The project will see PG&E commit $65,000 for the installation, and designed and implemented by SolarCity of Foster City; it is expected to be completed later this year. And it is all thanks to the hard work of Reverend Canon Sally Bingham, the president of California Interfaith Power and Light, an organization founded upon the idea that the religious aspects of the community must respond to global warming as a moral issue.

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The play, as the one professor suggested, is trying to get people to think. It specifically wants them to think about and consider the possibilities of evolution and creationism, even if they are inclined to believe in one more than the other. Personally, I think that this is a great goal. I think that toleration, and perhaps even acceptance of both views is necessary for achieving positive progress in the world and in the sciences. Thus, as this website is named Planetsave, I think it’s necessary that people be able to appreciate both perspectives if we are in fact to save the planet.

An understanding of biology and its essential driver, evolution, is probably a necessary precursor for truly beginning to understand that species and resources are not renewable. The discovery of evolution makes me believe that we can to some extent understand how the world works through science. On the other hand, for me personally, it is utterly arrogant to outrightly deny the possibility of there being a god or some other kind of higher power.

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Note: This is Part 1 of a two part series. Click here to go to Part 2.

Occasionally I receive emails from publishers who are advertising a new academic journal that they think “will be a good match for my interests.” How kind of them to think of me. In one of these recent emails, free preview access was granted to me for several of these new journals. Even though the Annals of Dyslexia was tempting, the one that really tapped into the nerd inside of me is called Evolution: Education and Outreach. After perusing the table of contents, the one article title that stood out was “Inheriting Inherit the Wind: Debating the Play as a Teaching Tool.” I dove in.

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Let’s put an end to human suffering and racism by treating each other with respect and dignity. UBUNTU: I am because we are. No individualism. Let history be our teacher. When countries and leaders are fighting over natural resources, when they want to overpower another country, this has a huge effect on the ordinary people on the ground. There is a proverb that explains this very well. “When two bulls are fighting, what suffers the most is the grass.”

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There is a video available that is worth watching if you have a free hour and, like me, are into this kind of stuff! Otherwise, I will give an overly simplistic summary below.

The basic spiritual crisis we face as individuals is our failure to recognize that the sense of self is a construct. The construct creates a feeling of alienation. This causes us to try to find meaning in accumulating wealth and things to verify our existence, creating further anxiety and sense of lack. The solution to the problem is to realize that the sense of self is indeed a delusion. This results in a caring attitude toward everyone else because of the recognition that we are not separate but part of a whole.

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Are you there, God? It’s me, global warming.

When I logged on to Facebook yesterday, I was disturbed to see that my two least favorite things (organized religion and Yahoo! Inc.) have friend requested my best buddy, the Green Movement.

And the Green Movement accepted their friend request.

In a story posted yesterday on Yahoo! Green (which I had no idea existed until 12 hours ago), the Catholics’ second-in-command declared pollution a sin.

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Thanks to Dean A. Current, who has spent years developing methods for sustainable palm harvesting, churches now have a green option for buying palms.

Current is a research associate for University of Minnesota’s Department of Forest Resources. He has worked with Rainforest Alliance to prevent over-harvesting palms each year, make sure less palms are wasted, and give harvesters in Guatemala a fair wage for their efforts. Twenty-five percent of the program’s revenue goes right back into the communities where the palms are harvested.

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The Boston Globe published an article today about Nina M. Scott, a retired University of Massachusetts Amherst professor of Spanish Literature. Instead of chocolate, Scott has chosen to give up carbon this Lent. She is doing a few extra things to reduce her carbon footprint, such as hanging her clothes up instead of using a drier and carpooling to use less fuel.

“For me it’s that connection between protecting nature and faith,” she says. She and a dozen of her friends at Grace Episcopal Church in Amherst first got the idea when they heard about two Church of England bishops who encouraged parishioners to go on a low carbon diet for Lent. (Check out my article, “What Does Lent Have to Do With Sharpening Green Habits?”)

The Globe article also mentioned this past weekend’s Yale Divinity School’s conference “Renewing Hope: Pathways to Religious Environmentalism.” This is the conference that screened the film Renewal, which I wrote about last week. The Globe pointed out the conference to illustrate the movement that is taking place, that religions are becoming enlightened to their environmental responsibilities.

