Our Work
The goal of our work as Earth Justice Ministries is to bring the resources of spirituality and faith to bear on the social and environmental challenges of our day and to act as allies in partnership with people who are most vulnerable. Our work is multifaceted. It emerges as situations arise and develop. Our work is grounded locally here in rural Nevada County in Northern California, but we also respond as we can to national and global issues because we recognize that we are interconnected with the human and more than human community of life. Our work regularly focuses on the following themes. You can find out more about our current and past work by reading and following our blog posts and Facebook page. You can also Donate to our work or Contact us.
The Rights of Indigenous People
Earth Justice Ministries supports the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. As a nonprofit based in Nevada City, we stand with the Nevada City Nisenan people, recognize that we live on their ancestral lands, and support their efforts to regain federal recognition. We affirm and support CHIRP (California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project), a nonprofit that supports the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe, and is focused on researching, documenting, preserving, and protecting California Indigenous Nisenan culture. We affirm and support the Todd Valley Nisenan Tribe in Colfax, through the K’oyo Land Conservancy. We also affirm and support Nevada County Indigenous Peoples Days, an annual event that welcomes all people, hosted by the Siakumne Tribe (Tsi Akim Maidu), in partnership with 4 Elements Earth Education.
Rights of Nature/Rights of Bear River
Earth Justice Ministries recognizes the intrinsic value of all parts of creation and the earth as a whole. We have endorsed and seek to publicize The Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth. Our board president Guarionex Delgado and board member Dianna Suarez offer a workshop on the rights of nature, with a specific focus on the rights of the Bear River. They set up their booth at community events such as WorldFest, the SYRCL Wild and Scenic Film Festival, the Love Walk, and the Annual Bear River Festival, setting up their booth with informational materials and interacting with the public on these important topics. Dianna also is a prolific writer and passionate public speaker about protecting the Bear River. She is currently engaging with the State Water Resources Control Board and the Administrative Hearings Office regarding water rights, the Delta Water Quality Update, peak flows, pulse flows, and Bear River Beavers. See more about her successful work with Friends of Bear River at our Associated Groups page. Watch one of Dianna’s short videos, Bear River Flows, August 23, 2024.
Israel/Palestine
Earth Justice Ministries joins with other groups in calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, allowing humanitarian relief at the scale of need, the end of settler violence against residents in the West Bank, and an end to US arms shipments to Israel. We have published statements and read them at public meetings, stood with signs at public demonstrations. We organized a local pilgrimage for Gaza as a witness to the plight of the people who are being bombed, displaced, and starved. We have donated to nonprofits in Gaza: The Sanabel team and the DAEIM center for Autism. We have also donated to the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, Doctors without Borders, and Jewish Voices for Peace Action. Our team continutes to protest against US miltary aid to Israel, to disseminate information to the public about what is currently occuring in Palestine and Israel, and to pray and act for peace with justice in the region.
Climate Justice
Climate Justice links urgent action on climate to a just transition for those who are most vulnerable to its impacts. We educate people on the facts and implications of climate change and advocate for a just transition to a system that supports racial and economic justice while basing climate policy on science. We have organized climate demonstrations, often coordinated with national days of climate action. We held a local Banking on Our Future action where rally participants closed accounts at banks that fund the climate crisis to switch to cleaner local banks and credit unions that do not invest in fossil fuels. Board member Sharon Delgado is Convener of Fossil Free UMC, which is pressing the United Methodist Church to divest from fossil fuels. Earth Justice Ministries donated $2,000 as seed money to help get it started. See Sharon’s post, Banking on Our Future as Demythologized Exorcism and her other blog posts on climate justice. Contact Sharon to order her books or for online workshops, book studies, or presentations on climate change and climate justice for faith or secular communities.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
From our founding in 1996, Earth Justice Ministries has been committed to working for racial and gender justice and an end to the many forms of discrimination that pervades our social, economic, and political institutions and systems of power. We are currently working with the local Nevada County Immigrant Rights Network on a campaign to convince the Nevada Joint Unified High School District to pass policies, such as Every Student Belongs, to protect students from on-campus racism and the danger of being targeted by ICE. This relates to the California Education Code 201, which states that “All pupils have the right to participate fully in the edducational process, free from discrimination and harassment,” and California Constitution Article 1, Section 28, which guarantees a Right to Safe Schools–students have the inalenable right to attend campuses which are safe, secure, and peaceful.
