O sinners, let's go down Let's go down, come on down O sinners, let's go down Down in the river to pray.
On the second Sunday of the Season of Creation the worshiping congregation of Pittsboro Presbyterian Church won’t actually go down to (or in) the river to pray as the old Christian folk hymn calls us to do. Instead, we have invited Elaine Chiosso, Executive Director of the Haw River Assembly (HRA) to bring the river to us (so to speak) as she enlightens us about the critical work that the HRA has been doing in serving as the prophetic “voice of the river” in the public arena for the last 41 years. With the theme of the month-long 2023 Season of Creation being ‘Let Justice and Peace Flow – A Mighty River’ (Amos 5:24), there could be no better representative of those seeking justice for the eco system that comprises the 1700 square mile Haw River watershed than the HRA.
Here in Pittsboro, North Carolina we are truly blessed to have a mighty river like the Haw skirting the outskirts of town. Along its 110 mile length it flows through five counties before emptying into the Jordan Lake reservoir and then on into the Cape Fear river. Protecting the health of the river and reservoir is critical in protecting the health and biodiversity of nature’s flora and fauna and the burgeoning human population inhabiting the watershed. In that regard the HRA is a creation justice champion par excellence.
The HRA website states:
“Haw River Assembly was formed in 1982, by people who cared about the health of the river and has grown to over 1000 members, volunteers and supporters from throughout the whole watershed. We have been active advocates for clean water and pollution control, playing a large role in issues such as the Jordan Lake rules, working against fracking and pipelines, stopping industrial and agricultural contamination of the waters, and working for better sedimentation control, stormwater and stream buffer regulations. The Haw River Assembly became a licensed member of the international Waterkeeper Alliance in 2018. We have many programs and volunteer opportunities to educate and connect people to the river including stream monitoring, river clean-ups and teaching schoolchildren at the annual Learning Celebration.”
[Visit the website at www.hawriver.org]
Because a picture is worth 1,000 words, we leave you with 12,000 words-worth of images along the Haw.
[click to enlarge]
