Religious Leaders from Around the World Meet with U.N. Secretary-General at Windsor Castle
IPL Executive Director Susan Stephenson, the Rev. Canon Sally Bingham, HRH the Prince Philip, His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon
Religious leaders from all major world religions gathered this week at Windsor Castle to meet with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Prince Philip, presenting ideas and committing to protect Creation.
Ban believes in the enormous influence that religious leaders have in addressing moral issues, saying they have a unique position in the discussion on the future of the planet.
IPL’s founder and president, the Rev. Canon Sally Bingham and executive director Susan Stephenson attended the summit.
“Up until recently,” Bingham said,” the religious community had abdicated its responsibility to care for creation.” Bingham told the audience at Friends House in London, “I believe that clergy talking about environmental stewardship from the pulpit will have more influence than will scientists or a politician.” [Source]
California IPL Featured on CNN HLN Local Edition
A recent appearance by Southern California Outreach Director, Allis Druffel, and David Mowry of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Riverside, a CIPL member congregation, on CNN Headline News, Local Edition.
Listen to Sally Bingham’s Radio Interview
Earlier today, the Rev. Canon Sally Bingham was Steve Goldstein’s guest on Here and Now, a program on Phoenix’s NPR station, KJZZ 91.5. Sally is in Phoenix to officially launch Arizona IPL and speak at the Episcopal Diocesan Convention. She also discusses why climate change is a moral issue rather than a political issue.
The clip below is just over eight minutes long.
Click here to listen (to download, right-click and select “save target as…”)
Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change
Every year, Blog Action Day focuses on an important issue facing the world and asks all bloggers to post on the issue at the same time. This
Doug and Rob, two members of the AZ IPL steering committee watching a slideshow on the construction of the Church of the Brethren
year the issue is, as you have probably guessed, climate change.
We thought we would take this opportunity to give you a snapshot of what’s happening around here today, and just remind you of some of the important ways that people of faith around the country are participating.
- Our founder, the Rev. Canon Sally Bingham is currently in Arizona, at the official launch of Arizona IPL and giving a keynote lecture tomorrow at the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona Conference, after stops this month in University Park, PA for the Religion and the Ethics of Climate Change Conference, Wisconsin for the Interfaith Earthkeeping Conference, New York, and Washinton D.C. Next week, she will be on her way to New Orleans to meet with Patriarch Bartholomew. She’s been keeping us updated with photos from Arizona all day from her iPhone.
- We’ve been excited to hear about everyone’s plans in the faith community for the 350.org’s Oct. 24th Day of Action. Maine IPL will be gathering at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception to ring the bell 350 times, raising a ruckus both for a strong agreement in Copenhagen and to get the attention of their senators to pass the climate bill.
- California IPL has been gearing up for the Third Annual Energy Oscars on Nov. 10 at Grace Cathedral here in San Francisco.
And here’s a reminder about all the ways you can get involved:
- Join thousands of others in sending a message to your senators urging them to pass the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act.
- Visit your state’s Interfaith Power and Light.
- Sign up for email alerts and join the IPL Online Activist Team for more frequent action alerts.
- Discount prices for energy-efficiency products: ShopIPL.org – Coupon code: shopipl
- Measure your congregation’s carbon footprint: CoolCongregations.com
- Purchase a copy of Love God Heal Earth by Sally Bingham
- Connect with IPL on: Facebook | Twitter | Subscribe to the IPL Blog
And finally:
Your tax-deductible contributions help us mobilize a religious response to global warming.
October Brought to You by the Number 350
There are two numbers to remember this month: 350 and 24. Experts say 350 ppm CO2 in the atmosphere is the safe limit for humanity. And on Saturday, October 24, many communities of faith across the land will be gathering for the 350.org Day of Action. Their activities will include prayers, celebrations, worship services, and creative messages using the number, such as ringing a church bell 350 times.
If you would like to get your faith community involved, or you want to attend an event that is already planned, visit 350.org/faith to get started.
You can also contact your state IPL leader to get plugged in to events happening around you.
Today, Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, and Mary Evelyn Tucker, of the Forum on Religion and Ecology sent out this message to faith leaders:
Friends—We need you to help at the last minute, and here’s a few sentences to get you inspired. They come from an op-ed that one of our leading 350.org spokespeople, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, just wrote for the African newspapers:
‘In South Africa we showed that if we act on the side of justice, we have the power to turn tides; on October 24 we have a chance to start turning the tide of climate change.’
He’s right—October 24, which is the 350 day of global action, has taken off like a great wave of hope. People all over the world—especially young people and people of faith—have done such an amazing job of organizing that this looks like it will be the most widespread day of political witness the world has ever seen, with several thousand actions and events in more than 150 countries. Every one will be focused on those three numbers, 3-5-0, because scientists tell us that it’s the most important number on earth: it’s the most carbon we can safely have in the atmosphere, at least if we want a planet “similar to the one on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted.”
