Duane Clinker is the Pastor Open Table of Christ in Cranston, Rhode Island..
“As across the nation, and world, our environmental structure is extremely threatened. In my generation a way of life and connectedness to nature, even in urban areas, has been lost. Our still existing beautiful parks mask a deeper truth: No longer are we able to safely feed our families the fish we catch from RI ponds. The last time I went fishing with my daughter, hoping to show her the dying way of catching and cooking and eating a meal caught in cooperation with nature, caught together in a once pristine pond in Western Cranston, the fish was filled with tumors, probably from the invisible heavy metals in the pond. No longer can we fish for free from the shoreline. Now, as in the Urban Pond network in Providence, an organizing motive has to be the proper posting of warnings, against eating the fish, instead of invitations. Our endangered species today are prequel to what is coming. We must act now to save, and to begin to restore, our original human purpose, to protect the creation.”
Rev. Duane Clinker is the Pastor of the Open Table. Duane is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church with a varied life experience. Answering God’s call later in life, Duane formerly worked as a factory worker and then as a union, community, and faith-based organizer. He has a Doctor of Ministry from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington. Pastor Duane lives in Cranston with his wife, Mary Curtin and is blessed to have multiple children and grandchildren all living in RI.
