Episcopal and Lutheran presiding bishops support for proposed carbon emission regulations

Episcopal Church and ELCA Presiding Bishops
issue joint statement on EPA and carbon emissions

[June 6, 2014] Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Presiding Bishop Elizabeth A. Eaton of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) have issued a joint statement in support of the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Rule on carbon emissions.

“The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and The Episcopal Church are eager to collaborate with the EPA and states across the nation to ensure that the carbon rule is implemented fairly, particularly for low-income consumers,” the Presiding Bishops stated. “We will continue to pray that all involved in this good work will be graced with vision, hope, and the search for truth as they seek to implement the carbon rule swiftly and effectively.”

The joint statement follows:

Joint Statement on the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Rule on carbon emissions

Lutherans and Episcopalians collectively celebrate and support the release of the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon rule for existing power plants. As faith traditions committed to the health, flourishing, and sanctity of human communities and God's creation, we believe that the carbon rule is a critical step toward safeguarding the lives and livelihood of future generations.

Recent reports outline the enormous impacts that climate change is already having on our world.  Multi-year droughts, sea level rise, extreme weather events, and increased flooding dramatically affect communities internationally, from the Inupiat on the north slope of Alaska to Midwestern farming families to our brothers and sisters in the Philippines. We recognize with concern that climate change particularly harms low income communities that lack the resources and technology to adapt to rapid environmental changes.

These impacts are already affecting global agriculture, and with it, food supplies and prices. Ending hunger and alleviating global poverty are key concerns for our faith traditions. Yet our work faces the daunting and interconnected challenges of addressing hunger and poverty in a rapidly changing climate.  Sustainable solutions must include both poverty alleviation and environmental conservation. 

Power plants are the single largest source of carbon dioxide pollution in the United States and major contributors to climate change. These emissions not only threaten the environmental stability of our planet, but also the health of young children and their families, disproportionally affecting the poorest among us.  Yet there are currently no limits on power plant emissions of greenhouse gases.

The carbon rule proposed this week will reduce the carbon dioxide output from existing power plants, setting a strong standard that will modernize our nation’s power plants while limiting our contribution to global climate change. Reducing carbon emissions from power plants must be a top priority for the U.S. if we hope to prevent the worst impacts of climate change and ensure a just and sustainable world for our generation and those to come.

Our faith traditions teach us that no single person can be whole unless all have the opportunity for full and abundant life. That wholeness and collective well-being is only possible as a global community. We recognize our connections to fellow citizens and neighbors around the world who are already suffering from the consequences of climate change, and acknowledge our responsibility to those yet unborn, who will either benefit from our efforts to curb carbon emissions or suffer from our failure to address this ethical imperative. We believe that addressing climate change is a moral obligation to our neighbors and to God’s creation, so that all may enjoy full, healthy, and abundant lives. 

The proposed carbon rule for existing power plants is the single largest step that we can take now to address the pressing issue of climate change. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and The Episcopal Church are eager to collaborate with the EPA and states across the nation to ensure that the carbon rule is implemented fairly, particularly for low-income consumers.  We will continue to pray that all involved in this good work will be graced with vision, hope, and the search for truth as they seek to implement the carbon rule swiftly and effectively. 

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop and Primate
The Episcopal Church

The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)

What's next? Breakfast and more

Today's sermon is based on Revelation 5:11-14 and John 21:1-19 .

Alleluia! The Lord is Risen!

What’s next?

That must have been going through the minds of the disciples in the days after Jesus’ death as he kept popping up here and there, on roads and in closed rooms.

What’s next?

We hear today about the third time he came to them. This time, Jesus cooked them breakfast.
It was over this meal he told them what he wanted them to do next: “Feed my sheep.”

And in case they didn’t get it, he told them three times:

“Feed my sheep.”

“Feed my sheep.”

“If you love me, feed my sheep.”

Today, in the Gospel of John, the story continues as the disciples go back to work doing what they know best – fishing.

And when Jesus comes, it is perhaps the most profound of their encounters with him because this time Jesus tells them that growing in faith, loving God – being utterly devoted to him – takes one more thing they still have not done:

“Feed my sheep.”

In the last two weeks, I’ve been talking in this pulpit about the nature of a life of faith. Two Sundays ago, on Easter Sunday, I talked about how faith is based on things hoped for and not seen, and listening for the living God who is right here among us, who loves us especially when we feel we have little or no faith at all.

Last week I talked about how doubt is a tool of faith by compelling us to ask the hard questions of life and death. By bringing our faith and doubts together in community, we can deepen our faith in all its dimensions, and find the fullness of faith that none of us can find alone.

Today I want to talk about the third leg to a life of faith, for without this crucial dimension, faith can become self-absorbed, self-indulgent and hollow. You might call this Part III of the sermon I began on Easter.

