NCC Eco-Justice Program challenges congregations to address climate change
Episcopal News Service. March 31, 2008 [033108-02]
Phina Borgeson, Correspondent for Episcopal Life Media
The National Council of Churches (NCC) Eco-Justice Program challenges "congregations to take action to address climate change" in their resources for Earth Sunday 2008, "The Poverty of Global Climate Change."
NCC Earth Day resources are available here.
"Addressing climate change must involve addressing the plight of those in poverty to be successful, while addressing poverty must involve environmental sustainability to be a long-term solution."
This central message of the resource is supported by background information and sermon ideas usable for the Sundays before and after Earth Day (April 20 and 27), as well as suggestions for environmental actions congregations in the United States can take to slow the acceleration of global warming and thus reduce its impact on the poor around the world.
Phyllis Strupp, chair of the leadership team of the Episcopal Ecological Network, reminds us that climate change also affects the poor in North America.
Through her personal contacts and researches with the Nature and Spirituality Program of the Diocese of Arizona, Strupp has learned of the dire effects of climate change in the southwestern desert. Dry has become drier, and summer and autumn storms more severe with concentrated rainfall, she notes, adding that the homeless and elderly poor are particularly susceptible to weather related illness and death.
"A climatologist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research suggested that as the tropics dry out large numbers of displaced poor would head north to the United States, compounding the immigration issues of today," Strupp adds.
The Rev. Carol Tookey, vicar of the New Mexico Region of the Navajoland Area Mission, underscores Strupp's concerns. "Long-term drought, as a consequence of climate change, will have a significant impact on the whole southwest, which includes not only the Navajo but numerous other indigenous populations as well."
While the NCC resources suggest actions focus on energy use for heating, cooling and transportation, Episcopal environmental leaders highlight the myriad ways people can make a difference in climate change and thus the plight of the poor.
Jennifer Snow, deputy director of Progressive Christians Uniting in Southern California, is organizing a workshop on Food, Faith and Farming for Saturday, April 26. "I think focusing on our food system is the best way to bring people from the personal to the political." Snow's Eighth Day Project works to connect social justice and environmental issues from a faith perspective.
At All Souls' Parish in Berkeley, California, Nancy Snow (no relation) chairs the environmental team which has planned an extended commemoration of Earth Day from April 20 through May 4. Activities include engaging with the city's Climate Action Team, hosting the Rev. Sally Bingham, canon for Environmental Ministry, as guest preacher, and hearing the latest from experts on the science of global warming.
Nancy Snow suggests there are a wide range of green mission projects which can make a difference in the lives of the poor, and underscores that "the best long-term solution to over-population and to general empowerment," thus reducing the rise in greenhouse gas emissions, lies in "supporting the education of women in developing countries."
Tookey, a member of the Third Order, Society of St. Francis, reflects that while there are many ideas for things to do where environmental concerns and economic justice issues intersect, "I always think simplicity is a good place to start."
Additional resources, connecting climate change concerns to the Millennium Development Goals, can be found through the Global Good portal here.