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There will be no Café in January, but you can watch all of last year’s meetings here.

February Movement Café

Effective Public Policy Advocacy for Creation Justice at the State and Local Level

With legislative gridlock in Washington, working for creation justice policies at the state and local level becomes more important than ever. This webinar from the UMCJM Advocacy Working Group will focus on how to do that local/state advocacy effectively.

Introducing This Month’s Speakers

Rev. Laura Kigweba is the director of Grassroots Organizing at the General Board of Church and Society. In her position, she builds, strengthens, and equips United Methodists to transform the systemic conditions of injustice in both the church, community and world through faith-based community organizing.

Before joining the General Board of Church and Society, Laura studied at Wesley Theological Seminary where she learned tools of faith-based grassroots organizing and missional church strategies. After graduating, she was appointed as a local pastor in Baltimore, Maryland where she used grassroots organizing tools to equip the local congregations to address conditions of homelessness and poverty in the community.

Laura holds a Bachelor of Science in Public Administration and Non-profit Management from the University of Tennessee and a Master of Divinity in Missional Studies from Wesley Theological Seminary.

Laura is a member of Emory Fellowship United Methodist Church and a provisional elder in the Baltimore Washington Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Becca Edwards, Ph.D, M.Div. Climate Action Fellow joins Texas Impact after completing a Masters in Divinity at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. She is chair of the Mercy and Justice committee at First United Methodist Church of Austin and is a certified deacon candidate in the Capital District of the Rio Texas Annual Conference. 

Becca earned a PhD in Wind Science and Engineering at Texas Tech University in 2009. Her research led her to set up wind instruments ahead of landfalling hurricanes along the Gulf coast. She served as a visiting assistant professor of physics at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas for ten years, teaching climate science, earth science, and engineering courses and conducting research in the areas of hydroclimate extremes and air quality. Her current interests include liberation theology, climate justice, hydroclimate extremes, interfaith understanding, and worship.  Becca lives in Round Rock with her husband and four children and is always searching for the best day hike/taco combo in Austin. So far it’s hard to beat the Taco Deli at the Spyglass trailhead of the Barton Creek Greenbelt.

Rev. Emily Carroll is the Sr. Pastor of the Shady Grove United Methodist Church in Mansfield, Louisiana. Prior to her current appointment, she served as senior pastor of the St. James United Methodist Church of Shreveport. She currently serves on the Mission and Mercy Ministry Team and the Annual Conference Design Team for the Louisiana Annual Conference and is a certified on-boarding trainer for those newly appointed as Senior and/or Associate Pastors in the UMC South-Central Jurisdiction.

In 2008 she attained her M.Div. Theta Phi (Religious Honors Society) from the Morehouse School of Religion at The Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC). Rev. Carroll volunteered as the Children/Youth Minister at the Leland Qwest United Methodist Church of Mableton, Georgia, a cross-racial congregation, and later served in the Children’s Chapel of the Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church under the pastorate of The Honorable Senator, Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock. In 2014, she became the Children and Youth Minister at the First Calvary Baptist Church of Durham, NC. Rev. Carroll received her ordination from the American Baptist Churches/USA and serves as an Other Fellowship (OF) Pastor in the Louisiana Conference.  

As an advocate for environmental justice, she serves as the Director of Green the Church Louisiana, an affiliate chapter of GTC: a national initiative whose purpose is to explore and expand the role of African American churches as centers for environmental and economic resilience. Rev. Carroll studied Environmental Leadership at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, and has presented at environmental workshops, conferences, and rallies nationwide. In 2023 she served as part of the UMC COP28 Delegation and ventured to Dubai, UAE to take part in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.  

Last Month’s Café

Read the summary here

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