Category: Faith_CN

Not a week after James Webb Space Telescope photos dazzled our eyes with the sparkling, cool colors of the universe, we were then confronted with the harsh, hot reality facing us here on planet Earth — cracked brown terrain, billowing black smoke and raging red flames. Much less dazzling photos of the danger and devastation caused by extreme weather filled news pages across the globe as they reported record-breaking heat waves and wildfires.

The Presbyterian Church made a huge announcement this week: it will divest $4-$7 million from fossil fuels entirely. That includes removing its money from five oil companies: Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Marathon Petroleum, Phillips 66 and Valero Energy. The announcement came on the heels of another announcement from three dozen other religious groups that have also divested from fossil fuel. It’s a big deal, not just as a win for divestment and less money for Big Oil, but also because of the longstanding relationship between western Christianity and oil.

By a 340-41 margin on Wednesday, commissioners to the 225th General Assembly voted to place five energy companies — Chevron, ExxonMobil, Marathon Petroleum, Phillips 66 and Valero Energy — on the General Assembly Divestment/Proscription List “until their actions comply with the General Assembly’s established criteria.”

In a challenge to the fossil fuel industry’s dangerous expansion plans and increasingly empty rhetoric on climate, 35 faith institutions from seven countries today announced their divestment from fossil fuel companies.

Organised by the World Council of Churches, Operation Noah, Laudato Si’ Movement, Green Anglicans and GreenFaith, this latest divestment announcement comes from faith institutions in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, the UK and the US.

Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. These shifts may be natural, such as through variations in the solar cycle. But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.

Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders joined United Nations officials on Monday in urging financial institutions to stop bankrolling activities that are driving climate change, including ending support for new fossil fuel projects.

When the choir at Rock Spring Congregational United Church of Christ complained about overheating while harmonizing under incandescent lights more than 15 years ago, congregant John Overholt didn’t just empathize.

The Vatican is once again trying to make climate action a key issue for Catholics, as it launches a program called the Laudato Si’ Action Platform, named after the Pope’s 2015 letter that framed protecting the environmental as a spiritual mandate. The new website calls on Catholics to eat less meat, take public transit and drive less, avoid single-use plastics and other wasteful habits, and take part in a “cultural revolution” to change how they interact with the natural environment and financial systems.

Catholic sisters living in a convent in northeast Washington, D.C., used to look out their windows at a big, empty field. Now they gaze out at a solar farm that, in spring, will have flowers blooming between the panels.

A Long Island couple say that fighting climate change and protecting biodiversity starts at home. Or rather, right outside your home in the suburbs.