Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light

Climate Justice & Indigenous Rights: A Christian Opportunity to Rise & Repair
2024-02-21 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Chicago) | Zoom
Rise & Repair is a diverse alliance of people and organizations advancing Indigenous rights & climate justice during Minnesota’s 2024 Legislative Session.
Join us to learn more about how Rise & Repair can be a place for you to get involved and support the work different partners are pushing for during this Legislative Session. You’ll get information on specific bills being proposed, ways that you can get involved, and lots of opportunities to engage in caring for creation.
Featured Speakers:

Dr. Jimmy Hoke, Director of Children and Family Ministries at House of Hope Presbyterian Church
Liz Loeb, Associate Director at Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
A note: MNIPL is an intentionally multi-faith organization, which means we have supporters who practice a number of different faiths, spiritual beliefs, and spiritual practices who have a shared goal of creating a more just, sustainable world. And, we know that our different faiths call us to that work in different ways. This is an opportunity for Christian communities to talk about how a commitment to caring for creation calls us into action around Indigenous rights and climate justice.

We need folks from across multiple communities of faith, conscience, spiritual beliefs, and spiritual practices to be part of this work, respecting the unique tenets of our faiths while celebrating our shared passion for repairing this world and caring for the people in it. If you’re interested in getting involved in our work in Jewish communities, please check out this blog post with a recording of a similar event for Jewish communities and contact Juventino at juventino@mnipl.org. If you’d like to help facilitate a similar conversation within your own community of faith, conscience, spiritual belief, or spiritual practice, please get in touch with Liz at liz@mnipl.org

Be the Spark Information Session
2024-02-29 12:00 - 13:00 | Zoom
Be the Spark is 5-session series of conversation and training that will help you grow your capacity to organize, build your skills through connection with other passionate people, and help you inspire others into climate justice work. As you progress in the series with your cohort, you’ll get tools and practices that will help you inspire your people, focus your purpose, and identify tangible actions for successes you can celebrate. Further coaching and workshops will also be available for folks who complete the series.
We will be launching a Be the Spark series in March. To kick things off, we’re hosting an Information Session to share more details about the content of the series and to find out how to sign up.
CLICK HERE TO RSVP
To learn more about Be the Spark, click here!

MCEA: Climate Justice and Indigenous Rights at the Minnesota Legislature in 2024
2024-03-05 12:00 - 13:00 | Zoom
Join MCEA’s legislative team and a MNIPL’s Juventino Meza, J.D. for a wide-ranging discussion of the 2024 Minnesota legislative session. Learn more about the Rise and Repair coalition, our agenda, and MCEA’s work to advance climate action while protecting Minnesota’s bedrock environmental laws and preserving community input.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Rise & Repair Rally & Lobby Day 2024
2024-03-12 09:00 - 16:00 | Minnesota State Capitol, 75 Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Saint Paul, MN, 55155
Building on the success of last year, we’re going for round two ~ Join us for a full day of amazing organizing at the MN Capitol! This is the big day! The event will include training, visits with legislators, a march & rally in the rotunda to advance the movement around Climate Justice & Indigenous Rights.
More information about this event will be coming soon. Please RSVP so we can make the most of this opportunity to advance the movement around Indigenous Rights & Climate Justice during the 2024 Legislative Session! Let us know in the form if you have any interest in volunteering.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Be the Spark! Spring 2024 Series
2024-03-27 12:00 - 13:00 | Zoom
Be the Spark is 5-session series of conversation and training that will help you grow your capacity to organize, build your skills through connection with other passionate people, and help you inspire others into climate justice work. As you progress in the series with your cohort, you’ll get tools and practices that will help you inspire your people, focus your purpose, and identify tangible actions for successes you can celebrate. Further coaching and workshops will also be available for folks who complete the series.
Spring 2024 Session Dates:
Session 1: Wednesday, March 27 | Noon – 1 pm CT
Session 2: Wednesday, April 10 | Noon – 1 pm CT
Session 3: Wednesday, April 24 | Noon – 1 pm CT
Session 4: Wednesday, May 8 | Noon – 1 pm CT
Session 5: Wednesday, May 22 | Noon – 1 pm CT
All sessions will be on Zoom
SIGN UP HERE!
Requested Donation:
We are asking people to make a suggested donation of $200 per person to MNIPL when they sign up. If you have more to give and would like to, please do to make it possible for us to sustain this offering for everyone, regardless of their ability to donate. If $200 is outside what you can offer, please make a donation of whatever feels meaningful to you. If you can’t give at all, please still sign up – we need you there, too.
DONATE HERE