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Bartholomew first earned his reputation with the statement, “Crime against the natural world is a sin.” His grandest endeavor was inviting 200 scientists, journalists, and political leaders to hang out with him on a cruise ship. They traveled around the Adriatic Sea to observe the ecological degradation taking place. During the symposium, he persuaded Pope John Paul II to adopt his agenda.

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Marking the beginning of the Easter season, worshipers go to church on Ash Wednesday (often still recovering from Fat Tuesday) and get ash spread on their foreheads. The ash is a symbol of contrition and repentance. Then everyone is expected to give up meat and beer and act gloomy for the next 6 weeks. Sound like fun? No wonder Mardi Gras is so popular!

But when you think about it, a collective confession can be incredibly meaningful in light of our complicity in greenhouse gas emissions. The tradition of Lent has potential for inspiring action. In addition to repentance, the ritual of smearing carbon on faces can visually represent the carbon we are contributing in our daily lives. The following are some reformulations of the elements of Lent with a green focus. (These principles are intended to be helpful to people of any faith background or none at all.)

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Since 1998, Rev. Charles Morris has been on a mission to make his church a sustainable place to worship, and the results are quite impressive. St. Elizabeth’s Church, in Wyandotte, Michigan, is not only a place of God, but a place of innovation as well. It has taken Rev. Morris almost ten years, and over $150,000 to make his church a beacon of both religion and sustainability, two things he believes go hand in hand.

It all started with a heightened awareness of the harms of global warming, mixed with a responsibility to to his faith. The more educated the Reverend became about peak oil and depleted natural resources, the more worried he became about the prospects for future generations. At the same time, he could not help but feel that every bit of energy wasted was somehow connected to God. As he put it, "I was worried about our relationship to energy, and about our relationship to God… he is the creator of all everything, including life and energy." Instead of preaching from the pulpit, the Michigan priest got involved.

And the result? St. Elizabeth’s is one of the most environmentally comprehensive churches in the United States. On the roof of the building are solar panels and a wind turbine that provide the electricity for the community rooms and for the basement of the church. There is also a solar collector that provides the building with hot water. Moreover, the roof is home to a solar fan, which removes the hot air from the attic of the church.

But, the innovations do not stop there! The church’s 1,400 square feet of stained glass windows are covered with a solar netting that regulates the inside temperature: it retains heat in the winter, and lowers cooling costs in the summer. The church also boasts compact fluorescent bulbs and LED lighting technology throughout the building. Pretty impressive, huh?

Like I mentioned before, the environmental overhaul cost the church about $150,000. While this may sound like a ton of money (which it is!), it is the money saved that made this project economically feasible. Currently, the church is saving about $20,000 per year on energy costs, which means it cut its former energy costs by over half. If you project those savings through ten years, the church will not only make its money back, but it will have saved over $50,000 in utility expenses.

Aside from what he sees as a responsibility to the Lord, Reverend Morris has some pretty persuasive reasons for going green. As he told me, "we have a responsibility to the next generation, and to the generations after that. To ignore the current state of the environment is not only reckless, it is negligent." Sometimes, it seems as though it is the people with the largest sense of imperative that make the biggest changes for what they believe in.

Becoming sustainable has not exactly been a crystal stair for Reverend Charles Morris, though. When asked about the biggest challenge in the greening of both his church and his life, the Reverend tolds me, "lethargy — it is easy to lose momentum when undertaking such a large task. Also, bad habits. I am no different than anyone else: I have parts of my routine that I need to change to reflect my belief [in sustainability]."

Lethargy and bad habits are just the beginning of what Father Morris has had to overcome to get to where he is today. One of the things he claimed posed the biggest hurdle for him, in terms of achieving a higher level of sustainability, was a lack of support and education. When undertaking something like an environmental overhaul, there will always be people who don’t get it, which is why we need to construct an atmosphere that encourages people to try new things, and to take risks.

According to Father Morris, "We must create the conditions that foster green lifestyles, and education is a good place to start." Reverend Morris is a staunch advocate on environmental education and sees it as a necessary step to making this country more sustainable.

