UMC Creation Advocates Counter Grim Climate Report with Hope, Action

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The environmental assessment released Aug. 9 by the International Panel on Climate Change evokes apocalyptic images worthy of the Book of Revelation: scorching temperatures, rising sea levels caused by melting polar ice, intensified storms, raging wildfires, and widespread loss of biodiversity through habitat decimation.

Nonetheless United Methodist creation care advocates contend that there is still hope to save Planet Earth, if people of faith continue in stewardship and lobbying efforts that have been going on for years.

The call to hope and action came from the coordinating committee of UMC Creation Justice Movement, which met with United Methodist Insight Aug. 10 in response to the IPCC’s climate change report. Participating in the Zoom meeting were team convenor Cathy Velasquez Eberhart, Cara Fleischer, the Rev. Paul Slentz, the Rev. Mel Caraway, and Dr. Karen McElfish.

‘Absolute necessity for action’

“The IPCC report confirms everything we’ve been seeing around the planet,” said Ms. Fleischer, a member of St. Paul’s UMC in Tallahassee, Fla., who is preparing to attend the global climate conference, COP26, in Glasgow, Scotland, in November.

“The report fuels the absolute necessary for action,” Ms. Fleischer continued. “I live in Florida. We’re ‘Ground Zero’ for climate effects.”

Ms. Fleischer said her church is still sending volunteer crews to help economically disadvantaged people rebuild homes that were devastated by Hurricane Michael in 2018. The damage caused by that storm “changed the whole mission of our church,” she said.

Rev. Slentz, whose last appointment prior to retirement in the Tennessee Annual Conference was to creation care ministry, said the IPCC report made him think about how in history “the church has been called to respond to what’s going on in the world right now.”

“I think this is one of those clear instances where the church is being called by God to respond to this crisis that is harming people – the most vulnerable people, poor people, indigenous people, people of color – the people Christ called us to help,” he told Insight.

Rev. Slentz said that the climate crisis is “not a peripheral issue. It’s part of what it means in this time and place to love God and love our neighbor.”

Direct effect on mission work

Rev. Caraway noted that the climate crisis is having a direct effect on United Methodist mission work around the world.

“So many of our missionaries overseas are dealing with climate – agriculture, water, deforestation,” he said. “One of the biggest takeaways for me from COP25 was listening to the voices of indigenous people who have been severely impacted by the climate crisis. We may have it bad here in the United States, but there are so many others who have it worse.”

However, Rev. Caraway cautioned against American United Methodists responding to the IPCC report as “imperialistic fixers.”

“I think it’s important that we keep [climate change] in context – we need to listen to those on the ground,” he said.

Dr. McElfish, a retired pediatrician in Virginia, explained that as a United Methodist Women’s representative she sees the IPCC report through the lens of UMW’s historic mission to care for women, children, and youth. She said she recently wrote an article for the Creation Justice newsletter identifying the effects of climate change on children.

“We’re seeing more asthma from excess ozone, more respiratory illness and a prolonged allergy season,” the doctor said. “Seven percent of American children under 18 now suffer from asthma.”

Climate change also has caused a rise in infectious diseases among children, Dr. McElfish said. She cited increases in increases in gastroenteritis from salmonella, E. Coli and Cholera as temperatures rise. Increases also are occurring in pediatric cases of vector-borne illnesses such as West Nike virus and malaria from mosquitoes, and Lyme disease from ticks not only because of increased range of mosquitoes and ticks that carry diseases but also from increased numbers of disease-causing organisms,” she said.

Confronting the multiple challenges of climate change outlined in the IPCC report can be overwhelming, acknowledged Ms. Eberhart.

“I’m a laywoman in Minnesota,’ said Ms. Eberhart, who served as a United Methodist missionary for two years in the United States. “When I became aware of the IPCC report about eight to 10 years ago, my the IPCC report reaction was deep despair. But being a preacher’s kid and a United Methodist, I felt deeply called to do something about the climate crisis.”

Connected with others to organize

Ms. Eberhart said that her work on creation care led her to other United Methodists who were concerned for the planet’s future. From her local church through the Minnesota Annual Conference, she joined with others to organize what has become the UMC Creation Justice Movement. A corollary ministry, EarthKeepers, was established in 2016 by the General Board of Global Ministries.

“It was important that the church affirmed that this creation justice work is a calling by commissioning people as EarthKeepers,” Ms. Eberhart said. “Our desire was to build a deeper  network throughout the denomination connected to what was already happening. Now I don’t slip into despair; it’s like, ‘oh, yeah, we’ll just keep working – making gardens, ridding ourselves of plastic, doing advocacy work in states, and building a powerful movement.’”

Ms. Eberhart said that she hopes the IPCC report will give United Methodists clarity on the urgency of the climate crisis. “The report is dire, but we see people rising to the challenge,” she said. “Don’t try to do this work alone. It’s heavy work. It’s so much more joyful to work together.”

The coordinating team unanimously recommended ways for United Methodists can respond to the IPCC report’s frightening facts.

Rev. Slentz stressed that United Methodists should seek a “systemic approach” by advocating for federal policies to address climate change, such as the measures proposed in the infrastructure bills now before Congress. He said UMC Creation Justice has endorsed efforts by the General Board of Church and Society and United Methodist Women to urge Congress to support strong climate change elements in the infrastructure bills.

“We need expansion of tax credits for solar power and electric vehicles,” he said. “We need to seek environmental justice for ‘fence line’ communities that are situated next to power plants and other polluters. We need to help communities whose economies are based on fossil fuels to transition to clean energy.”

Dr. McElfish was even more emphatic.

“Use our voices!” she said. “Speak up! Educate one another. Be bold, be brave, talk with those in positions of power who can make changes. Advocate for legislation. We are called as people of faith to do social justice.”

Start in the local church

As Ms. Eberhart did, Ms. Fleischer suggested starting climate justice ministry in the local church.

“In Florida, we have an annual conference team that equips local churches in creation care ministry,” she said. “We guide them to focus their energy and concern in the most effective way possible. Soon the whole church starts to see through the lens of sustainability, to be good stewards of the earth.”

Ms. Fleischer added that other benefits can grow from creation care ministry. For example, churches that plant gardens often attract new people to their faith community.

“Doing outings with churches of other races fosters racial unity,” Ms. Fleischer said. “Creation care ministry is joyful, intergenerational ministry; families do cleanup, plant gardens, go on kayak tours to connect with nature – it’s fun! We don’t have to educate youth about the importance of this work; they know what’s going on.”

The Creation Justice coordinators also think the IPCC report, which has been endorsed by 195 countries, will spur more people to take action on climate change.

“We feel that this report is going to make this issue so clear,” said Ms. Fleischer. “If you’re a human on this planet this is your issue; now we need to raise the political will to make it happen.”

Resources

UMC Creation Justice Movement Website

United Methodist Women Just Energy 4 All

General Board of Church and Society Environmental Justice

General Board of Global Ministries Creation Care

Global Ministries EarthKeepers

Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011. This article is part of United Methodist Insight's ongoing coverage as a member of Covering Climate Now, a worldwide collaboration of more than 400 publications committed to enhanced reporting on the global climate crisis.