This third leg is the most fraught with peril, and maybe that is why it comes last. This third leg is action: “Feed my

sheep.”

Without action in our faith, we will stop breathing.

As it happens, today in this church we are marking Earth Day, an annual observance that began when I was in high school to bring attention to our stewardship of the earth, and to prod us to be less wasteful, less polluting, more respectful of all the other living things with whom we share this planet.

But I am mindful that Earth Day, even with its noble goals, has its own peril: It can come off as a political bludgeon that alienates more than persuades.

Or conversely, as a West Coast friend of mine put it, Earth Day can seem like we are ticking off a box that says “look, we are doing the green thing” in church, and then we go back to life as usual.

I do not propose to do either.

I’d like instead to propose that we observe Earth Day as something larger. I’d like to propose that we our relationship with all of Creation as central to the meaning of Easter and what Jesus is getting at over breakfast:

Feed my sheep.

Go forth and feed the world, Jesus tells Peter: Feed those who are hungry, give them shelter. Go to places scared by hurricane, earthquake, disease, neglect, pollution, warfare, corruption, poverty, ignorance.

Feed my sheep.

Make our world whole, bring new life, become the hands and feet of grace wherever you go. Make Easter alive in the dead places. Feed my sheep.

To fully walk in faith is about putting feet to our prayers and the longings of our heart. That kind of faith can pull us outside ourselves and connect us to each other and to all of creation in ways we have not dreamed.

Yet many things get in our way. Much political rhetoric is now being spent on the issue of global warming, or climate change. Some of you have done extraordinary work researching this crisis, but not everyone is convinced that it is really happening. The problem, I would submit, is the language politics has eclipsed not only the language of science, but the language of faith.

So I would like to suggest that we take up the language of God’s healing grace and extend it to the good earth. Salvation is not just about humanity, but, in the words of the hymn, about “all creatures of our God and King.”

Or, as the book of Revelation puts it: “Every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea” is singing to God.

So what can we do to join this chorus of all Creation?

We can start with a few simple things: turning off lights, recycling cans, bottles, paper, cardboard. We can use fewer resources by not buying more than we need, driving fewer miles, and eating food grown closer to where we live. Later this morning we will hear a few more ideas to reduce our footprint.

But even if we do all that, it will not be enough. Inevitably, we will end up in the realm of public policy because the solutions are larger and more complicated than anything any of us can do as individuals, or even as a single nation.

The rising ocean that is inundating an island in the South Pacific is related to a mining disaster in West Virginia and to the shrinking of the Arctic ice cap in Canada, and all because of our addiction to fossil fuels. The crisis is literally global in size.

We look to governments not because we think they hold the solution to every problem, but precisely for the opposite reason. We have to live with governments in our age, so we don’t trust governments to get it right without us.

As faithful people, we need to find a way to set aside partisan differences, and shallow slogans, to support smart public policies that are good for the earth.

Where we differ, we need to model, as people of faith, ways to listen to our differences with respect and openness, and acknowledge none of us have all of the answers. Maybe our greatest contribution might be modeling how to do just that.

All this takes hard work, creativity and the courage. In our walk of faith, Jesus is invites us to be part of his loving, graceful, redeeming work in this world. He is inviting us to a walk of faith that brings healing and wholeness to that which is broken, not just in our souls, but everywhere on this planet.

If you love me, feed my sheep.

Alleluia! The Lord is Risen!

Paintings:

Top: "Resurrection breakfast" by Kristin Serafini (American, contemporary);

Bottom: "Jesus eats breakfast with his disciples," by James Jacques Tissot (French), 1836-1902.

Photograph: Earthrise from the moon, from the mission of Apollo 8, Christmas Eve 1968.

Applause for the Archbishop of Canterbury for his stand on global warming

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has taken a lot of flak recently, including in this space. So I want to take the opportunity applaud him for his courage in pulling together faith leaders from around the globe to take a stand on global warming.

I am mindful there are many who are skeptical, or deny that there are human causes to global warming, and others who maintain the church has no business wading into this issue.

His headquarters at Lambeth Palace issued this statement this morning. Here are the first two paragraphs.

The Archbishop of Canterbury hosted a meeting of faith leaders and faith-based and community organisations at Lambeth Palace to discuss the response of faith communities to the environmental crisis. With 40 days to go before the Copenhagen Climate Change Summit the participants have pledged to work together to raise awareness about the effects of ‘catastrophic climate change’ on the world’s poor and to take whatever action they can to "to reduce carbon emissions and promote sustainable practice." At the meeting a number of presentations highlighted the kind of action faith communities and faith-based organisations were already taking in the UK and with partners overseas.

