Notes from: Climate Church, Climate World

Book written by Rev. Dr. Jim Antal - United Church of Christ Leader
Notes from Mike Ignatowski

“…it falls upon our generation to embrace the imperatives set forth in this resolution – imperatives that constitute a new moral era. We view the current climate crisis as an opportunity for which the church was born.”

Now is the time for clergy to speak from their pulpits about the moral obligation of our generation to protect God’s creation.

Now is the time for congregations and for every person of faith to set a moral example through our own words and actions

Let us proclaim truth in the public square – whether in the streets, at the State House, in the halls of power, with our phones, emails, technology and social media by committing our time, financial resources and prayers

Climate Church, Climate World argues that climate change is the greatest moral challenge humanity has ever faced. Hunger, refugees, poverty, inequality, deadly viruses, war--climate change multiplies all forms of global social injustice.

Environmental leader Reverend Jim Antal presents a compelling case that it's time for the church to meet this moral challenge, just as the church addressed previous moral challenges.

It’s not just about me: from personal communal salvation.

[He] urges the church to embrace a new vocation, one focused on collective salvation and an expanded understanding of the Golden Rule (Golden Rule 2.0). He suggests ways people of faith can reorient what they prize through new approaches to worship, preaching, witnessing and other spiritual practices that honor creation and cultivate hope.

"Only a repurposed church (and synagogue, mosque and temple) will be able to inspire the fundamental changes humanity must embrace if we are to restore the continuity of God's great gift of creation," he says

Repurposing the church

Change from focusing on individual salvation towards focusing on community salvation. This was written from a Christian perspective, but even much of the UU focus is on the individual. For example, we regularly teach a course on “Building your own theology”. Question: If Wildflower did this type of repurposing, what would look different from what we’re doing now?

He proposed the Golden Rule 2.0: we must recognize that future generations are no less our neighbors than those who live next door today. Make no mistake – this represents a revolution in human values…. For thousands of years we lived by the golden rule. But the development of nuclear weapons served notice that humanity needed a new moral standard. Suddenly humanity had the capacity to significantly alter – or even to end – life as we knew it.

Just as we had to make the difficult transition from a slave-based economy because of its moral implications, we will also need to transition from a fossil fuel-based economy because of its moral implications to our future fellow humans.

So, we are in the midst of a moral, spiritual, economic, and cultural challenge as daunting as the challenge posed by slavery. I believe that the scale of the material and spiritual transformation required of us today is at least as great as what was required for the United States to move beyond a slave economy.

We need to make civil disobedience a normative expression of discipleship. He pointed out that Peter and Paul spent more time in jail than as free men in the period after Jesus’ death.

Some basic ideas:

· Resilience in place of growth
· Collaboration in place of consumption
· Wisdom in place of material progress
· Balance in place of addiction
· Moderation in place of excess
· Vision in place of convenience
· Accountability in place of disregard
· Self-giving love in place of self-centered fear

What if the first announcement at every church service went something like this:

As we do every Sunday, I’d like to ask those who contacted their member of congress or the white house this past week to advocate for new laws that will make our Earth sustainable to please ire as you are able and receive our applause…. Thank you, and I hope to see still more of you rise next week.

Note: every Sunday might be too much for us to do this, bot perhaps consider once a month asking people who did this or were involved in other social action activities to stand and be recognized?

Organize an interfaith climate revival.

Testimonies from someone who is pregnant about what it means to them to have hope for their child’s future.

If all we do is to continue to behave as we have been… life as humans have always known it on this planet will come to an end.

We are the first generation to foresee, and the final generation with an opportunity to forestall, the most devastating effects of climate change…. Join the UCC in declaring that a new moral era has begun, and that our generation has a moral obligation to protect [the environment for future generations]

The 5 stages of grief: too many of us are stuck in the first stage – denial

Other ideas to focus on:
· Be driven by love and gratitude, with fear as a catalyst.
· A global commons – end the ownership of nature
· Building the kingdom of god: society based on “the common good”
· Living hope-filled lives in a climate crisis world (not optimism, but hope)

When Gandhi envisioned an India free of British rule, he didn’t weigh the chances of success. He didn’t have a plan. He relied on his convictions and his hope that it would eventually happen. Hope stops you from feeling powerless.

Hope is connecting with a new story that has not yet been made clear.

When we die and meet St. Peter at Heaven’s gate, he will invite us to pull out both our checkbook and our appointment book, and then will ask us only one question: can you find in these two records enough evidence to convict you as a Christian?