Winter A • 2010-2011
The UCC: Eco-Justice
and Stewardship of Creation
We are stewards of God’s creation. The United Church
of Christ takes that responsibility seriously by raising
awareness of environmental justice.
When a natural disaster occurs, the UCC responds with
help for those whose lives are impacted by drought or
flood or earthquake or landslide. Most recently, the
United Church of Christ has provided assistance to
those affected by the oil spill in the US Gulf and to those
suffering the devastating floods in Pakistan.
Those aid efforts are supported by the UCC’s One Great
Hour of Sharing and through direct donations from
individuals and churches designated for those purposes,
including a $300,000 appeal for Pakistan relief.
But the UCC also recognizes that the world is responding
to the ways that humanity has neglected our air, waters,
forests, and wildlife. We are called to care for these things
as well as for our brothers and sisters.
The UCC’s Environmental Justice Ministries provides
information, ideas, and inspiration for individuals and
churches as they consider the impact of humanity on the
world.
Being thoughtful consumers and living ‘green’ benefits
both people and the environment. Before it was
fashionable, eco-justice simply was right. In the church,
the word we use for that is righteousness. More than
100,000 organizations, many of them grass-roots efforts,
are involved in doing the right thing for the environment.
The UCC’s Environmental Justice Ministries (EJM)
Website (www.ucc.org/environmental-ministries) provides
a portal to perspectives from pastors, scientists, and
environmentalists. Practical suggestions and important
theoretical discussion are both part of meeting the call for
stewardship of the earth, sky, sea, and creatures.
Understanding the impact of our choices is the first step
in becoming better stewards. From the EJM homepage,
you can do all of the following:
◆ Take 20 minutes and look at Annie Leonard’s, “The
Story of Stuff” (www.thestoryofstuff.com).
SR-00-WA-10-U-The UCC and the Environment
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◆ Find out how local congregations have reduced their
carbon footprint. The Hancock Church, Lexington,
MA, reduced its carbon footprint by 42% and saved
money! That means dollars that would have gone to
fill an oil tank can fill a child’s stomach instead.
◆ Connect with Interfaith Power and Light (www.inter-
faithpowerandlight.org) which provides many practical
tools for things like finding out what your carbon
footprint is to networking with the 10,000 congrega-
tions already represented in the effort of reduce global
warming.
◆ Find worship resources and suggestions about
conserving energy for your congregation.
Natural disasters will continue and the United Church
of Christ, along with others, will respond. But there
are also crises in the making which might be able to be
avoided. They are technology-caused disasters, and they
will only get significant press if they are catastrophic on
a large scale, like the 1979 disaster at Three Mile Island
Nuclear Generating Station in Pennsylvania or in 1986
at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukraine.
The long-term costs of those disasters still are not fully
known.
Hazardous materials or dangerous manufacturing
processes touch lives and property, creating health,
economic, and political challenges for individuals,
communities, and even nations. These hazardous
materials can become the source of an acute event or be
released as part of a natural disaster. Raising awareness
about this risk is an important concern for the UCC’s
Environmental Justice Ministries.
The UCC’s EJM provides a way to raise awareness and
to prepare for technology/human-caused catastrophe,
also known as The Silent Disaster, through an emergency
fund much like the kind you and your family may have.
More information about the Silent Disaster, the fund,
and donating to it can be found at the UCC’s EJM
Website: www.ucc.org/disaster/technology-disasters/.