Interfaith Congregations Nationwide to Join in Global Warming Awareness
WASHINGTON – Faith leaders nationwide will join together next week to mobilize a religious response to global warming.
An inter-religious screening and discussion of educational films about global warming will take place Oct. 1-8 in churches, synagogues, mosques and halls of worship across the nation. The event, called “Spotlight on Global Warming,” is organized by Interfaith Power & Light (IPL) and will feature Paramount’s An Inconvenient Truth, HBO’s Too Hot Not to Handle and the independent documentary Lighten Up.
“Global warming is harming God’s creation: first the poor of the world and eventually all of us and all life,” said the Rev. Sally G. Bingham, founder of IPL and an Episcopal priest at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.
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Faith leaders are said to be gathering hundreds of thousands of their followers to view the films as well as preparing to explain how they came to this issue, the power of the religious response to this issue, and the potential for change through the work of congregations and congregants.
“I have spent my life fighting for civil rights and human rights,” said Pastor Gerald L. Durley of Providence Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta. “After I saw The Great Warming and An Inconvenient Truth, I have taken on yet another mission. We are destroying our earth. We can’t protect human rights if we aren’t here.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency according to IPL reports that if the estimated 307,000 places of worship across the United States reduced energy usage by 25 percent, they would prevent more than 5 million tons of carbon dioxide (global warming) emissions – the equivalent of removing 1 million cars from the road – and each year congregations would save a total of approximately $500 million on power bills.
“With these screenings and discussion, we hope to inform and inspire people of faith to take personal and collective action to reduce global warming emissions,” said Rabbi Daniel Swartz of Temple Hased of Scranton Pennsylvania’s oldest synagogue.
IPL’s Bingham will officiate a morning Eucharist on Crissy Field in front of the Golden Gate Bridge on Oct. 1 and screen the film on Oct. 3.
In Washington, the National Cathedral will show The Great Warming and An Inconvenient Truth on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. The Rev. Dean Lloyd will deliver a sermon on the biblical charge to care for the earth and challenge the faith community to do its part to response to this environmental crisis.
Bingham and other faith leaders hope to work with congregants nationwide to change religious buildings and homes to reduce global warming emissions.
