Climate Justice Ministries Task Force

Our mission slogan is: Climate Justice through faith-inspired connection, education, advocacy and action.

We are here to help individuals, congregations, and the annual conference to act to address climate change through disaster relief, congregational and community adaptation and resilience, and mitigation of greenhouse gas pollution, in a manner that brings justice to those marginalized and most harmed by current emissions, systems, and practices.

Contact us at: climatejustice@cnumc.org
Subscribe to emails and/or take our local survey at: forms.gle/APsoX3d8jLv3UYme9
Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/@CalNevClimateJustice
YouTube channel: youtube.com/@CalNevClimateJustice
Find past newsletters here: https://www.cnumc.org/news?search=climate

Our faith-inspired work is organized around the four areas of connection, education, advocacy and action:
 
Connection
 
To connect with churches around the conference, we sent out a survey to discover what climate work is already happening in our local churches and to gauge interest for resources that would be helpful. The survey is still open and can be found here.  Our emails, newsletters and Facebook posts will help connect you with other local, denominational, and interfaith work.

Education

There are six 90-minute videos on our YouTube Channel that the Task Force has created on “Climate Change, Climate Justice, Climate Action: The Basics for Churches.” Most of the speakers are from our Annual Conference.  Watching and discussing these videos is a good entry point to climate justice work. Our emails and newsletters offer other learning opportunities, worship resources and Bible and book study ideas.
 
Advocacy
 
We are bringing two resolutions to ACS 2023. Both are about the ethics of investing in fossil fuels as United Methodists, who in 1980 began to call for an end to profligate greenhouse gas emissions and a transition to a just and sustainable clean-energy future.  In each issue of our newsletter, we have several opportunities for advocacy. Many of these opportunities come from other United Methodist boards or agencies (Church and Society, United Women in Faith) or interfaith organizations such as Interfaith Power and Light, Creation Justice Ministries, and GreenFaith.

Action
 
We have local churches across the conference who are active in creation care and climate justice through large and small actions, and some specifically with green teams. Take our survey and let us know what you are doing and how we can best support you to address climate change in your individual, congregational and community efforts.

Strategic Direction

1. Reach out to Conference committees and local churches to gauge interest and current participation in creation care or climate justice ministries and to publish the findings;
2. Discern how the Annual Conference can move forward in a coordinated way on ministries focused on climate justice and to facilitate such efforts;
3. Establish an official point of contact for networking across conferences and for connecting with local churches so that climate justice ministries can be supported in an ongoing way and be integrated into the life of the Annual Conference and our local churches;
4. Report back annually to the Annual Conference session on progress made.