Houses of worship have become a growing concern for Colorado health departments as the number of COVID-19 outbreaks within church communities and at religious events has climbed.

In the last two weeks there have been at least four COVID-19 outbreaks at churches, according to state and county health departments.

Two of those outbreaks occurred in Garfield County at the Iglesia de Dios Pentacostal in Parachute, with at least eight lab-confirmed cases, and the Pan de Vida church in Rifle, with at least 14 lab-confirmed cases. All cases were reported among church attendees.

According to the Garfield County Public Health department, most of the spread occurred prior to the state mask ordinance and a case investigation revealed that there was little social distancing or mask-wearing.

Another common factor among the outbreaks in Garfield County was that group singing was incorporated into worship services. Case studies conducted by the Centers for Disease Control have found that singing could lead to further spread of COVID-19.

Preliminary results from a study at the University of Colorado showed that more aerosols were released by singers depending on the intensity of the song and the words spoken. The singer in the study released the most aerosols when performing a church choir piece than any other type of song tested. That study has not yet been completed or peer-reviewed and the results may change.

"Singing releases smaller infectious particles that can hang in the air and circulate in enclosed spaces, and the risk increases when there are large numbers of people indoors, a spokesperson from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment wrote in an email. "Our guidance related to houses of worship strongly discourages choirs and singing by parishioners."

Despite CDPHE guidance, both churches have Facebook Live videos recorded in the last several weeks that show group singing. Pan de Vidas most recent Facebook Live video that included unmasked singing was posted Sunday.

The two other outbreaks at churches were exclusively among staff members at the Springs Journey Church in Colorado Springs and at The Heights Church in Denver. None of the churches could be reached for comment.

The new church outbreaks come several weeks after a large outbreak at the Andrew Wommack Ministries bible conference in Woodland Park. While the Teller County health department pre-approved the conference, CDPHE served organizers a cease and desist letter halfway through, on July 2, after the agency received information that events at the conference would likely exceed the 175-person capacity limit in the public health order. A spokesperson for Andrew Wommack Ministries would not confirm if they broke capacity limits, but conceded that it was possible.

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Colorado Places Of Worship Have Become A Worrying Source Of Coronavirus Outbreaks - Colorado Public Radio

J. wrote: With more people likely using Citi Bikes to get around and return to some days in schools and offices, its going to be helpful to have even more bikes available downtown. Now that the epic Warren Street Reconstruction Project is finally completed, do you know when (or if) Citi Bike will be re-installing the old station on Warren & West Broadway as well as the station that used to be in front of the Tribeca Whole Foods?

So I will take a circuitous route on this question, since I had already been needling DOT for an answer when I got J.s note, and start with the station on Greenwich and Duane that is causing much consternation.

Some neighbors there (and the restaurants themselves) are still pushing for the station to be moved so The Hideaway and Tokyo Bay can take advantage of the curbside dining part of the citys Open Restaurants program. That program goes till Oct. 31 and the mayor said recently that it will be extended for next summer as well, so making a move now could have lasting repercussions for both businesses.

But DOT told me that they are not going to move it, and while there is a planned expansion, they will hold off until Open Restaurants ends.

A DOT spokesperson said the regulations of the Open Restaurants program outlined in the FAQ section state that the city will not relocate street furniture to accommodate a restaurant. (Street furniture usually means bus stops, benches, light posts, garbage cans, etc, but I am not sure why it should therefore include Citi Bike stations, which are designed to be modular and moveable.)

DOT is working to balance multiple aspects of the Citys recovery, which includes adding facilities for multimodal travel and programming public open space to promote social distancing. As part of Citi Bike infill, we are planning to increase dock capacity at the station on Duane Street. While we are moving forward with our infill plans in other locations, we will be holding off on the Duane Street station expansion until the Open Restaurants program concludes.

As for the original Nosy Neighbor question, DOT said that Greenwich has a pending capital project (maybe that is what is going on in front of Whole Foods now?) and the station will be returned after its completion. They said that the relocation site for that one is the one in front of Target on Greenwich and Murray. (Its been so long that I thought that one had always been there)

But as for West Broadway and Warren, they say we made that one up and now that I really rack my brain, was it in fact at Church and Warren in front of what is now 30 Warren? Who can confirm?? UPDATE: Two readers sent Google street view images of the station that was once on Warren between West Broadway and Church in front of the Mysterious Bookshop. See the screenshot below, taken in 2014.

Heres the DOT response: There are no records of a station at W. Broadway and Warren Street. We are surveying West Broadway & Church Street, but no timeline for return right now.

So to sum up, DOT is in an odd predicament to be both the overlord on bike transportation and restaurant expansion (see how important our streets have become?) but it seems to me the best approach here would be to move Duane around the corner to Greenwich and NOT expand it (maybe expand instead at Hudson and Reade) AND return the ghost station at West Broadway and Warren to add more capacity, especially since the Whole Foods one is delayed for more construction.

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Nosy Neighbor: When will the Citi Bike stations be re-installed? - Tribeca Citizen

Aliquippa becomes home to people from around the world, a place with community pride and a legendary blue-collar work ethic crafted in the fiery ovens of the mills. Over the next 90 years, Aliquippa would see its share of ups and downs, but its beginnings are a story that can never be taken away.

This is the fourth and final column in a series detailing the complete and definitive history of Aliquippa.

The decade of the 1910s was a pivotal one in American history. The opulence of the Gilded Age had given way to a steady stream of assembly-line factories, mill towns and thriving cities that were suddenly growing up instead of out due to the proliferation of steel production. Skyscrapers were the new game in town.

In the northeast, cities such as New York, Philadelphia, Boston and, of course, Pittsburgh, were growly rapidly. The same was happening to St. Louis, Detroit and Chicago in the Midwest and in San Francisco and Los Angeles on the West Coast.Each city had its own share of both promise and blight, as illustrated by the ghetto neighborhoods that surrounded most industrial areas. The rich were still getting richer, even in 1910.

Outside of the major cities, America was more akin to the lifestyle of the 19th century. The concept of the suburb was one that wouldnt materialize for another few decades, so anyone living outside of the reach of railroads or streetcar lines was essentially cut off from the modern world. Automobiles were beginning to appear, but they were still very much a novelty item for the wealthy.

Farming was still the main occupation outside of the cities, but it was getting much more difficult to make a living doing it. Railroads had connected the nation, making farming a national industry instead of a local one. Massive farms in the west were producing millions of tons of produce each year with much less overhead, resulting in large quantities of cheap food that could be transported anywhere in the country via rail. A grocery store in New York could now sell real Georgia peaches, grapes from California, potatoes from Idaho, and corn from Indiana all in the same week.

In the south, the second post-slavery generation of African-Americans were still dealing with rampant oppression. Jim Crow laws, upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson In 1896, had created the "separate but equal" legal doctrine, legalizing racial segregation in the former Confederate states. Southern Blacks wanted and deserved a chance at a better life.

