A journey that began on November 27th, ended on December 12th with an agreement from almost 200 countries to collectively address the climate crisis.
The Church and Society team that headed to Paris to ensure United Methodist values would be lifted up in the negotiations included John Hill and Levi Bautista of GBCS, Lisa Garvin of the Mississippi Annual Conference and Emory University, Jenn Ferariza Meneses of the Philippines Central Conference, Jefferson Knight of the Liberia Annual Conference, and Daniel Obergfell of the Germany Central Conference.
To ensure that United Methodists around the globe knew what the team was engaging in, they created daily video updates for the sixteen days that they were in Paris to give a glimpse into the activities of the conference.
This included both high-level meetings with appointed and elected world leaders, as well as activities with other members of civil society and diverse faith communities. The team was able to worship with ecumenical faith partners at Notre Dame as well as a local United Methodist congregation in Paris.
Beyond the Church and Society delegation, the team found other United Methodists at the conference including Bill McKibben of 350.org and Julia Edwards, an official member of the Fiji delegation. The General Board of Global Ministries also had a team in Paris for the negotiations.
As John and Lisa were flying back to the U.S., they received word that an agreement had been reached and sent an update from over the North Atlantic:
Church & Society COP21
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Find all of the video updates from the team here.
The United Methodist News Service covered the UM presence at COP21 with highlights from many United Methodists.
Reprinted with permission from Church & Society's Faith in Action newsletter.