Randy Woodley & Graham Hill discuss embracing ethnic diversity & learning from indigenous communities. On "The GlobalChurch Project". Shortened version of interview. Full 35-minute version available here. 

Randy Woodley is a descendent of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians. He and his wife Edith lead a local Native American gathering at their home. They’ve developed a holistic model of service among Native Americans, out of which grew a 50 acre sustainable farm and Christian community. In this community, the Woodleys taught sustainability, eco-justice, microeconomics, leadership, and mission. In 2008 they gave up their farm and were forced to disband the community due to violence from local White Supremacists.

Randy Woodley is a founding member of the North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies. He’s passionate about emerging faith expressions, diversity, eco-justice, reconciliation, mission, and indigenous peoples.

Graham Hill is the Founder and Director of The GlobalChurch Project, and Vice Principal of Morling Theological College, Sydney, Australia.

The Global Church Project films Christian leaders and churches from Africa and Asia and Latin America. We also film in the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, First Nations, Indigenous communities, the Middle East, and Oceania, and in diaspora and immigrant communities. Today, these non-Western cultures are the Majority World. The GlobalChurch Project presents resources to support these films. Small group resources. Curriculum for college classes. Books. Training videos. A blog. Coaching. Consultancy. College and short courses

In his long-awaited encyclical (download here) on the environment and climate change, Pope Francis has called for swift action to save the planet from environmental ruin, urging world leaders to hear "the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor." He called for a change of lifestyle in rich countries steeped in a "throwaway" consumer culture, and an end to "obstructionist attitudes" that sometimes put profit before the common good. Pope Francis said protecting the planet is a moral and ethical "imperative" for believers and nonbelievers alike that should supersede political and economic interests. A major theme of the encyclical is the disparity between rich and poor. "We fail to see that some are mired in desperate and degrading poverty, with no way out, while others have not the faintest idea of what to do with their possessions, vainly showing off their supposed superiority and leaving behind them so much waste which, if it were the case everywhere, would destroy the planet," he said. We speak to Naomi Klein, author of "This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate." She has been invited to speak at the Vatican, where she will speak at the "People and Planet First: The Imperative to Change Course" conference. And here in New York is Nathan Schneider, columnist at America magazine, a national Catholic weekly magazine published by the Jesuits.

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