All of these reasons were considered by the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. when advertising its new steel town of Woodlawn in 1910. The company had thousands of jobs to fill in the now-operating blast furnace complex, not to mention the hundreds that would be needed to continue construction of the adjacent mills along the Ohio River.

But, how would the company reach the oppressed in the South, the forgotten in the ghettos and the desperate in the heartland? How would they inform them of the new American Dream taking shape in Woodlawn, Pennsylvania? In an age before communication became instant, this would require some innovative methods.

'Woodlawn on the Ohio'

By spring 1912, the new Aliquippa Works of J&L Steel was humming. Three blast furnaces were operating 24/7, along with the tinplate, rod-iron, nail, open-hearth and blooming mills. A fourth blast furnace and the Bessemer Converter were under construction and scheduled to open in August. An influx of workers wasnt just needed; it was essential to the continued growth of the complex.

On the town side, the Woodlawn Land Co. had completed more than 1,500 houses in Plans 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 11 and 12. Plan 8, also known as Orchard Plan, was nearing completion. On Temple and Oliver streets in Plan 12, 16 brick blocks of homes that would come to be known as "The Bricks" were almost finished. Each house in Woodlawn was equipped with a bath, hot/cold water, natural gas heating, electric lighting, porches, attics, basements and large lawns that no other steel town could match. Workers could move their families in on Day One and their mortgage payments would be automatically deducted from their weekly pay envelopes.

From a civic standpoint, the borough of Woodlawn now possessed all of the modern amenities of a progressive industrial city. It had two schools Logstown and Highland with a third, the towns first high school, under construction. This building would later be known as Franklin School. Laughlin and Jones Schools would not be built for a few more years.

Construction of the Woodlawn & Southern Street Railway began in 1912, the boroughs first public transportation system. A fire department was begun in 1909, later joined by a police department, water company and street department. The new $30,000 municipal building was dedicated on March 8, 1911. Streets were paved with macadam and lined with newly planted trees to add elegance.

Along Franklin Avenue, the town had a quickly developing downtown. Two hotels, the Franklin and the National European, welcomed newcomers to Woodlawn. The Woodlawn Trust Company, the towns first bank, opened in 1910. The bank building also hosted the boroughs first U.S. Post Office. All of downtown was built around the massive five-story Pittsburgh Mercantile Co. building, the "company store" that served steelworkers and their families on a credit system. Shoppers came for the company store, but stayed for the food, drinks and excitement along "The Avenue."

The Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad was very influential in Woodlawn. In 1909, the railroad began construction of a new passenger station and freight depot, both of which stand to this day. Rail was also the main transportation for prospective residents to get a glimpse of Woodlawn. The railroad offered free daily rides from Pittsburgh.

The Woodlawn Land Co. knew that it would need more than Pittsburgh connections to bring the number of workers J&L needed. In March 1912, a free 14-page picture booklet was published to show the world what Woodlawn had to offer. These booklets, titled "Woodlawn on the Ohio," were carried by the P&LE Railroad and its partner lines and made available at every station along their routes. The land company also took out ads in newspapers around the country, even as far away as California. Soon, a steady stream of people was showing up daily at the Woodlawn passenger station.

Immigrants Chasing the Dream

The "Woodlawn on the Ohio" booklets were a smash hit. People not only took them for their own purposes, they also sent them back to the Old Country for their friends and relatives. The opportunity to find a good-paying job, a new house, and a real ground-floor community was an incredible lure. By late 1913, Woodlawn had become one of the key destinations for new arrivals at Ellis Island. It was a true land of opportunity, and the P&LE Railroad was its gatekeeper.

In 1912, the railroad took an unconventional step to ensure it could handle the rush of immigrants. For the first time, the company employed bilingual agents at its Woodlawn station. Whether you spoke French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Greek, Portuguese, German, Hebrew or Croatian, there would be an agent waiting to help you find your way.

Upon arriving at Woodlawn, most immigrants began looking for the plan of homes nearest to their fellow countrymen. They wanted to be around those who spoke their language and shared their customs. As the plans filled, each one began to develop its own unique ethnic feel. Plan 4, for instance, was home to many Greek immigrants. The Greek Orthodox Church was located there, as were several Greek grocers. This same trend occurred in nearly every plan. Woodlawn was a segregated community, but it was an organically segregated community.

Revisionist history has always claimed that J&L Steel purposely segregated the town to create divisions among the workforce. This was not true, even if the end result did resemble as such. The segregation of Woodlawns plans was done by its own residents out of their own desires and needs. J&L Steel did have two plans that were not open to just anyone, however. Plan 6 was reserved for mill bosses, foremen and superintendents. It was a closed community for the steel companys elite. Plan 12 was reserved for English-speaking workers, regardless if they were naturally born Americans or recent arrivals.

As time went on, many began to look at Woodlawn as the quintessential example of a "melting pot." This was defined as a place where many different cultures slowly "melted" into one Americanized culture through the process of forced assimilation. This also wasnt entirely true. Most immigrants went out of their way to assimilate voluntarily, but it wasnt at the expense of their own ethnic heritages. Woodlawns different nationalities created vibrant community clubs, church organizations, orchestras and sports leagues.Each nationality also brought its own celebrations to Woodlawn, a tradition that lives on through the annual San Rocco Festa each summer.

By 1920, Woodlawn had a foreign-born population of more than 5,000. The largest contingent of immigrants had arrived from Yugoslavia, followed by Italy, Greece, Austria, and Poland. In the interest of civic participation, the Woodlawn School District began offering free English language classes for workers and their families in October 1912.This was an early example of how the town welcomed new arrivals and expected them to contribute to the overall community.

Period of Rapid Growth

While Woodlawn was coming into its own, its northern neighbor also was taking great strides. Aliquippa, todays West Aliquippa, was home to more than 2,000 people in 1914. Another major employer, Kidd Drawn Steel, arrived that year to add even more jobs to the local mix. Aliquippa had a full contingent of borough services, including its own fire department, police department and school system.

Back in Woodlawn, J&L Steel was still growing.A fifth blast furnace went online in 1918, and the company entered the tubular products field with the construction of two buttweld mills and a lapweld mill. The Woodlawn Land Co. was still completing homes at a staggering rate of one per day to meet the demand of the steel firms workforce.

Woodlawn also saw a number of churches founded during this period, starting with St. Titus Roman Catholic Church in 1910. That was followed by the First Methodist Church and First United Presbyterian Church later that year. In 1912, St. Elijah Serbian Orthodox Church was founded in Logstown to serve a growing Eastern European population, and House of Prayer Lutheran Church was built on Sheffield Avenue. SS. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Church (1912), Triedstone Baptist Church (1915), All Saints Episcopal Church (1915), Emmanuel AME Church (1916), Assumption Greek Orthodox Church (1917), St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church (1917), and Agudath Achim Synagogue (1919) rounded out the new congregations around the steel town.

During World War I, the Aliquippa Works operated at more than double capacity, with anywhere from 7,000 to 8,000 workers toiling in the mills at any given time. Woodlawn quickly gained a reputation as one of Americas greatest production towns.

