Who is responsible for caring for the Earth?
Within Bloomington’s faith communities, the answer is increasingly: All of us.
Nearly 50 people from 24 Bloomington-area congregations and faith communities — from Mennonite to Muslim, Unitarian Universalist to evangelical — came together Thursday to share concerns about climate change. Their message: People of faith can take action on the environment.
Participants from some of the 18 different religious denominations at the Stewards of Creation event stood and shared their faith’s stance on how they should care for the Earth.
What the faith congregations believe about environmental issues
“We should see the whole of creation as our neighbor,” said Madi Hirschland, executive director of Creation Care Partners, one of four groups that organized the event.
Brad Pontius, a pastor at Sherwood Oaks Christian Church where the group met, said God has “called us to care for all the Earth and all its creations.”
Others stood to say: people of faith have a responsibility to adjust their patterns of acquisition and consumption to keep climate change in check; people need to sustain and renew the Earth; God’s creation is to be respected, protected and cared for; all people are partners in the ongoing work of creation; God does not want people to waste what Allah has provided; people need to recommit to responsible stewardship of Earth’s resources; and people of faith must ask for forgiveness and begin simplifying their lifestyles to be more environmentally conscious.
A 2021 event: Advocate for Climate Change to Help Save the Planet
Actions of Bloomington faith communities
“Evangelicals are not known for doing things like this,” said Christ Community Church Pastor Bob Whitaker, who is co-chair of the Bloomington Multi-Faith Alliance. He shared his children first got him interested in environmental issues. Since, Whitaker has discovered people of all religions find common ground in caring for the environment.
Christ Community Church added solar panels to its building through its creation care program and its members have worked to lessen household energy use. Climate action is viewed as a theological issue at Whitaker’s church, where members have a goal to reduce energy use by 25%.
Christ Community Church is one of 11 congregations in Bloomington that added solar panels to their buildings. Solar panels have been installed at Bloomington Friends Meeting, Congregation Beth Shalom, First Presbyterian Church, First United Church, St. John’s Catholic, St. Mark’s Methodist, St. Thomas Lutheran, Trinity Episcopal, Unity of Bloomington and Unitarian-Universalist in Bloomington. None used their own operating money for the installations.
Darrell Boggess with Solar Indiana Renewable Energy Network (SIREN) added Nashville Methodist Church to the list of churches with solar power. He told the audience the city of Bloomington is offering $25,000 solar grants to churches to install solar panels.
Boggess spoke of Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2009. He said Ostrom was one of Monroe County’s first solar owners.
“The Ostroms recognized that we are living in an energy revolution,” he said. “Wind and solar are the lowest cost energy sources because the fuel is free, and with no coal ash or toxic smoke from combustion.”
Resources for congregations
The four groups that sponsored Stewards of Creation are:
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Bloomington Multi-faith Alliance, an alliance of local faith leaders that promotes the religious principles of compassion, peace, social and economic justice and stewardship of the Earth.
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Creation Care Partners, an all-volunteer not-for-profit that helps evangelical churches and synagogues across Indiana care for God’s creation by providing financial and technical support.
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Earth Care Bloomington, a network of local faith communities that helps congregations and individuals care for creation by reducing energy use and shifting to renewable energy.
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Faith in Place, a not-for-profit that brings together people of diverse faiths and spiritualities to lead the environmental movement to create healthy, just and sustainable communities for all.
Contact Carol Kugler at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Different faiths find common ground in fighting climate change
Read the full article here