Jamaica Plain, Chuck in Conversation with Minda Sanchez Jariwala

"Altar Building and Dying Wise in the Anthropocene."  

Chuck Collins’ new novel explores altar-building, new approaches to death and dying, and one community’s response to climate disruption. Scenes are set in Jamaica Plain and at First Church. Minda Sanchez Jariwala is a death doula, community weaver, altar-builder, and scholar of the Orphan Wisdom School, founded and led by Stephen Jenkinson, author of Die Wise: A Manifesto of Sanity and Soul.

Doors open at 6:30, talk at 7:00. Free and open to the public Reserve a free ticket at Eventbrite and invite friends via Facebook Event

ABOUT THE BOOK

https://greenwriterspress.com/book/altar-to-an-erupting-sun/

Altar to an Erupting Sun is a near-future story of one community facing climate disruption in the critical decade ahead. Rae Kelliher is a veteran environmental activist and pioneer in the death-with-dignity movement. Facing a diagnosis of terminal illness, she engages in a shocking suicide murder, taking the life of an oil company CEO for his role in delaying responses to climate disruption. Seven years later, Rae’s friends and family gather at her Vermont farm community to try to understand her violent exit and the rapid social transformations around them.

With characters based on people in the area and the region featured in the book, this event is truly a homecoming for the book!

PRAISE

“A fascinating look at movements and the people who make them up, in the spirit of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future.”

—Bill McKibben, co-founder of Third Act and 350.org

“...This book has it all: a recipe for poppy tea, a short history of U.S. imperialism in the last 70 years, highlights of the nonviolent resistance that met it every step of the way, a compelling argument for green burials and funeral services for the living. You will fall in love with these characters, which will help you love your friends and yourself a little more. You will remember to revere this planet...”

—Frida Berrigan, activist and author of It Runs in the Family: On Being Raised By Radicals and Growing Into Rebellious Motherhood

“This novel is indeed a gift to our remembrance and inspiration for our future. Collins tells a story of a movement, or movements, which need to be told. I know these stories, love them, and have lived many of them with characters bigger than life, more courageous than any heroes of the past, and a commitment to Mother Earth.”

—Winona LaDuke, Honor the Earth, author of All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chuck Collins is a campaigner and storyteller who has worked for decades on environmental and economic justice campaigns. He is the Director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies where he co-edits Inequality.org. He is co-founder of DivestInvest.org, a global movement to divest from fossil fuels and invest in climate solutions, a trustee of the Post-Carbon Institute and Resilience.org, and a founding board member of the Patriotic Millionaires.

His 2021 book, The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions, is about the wealth-hiding industry (Polity). He is the author of the popular book, Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common Good (Chelsea Green) and, with Bill Gates Sr., Wealth and Our Commonwealth (Beacon Press), a case for taxing inherited fortunes.

ABOUT THE HOSTS

https://firstchurchjp.org/about-us/welcome/

Unitarian Universalist congregations are places where individuality and interdependence connect. We gather to encourage one another in our personal spiritual journeys, to accompany one another as we make meaning by which to live our lives. We gather to add our perspectives and insights, our energy and our determination to the tasks of making our world better for all, to add our commitments and our voices to work for justice.

These are the stuff of life in this congregation.

We gather for worship on Sunday morning, joining in prayer and in song.

Some of us serve in our food pantry.

Our building is home to the energy and creativity of KidsArt, a multicultural arts program.

Here we greet one another as neighbors.

We invite you to be our guest. We invite you to learn more about us. If you are looking for a liberal religious community to call home, you just might find it here.

Hope to see you in church!

-Rev. Elizabeth Bukey Saunter, Minister