The Roaring Twenties

Woodlawn came out of wartime production as a town of more than 20,000. Just a decade prior, the valley of Logstown Run had been a quiet, wooded place. Now, it buzzed with the sounds of commerce and community around the clock.

As the original plans began to fill up, new developments were started. The McDonald-Short Plan, McDonald Heights and the Hall Plan ("Hollywood") all began construction in 1923. In Aliquippa borough, the P&LE Railroad constructed a series of homes for its employees that reached to the Woodlawn border. The two boroughs were quickly growing closer together.

For recreational purposes, J&L built a large community swimming pool adjacent to its main office building. A new community library, B.F. Jones Memorial, was planned in 1927 and completed in 1929. A gift from the daughter of J&L Steel founder Benjamin Franklin Jones, the library continues to serve the community to this day.

With an endlessly growing population came the need for a modern high school. Land in Plan 12 was donated by J&L Steel and construction began in late 1923. When it opened in 1925, Harding High School named for recently deceased President Warren G. Harding was considered the finest in the state.

As the 1920s dwindled, it became clear that Woodlawn had grown to its boundaries on all sides. With J&L Steel continuing to expand the Aliquippa Works, the community had to do the same. In 1927, officials from both Woodlawn and Aliquippa met to discuss a bold move that would change the local landscape forever.

The Consolidation

Aliquippa was founded nearly two decades prior to Woodlawn, but by 1915 it was the clear number two locally. Woodlawn was a modern community in every sense of the word and was praised across the country as the ideal industrial town. Meanwhile, Aliquippa had become hemmed in on all sides by the Ohio River, P&LE Railroad freight yard and the Aliquippa Works. It was isolated and unable to move forward due to a lack of available land.

In 1927, the idea of a consolidation between the two boroughs was floated at a Woodlawn council meeting. Most Aliquippa residents were against the idea, as they were fiercely loyal to their hometown and could foresee it getting the raw end of any potential deal. However, the power of Woodlawn and J&L Steel pushed the notion until it was finally brought up for a vote.

On Jan. 24, 1928, residents of both towns took to the polls to decide on consolidation.The result was never in question, passing by more than 3,000 votes.While it was the original Aliquippa borough that would be divested of its identity, the name Woodlawn was the one that would disappear forever. Officials decided to take the Aliquippa name for the merged community, due to its historic nature and notoriety as the name of J&L Steels mills, the Aliquippa Works.

Old Aliquippa borough would become known as West Aliquippa. Although the P&LERailroad tracks ran north to south through Beaver County, the line in general was an east-west one. Because the former Aliquippa was the next station after the new Aliquippa heading west on the railroad, it was given the name West Aliquippa.

One more step was taken to create this new, larger borough. Neighboring Hopewell Township was pillaged for a large chunk of its land, including New Sheffield and what is now the area of Kennedy Boulevard. This annexation added another 5,000 acres to Aliquippa borough and gave the town room for future expansion. On Jan. 28, 1928, the official consolidation was put to paper. Modern Aliquippa had been born.

Twenty-two years

It had been just 22 years since P.M. Moore deboarded his train at Woodlawn and became the first Jones & Laughlin Steel employee to call the tiny farming village home.Now, the Borough of Aliquippa had emerged from its fiery beginnings to become a true slice of the American Dream. It was home to people from around the world, a place with community pride and a legendary blue-collar work ethic crafted in the fiery ovens of the mills. Over the next 90 years, Aliquippa would see its share of ups and downs, but its beginnings are a story that can never be taken away.

The story of Aliquippa really is the story of America.

Jeffrey Snedden is a local researcher and historian. Questions, comments or topic ideas for Histories & Mysteries may be emailed to historiesandmysteries@yahoo.com. Every other week, Snedden will choose a few new topics and update past ones with readers notes and questions.

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Histories & Mysteries: Aliquippa emerges from its fiery beginnings to represent the American Dream - The Times

Submitted photo/Dorchester TourismTony Hurley of Chestertown danced at one of the Nause-Waiwash Band of Indians powwows in Vienna.

The Dorchester County Tourism Departments monthly Heritage Partner Spotlight focuses on the Heart of Chesapeake Country Heritage Area (HCCHA) partners and how they have supported heritage tourism in Dorchester County with a project funded by either a Maryland Heritage Areas Authority (MHAA) grant or a HCCHA mini-grant.

This months spotlight shines on the Nause-Waiwash Band of Indians, who continue to preserve and promote their rich history and culture on the Eastern Shore. Native American Heritage is one of the founding themes of the HCCHA, which prioritizes stewardship like that demonstrated by the Nause-Waiwash, as well as the preservation of threatened and vanishing places, practices and stories.

Dept. of TourismSpecial to Dorchester BannerVIENNA Every fall, dancing, music and song fill the Vienna Ballfield as descendants and friends of Eastern Shore Native American tribes gather to honor and celebrate the rich culture and traditions of Dorchester County and its indigenous people. Organized by the Nause-Waiwash Band of Indians, the annual festival features ceremonies, demonstrations, competitions, games and authentic food and crafts.

Neighboring tribes attend to show their support. In 2019, guests included representatives from the Assateague, Nanticoke, Accohannock tribe of Somerset County, Cherokee, Mohawk, Pamunkey, Creek, Blackfoot, Seneca, Lumbee, Tusarora and many other tribes and nations.Native music was played by a flutist from South America, three native drum groups played dancers could dance the potato dance, the grass dance and the sneak-up dance. A tomahawk throw offered a chance for those who wanted to test their skills. A team of sleigh dogs also provided a demonstration from the Native Alaskans culture.

Telling their storyTheir name, Nause-Waiwash (nah-soo WAY-wash), is a reference to two Nanticoke ancestral villages. One was located outside of Cambridge along the Choptank River, and the other was located outside Vienna along the Nanticoke River. Based in Dorchester County, the Nause-Waiwash are the remnants of what Europeans call Nanticoke, Choptank and Pocomoke tribes who fled into the marshes in the 1700s to avoid execution. These three names, Nanticoke, Choptank and Pocomoke, are the names of the three major rivers in the area, which are tributaries of the majestic Chesapeake Bay.

Captain John Smith discovered these Native Americans during his exploration of the Chesapeake Bay in 1608, which is well documented in his writings and history books.In the late 1980s, Sewell Fitzhugh decided that the history, culture and traditions of these Dorchester County Indians needed to be preserved. With the support of local elders, Fitzhugh proceeded with organizing the now Nause-Waiwash Band of Indians, Inc. A council was formed, and as is the tradition, the women of the tribe held an election. Fitzhugh became the first chief of the Nause-Waiwash Band of Indians, Inc.

Tracing lineageOne challenge they have faced is researching and connecting their lineage. As so many were forced to leave their lands, they were given European names and began to identify as either Black or White. For instance, genealogists have found that Sara and Jenny became the most common female Christian names given to Nause-Waiwash ancestors in the 1600s and 1700s, said Chief Wolf Mother Abbott.