In the first statement of its kind, signed by leaders from every faith community (including Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Baha’i, Jain and Zoastrian) the signatories recognise "unequivocally that there is a moral imperative to tackle the causes of global warming" and that "Faith communities have a crucial role to play in pressing for changes in behaviour at every level of society and in every economic sector. We all have a responsibility to learn how to live and develop sustainably in a world of finite resources".

To read the full statement, please click HERE.

Ringing the bell: Sounding the alarm on climate change

On Sunday, we joined a world-wide effort to bring attention to the issue of global warming. After our worship, we rang our bell 350 times (well, more than that -- a lot of people wanted to ring the bell). The photos on this page were taken by Dudley Rochester -- thanks Dudley!

Our Green Team created a mural the length of the church nave with photographs of the earth "our fragile island home," interspersed with biblical verses and prayers.

We asked parishioners to file past the mural silently, in prayer, before going to the narthex to ring the bell. Many, many did -- and it was a powerful experience.

Meanwhile, in the parish hall, we asked people to write letters to our elected leaders expressing concern about climate change. We did not endorse any specific legislation, and we did not seek to engage in a scientific debate.

What we ask is that all of us take seriously our responsibilities as stewards of the earth, and that we repent collectively of the collective sin we bear for polluting this good earth. And we ask that our repentance include actions individually and as a community to save the earth, including urging our elected leaders to act with wisdom and regard for the whole earth, and not act out of greed or short-term economic or political gain.

We got a fair amount of attention. St. Paul's was the subject of a front-page story Saturday in the Charlottesville Daily Progress, which you can read by clicking HERE. One of our local television stations also covered the event.

I've been asked about why the church is involved in what looks like a political issue. It is true, climate change is a loaded political issue, with Democrats, Republicans and various other interests looking to score points, raise campaign contributions, and not necessarily do anything constructive. It feels as if there is nothing very Godly about any of it.

It is precisely into those places we are called to go as people of faith.

The church from time-to-time must make a prophetic stand to those who hold power: the leaders of the nations. This is one of those times. We share a common fate on this planet, and the Bible calls us over and over to speak the truth to those in power: God gave us this earth, it is ours for only a short time, and ours to give to our children and their children's children. We are called to leave this earth better than we found it, and so far our generation has fallen woefully short. Our calling leads us inevitably into the corridors of power.

To not speak up about the sin of global warming endangers our soul, and endangers the lives of millions who are the most vulnerable in this world.

Our stance and actions are not done alone, nor done in a vacuum. The Episcopal Church maintains an advocacy office in Washington D.C., and our church has taken a consistent stand that global warming is real and that our elected leaders need to act. You can learn more about the Episcopal Church Public Policy Network and our stand on global warming by clicking HERE.

The Anglican Communion, of which we are the one and only branch in the United States, recently issued a statement on global warming in advance of the upcoming Copenhagen meeting of world leaders on climate change. The Anglican Communion states the case powerfully:

From all points of the globe we point to the reality of climate change and to the very serious effect it is already having upon our people; from severe weather events, to prolonged droughts, major floods, loss of habitat and changing seasons. Many of our peoples no longer have access to drinkable water, many of our farmers are no longer able to grow crops, and many of our peoples suffer from diseases which in the past have not affected us in our homelands. Sadly many of our peoples are now on the move in the vain hope that they might find another place to live, given the place of their birth can no longer support them.

Our faith and our ancestors have always taught us that the earth is our mother and deserves respect; we know that this respect has not been given. We know that like a mother the earth will continue to give its all to us. However, we also know that we are now demanding more than it is able to provide. Science confirms what we already know, our human footprint is changing the face of the earth and because we come from the earth, it is changing us too. We are engaged in the process of destroying our very being. If we cannot live in harmony with the earth, we will not live in harmony with one another.

You can read the full Anglican Communion statement by clicking HERE. A summary of the Anglican statement can be found by clicking HERE.

Finally, I've been asked is recent days about where to find understandable scientific information about climate change, and how to find out what is known and unknown about the human impact on the climate. The best single source I have seen is a website maintained by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. You can see the EPA website by clicking HERE. A thumbnail from that website includes this:

What's Known

Scientists know with virtual certainty that:

• Human activities are changing the composition of Earth's atmosphere. Increasing levels of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere since pre-industrial times are well-documented and understood.
• The atmospheric buildup of CO2 and other greenhouse gases is largely the result of human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels.
• An “unequivocal” warming trend of about 1.0 to 1.7°F occurred from 1906-2005. Warming occurred in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and over the oceans (IPCC, 2007).
• The major greenhouse gases emitted by human activities remain in the atmosphere for periods ranging from decades to centuries. It is therefore virtually certain that atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases will continue to rise over the next few decades.
• Increasing greenhouse gas concentrations tend to warm the planet.

