I’m a unicorn. I’m a Pacific Northwesterner who is both progressive and religious. Nobody has called me weird to my face, exactly, but I imagine I’m a bane to White Christian Nationalists and lefty atheists alike. Heathen commie, I imagine the one group saying. Or the atheists: Poor sap, believing in God in a world like this.
But my faith is joyful and grounding to me. It makes me kinder, and steadier, and holds me to higher standards than I’d otherwise have. And here’s the thing: in 2017 I discovered a little tribe of fellow unicorns, and joined them. It’s called the metro-Portland cohort of EcoFaith Recovery, and we stand for compassion, climate justice, solidarity with people of color and also with things that don’t have voices, like rivers. We focus on the margins, the way Jesus did. Our roots are in three things: community organizing, twelve-step recovery and progressive religion. EcoFaith partnered with Verde, NAACP, APANO and other organizations to help get the Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF) passed in 2018. PCEF has been so successful in moving 1% of large corporations’ sales receipts into community and climate justice investments here in Portland that corporations, alarmed, have felt the need to block other cities from passing similar initiatives. Unicorns and their friends can be powerful.
I’ve been giving monthly to EcoFaith since November 2017, with joy. EcoFaith’s very part time staff (each of whom is very dear to me) has shared that in order to end the year in the black, EcoFaith still needs to raise $31,873.68. Every dollar you and I give will help EcoFaith reach this goal. I invite you to join me in offering a gift today to advancing climate, social and racial justice and enabling EcoFaith to offer the foundation it needs to continue this great work in the years to come.
To help us do this, a $6,000 matching grant is currently available for new and increased donations. This grant will match first time donations, the amount of any increased donation from past years, the 12 month value of any new or increased monthly sustaining donation set up before the end of 2023. (For example, if you gave a total of $100 last year and increase your donation to $200 this year, the additional $100 will be matched. Or, if you increase your monthly donation from $10 to $20, the extra $10 per month x 12 months will earn a $120 match for EcoFaith!)
You can set up a one time or sustaining gift donation in just a few minutes at this link. Thank you in advance for joining me in giving to EcoFaith, and for listening to this unicorn’s story of how religion and progressive values can be wedded, including — or maybe especially –- here in the Pacific Northwest.
Alison Wiley
Portland, Oregon