The enrollment process for the tribe today calls for tracing the family tree to where the indigenous blood line comes in. They have found that there are several common surnames that repeatedly show up in these searches. Robbins, Abbott, Tall and Hughes are among them.Chief Fitzhugh had a passion for his history, and he learned a lot from his grandmother, Chief Abbott said. He says that when people were educated, it was by word of mouth. By the 1980s, he had an abundant amount of information about the people of this area and lower Dorcheter County.

We all knew we had Indian blood. We all knew we were descendants. But many elders were disgraced so they didnt educate their children about their culture. At least two generations didnt own it or know anything about it. My generation is trying to document the history and recreate the stories. More and more people are starting to embrace their heritage.Today, there are more than 300 listed in the enrollment books, and they come from all over, including Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Delaware and the Virgin Islands.

Activities todayIn 1998, the Nause Waiwash Band of Indians, Inc. was gifted what was the Hughes African Methodist Episcopal Chapel. The church was built around 1894 by trustees of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, whose descendants identify themselves as survivors of the Nanticoke and Choptank Indian communities. Following Hurricane Hazel, when the nearby Hughes Chapel was destroyed, the building was sold to the Trustees of Hughes African Methodist Episcopal Chapel in 1955 and later gifted back to the Nause-Waiwash.

Although it is not a traditional long house, it has an enduring connection to the tribe. The trees used in its original construction were grown and milled by Nause-Waiwash ancestors and donated to the church, Chief Abbott said. When the renovations are completed, the long house will be used as a meeting place and for ceremonies.

In 1992, the tribe held their first Native American Festival on Elliott Island. After a couple years there, the festival moved to Andrews for a year or two and then to Sailwinds Park in Cambridge. In 2006, the festival moved to Vienna, close to their old stomping grounds.

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Continuing the traditions of their ancestors - Dorchester Banner - Dorchester Banner

At last the BJP succeeded in alarming the Muslims of India that they must move to some other place as India is meant only for the Hindus. Recently when the work of construction of the Ram Temple was planned to be inaugurated, Prime Minister Modi himself reached Ayodhya to attend the ground-breaking ceremony. Addressing the people present at the occasion he said, Many people made sacrifices for the Ram temple. I pay my respects to all of them. He further said, Social harmony was the core principle of Lord Rams governance. The construction of the Ram temple is an instrument to unite the country. Despite efforts to eradicate Lord Rams existence, he lives in our hearts and is the basis of our culture. It would lift the economy of the entire region. Mr. Modi is no doubt a heart-capturing type of orator. He knows well what to speak and when to speak it, but while giving his statement on construction of the Ram Temple he simply forgot that the legal trial in the Babri demolition case is yet to be completed.

Aljazeera reporting on the construction of the Ram Temple commented, Justice has eluded those who suffered the loss of life and properties in the nationwide violence that ensued in the wake of the destruction of the mosque often dubbed the darkest chapter of modern India. Moreover, the date chosen for this epoch-making ceremony has its own significance. It went on to say, the date chosen for the ceremony also coincides with the first anniversary of the abrogation of the special status of Indian-administered Kashmir, Indias only Muslim majority region that has been the theatre of a bloody armed rebellion for more than 30 years. Certainly this action of the BJP government would widen the distances between the two majority communities of India. The Muslims there are already in a state of suppression leading to depression. Mr. Modi says that his party is trying to promote communal harmony and inter-religion brotherhood but practically it is very much obvious that his political party is doing its utmost to construct a China-Wall of distrust between the Muslims and the Hindus.

Certainly this action of the BJP government would widen the distances between the two majority communities of India. The Muslims there are already in a state of suppression leading to depression. Mr. Modi says that his party is trying to promote communal harmony and inter-religion brotherhood but practically it is very much obvious that his political party is doing its utmost to construct a China-Wall of distrust between the Muslims and the Hindus.

Unfortunately, the Indian Muslims expressed no reaction on the construction of the Ram Temple; they remained silent over this injustice as per tradition. If the Muslims in India were vibrant in this particular context, the situation could have been far different. It seems they are in a state of fear and fright that their reaction would add a lot of miseries to their already troubled life. However, there are a few who expressed their resentment over this issue. Bollywood writer-lyricist Hussain Haidry is one of them. In his recent message on his facebook page he expressed his strong disapproval over the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. He said that progressive people of the Indian society must step forward and form a movement against the construction of the said Temple. As far as the date chosen for the ground-breaking ceremony is concerned, he said that August 5 was chosen well in advance to humiliate Kashmir. On August 5 2019, the Indian government had abrogated Article 370 and paved the way for the greater integration of Jammu and Kashmir with the Union of India.

In the Guardian, on 6th August 2020, Siddhartha Deb penned down an article with the title, Modis acolytes have reminded Indias Muslims just what he thinks of them. The writer said, Since 5 August also happened to be the one-year anniversary of the BJPs unilateral suspension of the special status of Kashmir, a move that led to Kashmiris being subjected to suspension of all civil liberties, this brazen celebration will also serve to remind Muslims in India of their subjugated status in every way, a reminder that nothing is available to them in Modis India, neither history nor geography. In the days to come the Muslims of India are apprehending more atrocities of the same kind. There would be more restrictions on Muslims, more slaughtering of Muslims and more construction of temples after demolishing different mosques by the BJP extremists. According to the latest media reports the BJP is trying to get approval of demolition of over 3000 mosques including the Jamia Masjid Delhi. BJP extremists claim that the pointed out mosques were built after demolishing the Hindu Temples. MP Sakshi Maharaj got particularly emotional that he offered to be hanged if idols were not found underneath the staircases of Jamia Masjid. Be it a temple, a mosque, a Buddhist monastery or a Church; construction of any place of worship is not a crime. All places of worship are sacred but converting a mosque into a temple or a Church into a Buddhist monastery by using force is however a crime. Everywhere in the world, it is the foremost duty of the government to provide safety and security to all places of worship and in most of the cases, governments fulfill their duty but what to do if someone like Modi is playing a leading-role in a government.

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Future of Muslims in India - Pakistan Today

TYSONS, VA Construction activity has kicked off for The Mather, the first continuing care high rise for seniors ages 62 and over in Tysons. Demolition of the existing structure at 7929 Westpark Drive has started, while site work such as utility relocation and public street improvements will happen over the summer. The first phase of the community is slated to open in 2023.

Phase one is currently 65 percent sold out, drawing residents from places like McLean, Arlington, Falls Church, Vienna, DC and Maryland. Nearly 150 priority reservations are being taken for phase two of the community.

The Mather is a life plan community, which means residents can pursue their interests and priorities with a plan in place for aging. Residents can plan ahead for access to additional services, including health care, when needed.

"I'm able to make my own decision about what I want," said Lynn Pivik, a future resident from Bethesda, Maryland. "I can always change my mind, but I go to bed at night knowing that I have a plan, and I'm not leaving anything to chance."

The high rise offers apartments starting at $660,000 and depend on apartment size, location, service package and health plan. Each unit is between 850 to over 3,000 square feet. Units have smart home technology and a home automation hub that can be integrated with smartphones, tablets, and home computer systems.