When asked what the biggest environmental harm resulting from the way most Americans live their lives, the Reverend responded quickly:

The poor, the invisible people of this country who suffer the most from the destruction of the environment. It is the people suffering from asthma, heart attacks and other health problems. We, as a country do not acknowledge these people. Because of our consumer culture, they are isolated and the only way to fix that is through education

Education is not the only way in which we can decrease our environmental impact though. The Reverend believes that business must step up and take a leadership role in the greening of this country. He explains,

Businesses need to take charge. They need to not only green their own practices and act as a model for the rest of the country; they must provide the capital and incentive to get us to the next level. We are on the cusp of the ‘next phase,’ but businesses must realize that going green can be profitable. When this happens, you will see a shift in the market and the increased affordability of green technology.

While not all of us may have the resources to undertake a environmental overhaul anytime soon, Reverend Morris has some good advice for those people just getting started greening their lives. "Start reading! It is easy to look at your environmental impact and go from denial to despair. Instead, you must go to decision. You need to figure out what you can change, make the necessary modifications and then celebrate your victories." And celebrate he does. Father Charles Morris is not only a wonderful example of what can be accomplished with a little determination; he is man who truly practices what he preaches.

Photo credit: Detroit MetroTimes

When Amy wrote about green magazines, she mentioned GOOD as being one of her favorites. I, too, a self-described magazine junkie, am a big fan of GOOD since it’s inception last year. With all the depressing news out there on any given day, GOOD always reaffirms my faith in humanity. Its focus is, like its name implies, good stuff: those things that are making our world a little bit better, and when I’m feeling down about what’s going on around me, GOOD usually perks me up. It’s a rare magazine that doesn’t need an annual "green" issue: sustainability has been a priority since the magazine was founded.

The latest issue (Sept/Oct 07) is no exception. The issue, which commemorates their one-year anniversary, focuses on design solutions. A topic I covered a while back, green schools, gets a feature nod from Eva Steele-Saccio. Steele-Saccio highlights different schools’ efforts to reduce their footprint and become more energy efficient, and acknowledges that there are benefits beyond energy savings: "Green schools create a healthy atmosphere for learning that has measurable results. The combination of natural light, fresh air, open plans, and multi-use facilities that encourage community involvement has helped student test scores rise by 20% and reduced asthma rates by 39%."

There’s also a feature about a village in England that launched a community effort to reduce their carbon footprint, with the ultimate goal of becoming the first carbon-neutral village in the U.K. GOOD’s product reviews almost always include items produced with sustainability in mind, and in this issue, they create a proposal for better CFL packaging: create a package that can be used to ship burned-out bulbs back to the producer for proper disposal. There’s also a profile of Rogan Gregory, founder of clothing company Loomstate, who was virtually responsible for bringing organic cotton to the fashion industry though his work with Loomstate, and his other two companies, Rogan and Edun

Even subscribing to GOOD can make you feel good: 100% of your $20 subscription costs goes to your choice of twelve charities, including the World Wildlife Fund and Oceana. Good is printed on 30% recycled post-consumer paper that is EcoLogic certified, and 100% offset by projects Good is actually involved in.

The September/October issue of GOOD is on newsstands now.

The Vatican may be a key link in the mass shift toward environmental sustainability. Pope Benedict XVI is concerned by "the growing recognition of the need to preserve the environment," and he’s not alone. His progressive stance on environmental responsibility could potentially bring the world’s estimated one billion or more Catholics into the fold of the environmental movement.

On Saturday, the Pope called on youth to "change the world." This was at the Vatican’s first ever eco-friendly rally, where the message was to avoid a "materialistic mentality." At the rally, attendees were given hand-powered flashlights and backpacks made of recycled materials. The Pope followed up Wednesday, saying "care of water resources and attention to climate change are matters of grave importance for the entire human family."

That’s right. The Pope is fast becoming a world leader in environmental activism. Last April, he invited scientists, bishops, politicians, and theologians to meet at the Vatican for a conference on Climate Change and Development. Even as the UN adopts a strategy on climate change, the Vatican is taking action by making the switch to solar energy with its own PV panels.

Action on the environment is coming none too soon. This year, cartographers charted new islands as they emerged from under melting arctic ice. At the rally, the Pope urged up to half a million in attendance to make courageous decisions "before it’s too late."

For environmentalists, maybe it’s time to hug your nearest Catholic as well as the trees. The Pope’s message has the power to move roughly a sixth of the world’s population to take meaningful action to protect the environment. Therefore, reaching out to the Catholic community will likely help to build tremendous momentum behind the environmental movement. Catholic community members reading this article are also encouraged to thoughtfully consider the Pope’s call to take action to benefit the environment.

