2022-23 FAITH STATEMENT

INSPIRING HOPEFUL CLIMATE ACTION

As people of faith and conscience, we are called to care for and live in harmony with the natural world. Human-caused changes to our climate contradict this calling, and we resolve to take hopeful action. The path to climate justice requires intentional conversation, building a responsive community, and showing compassionate love to ourselves and our communities in Iowa and beyond. 

Intentional Conversation

Intentional conversation creates opportunities to learn from new perspectives, encourages resilience and instills hope, showing that we are not alone in our work. These interactions can also help Iowans make informed decisions to improve their individual and community climate impact.

Hope and determination are the building blocks of climate justice. As climate leaders and global citizens, we welcome people of diverse backgrounds into the discussion so that climate action is a bipartisan, interfaith and cross-generational effort.

Responsive Community

We must empower and unite the diverse communities we are part of. Together, we must inspire and hold responsible those in power and those causing large-scale harm. Following Indigenous leadership and learning the history of the land we live on provides crucial guidance for climate action. Indigenous groups such as Great Plains Action Society here in Iowa campaign to end mining, halt the installation of oil and carbon capture and storage pipelines, return stolen land, and more.

Learning, voting, and advocating against harmful systems and entities that prioritize profit over ecological well-being is everyone’s responsibility. We can also embody our commitment on a daily level through individual actions like recycling, growing a garden, and reducing travel. Through these practices, we imagine and build a better world.

Move Forward

We move forward with proactive hope and a sense of growing abundance and deeper connections between the earth, ourselves, and each other. Our faiths are the foundation of the call to care for our world. Intentional conversation helps us build a community pursuing environmental justice as an expression of our faiths. Lasting change can come when we lean on and lift up our partners in climate justice. 

Just as climate change is an obstacle we all face, protecting our climate is a gift that we can all participate in. Building a diverse community that engages with hope for the future makes us more resilient and capable to address the wide reaching effects of climate change. We welcome you to share your passions and connect with a community of humans working toward a brighter future.