In 2011 and 2020 respectively, we financially and practically gave our support to the formation of two local racial justice organizations: Color Me Human, and Creating Communities Beyond Bias (CCBB). Earth Justice Ministries worked for several years with CCBB to organize and fund annual community Love Walks, until the Grass Valley City Council began sponsoring them. Board president Guari Delgado has worked with CCBB to bring anti-racism and conflict resolution training into local schools. We have supported students, parents, and teachers when the local high school boards became platforms for rhetoric against diversity, equity, and inclusion. In 2020, we participated in local Black Lives Matter demonstrations in 2020 and organized a community-wide march for racial justice after white supremacists disrupted an earlier march. See a video of people gathering for the march here.
Youth Empowerment for Climate Action
Earth Justice Ministries has had a program of Youth Empowerment for Climate Action and is available to work with young people as needed. Our purpose in this work is to serve as an allied organization with young people concerned about issues of justice, peace, climate change, or other ecological issues. We offer mentoring and resources to help equip them to work together in an egalitarian way to bring about change in the direction of peace, justice, and ecological regeneration. In 2018 we brought together young people with whom we had connections and helped form a local Nevada County hub of the national Sunrise Movement. We have helped fund educational and activist trainings for some of the young people involved, including media training through the Nevada County Media Center. More recently, Earth Justice Ministries board member Jonah Platt has worked intensively with young people, including current Sunrise Movement members, who are concerned with climate, racial and gender justice, and action for peace in Gaza. Jonah has brought together young people for several events, including demonstrations, banner making, and other gatherings (that usually include pizza), including turning out dozens of young people at a crucial Planning Commission hearing to show youth support for opposing the mine. The goal of this work is to provide the opportunity for young people to develop community-building, organizing, group process, and joint decision-making skills that will equip them to plan and carry out events or actions.
Local Alternatives to Violence Project Workshops
Earth Justice Ministries co-founder and board President, Guarionex Delgado, leads Alternative to Violence trainings locally. He has used AVP tools when offering anti-racism work in schools. In 2024, he organized a training for facilitators who are now bringing regular AVP workshops into the Nevada County Jail in Nevada City. Contact us to inquire about upcoming workshops or facilitator trainings.
Stopping the the Idaho-Maryland Mine (Protecting our Local Community and Ecosystem)
We won (for now), after years of working together, and Earth Justice Ministries was part of the Minewatch Coalition all the way. Along with hundreds of other organizational supporters and community members, we wrote statements and sent letters to County Planning Commissioners and Supervisors, attended and spoke at public hearings, tabled at public events, demonstrated and marched, sent opinion pieces and letters to our local Union newspapers, donated money (including matching funds for a grant), and posted commentaries to our blog. In February 2024, the Nevada County Board of Supervisors rejected the reopening of the mine. Here is how Minewatch describes where we are now: “Rise Gold, a junior mining company with a questionable history, tried to reopen the Idaho-Maryland Mine in Grass Valley, CA and got rejected. But the story isn’t over yet.” Read more here.
Peacemaking
Earth Justice Ministries’ peacemaking program has evolved as our global situation has changed. We oppose the carnage of modern warfare, which disproportionately maims and kills civilians. We are alarmed that the Doomsday Clock has moved to 90 seconds before midnight, due to the threat of both nuclear war and climate change. Yet our country continues developing increasingly accurate and usable first-strike nuclear weapons and keeping them on high alert. The US, the world’s largest arms dealer, sells advanced warfighting weapons on the open market and to selected countries (such as Israel) and to oppose treaties that limit the global arms trade. US “drone pilots” at computer desks launch drone attacks that kill civilians, fuel hatred, and provide a recruiting tool for terrorists. With few restraints, the promise of profits drives AI technological innovation to produce “killer robots” that will take decision-making about war out of human hands. Instead, we support diplomacy and peacemaking initiatives, such as Global Marshall Plan to alleviate suffering and create international goodwill. Such a policy would go a long way toward creating security for the United States and for the world. Currently, along with so much of the world, our work as peacemakers is focused on the horror of the situation in Gaza, which we address above on this page.