Positive and meaningful environmental action can be achieved in countless ways. Just a small sampling of beneficial activities includes organizing a coastal or river cleanup, talking to children about the importance of environmental responsibility, or supplying clean energy to your home.

References and Recources:

Shun disposable love, Pope tells eco-rally | The Sydney Morning Herald

Pope calls on young people to ‘change the world’ | Yahoo! News

Pope leads Church’s first eco-friendly rally | Reuters

Pope puts focus on climate change, environment | The Age

Pope says he has ‘growing awareness’ of need to save the planet | International Herald Tribune

Take climate change seriously, Pope urges | Reuters

Pope: Save the Planet Before it’s Too Late | Christian Today

Vatican Goes Solar | GO

Pope Should Have a Chat with President Bush About Climate Change | GO

Climate Change Progress, in a Non-Binding Sort of Way | GO

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change | UN

Buy Renewable Energy for Yourself | GO 

Riding the Wave of Renewables: Inexpensive Clean Energy for Your Home | GO 

Photo:

Pope Benedict XVI | Flickr

At the Waveney Greenpeace festival this weekend, Brother Sutch will be on hand to hear people’s tales of over consumption and waste.

Thought to be the first confessional of its kind, the eco-fessional is made from recycled materials, such as doors and other found objects. Further, Sutch will be decked out in a specially designed robe made from recycled curtains.

While the good father has given up his weekend to promote environmental sustainability, his commitment to the environment extends much further than just a two-day jaunt at a festival. In fact, Sutch has taken his commitment to the environment so far, that some of his parishioners have started to complain. In an interview with The Times he explains, "I try not to turn on my heating but people come and stay with me and demand it. I get attacked for having a cold church. I have cut my electricity bill by 30 per cent." It is at this point that one must ask, "which is worse, a cold church or a wasteful congregation?" Obviously, Dom Anthony Sutch prefers the former.

While the first religiously motivated confessional of its kind, the eco-fessional is said to be loosely modeled after Earthly Sins, a popular sustainability campaign. As the people at Earthly Sins put it, their booth is a "non-judgmental environmental advice installation”aimed at getting people to sign a pledge promising to reduce energy consumption and engage in socially sustainable practices, like ethical banking. Although Earthly Sins made its first debut at the Glastonbury festival, it has since established quite an impressive presence on the net.

The Earthly Sins website is a fun and interactive way to become environmentally pious. The site includes a Temple of Sustainability, where you can learn about ways to live a more eco-friendly life, confess your eco-sins and meet other disciples.

So, whether you are a devout Catholic, a staunch atheist, or something in between, it looks as though there is a way for everyone to find environmental salvation. Thanks to people like Dom Anthony Sutch and groups like Earthly Sins, we have new creative and interactive ways to view our commitment to environmental sustainability and that is truly a blessing.

Image Source: Earthly Sins

It is not common to think of where our chocolate bars come from. I did not even know what a cacao pod looked like until several years ago. Few people, including children, understand where or how these delicacies reach us. Yet there is a dark side to chocolate, ranging from fueling wars to child labor, with around 286,000 children working farms in the Ivory Coast alone. It is important that we not only consider what chocolate we grab for ourselves the store, but also the message we send our children out to fundraise with. Fundraising with Fair Trade chocolate both helps your local organizations in their endeavors while also supporting the hard-working cacao farmers. And using Fair Trade also presents the opportunity to educate people, including those selling the products, towards an alternative to the dark side of the chocolate industry.

For Fair Trade fundraising check out:

• Equal Exchange Fundraising provides everything you need to get started. There is a template for permission slips and letters to other parents, press releases and posters for promotion. Their incentive programs include chocolate samples, coffee roaster tours, school presentations and the chance to win a trip to a cacao farming community, as well as a tiered structure ranging from $1,000-$5,000 with organic shirts, caps, etc. And don’t be locked into just chocolate: try offering coffee, tea, cocoa, dried cranberries or roasted walnuts to bring in funds.
• The Lutheran World Relief Fundraising Kit offers Divine chocolate that is focused more towards faith-based fundraising, with great ideas on how to help people find connection between fair trade and their spirituality. They offer planning tools, posters, educational presentations to supplement chocolate.

