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The Power to Change
The 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. (PCUSA) has put forth this resolution on energy and climate change as a resource for both individuals and entire congregations. Topics at the forefront of the report include: global warming, eco-justice norms, energy guidelines, non-renewable energy sources, and alternative and renewable energy sources. The final section includes resources for education, action and advocacy. -
Report and Recommendations on Limited Water Resources and Takings
The 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. put forth this report on recommendations regarding critical water issues. The first half discusses water with regard to ethical considerations and sustainability. The second part provides an action/study guide that is designed for individual use as well as educational purposes. -
Globalization and the Environment
This study paper by Dr. Robert L. Stivers focuses on various types of attitudes and perspectives regarding human interaction with the environment. He maintains that environmental degradation has multiple causes, of which globalization might only be one factor. Dr. Stivers offers that globalization is a contributor to the extent that affluent individuals from around the world have yet to curb their spending habits and attitudes with regard its negative impact on nature. -
We Are What We Eat
The 214th General Assembly (2002) Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) approved the following report titled We Are What We Eat. This report focuses on how people can influence the agriculture revolution with regard to sustainability, stewardship compassion, and community. The final section provides suggestions for activities and studies that congregations can engage in with regard to food production/consumption. -
Hazardous Waste, Race, and the Environment
This statement was approved by the 207th General Assembly Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 1995. The predominant theme focuses on the impact that hazardous waste has on individuals who are suffering from poverty and minority groups. The final section provides suggestions for taking action. -
Seven Congregations of Dominican Women Collaborate to Offer Sept. 10 Earth Stewardship Program in Columbus
The Dominican Alliance Eco-Justice Committee is offering "Falling in Love with Earth Again" from 9:00am-3:00pm on Saturday, September 10 at the Martin de Porress Center in Columbus, OH. In the words of the organizers, the program will provide various avenues to “remind us of who we are as a part of this living Earth and renew our embodied human selves. Spend time with others pondering, celebrating, and creating your loving connection with Earth.” -
The Supreme Court and The Clean Power Plan
The Clean Power Plan was designed to allow states the greatest flexibility in implementation, attempting benefiting the health of individuals by improving the quality of the air for everyone. The Supreme Court has ruled to stay the implementation of the Clean Power Plan (5-4 ruling). Many churches and faiths have banded together to express their dissatisfaction with this decision. A predominant tenet of most religious organizations is their concern with protecting the health and well-being of vulnerable communities and God’s Creation. -
Declaration of Religious Leaders, Political Leaders, Business Leaders, Scientists and Development Practitioners
Business and political leaders, and scientists from around the world have congregated at the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences to address the climate change crisis. The introduction to the declaration is stated below:
"We the undersigned have assembled at the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences to address the challenges of human-induced climate change, extreme poverty, and social marginalization, including human trafficking, in the context of sustainable development. We join together from many faiths and walks of life, reflecting humanity’s shared yearning for peace, happiness, prosperity, justice, and environmental sustainability.
We have considered the overwhelming scientific evidence regarding human-induced climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and the vulnerabilities of the poor to economic,social, and environmental shocks." -
America Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA) Creation Justice Congregations Bulletin
America Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA) has created a bulletin insert that discusses how congregations can earn certificates of achievement for implementing eco-justice measures. Further details are discussed below:
"Creation Justice Congregations is an environmental education, stewardship, and justice program sponsored by the Creation Justice Network of the American Baptist Churches USA. Through this program your congregation can earn certificates of achievement for implementing eco-justice measures in your building, within your congregations, and in your ministries of outreach and justice.
Creation Justice Congregations has three stages, each with a checklist of suggested education, worship, and other action items that can help bring Baptist churches into the wider movement for peace, justice, and reconciliation with all of God's creation. " -
A Bishops’ Letter about the Climate
Below is a section of the introduction from A Bishops’ Letter about the Climate, which covers a multitude of critical environmental issues, from the 2014 Bishops' conference:
"We have lived with reports and forecasts of climate change since the 1980s. Our climate is the result of the interaction of complex systems and there is often a great distance between cause and effect in terms of both space and time. There are uncertainties and a lack of clarity. However, the knowledge we possess today does not allow us to postpone until tomorrow
what needs to be done now. Our human climate impact must decrease for the sake of the earth, for the sake of the world that God so loves that God gave us Jesus Christ." -
The Hope We Share: A Vision For Copenhagen
The Anglican Communion Environmental Network addressed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
Conference Of Parties (COP) Meetings, the Fifteenth Session, held in Copenhagen, Denmark in December 2009. They lament the consequences of environmental human footprints, some of which include the lack of drinkable water in various parts of the world, the increased difficulty to grow crops due to the water shortages, rampant consumerism, and subsidies for fossil fuels. -
Why Lutherans Care for Creation
This article discusses how various concepts of Lutheran theology are woven into ecological messages with regard to God as creator, human interactions, and ways of worship. The following is a section from the introduction of the article, emphasizing human responsibility towards care for the Earth:
"For Christians, care of the Earth is not an 'environmental cause.' Rather, it is central to our holy calling to treasure the Earth and to care for it as our common home, fully integrating creation-care into our love of God and neighbor. Without sacrificing the transformational effects of the 16th-century Reformation, we are called to embrace an eco-reformation that will re-examine and rethink how we read the Bible, how we can expand the scope of our theology, how we can reconfigure our personal vocation and our common ethic, how we worship, how we organize our church life together, and how we understand ourselves as creatures within creation as a whole. This call to continuing reformation is for the whole church, not solely for the committed. Earth care is not an add-on. It is not just for those who happen to be interested in it. It is a call for all Christians to participate in this great work of our time."