Love for planet earth sprouting up on church lawns

The United Church of Christ General Synod has just overwhelmingly approved the resolution on climate calling on clergy and congregations across the denomination to take action to protect the environment, and churches are lining up to stand behind it publicly.

“We want to stand with the rest of the world and commit ourselves to protect and defend the earth for the generations to come,” said the Rev. Beverly Lewis, pastor of Immanuel UCC in Catonsville, Md. “We are God’s stewards—called to care and protect the land, sea, and air.”

Rev. Lewis, a member of the UCC Council on Climate Justice, has already planted a sign in front of her church in support of the resolution and the Paris Climate Accord. “This sign expresses who we are now and how we pledge to live.”

She said it’s a tangible way to let her community know that the current U.S. policy on climate is shortsighted.

“Our church is 25 miles away from the White House full of denial and anger and thousands away from the city of light.”

Churches interested in the sign can download it here.

“This public witness is all the more powerful because it is more than the statement of a single, solitary church. It is a statement that churches from around the country are lifting up,” Rev. Brooks Berndt, minister for Environmental Justice. “Churches are realizing that this is an issue on which their conscience will not allow for silence. There is a strong sense of moral urgency.”