The next time an organization you or your children are involved with wants to raise money, suggest the Fair Trade option and help farmers while bringing in your funds.

“We all see that today man can destroy the foundation of his existence, his Earth,” he said.

“We cannot simply do what we want with this Earth of ours, with what has been entrusted to us,” said the Pope, who has been spending his time reading and walking in the scenic landscape bordering Austria.

World religions have shown a growing interest in the environment, particularly the ramifications of climate change.

The Pope, leader of some 1.1 billion Roman Catholics worldwide, said: “We must respect the interior laws of creation, of this Earth, to learn these laws and obey them if we want to survive.”

“This obedience to the voice of the Earth is more important for our future happiness … than the desires of the moment.

“Our Earth is talking to us and we must listen to it and decipher its message if we want to survive,” he said.

Last April the Vatican sponsored a scientific conference on climate change to underscore the role that religious leaders around the world could play in reminding people that wilfully damaging the environment is sinful.

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What is most needed in your area may not be exactly what you had envisioned doing. For instance, you may want to protect snow leopards and there are certainly many ways to do so; however, you may have an even greater opportunity to help large cat species by working in your community to resolve conflict between local residents and mountain lions or to prevent game hunting of these magnificent animals. By learning about and addressing the real needs of your community or ecosystem you are guaranteed to make a real and positive impact.

And remember to approach the issue with respect for the needs and concerns of the people involved. In the above example, you may find that conflict between cougars and people arises because of fear of these powerful animals. On the West Coast, the same conflict is present between people and sea lions, especially when these large predators visit local beaches and frighten families or eat fish caught by local fishermen. In these cases, effective activism may involve education, animal rehabilitation, or working in hand with the farmers or fishermen to offset or prevent their loss of profit while protecting the species they view as a threat.

If your interest is improving the environment, it helps to learn about the native ecology of your area. Think about how the environment where you live has changed in the last 200 years. Maybe the land was converted to a city or turned into farmland. What strains does this place on the local ecosystem? For example, if you live in the Great Plains States or the Prairie Provinces, perhaps you see farmlands that use more water than the natural aquifers can support. This is a major concern to farmers and environmentalists alike. Then why not get involved by encouraging more efficient drip irrigation on farms, promoting less thirsty native plants in the front yards of nearby urban areas, and educating others about the importance of water conservation?

One famous example of someone who learned to address change by meeting the needs of local communities is Jane Goodall, who set out with an interest in chimpanzees and a desire to protect their declining populations. Along the way, she learned about some of the important issues for villagers in the local communities that depend on the same land and resources as the chimpanzee populations. She realized that to be successful in her conservation efforts, she would have to also address the needs of the community. Today, the Jane Goodall Institute (and other organizations, like the Wildlife Conservation Society) are helping local Tanzanian communities to meet their needs and solve their most pressing issues in ways that don’t harm chimpanzee populations.

Even far-reaching goals like the protection of an entire species must start by addressing the needs of the communities where they are to be implemented. This creates a situation where everyone wins.
What if your interests are different from the community’s needs? Rather than abandoning your interests, be creative. Try drawing a Venn diagram where one circle lists actions that will respond to your community’s needs and another lists solutions to an issue about which you have an interest. The overlapping area of the diagram will give you creative ways to approach the needs of the community while pursuing your interests.

Even issues that at first seem distant can often be approached from the same angle. For instance, if you care about global warming, but your community is more concerned with the rising cost of health care, it might be most effective to approach the issue of health care first and find out from that perspective how you can include solutions to global warming as well. In this case, it may be that you end up working with the American Lung Association to prevent childhood asthma by decreasing air pollution and greenhouse gases. Or, you may contribute to public education about human influences on the climate with the support of insurance companies that have begun to raise their fees in areas that are most vulnerable to health and property damage due to climate change. In any case, you will succeed at generating support and accomplishing your goals best by working for and not against others in the community.

But wait, there’s more! So that you can have the funds to make your community activism dreams a reality, The Case Foundation is offering the Make It Your Own Awards for "inspired individuals and passionate teams who are connecting people to discuss what matters, find smart solutions, and take action.” They are offering an impressive $35,000 grant to fund deserving community activism programs. But you don’t have to come in first to win their support. All in all, the Case foundation is “giving $100 to the top 100, $10,000 to the top 20, and an extra $25,000 to the final four.” If you enjoy community activism and want to do more, then don’t miss your chance to apply by August 8.