The Mather will also have retail on Westpark Drive; green space; a park with walking paths, sitting areas and connections to local trails; and parking and loading areas below grade.

A virtual information seminar will be held at 1 p.m. on June 24. More information is available at http://www.themathertysons.com.

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Construction Activity Begins On Senior Living High Rise In Tysons - McLean, VA Patch

A new study has revealed the link between one of Scotlands most famous churches and an ancient forest in Morayshire.

The research into the timber used to build the bell tower of St Giles in Edinburgh has uncovered details about its construction as the kirks 900th anniversary beckons.

Historic Environment Scotland provided funding for the South East Scotland Oak Dendrochronology project, led by Dr Coralie Mills, to investigate the five-storey timber frame within the bell tower of St Giles High Kirk on the Royal Mile.

Originally founded in 1124, the church has undergone many additions and alterations during its history, particularly in the 19th century.

Dendrochronology the process of dating tree rings to the exact year they were formed was conducted on samples from oak timbers in the bell frame, which has refined the probable date for completion of the St Giles bell tower to between 1460 and 1467.

These established the felling dates for timber in the frame in the winters of 1453-54 and 1459-60 and revealed it was sourced from one of the last remaining reserves of old oak timber in Scotland, the Royal Forest of Darnaway, in Morayshire.

Dr Coralie Mills, who carried out the work, told History Scotland: Discovering the date and provenance of the timbers in the tower at St Giles and allowing a new insight into the medieval history of our native woods, has been a highlight of my career.

The mid-15thcentury was a pivotal time when Scotland turned to Scandinavia for most of its timber supply, but this research shows that Darnaway still had reserves of old growth oak, by then a very scarce and valuable resource in Scotland.

The St Giles timbers match closely with other material from reused timber in the Chapel Royal at Stirling Castle, which is also thought to have come from Darnaway.

These results enhance our understanding of St Giles construction history and provide valuable insights into the medieval timber supply in Scotland.

John Lawson, Edinburghs city archaeologist, said: This fascinating research into the original timber used to build the bell tower of St Giles has given us new insight into the Kirk, a building we thought we knew so well.

This has been an incredible piece of work which has helped shed light on the question of exactly when and how the present tower was constructed.

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New study highlights Moray link to construction of St Giles in Edinburgh - Press and Journal

Published 4 June 2020

Glasgow City Heritage Trust has announced over 360,000 of funding to support 12 heritage projects in the city,including five historic building repair projects, in its latest round of funding.

A building repair grant of 57,344 has been awarded towards conservation repairs to the Category A-listed Royal Faculty of Procurators building, which was modelled on Sansovinos Library in Venice and is a rare city centre building by architect Charles Wilson, better known for his work in Glasgows Park District.

As part of the repairs programme, there will also be a small exhibition about the building and Charles Wilson, guided walks around legal buildings in Glasgow, and Strathclyde University Law Clinic will run legal advice clinics.

A building repair grant of 80,000 has been awarded in the form towards conservation repairs to Smiths Hotel at 963 Sauchiehall Street, which is within a Category B-listed early Victorian tenement on the western stretch of Sauchiehall Street as it passes through the Park Conservation Area.

The aim of the project is to return the property to a condition in keeping with the wider Sauchiehall Street townscape in this key approach to Kelvingrove from Glasgow city centre. As part of the repairs programme, there will also be traditional skills training offered to schools and the surrounding community, with site visits and demonstrations of the conservation work in progress.

In Hillhead, a 5,886 collective building repair grant has been offered to the six owners of 3-7 Great George Street, a Category B-Listed early Victorian tenement in Hillhead.

The failing and dangerous window jambs on the tenements main faade have been propped with timbers for several years so the repairs are required on Health and Safety grounds, as well as to preserve the character of the handsome well-proportioned facade.

As part of the repairs programme, the stonemason will be training apprentices in traditional skills, while a traditional skills demonstration event will also be offered to local schools and community.

A viability study is being supported with a 5,000 development grant to Glasgow Building Preservation Trust to help carry out work to determine if Govanhill Trinity Church could be used as a community space.

The Category B-listed building, known locally as the Daisy Street Church and built in 1878, closed as a church in 2015 when its congregation joined forces with nearby Queens Park Govanhill Church. The study will look at the repair works that need to be done to the building and how it could be used in the future to benefit the community.

Other recipients of funding from the Glasgow City Heritage Trust include Smithycroft Secondary School which has been awarded a traditional skills grant of 4,424 to provide vocational traditional construction skills training to a class of 12 pupils, providing them with the skills necessary to improve their employment prospects.

As well as providing a qualification, it is hoped that the course will encourage an appreciation of the historic built environment in Glasgow with speakers and demonstrations from people in a number of traditional construction crafts as well as hands-on experience on current sites.

The Trust has also funded educational and outreach projects including phase two of the popular Ghost Signs of Glasgow project run by volunteers and On Our Streets: Protest & Celebration, a social history study of Govanhill being delivered by Govanhill Baths Community Trust.

Torsten Haak, director of Glasgow City Heritage Trust, said: We are delighted to announce this round of financial support for Glasgows historic buildings and neighbourhoods. Im particularly pleased that we are supporting such a wide variety of projects, from small grants for domestic stonework repairs to comprehensive projects to repair significant buildings in the city centre, along with traditional skills training and projects that will support communities to engage with their local place and their heritage.

Throughout the current crisis we are still open, still listening to ideas and still providing funding for projects that protect, conserve and celebrate our citys rich built heritage. We know how difficult this time is for our partners and colleagues and we are trying to be as supportive and flexible as possible. We want to help those who already have projects underway to continue their work where possible, and to encourage people with new projects in development to get in touch and see if we can help.

With total project costs of 1.4 million for this latest round of support, every pound the Trust has invested has helped to secure another 3 from other sources. This funding has come from the five grant programmes run by the Trust, which is supported by Historic Environment Scotland and Glasgow City Council. Applications are open throughout the year and are considered quarterly. The next closing date is the end of July.

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Historic Glasgow buildings to be protected in 360000 funding round - Scottish Construction Now

SINGAPORE - A construction firm began to assiduously impose strict social distancing measures at its work site and dormitories a few months ago, yet almost 30 per cent of its workers at a project site were infected by Covid-19, said Second Minister for National Development Desmond Lee on Friday (June 5).

Recounting its efforts, he said the measures include having all the workers of a project live at the site and ensuring they are segregated, as well as disallowing those living on different levels of dormitories to mix.

The workers had not left the worksite since late March, even before circuit breaker measures kicked in.

But despite the full attention the management paid to safety and protection against the coronavirus, Covid-19 could not be kept at bay, noted Mr Lee, who is also Minister for Social and Family Development.

He cited the firm, which he did not name, to explain why stringent measures had to be imposed on construction companies before they were allowed to resume work progressively, starting from June 2.

The minister acknowledged their anxieties and eagerness to resume work, which has been suspended for two months under the circuit breaker that ended on June 1.