Rights of Manoomin/Psíŋ Webinar
2024-04-16 18:00 - 19:00 | Zoom
Join the Rise & Repair alliance for a webinar regarding a resolution introduced in the Minnesota recognizing the inherent rights of Manoomin/Psíŋ, or “Wild Rice”. This webinar will provide information about the cultural significance of Manoomin (Anishinaabemowin) / Psíŋ (Dakota) and discuss a resolution which has been introduced in the 2024 legislative session by Representative Jamie Becker Finn & Senator Mary Kunesh recognizing the inherent rights of Minnesota’s “State Grain.”
CLICK HERE TO RSVP

Unnatural Gas: Challenging Methane Gas Proposals at the PUC
2024-05-31 12:00 - 13:00 | Zoom
Join us for our virtual lunch and learn, Unnatural Gas: Challenging Methane Gas Proposals at the PUC on Friday, May 31 at noon!
Given our state’s goal to phase out all carbon-based energy, it is critical that climate justice voices are heard in the public comment process to challenge utility companies’ use of this carbon-producing gas!
We’ll hear from Brian Edstrom and Olivia Carroll, Regulatory Advocates of Citizens Utility Board (CUB), with comments from MNIPL’s Greater MN Director Bret Pence. They’ll break down upcoming dockets at the Public Utilities Commission related to methane or “natural” gas, what’s at stake for wise climate policy, and how we can make our voices heard!
RSVP HERE!

Laugh & Learn: Improv Benefit w/Tane Danger & the Theatre of Public Policy
2024-06-18 19:00 - 21:00 | Faith Mennonite Church, 2720 E 22nd St, Minneapolis, 55406, United States
Come laugh and learn with 66-year-old Donna Minter (aka Grammy) as she shares her Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) to ride across America in Fall 2024 and raise $500,000!
This improv comedy extravaganza will be hosted by Tane Danger and the Theater of Public Policy to discover Grammy’s BHAG to ride her bicycle from San Diego, CA to Saint Augustine, FL from Sept 1 – Nov 23, 2024 to raise $500,000 for five climate action organizations: Climate Generation, Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light, Third Act, Climate Ride, and Climate STARR – Climate Strategies for Trauma, Action, Resilience, and Regeneration. A soon-to-be-announced climate action expert will also join the fun on June 18!
Tickets for this event are $25. If you can’t make the event in-person, you can also buy a ticket for the live stream!
BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE

CO2 Pipelines in Minnesota: Fossil Fuel's Quiet Game Plan for Drilling More Oil
2024-06-20 12:00 - 13:00 | Zoom
Carbon dioxide pipelines are being sold as a necessary part of meeting our climate goals. What industry representatives don’t like to mention is that that compressed CO2 will likely end up in oil wells in North Dakota to push out more oil – a process called Enhanced Oil Recovery.
We know that a safe and equitable transition to a greener future means ending our use of fossil fuels, not finding more creative ways to hide it. Join us to learn more about how these pipelines are bad news for Minnesota and how you can help fight them!
CLICK HERE TO RSVP

Drag Queen Bingo Fundraiser
2024-07-30 18:30 - 21:00 | Roxy’s Cabaret, 1333 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, 55403, United States
Join us for an evening of drag queen bingo to support MNIPL!
Local legends Nina DiAngelo and Monica West will host 10 bingo games and regale us with humor and some drag performances between games!
Reusable bingo boards will be available for $10 each (so you can play all 10 games with one board), and we’ll be selling raffle tickets throughout the night for a 50/50 raffle! There’s an ATM on site to get cash for the raffle and to tip the queens!
Space is limited, so we need folks to sign up!
Please note that you’ll have to pick the 7/30 date in order to get tickets for this specific event!
CLICK HERE TO RSVP!