This Sunday we will ring the bell once more to sound the alarm on global warming

This Sunday, at about 11:15 a.m., the bell at St. Paul's Memorial Church will be rung 350 times in a worldwide effort to bring attention to the peril of climate change and prompt action by the world’s leaders. This is our second year in joining others by ringing our bell to sound the alarm on global warming.

Members of the parish will also be walking the “Stations of the Earth,” a graphic display inside the church focused on the perils of climate change. I hope you can join us either here or by ringing the bell at your church.

The Green Team at St. Paul's will be joining other faith communities across the nation in a campaign to ring their church bells 350 times to spread the call to action, in conjunction with 350.org founded by environmentalist and author Bill McKibben.

This event is especially timed to coincide with the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark this December in which world leaders from more than 200 nations will gather to negotiate a new treaty on reducing global CO2 emissions.

The bell at St. Paul's Memorial Church was installed in 1957 and has been rung every Sunday morning since to call the faithful to worship – and has also been rung to celebrate joyful occasions such as weddings or to signal attention during times of national crisis such as 9/11.

While ringing the bell, parishioners will be encouraged to write Congressional representatives and the White House to urge support for reductions that will meet the target goal for 350 ppm carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

St. Paul's is a member of Virginia Interfaith Power & Light, a non-profit initiative working for a more just, sustainable and healthier creation by reducing global warming. It is a part of a network of Interfaith Power and Light programs across the country and offers concrete opportunities for congregations and individuals to protect the planet.

Earth Hour tonight: Turn off your lights

Tonight lights will go off all over the world for one hour at 8:30 pm local time in observance of the third annual Earth Hour, a practice begun in Australia to show worldwide support for efforts to lower greenhouse gases and care for the earth. 

As I write this, the lights have already gone off in Sydney and the lights will continue going off around the globe for one hour at a time. So, if it is safe for you to do so, turn off your lights at 8:30 pm local time for one hour. To learn more about what you can related to Earth Hour, click HERE. And if you haven't already, please read my related post from yesterday, below.

Charles Darwin and God's toolbox

Charles Darwin and the Church don't seem to mix, or so it seems in our day. In fact, this coming Sunday is "Evolution Sunday" in many churches, and today we celebrate his 200th birthday. And it may interest you to know that his theory is embraced as evidence of "natural law" in Catholic (Big C) theology. Even many of the original fundamentalists were fine with evolution because, they believed, it demonstrated God's tool box at work in the world. The downside is that Darwin was employed in the early 20th century to support so-called "Social Darwinism" theories of race and class. 

So what happened to Darwin in our time? Why the Christian attack? Right-wing political agendas found traction in attacking evolution (recall the Republican presidential primary candidates for President last year who all raised their hands when asked if they did not "believe" in evolution). Meanwhile, Christian literalists felt they had to defend the absolute inherency of the Bible, and if the Genesis story of creation couldn't hold up as science then the rest of the Bible would collapse. Personally, I find that a sad one-dimensional reading of the Bible that seems to slice God's grace from the pages.

Denis Alexander, writing this morning for Ekklessia, has a good analysis of the contemporary attack on Darwin:

One of the deep mysteries of the early 21st century is why one set of Christians go round churches trying to persuade another set of Christians to reject the theory of evolution. This is in a world of incalculable need, both material and spiritual. Trying to persuade Christians to disbelieve Darwinism soaks up huge resources that could be better spent elsewhere.

To read the full article, go HERE.

I must admit my own fascination with evolution (and anyone who wants to fund me for a trip to the Galapagos you will have my eternal gratitude). Years ago I read The Voyage of the Beagle, Darwin's book on his scientific discoveries in the Galapagos. His book is one of the great adventure stories of all time, and that helped lead me to become an anthropology major at UCLA. I studied during a time when Louis and Mary Leakey were making their amazing finds at Olduvia Gorge, and Donald Johanson and Timothy White not long after discovered the fossil dubbed "Lucy" in Ethiopia which transformed the diagram of human lineage. To my delight I got to hear Louis Leakey and Johansen  lecture, and meet them both.

The story of evolution has only gotten more fascinating as scientists make new discoveries and sort out the mechanisms of evolution (a good deal more complicated that Darwin dreamed). The most remarkable discoveries of recent years aren't just fossils, but in the maps of human genetics. For me, the brilliance of God's creation shines through in each discovery. And I've always thought it somehow fittingly perfect that Timothy White's dating lab is located in the basement of my seminary in Berkeley, the Church Divinity School of the Pacific. 

There is a caution in this: climate change. If evolution demonstrates anything it is that no species has a guaranteed existence on earth. Our apathy over global warming could be our undoing. Our evolutionary line is at risk as is every species alive today. Our existence depends on our ability to repair this good Earth, and we need not - and cannot - wait until we iron out every question about evolution or how we interpret the Bible.