But the experience of the mentioned project shows how infectious the Covid-19 disease is, and how difficult it is to prevent a single case from infecting many more who live and work together, Mr Lee said during the debate on the supplementary Fortitude Budget.

"Imagine how much more challenging it might befor projects with workers living in different accommodation, or having to move between different sites."

So, it is equally important that the resumption of work is done safely, not just swiftly, he said, given that most of Covid-19 cases were construction workers.

A new case could easily cause another outbreak, which could bring the industry to a halt again, he added.

He also told the House that 60 dormitories have been cleared of Covid-19, and another 111 are due to be cleared in the coming weeks.

Workers tested and found free of the infection are being resettled in designated dormitory blocks.

The minister also said more regular updates will be given to the industry, including a rolling forecast of the dormitory clearance schedule to help the builders plan ahead on when their workers can return to work.

He assured the House that there isenough testing capacity for workers living in the wider community.

And that almost 20,000 safety management officers will be trained this month to ensure workers comply with safety measures, with priority given to officers in charge of projects that are ready to restart.

"Many firms in the construction sector, including many small and medium-sized enterprises, are very anxious about survival and about their future. Let me assure you that our main priority is to restart construction quickly but safely," said Mr Lee.

Singapore's efforts to raise productivity in construction have been going on for decades, Mr Lee said, in his reply to Nominated MP Walter Theseira, who called for a rethink of Singapore's dependence on foreign labour, particularly in construction.

Under the construction sector's Industry Transformation Map, "major structural changes" are needed on how work is done to reduce the reliance on foreign labour, including the greater adoption of technology, the minister said.

But the change will create higher-skilled jobs, including many good jobs for Singaporeans. Foreign workers who take on such jobs will also need to be higher skilled, he noted.

"However, the construction sector will not be able to reduce our foreign worker reliance to zeroas there will still be lower-skilled jobs that Singaporeans do not want to take up.

"We appreciate the contributions of our foreign workers, who have come to Singapore to make an honest living for themselves and their families, and it is incumbent on us to also take good care of them when they are unwell," said Mr Lee.

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Singapore's top priority is to restart construction quickly but safely after Covid-19 circuit breaker, says Desmond Lee - The Straits Times

There was a time when Br. Jaazeal Jakosalem had little success when he asked bishops in the Philippines to join campaigns against mining or coal-fired power plants endangering communities as well as the land.

It wasn't that the bishops were ignoring the issues facing the environment they'd written a half-dozen statements on the topic since the late 1980s. They just weren't as visible in the struggle to do something about them, said Jakosalem, a lifelong environmental activist and a member of the Order of Augustinian Recollects.

Br. Jaazeal Jakosalem, aka Brother Tagoy, joins a direct action against a coal plant in Toledo City, Cebu, Philippines. (Provided photo)

The Philippines is one of the world's front lines on climate change. Last week, Typhoon Vongfong slammed into the Eastern Samar province, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people in a region that seven years earlier was decimated by Typhoon Haiyan. Climate scientists expect such tropical storms to become more powerful and more frequent as global temperatures rise.

Things have changed in the post-Laudato Si' world.

Today, the Catholic Church of the Philippines is seen as one of the leaders in answering the call that Pope Francis issued to the entire world in his 2015 social encyclical, "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home."

Since the encyclical's release, Jakosalem, better known as Brother Tagoy, says more bishops have joined him and other religious in speaking out against the construction of new coal-fired power plants and the damaging effects of mining on both communities and the land. Last July, the Philippine bishops conference issued a pastoral letter on the "climate emergency," calling the full church on the islands to an ecological conversion and to "activate climate action on behalf of the voiceless people and the planet."

"They are emboldened to act more for the caring of our environment," Jakosalem told EarthBeat in a phone interview.

Five years after the publication of Laudato Si', you can easily find such examples across the world of individual Catholics, parishes and institutions responding to the pope's own repeated appeal for ecological conversion with prayer and reflection over the encyclical but also with concrete actions in living it out.

Even with those examples, the consensus among Catholic ecological leaders is those responses have been not nearly as widespread as Francis sought with his universal call "for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet." Count the pope among them.

'When we pass that 1.5 degrees threshold, climate change will move into all of our living rooms.'

Veerabhadran Ramanathan

"Sadly, the urgency of this ecological conversion seems not to have been grasped by international politics, where the response to the problems raised by global issues such as climate change remains very weak and a source of grave concern," Francis said in January in remarks to the Vatican diplomatic corps.

The call for increasingly urgent action from a historically slow-moving institution is driven by awareness of the numerous crises facing the planet.

The coronavirus pandemic struck at the start of a decade that climate scientists say is critical to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Doing so would prevent the most severe consequences of climate change, which threatens to exacerbate poverty, hunger, lack of water access, and migration, all impacting first and fiercest the world's already most vulnerable communities.

Already, global temperatures have risen 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) since the late 1800s. The planet is on pace to warm another 2 degrees C by the end of the century, and to reach the critical 1.5-degree mark as soon as 2030. Roughly 20% of the planet already has, according to a Pulitzer-winning report by The Washington Post.

Veerabhadran Ramanathan speaks on solutions to climate change during a 2018 lecture at Villanova University in Philadelphia. (CNS/Courtesy of Villanova University/Paul Crane)

"When we pass that 1.5 degrees threshold, climate change will move into all of our living rooms," said Veerabhadran Ramanathan, a climate scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego and member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. "You don't have to turn on TV to find out about climate change."

The pandemic has some worried it may slow momentum for addressing climate change. But there is also optimism up to the highest levels of the Catholic Church that how the world responds, economically and otherwise, just may be the multitrillion-dollar stimulus needed to jumpstart the globe to match societal actions with the urgency of the science.

And perhaps Laudato Si' can play a part.

"Laudato Si' has an immense amount of wisdom to charter that path and just aid us in that journey," said Toms Insua, co-founder and executive director of the Global Catholic Climate Movement.

Responding on a global scale

Some of the biggest impacts from Laudato Si' so far are found in what's formed from it.

Take the Global Catholic Climate Movement.

When it launched in January 2015 during Francis' papal trip to the Philippines where he visited communities devastated by Typhoon Haiyan it had 19 members, a mix of church development agencies, religious orders and Catholic environmental groups. In five years, it has grown to more than 900 organizations, representing every continent and more than 50 countries.

'We feel included in this call of Laudato Si'.'

Domenica Reyes

The movement, often called GCCM by members, has spearheaded some of the more prominent response to living out Laudato Si', and all at a global scale. Months after forming, it generated 900,000 signatures onto a Catholic Climate Petition delivered to world leaders at the COP 21 climate summit in Paris. It has trained more than 2,800 Laudato Si' Animators, who are tasked with doing just as their name implies in their local communities. Another 5,000 are in training now.

Each Lent, GCCM has organized creation-centered programs. Through its divest-invest campaign, it has played a leading role in facilitating more than 180 Catholic institutions to publicly declare they will cease investments in the fossil fuel industry.