So there will be climbers high on the melting slopes of Mt. Everest with 350 banners. And the entire cabinet of the government of the Maldives has been taking scuba training so they can hold an official underwater meeting on Oct. 24 to pass a 350 resolution. I was just in Bethlehem to meet with activists from across the region: on the Israeli shore of the Dead Sea, activists will use their bodies to make a giant human 3, and in Palestine a giant 5, and on the Jordanian shore an enormous 0.
We need you and your community to join in: to join thousands of churches in ringing the steeple bell 350 times, or use that week’s Torah portion—the story of Noah—to make the case for creation care. Here’s how Archbishop Tutu put it:
Buddhist monks and Muslim congregations are joining in the same kind of hopeful actions. Everywhere participants will be worried about the fate of their own particular places—but they’ll also be standing up for the weakest people and places on earth, whose voices simply must be heard. People in almost all the nations of the earth are involved—it’s the same kind of coalition that helped make the word “apartheid” known around the world.
Spotlight on Ohio IPL
Greg Hitzhusen, Oh IPL Executive Director with Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture
An event sponsored by Ohio IPL was part of President Obama’s recent Interfaith Service Week. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack was joined by a diverse delegation of interfaith leaders to distribute compact fluorescent light bulbs at Maple Terrace, a senior citizens public housing facility in Zanesville, Ohio. The event, sponsored by Eastside Community Ministry and Ohio Interfaith Power and Light, was part of an effort by people of faith to recognize the need to be good stewards of the earth.
You can read the full story at USDA’s blog.
Big upcoming event:
Come to London! Ohio that is (you don’t have to jump the pond to get there). Participate in Ohio IPL’s inaugural Green Summit:
Ohio’s first Green Summit for faith-community environmental work, Oct. 2-4, has an amazing line-up of nationally renowned faith-environment speakers and workshop leaders. Come hear Matthew and Nancy Sleeth, Mike Schut, Job Ebenezer, Stacey Kennealy, Nancy Roth, Leanne Jablonski, Greg Hitzhusen, Bee Moorhead and many others! If you’re wondering how to become a more faithful steward of God’s creation, or how to build environmental ministries in your community, don’t miss this first annual gathering for Ohio faith communities on St. Francis Day weekend – online registration ends Sept. 29 (pdf flyer).
Muslims Around the World are Promoting a ‘Green Ramadan’
A period of fasting has a measurable effect on a carbon footprint, and raises consciousness about the environmental impact of everyday habits. Christians are beginning to incorporate this intentionality into their observation of Lent.
As the holy month of Ramadan begins, Muslims around the world are encouraging one another, as well as non-Muslims, to promote environmental awareness during this year’s observation.
How You Can Help Pass a Clean Energy and Climate Bill in the Senate
At local town hall meetings around the country, opponents of climate and energy legislation are turning out in force along with opponents of health care reform in an orchestrated strategy to shout down congressmembers and intimidate them.
As senators head home for the August recess, we must step up our efforts to demonstrate faith community concern for this issue.
Here is what you can do to help push for climate legislation:
- You can find more information about an upcoming town hall meeting near you by clicking on one of the orange markers on this map. Or download the spreadsheet) Please attend an event near you, and peacefully display your support, as a person of faith, for a clean energy and climate bill. While we certainly do not want to imitate their angry mob tactics, it’s important that our senators hear a more accurate portrayal of public opinion at the meetings.
- Visit our Action Center and send a letter to your senator saying that as a person of clean faith you support:
- increasing our competitiveness in a global clean-energy market that could reach nearly $2 trillion in the next decade.
- creating millions of new American jobs
- protecting God’s Creation for future generations
- protecting the most vulnerable members of our society from catastrophic climate change
Reclaiming Creation
PoweringaNation.org has a great section called “Reclaiming Creation,” featuring some Interfaith Power & Light leaders. The article “Religion rejuvenates environmentalism” by Courtney Woo offers an outstanding overview of what faith groups are doing around the country to protect Creation, and features a video with North Carolina IPL’s Richard Fireman and Greater Washington IPL’s Allison Fisher.
There is also a series of short segments with faith leaders, and one of them features Tim Darst from Kentucky IPL.
Click on the video images to watch them over at Powering a Nation.
The Resources from Above
The Rev. Canon Sally Bingham recently wrote an opinion piece for a new website from the University of North Carolina: Powering a Nation. The article contrasts the resources from hell (below), represented by coal and fossil fuels, with resources from heaven (above), wind and sun.
Here is an excerpt:
I am an advocate for reducing our climate-change pollution so that we may fulfill our responsibility to steward creation. Thousands of congregations that my organization works with around the United States are doing this, and they are saving money on their energy bills while reducing their carbon footprint. To make the point, I would describe those fossil fuels such as oil and coal as the fuels from hell—from the dark places of the earth. Besides providing those sources of energy, God provided energy from heaven—wind and sun. We have overused the resources from hell and we have barely explored the ones from heaven, which are clean, renewable and infinite.
Check out the rest of the article.