Spirit of Water 2024
2024-08-10 17:00 - 20:00 | Hidden Falls Regional Park, 1313 Hidden Falls Dr., St. Paul, MN, 55116, United States
Join us for a celebration with Mississippi River! Gather with us to connect, play, learn, pray, celebrate, and honor the spirit of water. There will be a community celebration featuring speakers, music, booths, food, art, and play areas for children.
These partners are co-presenting the event:

Resilient Indigenous Sisters Engaging (R.I.S.E. Coalition)
United Theological Seminary
Friends of the Mississippi River

CLICK HERE to RSVP!

Lake Street Solar Info Session
2024-08-12 10:00 - 11:00 | Lundstrum Performing Arts, Lundstrum Performing Arts, 1617 N 2nd St, Minneapolis, 55411, United States
Interested in decarbonizing but unsure of how to pay for it? Learn more about how your small business, non-profit, or faith, spiritual, or religious community can go solar for zero up-front costs!
Our Lake Street Solar program delivers more of the savings of renewable energy to you and your organization than other programs. By utilizing the tax and business incentives available, our investors can pay for your entire solar system and offer lower-than-market rates on you electricity. And at the end of 10 years, you’ll have the option to buy back the entire system at a fraction of the cost.
Join us for this information session to learn more and to get your business or organization’s name on our list of projects!
CLICK HERE TO RSVP!

People Not Polluters Webinar
2024-09-05 18:00 - 19:30 | Zoom
MNIPL is part of a new project called People Not Polluters to highlight serious regulatory failures and show that Minnesota state agencies are not living up to their responsibilities. Join us for an informational webinar & build power for People Not Polluters!
At this webinar, we’ll introduce the importance of this project, define and share characteristics of “polluter capture,” and hear from experts and community members about how this issue has impacted their lives and advocacy for strong environmental protections. There will be an audience Q & A as well as information on how to take collective action.
Together, we’re building pressure to ask our State Legislators to make agencies do right by Minnesotans and stop giving in to polluters.
CLICK HERE TO RSVP to this event hosted by Sierra Club!

Vote for Climate: Using Relational Organizing to Get Your Communities Activated This November
2024-09-12 18:00 - 19:00 | Zoom
Elections are critical to making sure that our state and country are committed to repairing the harm of climate change and to building towards a green and interdependent future. In this critical time, we need people like you and people you know, people who care about this world and everything that lives here, to vote in November.
The most effective way to get folks to the polls is when someone they know and trust shares why this election is important and helps them make a plan.
Join us for a training on relational organizing, a tool that helps us reach out to people in our communities to get them to vote for people who care about the things they care about: policies that support a green future and authentic repair for the harms of climate change.
This session will offer concrete tools for you to make a plan to vote, tell your story about your commitment to addressing climate change, and help your loved ones get to the polls.
CLICK HERE TO RSVP!

Community Harvest Camp
2024-09-20 - 2024-09-22 | Long Lake Conservation Center, 28952 438th Ln, Palisade, 56469, United States
Fire in the Village is hosting a weekend-long Community Harvest Camp! On Friday, there will be a FREE outdoor concert, featuring music by Annie Humphrey and David Huckfelt, as well as community art activities and a harvest meal prepared by Chengwatana Community Farm and friends.
Click here learn more about the concert!
After the concert, you can also stay overnight at Long Lake and join us for a Community Harvest Camp presented by the Mississippi River Open School (Macalester College) and network community partners, including Rise & Repair! This autumn culture camp is for anyone who wants to deepen their connections with place and community through time together outdoors. Activities will center around seasonal harvest in our water-rich northern climate.
Click here to learn more and register! On-site lodging is available, but space is limited.