At World Youth Day 2019 in Panama, GCCM formed a youth branch called Laudato Si' Generation. The group, now at 1,200 members worldwide, has brought a faith-based presence to the youth climate strikes.

Domenica Reyes, co-chair of Laudato Si' Generation, said young Catholics see in Laudato Si' a symbiosis between their faith and their concern for the environment. It's become "a spark," she added, empowering them to get involved and to press their politicians and priests alike to make environmental issues a priority.

"We feel included in this call of Laudato Si'," she said.

Members of Laudato Si' Generation pose with Cardinal Luis Tagle, then archbishop of Manila, Philippines, during World Youth Day in Panama City in 2019. Second from left is Domenica Reyes, co-chair of Laudato Si' Generation, and in center is Toms Insua, executive director of Global Catholic Climate Movement. (Global Catholic Climate Movement)

One of the biggest initiatives around the encyclica to date has been the Sowing Hope for the Planet project, a campaign orchestrated by the International Union of Superios General, an umbrella grou representing 2,000 women religious congregations. A network of 980 contacts share information and resources with their congregations to promote Laudato Si', and in particular its message of answering both "the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor." Sowing Hope for the Planet, for which GCCM is a collaborator, has seen Catholic sisters in the U.S. and Ghana have partnered in a plastic recycling program that reduces waste and provides jobs. The Servants of the Holy Spirit Sisters worked with other nongovernmental organizations to stop mining in Timor West.

Franciscan Sr. Sheila Kinsey, coordinator of Sowing Hope and UISG executive co-secretary of the justice, peace and integrity of creation commission, said the encyclical is clear, inspiring and practical. Now it's up to the wider church to pursue the systematic change it says is necessary.

"We must make a clear connection between our spiritual values and our daily actions," she said.

GCCM also played a role in the creation of the Laudato Si' Action Platform, announced at the start of Laudato Si' Week (May 16-24) by the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. The platform invites Catholic institutions to commit to "total sustainability" within a seven-year period through an integral ecological approach.

The goals are an invitation, not a mandate. The dicastery hopes that ground-up approach will yield a "critical mass" sweeping through the church that so far has yet to fully materialize.

"If I'm totally honest, it still often feels like we're at the very beginning," said Lorna Gold.

Gold has had a unique vantage point to the response to Laudato Si'. Until recently, she worked with Trocaire, the Irish Catholic development agency, and served on the Irish bishops' Laudato Si' Working Group. She is a GCCM board member. She has also been active in the climate strikes and is the author of Climate Generation: Awakening to Our Children's Future.

Asked to grade the global church's implementation so far, Insua responded, "It's low. A low grade." But that grade is a mixed bag, he said, with Amazonian countries and the Philippines at the high end, and the United States and Europe on the lower side.

"Encyclicals take time to sink in. A lot of time," Insua said. "But that's the problem with this encyclical, is that it doesn't allow for a lot of time to be taking on."

Along with the action platform, expected to launch in early 2021, the Vatican has introduced other prompts to spur action throughout the church.

Francis has recommended care for our common home be added to both the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Following other Christian denominations, he added a World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (Sept. 1) to the liturgical calendar, and invited Catholics to celebrate the Season of Creation throughout September to Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi.

The Vatican delegation has been active at the United Nations climate summits, with the encyclical viewed as a factor in reaching the Paris Agreement.

Back home, the Vatican has hosted numerous conferences of scientists, economists and world leaders. The past two years, it held meetings with top oil executives and investment firms, where Francis called for "a radical energy transition" to stave off "a climate emergency." The 2019 session resulted in nearly all participants signing a declaration in favor of a price on carbon emissions and increased transparency from energy companies.

Pope Francis speaks to executives of leading energy, petroleum and natural gas companies, leaders in investment firms and climate scientists during a meeting at the Vatican June 14, 2019. (CNS/Vatican Media)

Insua singled out the Season of Creation as perhaps the most significant church response to the encyclical in the past five years. He said it gives Catholics and parishes not just a day but an entire month each year to plan programs reflecting on their place within their environment and how to preserve it.

"In a lot of people's minds, slowly but steadily, September is that time of the year," he said.

The difference leadership makes

The Season of Creation wasn't so new to Philippine Catholics. By 2003, Catholics there had begun celebrating in September its own creation time.

In many ways, the encyclical has reinforced throughout the archipelago ecological ministries in place for decades and has energized more to take part.

Jakosalem, 47, said Laudato Si' has been an affirmation of their work by placing creation care squarely in the framework of church teaching. Likewise, it's bolstered more bishops and priests to take prophetic stands against extractive industries without worrying what the financial repercussions to the church may be.

"We feel secured because of this document," he said.

In September, the Philippine bishops pledged to divest from fossil fuels. Their climate emergency pastoral called each diocese to establish ecology desks to spearhead programs pressing for a swift and just transition to clean energy, organizing to pass and implement environmental protection laws, and critically, integrating Laudato Si' and creation care more fully into church teaching in parishes, schools and seminaries.

Archbishop Jos Palma of Cebu, Philippines, speaks during an event for the Break Free from Coal campaign. (Jaazeal Jakosalem)

Archbishop Jos Palma of Cebu was instrumental in the campaign to block a new coal plant on the island. The four bishops of Negros Island have been active in efforts to block new coal-fired power plants. In both cases, the projects were not approved.

"This is something, huh?" Jakosalem said.

Like the Philippines, the bishops in Ireland established a Laudato Si' working group early on. Gold, one of its members, said it played a major role in bringing regular proposals to the bishops' conference and ultimately making Laudato Si' a higher priority on their agenda.

One result was the Irish bishops' decision to divest from fossil fuels, announced in August 2018 ahead of Francis' visit as part of the World Meeting of Families. Individual dioceses and religious orders have followed suit. Trocaire played a critical role in the Irish government's own decision to divest. The Irish bishops have also committed to the Season of Creation.

Gold said one ongoing priority is making Laudato Si' part of the formation of clergy and church leadership. Trocaire found some success through trips, at home or overseas, to witness climate injustices up close. Bringing priests and bishops more on board doesn't mean they do all the work, she added, but they are uniquely positioned to deliver the message and set in motion wider action in conserving God's creation.

"To reach a certain scale it really has to be about working alongside and working with the bishops' conference," Gold said.

What difference leadership can make is evident in the Amazon.

Indigenous people are seen on the banks of the Xingu River during a media event in Brazil's Xingu Indigenous Park Jan. 15, 2020. (CNS/Reuters/Ricardo Moraes)

Over the course of two years, bishops through the Pan-Amazon Ecclesial Network conducted 260 listening sessions across the nine Amazon countries on the threats facing one of the world's most biodiverse and critical ecosystems. All that culminated in October with the Vatican's special Synod of Bishops for the Amazon, what many viewed as the first major application of Laudato Si'.

The vast majority of participants hailed from the Amazon Basin, and included bishops, priests, religious and indigenous leaders. The synod turned the global church's attention to the multiple crises like deforestation, mining, biodiversity loss and land disputes facing the Amazon, a key region in mitigating climate change. Raging fires in the rainforest in the preceding months highlighted the situation.

