My youngest daughter made a box to enter in the county fair.
She designed the box herself. She picked out the wood— pieces of cedar that someone had discarded— and crafted something beautiful out of it.
She wanted to do all this work because she’s seen me do similarly. When I’m in my workshop, she comes out there, watches what I do, and asks questions about it. She knows that I enjoy and value this kind of woodworking. She knows that I like to take old, discarded wood and make it into something new. In fact, the reason we had that cedar to begin with is because she saw it on the curb while out on a walk and knew that it was worth saving. She sees what I do, and wants to do it, too.
Sometimes it feels like people have given up on this world. It can feel like any semblance of care for the environment has been overrun by greed and apathy. Sometimes it feels like the earth we live on has been discarded.
But I believe that something beautiful can still be made with this Creation we all share. I think you believe that, too. And while you and I are hard at work caring for creation, someone is watching us. Seeing what we enjoy. Seeing what we value. Seeing what we think is worth holding onto. And when they see what we do, they want to do it, too.
So keep at it, caretakers. You’re not alone in this workshop.
Jarrod S. Davis
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ICCT Native Seed Walk & Talk: Learn While You Walk at the Wilkerson Nature Preserve
If you’d like to spend some time in the beautiful fall outdoors while learning about the native plants at the Wilkerson Nature Preserve in North Raleigh, join ICCT and Preserve Manager Bryan England and staff for either a Seed Talk & Hike, or a Gentle Walk & Talk highlighting plants seeding in the fall on Sunday, November 8 at 2:00pm.
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Sign Yourself Up and Ask Your Clergy to Join You for Online Training as Poll Peacekeepers and Chaplains with Faiths United To Save Democracy
Are you concerned about the upcoming election and our democracy? Sign up for a one-session online non-partisan training on September 28 or October 15 to serve on election day as a Poll Peacekeeper (community and lay leaders) or a Poll Chaplain (active and retired ordained clergy) and provide a calming, moral presence and practical support aided by connecting voters to a hotline at polling.
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A Very Fond Farewell to Karen Delahunty
ICCT is saying a very fognd farewell to Karen Delahunty, leader of ICCT during our first year. Karen and her husband Stephen Ineson are moving to an intentional co-housing community in the Upper Shenandoah Valley in West Virginia that values green spaces and environmental sustainability and includes residents from a variety of faith traditions. Read about Karen’s remarkable journey and how it so clearly points to this, her next step.
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Should our NC Utility Commissioners go on luxury junkets….?
Should our NC Utility Commissioners go on luxury junkets sponsored by an organization that openly vows to “move the energy industry toward oil, gas and coal and away from renewables” while mingling with executives from the very industries they regulate?
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Talk Face-to-Face With a Climate Scientist
When was the last time you talked to a climate scientist? Climate Up Close is coming to 7 different locations across the Triangle. Join a presentation and group discussion on the science of climate change featuring scientists from Harvard University, UC Berkeley, NYU, and NOAA, October 9-12.
(1) ICCT Native Seed Walk & Talk: Learn While You Walk at the Wilkerson Nature Preserve
The ICCT Earth Friendly Practices Team invites you to spend a fall afternoon outdoors learning about native plants and seeds at beautiful Annie Louise Wilkerson Nature Preserve Park, 5229 Awls Haven Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614 on November 8, 2:00-3:30 PM. Join Preserve Manager, Bryan England and his staff for either a Seed Talk & Hike, or a Gentle Walk & Talk highlighting plants seeding in the fall. Not only will this be a seed identification opportunity, but presenters will provide guidance about local sites to forage seeds for your own use.
Register here for limited spaces in the walking groups.
There are three options:
- a guided Gentle Walk & Talk (approximately 90 minutes) highlighting plants seeding in the fall
- a Seed Talk & Hike (approximately 90 minutes)
- visit with others at the picnic area or explore the preserve on your own
Since presenters want to make this a good learning experience, they recommend no more than 20 people for each walking group. Kindly register indicating which group you intend to join to help us manage the limit of 20 per group.
Questions? Contact ICCTriangle@gmail.com.
Submitted by Pat & Paul Kelly, co-leaders of ICCT’s Earth Friendly Practices Team.
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(2) Sign Yourself Up and Ask Your Clergy to Join You for Online Training as Poll Peacekeepers and Chaplains with Faiths United To Save Democracy
Register for an online training on:
OR
Help strengthen our democracy by serving as a volunteer Peacekeeper or Poll Chaplain with Faiths United to Save Democracy (FUSD), a nonpartisan, multi-racial, multi-faith, and intergenerational campaign. Peacekeepers are community and lay leaders and Poll Chaplains are ordained clergy providing a calming, moral presence and practical support aided by connecting voters to a hotline at polling locations.
Join a one-session online training offered at 7 PM on September 28 or October 15. Participation in the training does not obligate you to serve on election day.
Lynn Lyle, ICCT president, asked two of her clergy to participate as FUSD poll chaplains in the 2024 election. All three of them had good experiences and recommend it to others in the Triangle. Lynn remembers saying an impromptu prayer with a voter who asked her in heavily accented English if she thought we would be safe after the election. Contact Lynn at ICCTriangle@gmail.com with questions.
Here are some more details about participating:
- Attend one of the two training sessions – September 28 or October 15
- Register at the FUSD website www.turnoutsunday.com to serve at least a 3-hour shift at a designated polling site in a target city in NC .