Your Energy Transition: Making Your Home Work for the Earth
2024-09-23 19:00 - 20:00 | Zoom
Join us for a conversation about how you can reduce your carbon emissions and save money on your energy bills!
Our homes have amazing potential to reduce carbon emissions and save us real money. A typical Minnesota household can receive $10,000 for insulating and switching to electric options, plus you get a more comfortable and safe home to live in. Join us to hear from homeowners who have made these changes and the many resources available to help you upgrade your home. We’ll unveil the digital audit tool created by our UNC intern team, connect you to energy experts that offer in-person audits, and walk through the tax credits and rebates and how to get them.
As the first fall chill comes, Minnesotans know it’s time to get our homes in order for winter. Likewise, climate change calls us to get our house in order for the planet. Many Minnesotans are responding and you can too.
CLICK HERE TO RSVP!

Policy Solutions for the Home Insurance Crisis
2024-10-02 11:00 - 12:00 | Zoom
Our friends at the Climate & Community Institute are hosting a conversation to discuss policy proposals for the mounting home insurance crisis rooted in new research findings on the insurance and housing markets.
Panelists will include legislators, advocates and policy researchers from Florida, Minnesota, and California, including MNIPL’s Julia Nerbonne!
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER!

Vote for Climate: Using Relational Organizing to Get Out the Vote with Sen. Zaynab Mohamed
2024-10-08 17:30 - 18:30 | Mayflower Church, 106 E Diamond Lake Rd, Minneapolis, MN, 55419, United States
Elections are critical to making sure that our state and country are committed to repairing the harms of climate change and to building towards a green and interdependent future. In this important time, we need people like you and people you know – people who care about this world and everything that lives here – to vote in November.
The most effective way to get folks to the polls is when someone they know and trust shares why this election is important and helps them make a plan. That’s why MNIPL is holding a series of events in October to help people like you get their friends and neighbors to vote in November!
Join Senator Zaynab Mohamed, Mayflower Church, and MNIPL for a conversation about relational organizing, a tool that helps us reach out to people in our communities to get them to vote for people who care about the things we care about: policies that support a green future and authentic repair for the harms of climate change.
This session will offer concrete tools for you to make a plan to vote, tell your story about your commitment to addressing climate change, and help your loved ones get to the polls.
CLICK HERE TO RSVP!

October Reparations Learning Lab: Truth Telling
2024-10-09 12:00 - 13:00 | Zoom
For 2024-2025, we are offering monthly, hour-long, interactive sessions on Zoom that invite people into deeper reflection, work, and action towards repair and reparation. The October session will focus on truth telling.
These sessions are intended for white-bodied people from across different identities, lineages, traditions, and geographies who are already committed to the work of repair and reparation, and who want to continue to learn, grow, and build community. We will focus on moving from ideas towards action, and on building personal, collective, and systemic reparations practices. Black, Indigenous, Brown, and Native folks and other people of color are also welcome to join.
We have three asks and expectations as part of your commitment to this work together:

Watch our “Reparations: What are They?” session so that we can all arrive with a shared foundation and set of concepts.
Consider making a financial contribution of any amount that is meaningful and sustainable to you to support our Black & Native Advisory Table. Our Black & Native partners offer accountability, support, and solidarity, and it matters that we compensate their time and talent. Every dollar donated through this page goes to the amazing activists who are guiding us towards authentic change.
Consider becoming a sustaining donor of MNIPL with a monthly contribution of any amount.

MNIPL provides our reparations programming free of charge, and we can only make that possible with your support and participation.
CLICK HERE TO RSVP!

