helping each other,

living in peace and harmony.”

 ~Richie Havens, the opening performer at Woodstock 1969

In August 1969 the Woodstock Music & Art Fair took place on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, NY with over half a million people in attendance. In the midst of all the self indulgent sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll the Gospel could be found at Woodstock.

Hippie Sunday School Bus at Woodstock, August 1969

Nun flashing Peace Sign at Woodstock, August 1969

"Well, I came upon a child of God he was walking along the road..."


"I had a dream last night, what a lovely dream it was, I dreamed we all were alright..."


"I got a telephone in my bosom and I can call him up from heart..."


"There's always a little bit of heaven in a disaster area." Wavy Gravy (Hugh Romney)


"God bless you"


"Oh happy day, When Jesus washed, He washed my sins away"


"...Any day now, any day now I shall be released"


"...Following you I climb the mountains I get excitement at your feet"


"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound..."

“The time has come for America to help the whole world with spirituality also”

"God loves America" Hippie School Bus at Woodstock, August 1969

Here are some of my other Woodstock related posts:

The Gospel According To Woodstock - The Golden Rule

The Gospel According To Woodstock - You Did It Unto Me

The Gospel According To Woodstock - Blessed Are The Peacemakers

The Gospel According To Woodstock - What God Hath Joined Together, Let No Man Put Asunder

The Gospel According To Woodstock - Amazing Grace 

The Gospel According To Woodstock - We Are Stardust 

 

Peace, Love and Light!
Kevin (Cloud) 

(Originally posted 08-05-2018, revised 08-04-2019)

The inspiration for creating "Rock Mass" came from the Rock Mass at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena California back in the early 1970’s. On the first Friday night of each month All Saints held a Rock Mass which was a mix of traditional Episcopalian Mass and rock concert. A live band would play popular rock music which couldn’t necessarily be called “Christian” but contained spiritual phrases and references to God or Jesus. During the 1960’s and early 1970’s there was an explosion of these songs coming out of the "secular" music industry way before there was “Contemporary Christian Music”, in a way, it could be called "The Gospel According To Billboard's Top 10".

(Stained glass guitar angel found at www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber)

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The Gospel According Woodstock - You Did It Unto Me

"A girl helps herself to a free food ration in the camp area at the Woodstock Music Festival in Bethel, New York, on Aug. 15, 1969." Photo Credit: AP

During Woodstock 1969 there was a serious problem with food shortages. Food vendors and concert organizers greatly under estimated the vast numbers of people that would show up.

Faith groups and local towns people mobilized an emergency response effort to help feed nearly half a million hungry concert goers. A Jewish Community Center worked together with Catholic nuns and volunteers from Methodist and Presbyterian churches to make hundreds of sandwiches.

"Thirty thousand sandwiches were prepared in Monticello by the Women’s Group of the Jewish Community Center (dirty hippies are one thing, but hungry children are another) and they were distributed by Sisters of the Convent of St. Thomas.” - Jan Hodenfield, Rolling Stone Magazine, September 20, 1969

Wavy Gravy and the Hog Farm stepped up to serve free meals of brown rice with veggies - also the crowd was introduced to granola!

“Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” ~Jesus (Matthew 25:40)

Peace, Love and Light
Kevin (Cloud)

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