Additional References and Resources:
The Center for Ecoliteracy: www.ecoliteracy.org

Local Ecology of San Francisco, "Nature in the City:" http://natureinthecity.org

Rock the Vote in partnership with the Make It Your Own Awards: www.rockthevote.com/makeityourown
T

he Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots & Shoots Program, engaged in positive community activism: www.rootsandshoots.org
Photo source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/benevolink/82714178/

The 1,000 solar panels will adorn the football-sized roof of the Paul VI audience hall, one of the top energy guzzlers in the sovereign city state. The solar system will be able to provide all the heating, cooling, and lighting needs of the entire building year-round, and any extra electricity generated will be fed back into the Vatican’s grid.

Pier Carlo Cuscianna, head of the Vatican’s department of technical services and mastermind of the project, was inspired by the calls of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II to treat the planet with respect and their warnings that global warming will effect the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people.

This isn’t the first time the Vatican has shown leadership on clean energy. In 1999, the entire lighting system of St. Peter’s Basilica was refurbished with energy-efficient lighting, which cut its energy consumption by about 40 percent.

Although Vatican City is not a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol, the Catholic News Service reports that this solar project marks “a major move” to reduce its carbon-footprint and move away from its dependence on Italy’s power grid.

CathNews
Catholic News Service

Green burials are now being performed in park- or forest-like settings. The more familiar green lawn with rows of stone markers is being replaced by a more natural setting, a meadow or a stand of trees. Green burials also forego many of the common contemporary conventions in favor of a simpler funeral and burial practive. Green burials do not use formaldehyde compounds to preserve the body, for example. Metal coffins, or coffins that use exotic and unsustainably harvested wood are also not allowed, as well as not using concrete burial vaults. Many of these steps are both more economical choices as well as avoiding consuming quantities of resources unnecessarily.

GreenSprings is a 100 acre site with meadows and woodlands in the Finger Lakes region of upstate new York that is one provider of green burial sites.

Greensprings offers a sustainable and beautiful alternative to conventional cemeteries. It is a place of meadows and woodlands, where you may choose native trees and shrubs for planting on your gravesite, helping to restore the land to it natural state and providing shelter and food for wildlife.

There are options for coffin selection as well that try to offer a greener choice. Ecopods are coffins made from "naturally hardened, 100% recycled paper." Being lighter than traditional coffins and having fewer materials used for a coffin is in line with many people's greener values. The company currently offers them in four color choices, plus silkscreen decoration, but a huge range of individual customization should be readily available as this market expands. The ecopod is suitable for burial or for cremation. However, the ecopod makers encourage people not to choose cremation because of the additional pollution it causes. It is also suitable for use in conjunction with a woodland burial.

In the UK, the Natural Death Centre brings many of these trends together with support for environmentally-friendly funerals and natural Burial Grounds. In the US, the Green Burial Council addresses similar issues on this side of the Atlantic. There are currently providers in nine states, though the website does not include direct links to any of them. The Green Burial Council has two standards for green burials. According to their site, "A "Natural Burial Ground" is a cemetery that encourages sustainable and ethical practices." Above and beyond that level, a "Conservation Burial Ground" also has a land conservation component.

Links:

Ecopod (via: BoingBoing and EcoGeek )
Natural Death Centre (UK)
Green Burial Council (US)
GreenBurials.org
GreenSprings Natural Cemetery

Citing the Koran, the Hebrew Bible, and the teachings of Jesus Christ, the interfaith body declared global warming “a moral issue” in An Interfaith Declaration on the Moral Responsibility of the U.S. Government to Address Global Warming:

“All of our traditions call us to serve and protect the poor and vulnerable. And it is the world’s poor, who contribute the least to this problem, who will suffer the most from global warming.”

The group asks fellow people of faith to see beyond their differences and make the protection of life on earth a priority. But besides working on global warming soluations, faith communities must prepare to care for those who will be displaces and impoverished by its effects.

Advertisements, meetings with elected officials, and campaigns in individual congregations are planned for the near future.

Christian Post Reporter
Episcopal Life Online
An Interfaith Declaration on the Moral Responsibility of the U.S. Government to Address Global Warming