So What Comes Next? A Post-Election Debrief
2024-11-13 17:00 - 19:30 | Zoom
President Donald Trump’s return to the White House and changes in our state government will have a big impact on our work and our communities. As we figure out what comes next, it’s important for us to continue to build and nurture interconnected relationships with folks who care about our world and people who live in it.
Join us on Wednesday, November 13 for a statewide online conversation about how this election has affected us and how we can continue to push forward with our work. If you’re local, we’re inviting people into our space to join the call together with an open house before hand.
CLICK HERE TO RSVP TO ATTEND IN PERSON
CLICK HERE TO RSVP TO ATTEND VIRTUALLY

Heat Pump Helpers: Process Over Product
2024-11-21 19:00 - 20:00 | Zoom
Join MNIPL’s Bret Pence and Rachel Wagner, Creative and Technical Director of Just Housing, as they share their experiences of assisting 5 homeowners in Northeastern Minnesota over the past year in determining whether their houses were good candidates for air source heat pumps. Using a grant from CERTs, MNIPL and Just Housing dove deep into examining the existing homes, and used the results to undergo a process of examination with the homeowners. Barriers to implementation were recognized and bridges around these obstacles were found, with recommendations for future deliberations on this issue. The study builds upon findings and resources explored in the Northland Heat Pump Helpers webinar series from 2023.
CLICK HERE TO RSVP!

Election impact on community-scale energy tax credits and federal funding: Briefing and participant Q&A
2024-11-22 14:00 - 15:00 | Zoom
Join MNIPL and Jeremy Kalin, attorney at Avisen Legal and experienced community-scale clean energy tax credit and project finance attorney, for a briefing on the impact of the recent election on the community-scale energy tax credits and federal funding. We’ll offer a short briefing on what we know, then spend the majority of the time answering questions.
CLICK HERE TO RSVP!

Rise & Repair 2025 Kickoff and Fundraiser
2024-12-07 18:30 - 20:30 | New City Center/Walker United Methodist Church, 3104 16th Ave S, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55407, United States
Join MNIPL and partner organizations for the 2025 kickoff of the Rise & Repair Alliance advancing Climate Justice & Indigenous Rights during the upcoming legislative session!
We’ll spend the evening hours of Saturday, December 7th at New City Center / Walker Methodist Church in South Minneapolis getting to know each other and learning about the issues and opportunities coming up ~ regardless of the outcome of the election!
More details and info coming soon.
CLICK HERE TO RSVP!
PS: Interested in helping organize this event? Curious about how to engage with Rise & Repair as a community connector during this year’s legislative session? Have resources you’d like to contribute? Drop a message to eoin@riseandrepair.org!

It's Like 1,000 New Coal Plants: The Risks of Liquefied Natural Gas
2024-12-18 13:00 - 14:00 | Zoom
Join us for It’s Like 1,000 New Coal Plants: The Risks of Liquefied Natural Gas, a conversation with national liquefied natural gas (LGN) expert Jeremy Symons about the perils of multiple proposals being considered by the outgoing Biden administration.

Symons will explain

What LNG is and why we are exporting it
How exports of LNG raise the price for natural gas customers in the U.S.
The emissions impact of current and proposed LNG operations
Opportunities for weighing in on LNG decisions by the current and future administrations

CLICK HERE TO RSVP AND ACCESS THE ZOOM LINK!

Rise & Repair Welcoming our Legislators to the 2025 Session
2025-01-14 10:00 - 13:00 | Minnesota State Capitol, 75 Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Saint Paul, MN, 55155
Join MNIPL and the Rise & Repair Alliance at the Minnesota Capitol to welcome our legislators to the 2025 session! We’ll gather at 10am in the L’Etoile Du Nord Room for some snacks, postcard writing and song learning and then move to the second floor by the rotunda to welcome and greet our bipartisan legislative body as they walk into chambers.
Our main focus of this event is to make sure that each elected official sees our policy priorities on Indigenous rights & climate justice from the Wild Rice Protection Act to the 100% eWaste Collection and Recycling bill. Bring good energy!
CLICK HERE TO RSVP!

