Summit explores how the faith community should respond to climate change - Champion

Summit explores how the faith community should respond to climate change - The Champion Newspaper | 404-373-7779 | Georgia

Summit explores how the faith community should respond to climate change

As organizations and individuals consider ways to protect and preserve the environment, what role does the faith community play in the effort? Georgia Interfaith Power & Light (GIPL) held a Green Team Summit at Oak Grove United Methodist Church in the Northlake area on Feb. 3 to consider that question. Participants included representatives of the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic faiths.

In his message of welcome, GIPL Executive Director Codi Norred said, “In 2023, as a part of our 20th anniversary, GIPL went through a strategic planning process with a primary question in mind: What will the next 20 years require of us? …We decided that while it is true that we must continue to take action to limit greenhouse gas emissions, we must also prepare our communities to weather the effects of a warming world—in short, to be more resilient.” The theme of the 2024 summit was Rooted in Resilience.

The keynote speaker, Debra Rienstra, a professor of English at Calvin University in Michigan, said, “If you look at the history of the role religion has played in societal change, it’s not a pretty picture. Often the tendency has been to resist, ignore, or double down on the past.” She cited statistics from Pew Research Institute that indicate that people who describe themselves as “highly religious” are the least likely to believe that human activities are having a negative effect on the planet.

Georgia, she said, should pay special attention to environmental issues because it has coastline and the Okefenokee Swamp, which require particular stewardship.

Rienstra told the audience, “You’re going to learn a new word today—refugia.” It refers, she explained, to locations that support isolated or relic biological populations from which a species can re-emerge.

She offered as an example the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington state. Described as “the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the contiguous United States,” the eruption left a deep pile of ash from which no life was expected to emerge for 100 years, she said. “But 25 years later, plant life was back and flourishing because refugia tucked within the ash held samples of the plant life that had grown before in the area. This sometimes happens in disasters—not always, but sometimes,” she explained.

The author of Refugia Faith—Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth, Rienstra said, “The Bible is filled with examples of times when God took a small remnant and built great things—Noah’s family who repopulated the Earth after the flood, Abraham, whose descendants outnumbered the stars, the Israelites wandering in the desert after fleeing Egypt.”

Rienstra continued, “You were probably wondering why an English professor is talking about the environment. Well, there’s a really good metaphor here. While there are some huge churches in the United States, most have congregations of fewer than 200 members, but small numbers can do great things. Your faith organization may not have the resources to install solar panels or electric vehicle recharging stations, but you can start a recycling program or create a community garden. The good news is that you don’t have to do it all. Just do what you can.”

Headquartered on South Columbia Drive in Decatur, GIPL, described on the summit program as “a collaborative, interfaith organization that exists at the intersection of environment, science, and faith,” was founded in 2003 by Woody and Carol Bartlett as part of the national Interfaith Power & Light movement. “They believed strongly that faith communities have the power to change the world and a mandate to care for the Sacred Earth and all its inhabitants. They envisioned a Georgia where all people would live safely in a healthy environment, a stable climate, and resilient communities. Today, GIPL’s purpose is to live out this vision,” the program states.