Texts:
Psalm 80; Matthew 21: 33-46 Last March the New Jersey State Department of Environmental Protection in response to an executive order by Governor Christie began a process of lifting what it called “unduly burdensome” regulations that anti-regulators said impeded the growth of business in New Jersey. Needless to say, most environmental groups and some legislators denounced the move, saying that it would permit industry to pollute drinking water supply, developers to destroy valuable open space, and industry to create more brownfields.
Brownfields are defined by State statute as any “former or current or industrial site that is currently vacant or underutilized and on which there has been, or there is suspected to have been, a discharge of contaminants.” New Jersey has 23,000 such
identified
VIEW FULL ARTICLE
Texts:
Acts 9: 10-19; Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23Experienced gardeners know that the secret to a great garden is building good, rich, organic soil. The problem is, of course, how to do that
and protect your potential seedlings from the elements that would destroy a young plant: birds, the summer sun, or a heavy rain that washes away all your efforts. Gardening, a source of weekend pleasure for many of us, was a full-time occupation for our ancestors. They didn't have lovely little plots of land with plants purchased at Dearborn or Home Depot; they harvested seeds from the plants they had and carefully planted them for food. If the seeds didn't take enough to grow, and if nature didn't cooperate in some manner, there was no food.
Our agricultural forebearers knew that certain things were essential to h...
VIEW FULL ARTICLE
Texts:
Psalm 96; John 4: 5-30When I was ten years old I went with my parents on a family vacation to St. Augustine, Florida. As most Americans, having been raised on the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock and Jamestown stories of how the brave English weathered the storms of Virginia and New England to plant the seeds of what became our nation, I remember my surprise when I learned that St. Augustine had been the site of the first permanent European settlement on the North American continent. Established in 1565, it predated Jamestown by forty years. As English settlements in America moved farther south, conflicts began to arise between the Spanish colony and the English ones exacerbated by old hatreds based on religion and conflicts back in Europe. The fact that Florida sheltered escaped slaves provided they declare themselves ...
VIEW FULL ARTICLE
Texts:
Psalm 86; Luke 11: 1-11Kimi Wei is a single mother who lives in an apartment with her two children in another part of New Jersey. Her landlord was ready to evict her and her pleas that she was just getting back on her feet fell on deaf ears. Had it not been for an attorney from New Jersey Legal Services she and her children would have become guests in a faith based homeless shelter program. But she and about 11,000 others will not be able to secure legal services thanks to another lawyer who lives in the wealthy town of Mendam. You will know him as the one who guts public school funding-- his children go to parochial schools; who wants the State Supreme Court to reflect his philosophy of affordable housing in wealthy towns -- there will be none; and who is now proposing in his so-called austerity budget to fund ...
VIEW FULL ARTICLE
