wfn.org | STATE COORDINATORS SEE "UPWELLING OF THE SPIRIT"

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

State Coordinators see "Upwelling of the Spirit"
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Contact: Wendy S. McDowell, NCC, 212-870-2227
Internet:  news@ncccusa.org

83NCC8/18/98         FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

STATE COORDINATORS OF NCC INTERFAITH GLOBAL WARMING 
CAMPAIGN SEE "UPWELLING OF THE SPIRIT" IN LOCAL 
ENVIRONMENTAL MINISTRIES

 NEW YORK, August 18 ---- Susan Harlow, the Indiana 
coordinator for the nine-state interfaith global warming 
campaign spurred by the National Council of Churches (NCC), 
would rather not be pigeonholed by being called an 
environmentalist.

 "Everything that I am is contained in saying that I 
am a Christian," she said.  "As a Christian, I am a person 
of justice, of peace and of caring for the environment.  My 
parents were Christians who taught us that the earth is 
holy."  Ms. Harlow is a divinity student at Christian 
Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, Indiana who is 
pursuing ordination in the United Church of Christ and 
considers work on environmental issues to be her "call."

 Likewise, Kim Winchell has found through her 
involvement in the grass-roots group Michigan Ecumenical 
Consultation on Christianity and Ecology (MECCE) that "it 
has been a journey for me to see the Biblical basis for 
earth-keeping.  I have a science background and have found 
that the two halves, science and theology, are really tied 
together for me now," she said.  "For instance, in ecology 
we know that everything is connected.  There is a verse in 
Colossians that says `all things hold together.'"

"When we hold our conferences, the laypeople who come 
often say that they thought they were the only one who 
thought that caring for the earth was a spiritual issue," 
Ms. Winchell said.  "They are encouraged to be around a lot 
of other people who feel the same way."

 Ms. Winchell will be the Michigan coordinator for the 
NCC project.  She is a hospital laboratory technologist and 
actively involved in her local synod, the Northwest Lower 
Michigan Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of 
America (ELCA).

 Ms. Harlow and Ms. Winchells' faith-based work on 
environmental issues is shared by the network of 
environmental justice coordinators and other leaders that 
the NCC is counting on to carry out its four-pronged 
strategy on climate change.  One piece of that strategy is 
an interfaith project in nine states designed to raise 
awareness and increase advocacy about climate change 
through media placements, congregational resources and 
visits to Senators.

 The targeted states include: Pennsylvania, West 
Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Nebraska, Michigan, 
North Dakota and South Dakota.

 "My task is to empower people of all faiths in 
Indiana and to convince our Senators to support the Kyoto 
treaty," Ms Harlow said.  "I will do that by contacting the 
media, our church judicatories and the major denominational 
bodies to say that it is important for anyone of faith to 
take this issue seriously, and also by encouraging 
congregations to use several resources."

-more-

83NCC8/18/98
NINE-STATE PROJECT, Page 2

 "In my conversations with people, I realize that 
people feel really disempowered," Ms. Harlow said.  "They 
feel that the issue is too big.  When they learn that there 
are specific things they can do, their attitude changes."

 "A lot of times, it is only one person in a 
congregation that gets passionate about these issues, but 
that is a start," Ms. Winchell said.  "I think it is 
wonderful that there are all the national structures in 
place, but from my perspective, I am greatly heartened by 
what I see as an upwelling of the spirit (at the local 
level).  People are coming to spiritual realizations about 
caring for the earth on their own."

 Ms. Harlow concurred.  "Just in talking to people, I 
can really feel a groundswell.  People are excited that 
people of faith are coming together in one voice.  They 
think it is unjust the way the political machine has kept 
us from caring for the environment the way we should."

 Ms. Harlow said the argument frequently made 
insisting that we will suffer economically if we comply to 
the Kyoto treaty is simply untrue.  "Studies have shown the 
U.S. can reduce energy use by 20% or more at net economic 
benefit because it will result in cutting emissions, 
increasing efficiency, adding jobs, reducing waste and 
reducing oil imports."

Ms. Harlow said she is placing a special emphasis on 
reaching out to youth groups on the climate change issue, 
for two reasons.  "If you have 15 to 20 really charged 
teenagers, they can really lead a congregation," she 
explained.  "Also, they are our future voters and future 
leaders of congregations.  If they adopt this issue, then 
it will not die."

 In Michigan, Ms. Winchell said she will use the 
existing network and mailing list developed from the MECCE 
conferences as one starting point.  "Basically, we plan to 
network, network and network some more, and then pray a 
lot," she said.

 The goal is to get at least 50 congregations in each 
state to use an editorial "Global Climate Change: A 
Religious Issue" by NCC General Secretary Joan Brown 
Campbell as a bulletin insert and to distribute the five-
session Bible study entitled "It's God's World: Christians, 
the Environment and Climate Change."

 The coordinators will work over a four-month period, 
although both Ms. Harlow and Ms. Winchell emphasize that 
this is neither the beginning nor the end of their work 
around these issues.  "This is not something we are going 
to quit caring about after the four months is over," Ms. 
Winchell said.

 "I always think of the line from the poet Gustav 
Thibon which says, `Dig in the narrow place which has been 
given you and you will find God there,'" Ms. Harlow said.  
"This work is the narrow place which has been given me."

-end-

Note: The NCC's climate change strategy packet (EJ9800) is 
available for $1 from Environmental Justice Resources, NCC, 
P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, Indiana, 46515; 800-762-0968.
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