Climate Hope Campaigns
As our society faces enormous challenges like climate and inequality, hope can be hard to find. Since the birth of the environmental justice movement in the early 1980s, people of faith like Dollie Burwell and the Rev. Benjamin Chavis, Jr., have generated and inspired hope by successfully taking action with others.
For the second year, the United Church of Christ (UCC) is undertaking a nationwide Climate Hope campaign. In 2023, our Climate Hope Cards initiative sought to save thousands of lives, address societal inequities, and get our nation on track to meet its climate goals by collecting thousands of petition postcards that urged the Environmental Protection Agency to adopt the strongest possible protections.
For 2024, the UCC has launched a second campaign called Vote for Climate Hope. The first phase of the campaign was an art contest for children and youth. The winning art is now going on voter pledge cards that congregations will collect in the summer and fall.
THE WINNING CLIMATE HOPE ART FOR 2024
Want to see all the art contest finalists for 2024? Check out this video!
This Is Who We Are: Environmental Justice in Action
The care of God’s creation is a central calling of Christians and has found unique expression in the life of the United Church of Christ. Leaders from the UCC were integral to the launch of the environmental justice movement in the 1980s with its pioneering focus on environmental racism. Through General Synod resolutions, we have repeatedly stepped forward to lead the way as people of faith on critical matters such fossil fuel divestment, mountaintop removal, and the Green New Deal. Today, congregations throughout the country have answered our first calling as Christians in tending to God’s creation by becoming Creation Justice Churches. Through webinars, newsletters, reports, and more, we stay connected and informed. Learn more about our denomination’s Environmental Justice Ministries!
Why We Are Called to Climate Action
One could argue that all of us have a self-interest in doing everything we can to address the climate crisis. As Christians, however, we are called beyond our individual lives to love our neighbor and to care for all of God’s creation. To be in right relationship with our neighbors and God’s creation is ultimately at the heart of being in right relationship with God. To put it more succinctly, when we talk about what it means to be in right relationship we are talking about justice. As disciples of Jesus, we are called to put justice into action.
Today, justice takes many different and interconnected forms. We see this especially in the climate crisis. The burdens of pollution do not fall on everyone equally. Climate-related disasters do not affect everyone the same. Race, poverty, and other societal inequities all play a role in who currently suffers the most and who faces the greatest impending dangers. Often those who have contributed the least to climate change are those who are impacted the most.