The synod's final document and Francis' own reflection, Querida Amazonia, positioned the church shoulder to shoulder with indigenous communities in defense of their rights and protecting the rainforest against destructive, unrestrained industrial development.

In the final document, the participants identified climate change as "above all" the great threat to life in the region. They proposed a definition of ecological sin and called on all Christians to defend human rights in the Amazon as "a requirement of faith." They recommended creating environmental awareness training programs and special ministers, and for the church in the Amazon to support and join divestment campaigns of industries causing socio-ecological damage.

Pope Francis attends a prayer service at the start of the first session Synod of Bishops for the Amazon at the Vatican Oct. 7, 2019. (CNS/Vatican Media)

Reyes, the Laudato Si' Generation co-chair based in Ecuador, said one of the biggest contributions of the encyclical, reinforced by Querida Amazonia, is in the awareness it's raised on how everything is connected. That protecting the Amazon doesn't matter just for people living there, but for the future of the entire world.

"That Amazon is not only a matter of the Ecuadorian or Brazil church, but it's a matter of the universal church," she said.

US response 'still a work in progress'

In the United States, the prevailing sense among Catholics working on environmental issues is Laudato Si' has not been made a main priority.

Outgoing president Cardinal Daniel DiNardo made waves at the November meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, when he described the sense among bishops about global warming as important but not urgent.

Juniors and seniors from environmental science classes at Elizabeth Seton High School, a girls school in Bladensburg, Maryland, stand with their climate change signs along Constitution Avenue in Washington Sept. 20, 2019, as they prepare to join a march with thousands of others to the front of the U.S. Capitol. (CNS/Carol Zimmermann)

The comment was widely seen as at odds not only with the science but with the pope. Within the encyclical's introductory appeal alone, Francis stated the urgency three times and more than a dozen in total, including the "urgent need" to develop emissions-reducing policies "in the next few years." He has repeated that urgent message in nearly every speech on the topic since.

During an online roundtable May 20, three U.S. bishops acknowledged uneven response so far. "It's still a work in progress," conceded Archbishop Paul Coakley, chair of the bishops' Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy, a leading U.S. voice on the encyclical, said that while it's been well-received by scientists and the young, he worries the church has yet to reach the intensity that climate change requires.

"We don't have 40 years left on the climate question," McElroy said in response to comments from Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Robert Barron that past encyclicals took decades to be put in practice.

Last summer, the Catholic Climate Covenant held the first of three biennial conferences at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, aimed at ramping up implementation in the U.S. church.

In an op-ed last month, Dan Misleh, Covenant executive director, reflected on progress at the five-year mark: "If I'm honest, not nearly to the degree I would have hoped nor commensurate with the scope of the challenge we are facing."

Franciscan Sr. Joan Brown is among the many who point to a lack of leadership.

Women religious congregations like hers have long been at the forefront of environmental action. Universities and schools have increasingly emphasized sustainability in recent decades. But for the church to take the next big leap will require the ecological conversion taking root with more priests and bishops, said Brown, who is executive director of New Mexico Interfaith Power & Light.

A first step, she suggested, is viewing climate change through integral ecology, that issues related to the environment, poverty, inequality, immigration and life are all interrelated.

A line of protesters Aug. 18, 2015, blocks the main gate at the Crestwood Midstream Partners gas storage facility on the shores of Seneca Lake in Reading, New York. Eighteen people were arrested while reading Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si'. (CNS/Dennis Sadowski)

A first step, she suggested, is viewing climate change through integral ecology, that issues related to the environment, poverty, inequality, immigration and life are all interrelated.

"There has to be some deep-seeded shifts in the church for us to really grapple with this largest ethical and moral concern of our time," Brown said. "And the longer it takes us, the more we run into greater storms, greater need for emergency relief."

In speaking at churches, the climate scientist Ramanathan said he's surprised by the number of Catholics who haven't read Laudato Si' or aren't aware of it. Educating more people about the text what he calls "a singular iconic document" that spells out the human tragedy of climate change and the climate science is essential, he said, to garnering wider support for the solutions, stressing "there is still time for solving the problems."

Laudato Si' "is a powerful tool that Pope Francis has put in our hands and we have to use it," Ramanathan said.

'Let's face it, the most convincing way that the document will be put into practice is if people can see a direct impact on their own lives.'

Archbishop Wilton Gregory

Within the U.S. bishops' conference, policy work has been a major focus, said environmental policy consultant Ricardo Simmonds. The conference has issued dozens of statements citing Laudato Si' during the Obama administration in support of environmental measures and during the Trump years opposing rollbacks and deregulation.

Simmonds agrees that there's much more that can be done, but from his view he sees a lot happening already. The U.S. bishops were official partners for the Vatican's Laudato Si' Week and produced resources for parishes and priests. Later this summer, the conference plans to start its own Laudato Si' advocates program geared toward young Catholics.

So far, the bishops' conference hasn't discussed establishing a Laudato Si' commission like those in other countries, Simmonds said. At the Creighton conference, McElroy suggested the idea as a way to make climate change "a central priority" in the U.S. church.

Washington Archbishop Wilton Gregory at the Oct. 17, 2019, blessing of solar panels that are being leased to produce renewable energy for Washington residents (CNS/Catholic Standard/Andrew Biraj)

Washington Archbishop Wilton Gregory, seen as another Laudato Si' leader, told EarthBeat he would support forming a working group, but that it may be more effective at a regional level "because the environment, while it belongs to all of us, manifests itself with great regional diversity," he said in a phone interview.

While archbishop of Atlanta, Gregory commissioned a Laudato Si' Action Plan to bring the text to life across all church levels. The plan has become a blueprint for other dioceses, and he has asked the D.C. archdiocese's care for creation committee to devise its own version. In April, Catholic Charities of Washington Archdiocese completed construction of a 2-megawatt solar array the largest solar installation in the District.

The solar project was facilitated by Catholic Energies, a program of Catholic Climate Covenant. Since it formed in fall 2017, it has completed 10 projects in five states, with another 12 set for construction this year. Together, they will generate 10 megawatts of solar energy annually,the equivalent of removing 5 million pounds of carbon emissions from the atmosphere.

The adoption of solar by parishes and dioceses has been one of the most visible responses to Laudato Si' in the U.S., with the dioceses of Monterey and San Diego in California leading the pack. The Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, has seven parishes signed up with Catholic Energies and is looking to develop a 5-7 megawatt array at a retreat center.

Apart from energy projects, the Cincinnati Archdiocese has a creation care task force, while the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, formed a network linking its parish green teams. In 2017, the statewide Diocese of Burlington, Vermont, celebrated a Year of Creation. Last year, the California bishops issued a pastoral statement responding to Laudato Si' and outlining specific steps to implement it locally. A now-permanent creation care committee will guide its rollout. A similar statement was issued by the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

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Five years ago, Pope Francis asked us to care for Earth. Have we listened? - National Catholic Reporter