Header Image: Cal-Nevada Clergy and Laity at a Banking on Our Future Action
By Sharon Degado and Joan Pell
The Cal-Nevada Climate Justice Ministries Task Force, established by the 2022 Annual Conference Session as an ongoing subcommittee of the Advocacy and Justice Committee, has met monthly since August. We have 14 members and additional advisors. We have several small teams that meet between meetings to carry out the practical part of our work. We have assigned people to participate in the various jurisdictional and denominational UM Creation Justice Movement meetings so that we are kept well informed.
Our mission slogan is “Climate Justice through faith-inspired connection, education, advocacy, and action” and our work is organised around those four categories.
Connection
Since July 2022, we have put a monthly report into the Instant Connection and have built up a distribution list of people interested in climate justice, who receive a monthly newsletter and other updates. We have—
- a Facebook page at facebook.com/@CalNevClimateJustice,
- a youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@calnevclimatejustice,
- and a page on the conference website at cnumc.org/committee/4252101.
To connect with churches around the conference, we sent out a survey to discover what creation care, environmental justice, and climate justice work is already happening in our local churches and to gauge interest for resources that would be helpful. Those results will inform our work in the upcoming year. Part of our connection work is to connect individuals and churches with other groups that are carrying out climate work.
We are partnering with California Interfaith Power & Light to offer practical help to local churches. Several churches in our conference are already IPL “Cool Congregations.” We are also directing people to the UM Creation Justice Movement and their newsletter, Tips, resources, meetings, and monthly Movement Cafes.
Education
We created six 90-minute videos on “Climate Change, Climate Justice, Climate Action: The Basics for Churches,” which are on our Youtube channel. Most of the speakers are from our conference, with additional guests. Our monthly updates in the Cal-Nevada Instant Connection and our monthly newsletters list worship and educational resources for churches. One such resource is Discipleship Ministries’ new Lay Servant Ministries study, “Loving People and Planet in God’s Name.” The leader guide for the study is available from the Upper Room store and the study book itself, Climate Justice: A Call to Hope and Action (2nd Edition), is from United Women in Faith or Amazon.
Advocacy
Our task force is bringing two resolutions to ACS this year, both about the ethics of investing in fossil fuels as United Methodists. There is a Banking on Our Future video on our YouTube channel, which Dan Terpstra presented to our Task Force, talking about how living faithfully also includes our money and investments.
Each month we list several opportunities for advocacy in our newsletter and Instant Connection article. Many suggestions come from United Methodist boards or agencies (Church and Society, United Women in Faith) or interfaith organizations (Interfaith Power and Light, Creation Justice Ministries, Greenfaith).
Action
In one of the videos from our series, Climate Justice: A Global Movement, Pato Kelesitse, a young South African climate justice leader from Botswana, talks about how climate change has impacted her homeland and shaped her commitment to action, including her challenge to support the empowerment of young people and women, to consider future generations, and to develop just economic systems.
Several clergy and laity participated in a Banking on Our Future Action, which involved demonstrating in front of the top four fossil-fuel funding banks (Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America). Some participants closed their accounts and cut up their debit/credit cards.
Cal-Nevada pastors Judith Stone and Sharon Delgado cutting up their Wells Fargo and Chase cards.
Our survey shows that we have local churches who have been active in creation care and climate justice through large and small actions, and some specifically with green teams. Those who answered the survey talked about—
- solar panels on the church roof
- resiliency hubs
- heat pump installation
- window replacement
- drought-resistant landscaping
- community gardens
- growing food for local food bank
- LED lighting
- better thermostats and programming for conservation
- reduced water usage
- recycling
- composting
- no longer using disposable products for potlucks
- compostable ware for church events
- using Fair Trade coffee
- water-filling station
- no paper bulletins
- electronic communication as much as possible
- petition signing
- annual seed swap
- Earth Day events
- film viewing parties
- advocacy actions
- creation care and justice sermons
- attentiveness to how climate work intersects with other justice issues.
Sharon Delgado, chair and Joan Pell, vice chair of California-Nevada Climate Justice Ministries Task Force
Email: climatejustice@cnumc.org
Website: cnumc.org/committee/4252101
Facebook: facebook.com/@CalNevClimateJustice
YouTube: youtube.com/@CalNevClimateJustice
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