RESPONDING IN FAITH
WHAT VARIOUS ARIZONA FAITH COMMUNITIES ARE DOING TO HELP COMBAT CLIMATE CHANGE BY PATRICK GRADY
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iving green, for those engaged in spiritual or religious faith journeys, often means living into your beliefs for the sanctity of creation or for the protection of nature and sacred places. As we look across the globe, people of various faiths are raising their voices, calling for immediate action to care for the Earth, our common home. Here in Arizona, the Arizona Interfaith Power and Light (www.azipl.org) has been a leading faith-based advocate for mobilizing a statewide religious response to global warming. Deepening the connection between faith and ecology prompts an activism of the heart to reduce the devastating effects of global warming. With faith communities in Tucson, the Phoenix area, Flagstaff and Prescott, AZIPL, on its own and in collaboration with others, offers workshops, films, speakers, and events to educate others on how to help build a clean energy future in our state. It also rallies individuals and congregations to advocate on behalf of particular local
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greenliving | April 2020
and statewide solutions in the areas of renewable energy, environmental justice, and food justice. The faith community needs to be a prophetic voice in the face of this planetary climate crisis. The faith community in Prescott is following this AZIPL model. So much has happened in the past few months. Sacred Heart Catholic Church, building on its major investments in solar and energy efficiency, has moved forward this past fall with the creation of an Earth Care Ministry, building on the prophetic voice of Pope Francis and his encyclical, “Laudato Si”. In late December 2019, Granite Peak Unitarian Universalist (GPUU) Congregation passed a resolution, a Climate Change Declaration of Emergency, perhaps the first congregation to do so in Arizona. The Declaration “requires our congregation and congregants to take accountable, faith-based, climate mitigating action in order to protect our congregants, greenlivingaz.com
