Greetings, Friends!
Sometimes I get frustrated with the nature of this blog and my schedule. I think there’s so much more that can be said about the issues I raise each week, but time marches on and news happens 24/7, leaving me with the conundrum of how best to present concerns in the most timely way. Last week’s blog about depression and suicide prevention is certainly worthy of more time, but I am choosing to put it aside for now and move on. It is my hope 
that you will delve deeper into a topic that grabs your attention and I also hope that if any of you find additional articles or websites that speak to these concerns, you will share them with the rest of us so we can work together to become better informed. All that being said, let’s move on to what’s in the news this week – Climate Change!
It’s just about time in our church year for a new season! No, I’m not thinking of Advent – I’m thinking of Stewardship Drives!! It’s that season when we try to make pleas for increased giving sound “holy.” I will leave the familiar aspect of stewardship to your vestries. But there’s much more to stewardship than the three T’s (time, talents and treasures). As Christians, I think we would all agree that we are called to be good stewards of all God’s gifts to us – and that includes our beautiful planet Earth!
Just this week some of our world leaders met in New York for the United Nations Climate Change Summit. The Summit is seen as an important milestone on the path towards closing the emissions gap, the difference between reduction pledges and the necessary emission cuts for the 2° C scenario, and to a new legal agreement on climate change that is to be approved in Paris in December 2015. In his invitation to the Summit, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated: “I challenge you to bring to the Summit bold pledges. Innovate, scale-up, cooperate and deliver concrete action that will close the emissions gap and put us on track for an ambitious legal agreement through the UNFCCC [United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change] process.”
Just two days prior to the Summit, the People’s Climate March was held in NYC. Drawing 310,000 participants, this was the largest demonstration for action on climate issues in history. Joining the march were 200 Anglican and Episcopalians from as far away as Alabama, Oregon and South Africa. To read a great article about the March, go to the Episcopal News Service – http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2014/09/23/worlds-largest-climate-action-march-episcopalians-protest-for-change/ Ann Rowthorn from St Anne’s Episcopal Church, Old Lyme, Conn., commented: “The No. 1 pro-life issue is the life of our planet. It’s the No. 1 issue of our time. We need to put our feet to the pavement to let our leaders know they have disappointed us. This is a message to those leaders meeting this week.”
Coinciding with this week’s climate events, the leaders of The Episcopal Church, The Anglican Church of Canada, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada issued a pastoral letter on climate change – http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2014/09/19/a-pastoral-message-on-climate-change/ The letter exhorts us to engage others in “the godly work:” of caring for our planet as stewards of God’s creation.
There were two resolutions passed at the 77th General Convention that speak to this issue which are worth reiterating:
B023: Environmental Justice
Resolved, That the 77th General Convention of The Episcopal Church stands in solidarity with those communities who bear the greatest burdens of global climate change: indigenous peoples, subsistence communities, communities of color, and persons living in deprivation around the world; and be it further
Resolved, That the 77th General Convention calls on congregations, institutions, dioceses, and the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of The Episcopal Church to support policies that provide tangible benefits to overburdened “frontline” communities (those already experiencing the impacts of climate change) and “fence-line” communities (those suffering in body and spirit for their proximity to the extraction and processing of fossil fuels); and be it further
Resolved, That the 77th General Convention calls on congregations, institutions, dioceses, and the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of The Episcopal Church, to work for the just transformation of the world’s energy beyond and away from fossil fuels (including all forms of oil, coal, and natural gas) and toward safe, sustainable, renewable, community controlled energy, and that fossil fuel workers and their families be supported during the transition to a “postcarbon” society; and be it further
Resolved, That the 77th General Convention calls on congregations, institutions, dioceses, and the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of The Episcopal Church to resist the development and expansion of ever more unconventional, dangerous, and environmentally destructive sources of fossil fuel and move toward conversion to more sustainable sources; and be it further
Resolved, That the 77th General Convention calls on congregations, institutions, dioceses and the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of The Episcopal Church to support the self-determined aspirations of communities around the world, who, like the Iñupiaq Community of Kivalina, Alaska, having emitted minimal amounts of carbon and having received negligible material benefit from fossil fuel consumption, nevertheless bear the brunt of climate-change impacts; and be it further
Resolved, That the 77th General Convention calls on congregations, institutions, dioceses and the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of The Episcopal Church, including Episcopal Relief and Development, to support the implementation of grassroots, community-based solutions to climate change, including, but not limited to, adaptations to improve local resilience, to build local food sovereignty, to support ecological restoration and economic re-localization.
D055: Advocate for Public Policy to Reduce Climate Changing Emissions
Resolved, That the 77th General Convention of the Episcopal Church urge the United States government to enact stricter controls on the use of carbon-based fuels, and create incentives for our nation’s transitions from dependence upon fossil fuels to safe, clean, renewable energy and thereby curb emissions of heat-trapping gasses into the atmosphere and be it further
Resolved, that this convention encourage every member of the Episcopal Church to urge his/her members of Congress to enact such legislation.
The Nuts and Bolts Blog has addressed these resolutions before but I think it’s always helpful to be reminded of the work of the Church. Let’s follow the exhortation of our Presiding Bishop Katharine and her colleagues and get involved. Let our voices be heard by those who have the power to pass legislation. And let each of us take seriously the call to protect our planet as faithful stewards of God’s creation!
Let us pray –
Most gracious God, creator of all good things,
we thank you for planet earth and all creatures that share it.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Have mercy on us, Lord.Through ignorance and carelessness we have poisoned clean air and pure water.
For monetary gain we have reduced verdant forests to barren wastes.
In our craving for more we have plundered your beloved creation
and driven many of our fellow creatures to extinction.
Only recently have we begun to realize the dangerous future
into which our current patterns of consumption and waste are driving us,
especially in relation to earth’s climate.
Only recently have we begun to see our need to find a wiser
and better way of life in the future,
before it is too late and our choices are limited
by the consequences of inaction.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We who join in prayer today believe the time has come, Lord.
Please guide us now, our God, at this critical moment in history,
to better fulfill our role as stewards of this fragile planet.
Guide the leaders of nations who have gathered in New York this past week.
Give them courage to set noble goals
that reach beyond short-range political expediency,
short-term economic profit, and short-sighted self-interest.
Impress upon their conscience our sacred duty
to bequeath to our children and grandchildren a healthy and thriving environment rather than a world in climate crisis.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
If our leaders fail, Lord, if they fail to take the necessary action,
they will violate both our trust and your calling
to use their power for the common good.
If they fail, every person will be affected,
including generations not yet born.
Rouse us all to action for we are all woven together in the fabric of creation.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
This is the moment, God, when a great turning of hearts must begin. So through this prayer, we of many traditions who follow Christ –
joined by friends and neighbors of many faiths –
unite our hearts in a cry for change.
Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
We pray in the name of Christ,
through whom you have given yourself
to the whole world in incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection.
Amen.
(prayer adapted from Brian McLaren)
– Judith Schellhammer, chair, Resolution Review Committee, Diocesan Council
