In recognition that the climate crisis is a global event reliant on forces beyond our individual control, our program urges participating parishes to collaboratively raise their voices and actions to influence transformation on all levels of society. Step by step, it encourages participants to advocate for just climate and environmental legislation, demand institutional responsibility and oversight, become informed and active voters, stand with the marginalized and forgotten, and build relationships across race and class as we work together to create a more just, safe, and resilient world.
We will challenge our parishes on the necessary role of reparations in repairing the harm that has been overwhelmingly inflicted in unjust ways based on race, nationality, and income. The Path considers public advocacy and political engagement not as an optional add-on to faithful discipleship but rather as one of its essential components.
COMMUNICATION
PREPARE
Make an inventory of the parish’s and parishioners’ advocacy work and skillsets. Invite several parishioners to share their stories of advocacy with the congregation.
Invite someone to talk about local environmental concerns.
[LEARN] Offer training on how to talk about climate justice and other civic issues without treading on partisan landmines, and/or how to talk to elected officials and build relationships with them.
GROW
Identify a significant creation justice issue in your community or region and organize a forum for education and conversation.
Share the congregation’s interest and involvement in environmental priorities with articles in your local news media and letters to the editor.
PLANT
Publicize the congregation’s interest and involvement in environmental priorities.
Participate in and share national or international days of prayerful action and advocacy on behalf of God's creation.
Ask internal questions regarding climate justice: who pays? who benefits? and who decides?
HARVEST
[PRAY] Preach, and/or organize and lead discussions/study groups for audiences beyond the parish on the intersection of climate, racial, social and economic injustice.
Organize an event that is part of a larger (national/international) day of prayerful action and advocacy on behalf of God's creation.
CONNECTION
PREPARE
Learn about local groups and specific justice issues.
Recruit members of your congregation to listen, learn, and share what environmental issues are important in your region and what organizations are sponsoring them.
Identify and possibly join a local, state, or national group active in advocating for climate justice.
GROW
Partner with another congregation whose members are being harmed by climate change or environmental racism; learn from and support them in their advocacy efforts.
Reach out to other congregations (Episcopal and other) interested in creation care and faith-based advocacy. Explore joint activities.
PLANT
Join/be active with specific group(s).
Learn about and support communities or groups beyond your community that are affected by pollution.
Get actively involved in a local creation justice group/issue.
HARVEST
If no such organization exists, start a local faith-based group (Christian or multifaith) dedicated to advocacy for structural change on behalf of God's creation.
Offer to mentor another congregation in becoming a creation-care community.
CITIZENSHIP
PREPARE
Find out and share how to register and where/how/when to vote.
Encourage the team to make a pledge to vote regularly with God's Creation as a priority.
GROW
Sponsor or help organize a candidate forum, asking questions that focus on the faith-based moral values of creation justice, racial equity, economic transitions, etc.
Organize or help lead a voter registration drive at the local level.
Get involved in local government. Attend meetings to observe or to speak on specific issues.
PLANT
Learn about Faith Climate Justice Voter programs and set a goal for your congregation’s level of participation.
Participate in a voter registration drive.
Participate in a candidate forum, asking questions that focus on the faith-based moral values of creation justice, racial equity, economic transitions, etc.
HARVEST
Work with other congregations within your diocese to increase participation and make every election a call for values-based voting on environment and justice.
Participate in programs that monitor and protect voter access to polls and ballots. Apply to be a poll worker in your community or less privileged towns.
Get involved in local government.
DIRECT ACTION
PREPARE
[PRAY] Hold an outdoor public prayer service that advocates for climate justice.
Attend a public event/action such as a rally or a protest.
Host a forum or a book discussion about the history and spiritual principles of nonviolent direct action.
GROW
Organize a local advocacy event that is part of a larger advocacy campaign led by GreenFaith, Creation Justice Ministries, or another faith-based group.
Receive training in non-violent civil disobedience.
PLANT
Participate in a day of prayerful advocacy organized by faith-based or climate justice groups.
Offer indirect support to a group planning non-violent civil disobedience.
Encourage clergy to sign the pledge and lay people to sign a supportive pledge at Clergy Climate Action.
HARVEST
Help organize an ecumenical or interfaith non-violent civil disobedience action that advocates for climate justice.
Have at least one member participate in an act of non-violent civil disobedience in a way that risks arrest.
Offer direct support to a group planning non-violent civil disobedience.
PRIVATE
SECTOR ADVOCACY
PREPARE
Learn about what local businesses and organizations are doing (or not doing) to develop a sustainable business model and a just and equitable relationship with employees and the community.
Share what local businesses and institutions are doing to green their operations and who are the decision makers for these actions (or inactions).
GROW
Participate in a local campaign to push businesses and institutions to make changes to improve sustainability.
Participate in a national campaign to stop the expansion of fossil fuel extraction and/or encourage financial institutions to defund carbon-intensive industries.
PLANT
Engage organizations in conversation at a local level to encourage voluntary change.
HARVEST
Take leadership in a local campaign to encourage businesses or institutions to improve sustainability or defund carbon-intensive industries.
Take an active role in a national campaign to stop the expansion of fossil fuel extraction and/or encourage financial institutions to defund carbon-intensive industries.
PUBLIC
SECTOR
ADVOCACY
PREPARE
Learn about your local and state government.
Identify environmental issues or bills that resonate with your congregation or local community.
Build a system to collect and share information being sent through newsletters.
GROW
Join with others to actively advocate for the passage of a law or regulation that addresses an issue of concern.
Join with others to actively advocate for the passage of a local ordinance or regulation that addresses an issue of concern. Share your concerns with elected officials.
Identify national environmental legislation and work with others to develop an advocacy campaign to call upon elected officials to support environmental justice. Share your concerns with elected officials.
PLANT
Build relationships with local and/or state government officials.
Form a group of parishioners who want to increase their political advocacy, find opportunities to work together, and share with others in the parish.
Recruit parishioners to attend open meetings held by elected officials. Report back to the group/congregation.
HARVEST
Build a coalition of partners to work together on local issues of concern and work with elected and appointed officials.
Establish a “Climate Advocates” group to mobilize the congregation for rapid response to emerging issues or legislation.
Organize a group beyond the parish to meet regularly with one or more elected state officials to present issues of concern and build relationships.