“The crisis of climate change is the gravest threat facing our world today, and as people of faith and conscience we are called to respond to the moral imperative to advance climate justice. The Unitarian Universalist Association and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee therefore applaud Pope Francis for focusing the world’s attention on the threat of climate change by issuing ‘Laudato Si’ or ‘Praise Be to You,’ a papal letter addressed not just to Catholics but to ‘every person living on this planet.’. ‘A true ecological approach,’  ‘must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.’ We hear those cries.

The encyclical repeatedly asserts the interconnectedness of all life and calls for ‘the honesty needed to question certain models of development, production, and consumption.’ We in the developed world will need to make difficult choices to effectively address this climate crisis. 

Unitarian Universalists have initiated just such a dialogue with Commit2Respond, an unprecedented coalition of UU groups and people of conscience devoted to shifting to a low-carbon future, advancing the human rights of communities affected by climate change, and growing the climate justice movement. As people of faith, Unitarian Universalists and their allies are called to respond to this crisis in ways that recognize our position in ‘the interdependent web of all existence.’

It is time for us at First Unitarian Church of Wilmington to begin the dialogue on how we commit to respond to climate.  Green Sanctuary urges every member of the congregation to join Commit2Respond now.  Link:  www.commit2respond.org. Plan to join Green Sanctuary's workshops and disussions in the fall.

Elizabeth Siftar
Green Sanctuary chair