Community Climate Resilience Hubs – January Gathering
2025-01-21 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom
Our Minnesota communities are already feeling the impacts of climate change, from widespread drought to bigger and more dangerous storms. Our neighbors are going to need support in building the relationships, infrastructure, and support to prevent and adapt to the realities of climate disruption. Minnesota’s communities of faith, and community organizations are uniquely poised to meet this particular moment.
That’s why MNIPL is launching the Community Climate Resilience Network. These trainings and conversations will bring together organizations throughout the state that are interested in meeting this moment. We’ll cover topics like, “What are Resilience Hubs?”, building good and right relationships with your communities, and emergency preparedness with experts in the field.
This webinar kick-off focuses on potential Minnesota resilience networks, but everyone interested in resilience networks is welcome to join and participate.
CLICK HERE TO RSVP FOR THE JANUARY SESSION!

Protecting Manoomin/Psíŋ (Wild Rice) Training Webinar
2025-01-28 19:00 - 20:00 | Zoom
Join the Rise & Repair Allinace for a collaborative webinar/workshop around protecting Wild Rice known as Manoomin to the Anishinaabe and Psiŋ to the Dakota. This one-hour webinar/workshop will walk through an active effort to protect this relative and include breakouts to explore ways we can work together to protect “Minnesota’s State Grain”.
RSVP is required – we will provide an email with Zoom details to those who have RSVP’d ahead of the event!
CLICK HERE TO RSVP!

Quarterly Community Offering - Winter 2025
2025-01-30 19:00 - 20:15 | Zoom
Through the year and beyond, we’ll be hosting Quarterly Movement Offerings, which will be an opportunity to share what we’re working on and hear from you what you’re paying most attention to. Each session will have information about the state of climate justice work here and abroad, an opportunity to reconnect us to the importance of building a more equitable and interdependent world, and tangible action steps our communities can take to move us forward.
Now, more than ever, we need you to show up for what we know to be true: that radical kindness can create meaningful change, that decarbonizing our world’s energy is not a partisan issue, and that the moment for building our local and global capacity to prepare for climate disruption is upon us.
CLICK HERE TO RSVP FOR THE WINTER QUARTERLY COMMUNITY OFFERING

Winter Warm-Up: An MNIPL Gathering & Fundraiser
2025-02-10 17:00 - 19:00 | BlackStack Brewing, 755 Prior Ave N, St Paul, 55104, United States
Join us for our Winter Warm-Up: An MNIPL Gathering & Fundraiser!
Grab a beer or non-alcoholic beverage and connect with other Minnesotans who care about our Earth and the people who live here. Learn more about MNIPL’s current work, including our leadership in Rise & Repair, which is a diverse alliance of organizations working to support Indigenous and tribal sovereignty and climate justice at the Legislature. Join us to enjoy time together and support our shared vision of a greener and more interconnected world.
$1 from each beer purchased at the event will benefit MNIPL!
CLICK HERE TO RSVP!
The first 20 people to donate to this fundraiser will get a free beer token – donate now to get a head start!
Can’t make the event but still want to donate? Click here to make your gift!
Special thanks to our sponsors for this event: MN Solar & Mastel’s Health Foods

Community-Owned Energy Solutions and Resilience Hubs at Sabathani
2025-02-11 16:30 - 18:00 | Sabathani Community Center, 310 E 38th St, Minneapolis, 55409, United States
Join Julia Nerbonne and Joshua Lewis (MNIPL), Timothy Denherder Thomas (Cooperative Energy Futures) and a group of UMN students in an exploration of local community owned energy solutions plus an overview of the resilience hub work being done at Sabathani.
CLICK HERE TO RSVP!
