#ExodusAlliance Call to Action (with initial signers at the end of the Call)

We are leaders and organizations of Faith communities committed to eco/social justice and healing—committed to act in the greatest planetary emergency ever experienced by Humankind. 

We will draw on the wisdom and practices of the Biblical and Quranic stories of the Exodus to heal Earth and Humanity fr.om the Plagues brought on by the stubbornness, arrogance, and cruelty of modern Corporate Carbon Pharaohs.

We plan to organize in many cities, groups of people for nonviolent action – public sermons and prayers, pilgrimages, vigils. Especially in the light of deadly deadlock that has paralyzed serious Federal Governmental action, we seek to erase the financial underpinnings of the Carbon Pharaohs. 

On the fourth, fifth, or sixth days of Passover – Tuesday through Thursday April 19 through 21 -- we intend to challenge Chase Bank in its many branches, and other such investors as Vanguard, for each is very high on the list of the world’s deadly investors in the Fossil Fuel Pharaohs.

#ExodusAlliance actions are happening as part of a global season of multifaith climate action called, “Sacred Season,” organized by GreenFaith, The Shalom Center, and many others. From March 19-May 6, faith communities from across the world will be mobilizing for a livable planet and just transition. Deeply rooted in the story of the ancient Israelite liberation from Pharaoh, #ExodusAlliance is one key "species" in the ecosystem of Sacred Season.

How do we plan to do this? 

1. Beginning 52 years ago, Freedom Seders have drawn on liberatory passages from many traditions. We will bring an activist Street Freedom Seder to the doorsteps of Chase and other deadly investors, demanding they not only end all support for any aspect of the fossil-fuel industry but also turn their investments to grow the economy of Life.
2. We will disseminate the new Street Earth Seder with such voices as Moses, Gandhi, Greta Thunberg, Martin Buber, Malcolm X, Rachel Carson, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Elin Schade, Wendell Berry, Rabbi Jennie Rosenn, Pope Francis, Rosemary Radford Ruether, Rabbi Ellen Bernstein, Rev. William Barber II. It will include the Matzah “unleavened bread” we are taught was baked so quickly that it could not rise, in order to meet what Dr. Martin Luther King called “the fierce urgency of Now.” It will include the Palm fronds that for Christians recall the justice march of the first Palm Sunday.  Among its banners will be the Hamsa of Muslim symbolism. It will include the Bitter Herb of slavery and plagues, the life-affirming Greens of parsley and the delicious Charoset of a new society.
3. We will gather and share information on how Chase Bank and others are financing the Plagues. In addition, some communities may choose to face clergy pension funds or similar funds that unthinkingly invest in planetary death. Houses of faith and their faith-filled members may want to transfer their accounts and credit cards from Chase. There may be other choices. We will use the slogan “Move Our Money; Protect Our Planet.”
4. We will share with many different communities our own and their texts, prayers, meditations, stories, songs, practices, and art from ancient treasure-houses and current creativity.  And so we will connect with many festivals that celebrate Infusions of the Spirit in the past, with many actions to affirm the Spirit in the future.  

We affirm and support that people of diverse communities of faith, and some individual and organizational signers of this Call, while joining in the #ExodusAlliance actions, may also during the Sacred Season from March 19 to May 6, 2022 and beyond, carry out other nonviolent actions to heal Earth and Humanity from the climate crisis. 

In all this we pledge ourselves to begin but not to end with signatures of leaders and names of organizations. We intend to mobilize thousands of members of faith communities to take part in these nonviolent vigils and pilgrimages. 

And in all this we speak in the name of the many Names our varied communities give the sacred One Breath, One Spirit that unites all life upon our beloved Earth.

Signed --

Organizational Partners:

• The Shalom Center
• Hazon
• Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) 
• JYCM (Jewish Youth Climate Movement)
• Dayenu
• Jewish Earth Alliance
• Third Act
• GreenFaith
• EQAT (Earth Quaker Action Team)
• Neohasid.org
• Tikkun
• Network of Spiritual Progressives
• Jewish Climate Action Network-- NYC
• Jewish Climate Action Network -- Massachusetts

 Individual Signatories (organization listed for identification only, but pursuing possibility of organizational engagement):

• Rabbi Katy Allen, Jewish Climate Action Network – Mass.
• Pat Almonrode, Environmental Stewardship Committee, Metro NY Synod, ELCA
• Rev. Dr. Jim Antal, Special Advisor on Climate Justice to UCC Minister and President
• Rabbi Ellen Bernstein, Founder, Shomrei Adamah
• Robert Brand, Senior Staff, The Shalom Center 
• Nurete Brenner, Ph.D., Executive Director. Lake Erie Institute
• Cherie Brown, CEO, National Coalition-Building Institute
• Patrick Carolan, co-founder Global Catholic Climate Movement, former ED Franciscan Action Network.
• Rabbi Nate DeGroot, National Organizer, The Shalom Center 
• Eileen Flanagan, Interim Campaign Director, EQAT (Earth Quaker Action Team)
• Dr. Mirele B. Goldsmith, Jewish Earth Alliance
•  Rabbi Jill Hammer, PhD, Co-founder, Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute
• Bob Fulkerson, Lead National Organizer, Third Act
• JYCM Leaders -- Madeline Canfield, Morgan Long, Liana Rothman – Jewish Youth Climate  Movement/ Hazon
• Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster, Executive Vice President, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
• Rabb Michael Lerner
• Adriane Leveen, Steerimg Committee Co-Chair, JCAN-NYC
• Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, POWER Interfaith
• Jakir Manela, Executive Director, Hazon
• Rabbi Jonah Pesner, Executive Director, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
• David Schreiber, Jewish Climate Action Network of MA
• Rabbi David Seidenberg
• Rabbi David Shneyer, Am Kolel
• Rabbi Daniel Swartz, Executive Director, Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL)
• Rabbi Elliot Tepperman, President, Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association
• Rabbi Arthur Ocean Waskow, Executive Director, The Shalom Center 
• Rabbi Elyse Wechterman, Executive Director, Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association
• Rev. Jim Winkler, General Secretary, National Council of Churches USA
• Cat Zavis, Network of Spiritual Progressives

To join these signers as supporter and participant in #ExodusAlliance,  please click here:

ExodusAlliance.org