Bloomington faith congregations urge action to address climate change
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.
"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
"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."
The four groups that sponsored Stewards of Creation are:
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.
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.
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.
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 ckugler@heraldt.com.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Different faiths find common ground in fighting climate change
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘Keep Beaufort Beaufort' is a reminder and a rallying cry for us all
'Keep Beaufort Beaufort.' What beautiful marching orders from Cynthia Jenkins, who stepped down this month as the director of the Historic Beaufort Foundation after a-14 year tenure there. You'd think this is a group that looks back in time, sometimes to an aggravating degree, and it does. But since 1947, it has looked forward by doing its best to keep Beaufort Beaufort. I hope the foundation is the first one to capitalize on the 'Keep Beaufort Beaufort' T-shirts, if they haven't done so already. But really, that is the cry of our times all over the South Carolina Lowcountry — 'Save us, dear God, from ourselves.' And we're not the only ones in the fight. The most famous municipal rallying cry is probably 'Keep Austin Weird' in Texas, but it's easy to imagine a lot of T-shirt wishes closer to home. Keep Bluffton Eccentric. Keep St. Helena Gullah. Keep Hilton Head Over There. Keep Columbia Hot. Keep Myrtle Beach Kitschy. Keep Charleston From Sinking. A real one today is 'Keep Chelsea Rural,' a grassroots reaction to the kudzu vine of growth that is now reaching beyond Bluffton and Hardeeville to overtake Highway 462 in rural Jasper County. A similar new plea is 'Save the Euhaw.' As Hilton Head Island has grown from a few thousand residents to around 40,000 while luring 3.5 million visitors a year, some people even marched in the streets trying to 'save' things. We've had: Save Our Trees. Save the Sea Pines Deer. Save the Forest Beach Chickens. Save the Tiki Hut. Have all these people over all this time been asking too much? Cynthia Jenkins was in the best position to know what it means, and understand what it will take, to keep Beaufort Beaufort. All of these grassroots wishes implore us to know who we are. What is our soul? And why would we sell it to the devil? What is our birthright? And why would we sell it for a bowl of lentil stew? 'Keeping' and 'saving' our soul implores us to know who it is that is defining who or what we are. Is it the travel brochure or the poet? The Big Mac or the shrimp burger? Trader Joe's or Harold's Country Club? Beaufort can tell her own story, if we'll but have the sense to listen. It is older than the United States of America itself, and has somehow rolled with the tides and the times under six different flags. It serves today a feast of flavor brought by the Africans, Huguenots, Spanish, English, Scots, and, yes, plenty of damn Yankees. Best-selling author Pat Conroy, who was adopted by the people of Beaufort when he was just a sniveling Marine Corps dependent, came as close as anyone to capturing the allure of Beaufort in mere words. In 'The Prince of Tides,' Conroy wrote, 'To describe our growing up in the low country of South Carolina, I would have to take you to the marsh on a spring day, flush the great blue heron from its silent occupation, scatter marsh hens as we sink to our knees in mud, open you an oyster with a pocketknife and feed it to you from the shell and say, 'There. That taste. That's the taste of my childhood.'' Countless others have savored it over 400 years. We can thank Cynthia Jenkins for her years of attention to every detail of her unique home town. But we can also thank her for reminding us how important it is to 'Keep Beaufort Beaufort.' David Lauderdale may be reached at lauderdalecolumn@
Chicago Tribune
a day ago
- Chicago Tribune
Northwest Indiana's Muslim community comes together to observe Eid Al-Adha
Muslims from throughout Northwest Indiana gathered together on Friday to pray and celebrate Eid Al-Adha. The celebration, the first day of a three-day event, was held inside Crown Point's Sparta Dome. The Sparta Dome was selected as the best place to hold the festivity because of the aspect of community, the joining together of Muslims from throughout the area, Jawad Nammari said. Nammari, who is a volunteer at the Northwest Indiana Islamic Center, also served as one of the organizers of the event. 'Rather than hosting the event at one mosque, the Sparta Dome was chosen because it has plenty of space to accommodate the large Muslim community, who are celebrating together from across the Northwest Indiana region. We all join together in prayer,' he said. Eid Al-Adha is one of two main holidays in the Islamic religion and is a celebration that is held worldwide, he said. 'Eid Al-Adha commemorates when Prophet Ibrahim (Arabic for Abraham) was commanded by God to sacrifice his son, Ismail (Arabic for Ishmael), as an act of obedience and fulfilling a commandment from God,' he said. God intervened at the moment of sacrifice and sent a ram to be sacrificed instead. 'This was a test of faith and both father and son passed it with full obedience and trust in God,' he said. The Eid Al-Adha celebration started at sunrise and many of those in the area traveled to either the Illiana Islamic Center in Highland or the Northwest Indiana Islamic Center in Merrillville to say early morning prayers, he said. Ferass Safadi, who serves as treasurer at the Northwest Indiana Islamic Center, said this event is the first time those from both mosques joined together. 'This is history in the making,' Safadi said. The prayer at the beginning of the event is called Takbeenr which is the praising of Allah, Northwest Indiana Islamic Center member Amera Salam Nammari said. Those in attendance greeted each other upon entry to the dome with hugs or handshakes before being seated in chairs or on rugs spread throughout the area. All removed their shoes before the saying of prayers and message of forgiveness and thankfulness led by Iman Mongy El-Quesny of the Northwest Indiana Islamic Center. Following the main prayers, festivities for families continued including bouncy houses and events for young children. Food trucks, which offered traditional meals like shawarma and falafel, were also available to participants. 'Although Muslims worship five times a day daily and are obliged to obey the commandments of God, this day is a holiday as part of honoring a great act of faith, honoring sacrifice, charity and community,' Jawad Nammari said.
Boston Globe
a day ago
- Boston Globe
Archbishop Henning to lead 'Into the Deep,' a first-ever eucharistic procession by sea for Boston archdiocese
Henning, who is serving his first year of archbishop, decided to take the procession in a new direction, inspired by Boston's long history with the sea. 'When I look out on the ocean, I just find it a place where it's easy to pray, easy to sense the presence of God,' Henning said in a Over the two days, Henning will stop at seven North Shore communities and four Boston neighborhoods. Advertisement 'What if we just brought the Lord to them? What if [people] just have to go as far as the town dock?' Henning said in the video. At each stop, the boat will pause for brief blessings and prayer. The two-day voyage ends with a closing Mass at Gate of Heaven in South Boston. 'The mayors of all the towns we are visiting have been invited, including Mayor Wu,' said Liz Cotrupi, Director of Family Life & Ecclesial Movements at the archdiocese. Harbormasters from multiple towns will guide the Shepherd's Pie into their local harbors, and State Police and fire boats will escort it into Boston Harbor on Sunday morning, Cotrupi added. Advertisement The boat—donated by the Winchester-based Shepherd family—will be captained by Mark Shepherd, Frank Harrington, Winthrop Harbormaster Charles Famolare, and Father Dan Hennessey of Topsfield and Middleton. Below is the full schedule of stops and estimated arrival times. Saturday, June 21 8:30AM – Mass at 10:50AM – 12:20PM – 1:30PM – 2:50PM – 4:15PM – 6:00PM – Prayer Service at Sunday, June 22 8:15AM – 9:20AM – 10:15AM – 11:05AM – 12:00PM – Mass at Rita Chandler can be reached at
