After ten faithful years as chair of the Commission for the Environment (COE), the Rev. Sally Bingham, with a boost from co-chair Barbara Bisel of St Stephen’s, Orinda, is reinvigorating the COE. The COE works to address the intersection of environmental concerns and Biblical stewardship. As the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori put it during her testimony before the Senate on June 7, 2007, “The crisis of climate change presents an unprecedented challenge to the goodness, interconnectedness, and sanctity of the world God created and loves. … [The] acknowledgment of global warming, and the Church’s commitment to ameliorating it, is a part of the ongoing discovery of God’s revelation to humanity and a call to a fuller understanding of the scriptural imperative of loving our neighbor.”

 

The Rt. Rev. Marc Andrus has asked every parish in the Diocese of California to nominate one person to serve as parish liaison to the COE (formerly called Creation Care Representative). So far 40 parishes have responded. COE parish liaisons will act as contact persons through whom the COE will distribute resources for “greening up” buildings, sermons, and parish education programs.

Some liaisons have already been inspired to take the initiative to organize Creation Care groups in their home parish, such as the one at St. Stephen’s, Orinda. The COE is also putting together regional meetings for liaisons, beginning this fall, and will sponsor a series of events in the coming months. To help with rolling out its summer and fall 2007 projects, the COE has hired Josh “Griff” Griffin, a seminarian from Harvard Divinity School.

The COE encourages all parishes in the diocese to join California Interfaith Power and Light, a consortium of over 460 religious communities in California that have organized to fight climate change. To get started, the COE recommends New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s new film, “Green: The New Red, White, and Blue,” offered free for congregational viewing by the Regeneration Project.

If you have questions, ideas, or comments, or if your parish has not yet identified a COE liaison please contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or 415.869.7806.