Presbyterians respond to challenges detailed by National Climate Assessment
February 16, 2019
A declining economy, including a possible downturn in tourism. Threats to water, agriculture, infrastructure and health — and a half-dozen other potential near-term calamities.
Recently released by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, the Fourth National Climate Assessment summarizes 12 significant threats posed by climate change, including threats to communities, essential services, indigenous peoples, ecosystems, and oceans and coasts.
While the impacts of climate change are already being felt in communities across the country, future climate change is expected to “further disrupt many areas of life, exacerbating existing challenges to prosperity posed by aging and deteriorating infrastructure, stressed ecosystems and economic inequality,” the report says. “People who are already vulnerable, including lower-income and other marginalized communities, have lower capacity to prepare for and cope with extreme weather and climate-related events and are expected to experience greater impacts.”
Residents of Celilo Village dance and sing with attendees of the 2017 Presbyterians for Earth Care Conference. (Photo by Rick Jones)
“It’s easy to throw up our hands and say this is something for the government to do,” said the Rev. Bruce Gillette, vice moderator of Presbyterians for Earth Care, a group that invites individuals and congregations to join the growing Earth care movement within the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). “What I would challenge your readers to say is, ‘How can we be the change?’”
One way is to pony up for green technology. To date PC(USA) congregations have tapped the Restoring Creation Loan program for more than $10 million as they’ve worked to renovate their buildings using energy efficient products and renewable energy sources, according to Clare Lewis, vice president for sales and marketing for the PC(USA)’s Investment & Loan Program. The loans feature both low interest rates and equity requirements as well as flexible loan terms. Projects include energy efficient lighting systems, solar panel additions, high-efficiency heating and cooling systems and geothermal systems.
Gillette said a church he and his wife, the Rev. Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, once served as co-pastors, Limestone Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Delaware, installed solar panels on its sanctuary roof.
“We were amazed at the new members who came because we were making a change in the world,” he said. “It is for the sake of renewal of the church, and it really is a form of evangelism.”
The church demographic most interested in the church’s willingness to make that investment, he said, were young adults, “people concerned about the future for themselves and their children. If they find congregations trying to make the world a better place, they will check them out.”
Sue Regier, Presbyterians for Earth Care’s treasurer, said her church, Church of Reconciliation in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, undertook a green renovation, “increasing our square footage without increasing our energy bill.”
In a state that has suffered from hurricanes and other extreme weather, her church’s “small but vocal” Earth Care committee has this focus, she said: “How do we work to change more systemically so we don’t have so many disasters to respond to?”
Late last year, the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the PC(USA), said a report by the United Nations’ International Panel on Climate Change indicated that “God’s earth could be facing dire consequences sooner than we thought.”
“Presbyterians believe that all people are beloved by God and deserving of a healthy, bright future,” Nelson said. “What Presbyterians in North Carolina, Puerto Rico, Florida, Texas, California, New Jersey and Louisiana have experienced are helping us to realize that the time is now for bold action, and that we can all takes steps in the right direction — becoming energy efficient, purchasing renewable energy, lowering our carbon footprint, and advocating for safe environmental policies at all levels of government.”
Mike Ferguson, Presbyterian News Service, Communications, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Today’s Focus: National Climate Assessment
Let us join in prayer for:
Limestone Presbyterian Church Staff
Dr. Nancy Conklin, Interim Pastor
Joan Staiger, Administrator
Roger Jolly, Living Water Ensembl
Nick Ronaghan, Chancel Choir Director and Interim Organist
Linda Wardell, Youth Music Director and Hand Bells Choir
Pat McCombie, Acting Treasurer
Brenda Kniffin, Secretary
Phyllis Rudisill, Financial Secretary
Karen Zecher, Parish Nurse
Dale Lenker, Sexton
Karen Cratz, Middle School Youth Coordinator
Ilze Jooste, Nursery Attendant
Gail DeAngelo, Nursery Attendant
Nick Stabler, Sunday Sexton
PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Susan Krehbiel, PMA
Rhonda Kruse, PMA
Let us pray:
Dear God, we thank you for all of the blessings that surround us. Help us to be good stewards of your creation, that we might help create a bright future for those in generations to come. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.