- Be willing to serve at vulnerable polling sites
- Request an opportunity to serve with a “Buddy” at the polling site
- Review the simplified version of the state voting laws provided by the Lawyers Committee to better assist voters
- Call the Election Protection Hotline – 1-866-OURVOTE (1-866-687-8683) to report any voter challenges they encounter, e.g broken equipment;
- Be ready to photograph ICE agents if they engage voters.
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(3) A Very Fond Farewell to Karen Delahunty
Karen Delahunty
ICCT is saying a very fond farewell to Karen Delahunty, leader of ICCT during our first year. Karen and her husband Stephen Ineson are moving to an intentional co-housing community in the Upper Shenandoah Valley in West Virginia, that values green spaces and environmental sustainability and includes residents from a wide variety of faith traditions. As you read below about Karen’s remarkable journey so far, you will see how it clearly points to her next step.
The ICCT Board issued a unanimous expression of deep appreciation to Karen for her passionate commitment to Creation care and for her leadership. She was leader of Pullen Baptist’s Earth Ministry when it founded our interfaith network in 2019. She also led ICCT’s Steering Committee during our first year when we chose our name, mission, guiding principles, and organizational structure.
For many decades, Karen has pursued a single thread of inquiry and action: ‘Why do we continue to destroy the planet—our only home—even though we know we are doing it?’
This insistent question guided her through her bachelor’s degree in philosophy at St John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, her study of Eastern philosophy in Kyoto Japan, and her masters degree in Transpersonal Ecopsychology at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. She also studied how to create and implement ecovillages at the Findhorn Ecovillage training program in Scotland.
Karen worked ten years as Training Director for the International Retail Company, The Body Shop, where she passionately enacted the company’s mission to use their shops as a platform for social /environmental justice and sustainable business practices.
At Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, Karen facilitated the Care of Creation Sunday school class and co-led the Earth Ministry Team. Most recently Karen has studied Victoria Loorz, author of Church of the Wild, and used her concepts as the foundation of Pullen‘s Communion With The Wild, a monthly experience in nature focused on developing a deeper love and spiritual connection with Creation. Thank you, Karen.
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(4) Should our NC Utility Commissioners go on luxury junkets….?
Photo by Chris Seward. News & Observer
The North Carolina Utilities Commission is responsible for “regulating investor-owned public utilities [i.e., Duke Energy].” They are also tasked with promoting “harmony between public utilities, their users, and the environment” and promoting “the development of clean energy and energy efficiency through the implementation of a Clean Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard.” (1)
The Commission consists of five commissioners—two are appointed by the General Assembly, two by the Governor, and one by the State Treasurer (a recent change).
Lately we’ve read reports that some utility commissioners across the country (including Tommy Tucker from NC) have been enjoying luxury junkets, paid for by the Regulators Roundtable (RR), which is tied to GOPAC, one of the country’s largest conservative political organizations. RR was founded in January 2025, “vowing to move the energy industry toward oil, gas and coal and away from renewables.” They host gatherings for right-leaning utility regulators and energy executives where there’s wining, dining, and mingling with executives from the industries they regulate.
“Dominion Energy, Duke Energy and NextEra have also collectively contributed $950,000 to GOPAC since last year. All are seeking regulatory approval for billions of dollars in… infrastructure needed to serve surging electricity demand driven by AI data centers — investments expected to generate substantial returns for shareholders.” (3) In the meantime, ratepayers’ rates keep rising.
According to public records Tucker attended three RR conferences in 2025 and 2026 and was reimbursed for traveling costs to one in Nashville and one in Scottsdale. Tucker’s agenda in Scottsdale, “shows he was due to watch the sun sink below towering red rock formations, as he dined with an exclusive group of ‘investors’ — sponsors paying $50,000 to attend.” (2)
Tucker also accepted $2,274 of expenses at an RR event in Washington and said, “There is no conflict whatsoever… It is educational…” adding that they also talked about wind and solar. (3)
To understand the complexities and make up your own mind about conflicts of interest, please read the full articles listed below:
(1) Read more at: https://ncuc.gov/documents/
(2) Read more at: https://www.newsobserver.com/
(3) Read more at: https://www.washingtonpost.
Submitted by Bobbi Mullins, ICCT Advocacy Team
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(5) Talk Face-to-Face With a Climate Scientist
Climate Up Close, a non-partisan group, is presenting 7 talks on climate science across the Triangle from October 9-12. They are a group of climate scientists committed to making the essentials of climate science accessible to a broad audience to equip Americans to reach their own judgments about climate science by seeing the evidence for themselves and putting their questions directly to climate scientists. Climate Up Close is non-partisan and non-prescriptive. The events are free and open to the public.
See all the locations in Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill and the full schedule for October 9-12 here.
The scientist presenters include Dr. Nadir Jeevanjee (NOAA), Dr. Aaron Match (Cornell University), Dr. Nathaniel Tarshish (Harvard University), and Dr. Andrew Williams (UC San Diego). They volunteer their time and their tours are supported by small donations.
The talk will outline a “landscape of climate knowledge”, which starts with the settled aspects of the science (e.g., warming is due to human activity), then explains topics on the boundary where the impacts of climate change are only partially understood (e.g., how climate change impacts extreme rainfall), and then proceeds into more speculative ideas that are under intense research (e.g., permafrost carbon release or ice sheet collapse) but are not presently well understood. Throughout the talk, the messaging reflects the consensus climate assessment written by hundreds of their fellow scientists for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Plan to join one of the talks and bring friends. When they see the evidence, invite them to get involved in Creation care with you and make a real difference.
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Our mailing address is:
ICCTriangle@gmail.com
