wfn.org | Four State Interfaith Global Warming Campaign

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

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Contact: Wendy McDowell, NCC, 212-870-2227
Email: news@ncccusa.org  Web:  www.ncccusa.org

68NCC6/11/99  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

INTERFAITH GLOBAL WARMING CAMPAIGN INITIATED IN FOUR STATES
Michigan Conference June 14-15 Will Be First Event in Year-
long Initiative

 NEW YORK, June 10 ---- A year-long, interfaith campaign 
designed to develop support for international treaties like 
the Kyoto protocol and to help people of faith see global 
warming as a religious issue is now underway in four new 
states - Michigan, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Iowa.

 "Momentum is building among people of faith to proclaim 
global warming as a religious issue," said the Rev. Richard 
Killmer, Environmental Justice Director for the National 
Council of Churches (NCC), which is sponsoring the 
initiative through its Eco-Justice Working Group.  "In this 
campaign, religious leaders and laypeople will begin 
addressing the global warming issue with their local 
congregations, government and media."

"We've already tested such a campaign in Ohio and 
achieved success," he explained.  "Members of The Ohio 
Interfaith Global Warming Campaign, organized through the 
Ohio Council of Churches, testified in the Ohio state 
legislature against a bill calling upon members of the U.S. 
Congress from Ohio to vote against the Kyoto Protocol," Rev. 
Killmer said.  "By expressing why people of faith care about 
this issue, they ended up being the strongest voice in 
support of Kyoto."

"We are excited to see the initiative move to four 
other challenging states," Rev. Killmer said.  "The four 
states have been chosen for specific reasons having to do 
with their political and industrial contexts.  For example, 
Michigan is the seat of the automobile industry while Iowa 
has the earliest caucuses."

"In these four states, industries are lobbying heavily 
against the Kyoto Protocol," Rev. Killmer explained.  "Yet 
our faith tells us it is both about survival for God's 
creation and about justice for the most vulnerable among 
God's people.  We are already seeing the effects of global 
warming and they will only worsen."

The initiative will be carried out through interfaith 
agencies in Michigan, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Iowa 
that will fuel extensive educational, political and media 
strategies including:
-preparing a religious leaders statement on the Kyoto 
Protocol to be sent to United States senators, House 
representatives, key state legislators, and leaders of 
business, unions and farming;
-getting at least 100 congregations involved in energy 
conservation and at least 400 congregations to use a Bible 
study and bulletin inserts on global warming;
-ongoing visits by religious leaders to United States 
senators in their state,
-placing op-ed articles and PSAs in local media.

Additionally, each state will hold a training event to 
provide assistance in working with congregations, media and 
public officials.  "Global Warming and God's People: The 
Michigan Interfaith Global Warming Conference," to be held 
at the St. Francis Retreat Center in Dewitt, Mich. on June 
14 and 15, is the first of these events.

The Michigan event will bring together at least 60 
people from a wide range of Protestant and Orthodox 
communions as well as Roman Catholic and Jewish 
representatives.  "We are encouraging participants, by their 
coming, to make a certain commitment to this campaign over 
the next year," said Kim Winchell, a member of Zion Lutheran 
Church in Freeland, Mich., who is coordinating the Michigan 
campaign.  "It is a challenge here in Michigan since our 
governor is already on record as opposing the Kyoto treaty 
for being `job killing.'  As people of faith, we care about 
protecting both workers and the environment.  We will 
present that viewpoint sincerely and with conviction.  If we 
can succeed here, we can succeed anywhere."

At the June 14-15 event, speakers from different 
perspectives, including an economist, theologian and 
scientist, will speak about global warming.  Training 
sessions on communications and media, educating in 
congregations and with church governments, and influencing 
state and federal representatives will be held.

The four-state effort is the latest development in an 
interfaith global warming strategy that was initiated by the 
NCC in August 1998 and included letters to President Clinton 
and U.S. senators urging support of the Kyoto Protocol; a 
nine-state organizing effort and the original Midwest 
Interfaith Climate Change conference held in Columbus, Ohio.

The NCC is one of the partners in the National 
Religious Partnership for the Environment along with the 
Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, the U.S. 
Catholic Conference and the Evangelical Environmental 
Network.

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