Get involved for fun and for the ocean you love. Try this
COVID-careful service opportunity as small group or individual!
San Diego is known for its beloved beaches and marine wildlife, with 17 miles of coastline. Like many ocean areas, it struggles with plastics and trash, water pollution, and loss of marine habitat and species. Our chapter of Interfaith Oceans is dedicated to work together on these problems.
Sea Cleanse September welcomes people of all faiths and spiritual paths. It aligns with the International Coastal Cleanup, the Christian Season of Creation, and the spiritual ritual for the solemn Jewish New Year's celebration of Rosh Hashanah.
Coastal CleanUp and Trash-to-Art Contest Winner Below!
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Sea Cleanse September is a chance for everyone to rethink how we depend upon plastics and other disposables, and how our waste ends up in the oceans, killing sea life and integrating plastic micro-particles into the seafood we eat.
Taking Trash Back from the Ocean & Tranforming into Art
Many Jews prepare for the solemn Jewish New Year celebration of Rosh Hashanah with an ancient ritual of tashlich, casting pieces of bread representing the past years’ sins into a body of water, reflecting on how to progress to a better future as individuals and as a community. In recent years, many Jews have considered the concrete “sins” of plastics and waste we are putting into the ocean. Consequently, a new tradition has been born: “reverse tashlich,” pulling waste out of the ocean, lakes, and rivers.
The Christian Season of Creation “to renew our relationship with our Creator and all creation through repenting, repairing, and rejoicing together. During the Season of Creation, we join our sisters and brothers in the ecumenical family in prayer and action for our common home.”
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Other spiritual practices, paths, and religions also engage in reflection, cleansing, and
starting anew for growth in better ways and relationships.
In the same spirit. Interfaith Oceans is welcoming people of all religions, faith traditions, and spiritual paths to join us in this act of ocean cleansing and reflection, transforming the trash into something new--art to build awareness of the problems of plastics and waste
in the ocean.
Congrats to our winner, and thank you all for your care for the oceans and creativity!
"A Mother's Love" by Rylee Broach
2020 Contest Winner
"Our planet is in peril because of the population's excessive use and production of single-use plastics. I wanted to create this piece to show that our oceans are continuously being polluted with garbage and single-use plastic. Sealife is faced with adapting to their ever-changing surroundings, some survive, and some do not. This picture depicts a penguin mother and her offspring's survival as well as their love for each other.”
- Rylee Broach,
Delta Beta Tau, a co-ed Buddhist service fraternity, SDSU
Why Get Involved?
Alyssa Skites, one of the founders and co-leaders of Interfaith Oceans SDSU tells stories in this book of how young adults have overcome their sorrow at problems in the world by doing one small act at a time with others to spark change and make a difference. Getting involved with Interfaith Oceans and other service, social justice, environmental, and faith/spiritual groups can make a difference in your own life--deepening your hope, relationships, spiritual/faith life, and sense of meaning and place in the universe.
