Addressing Climate Change with Your Congregation
Saint Mary Magdalene Congregation Climate Change Group
Introduction
In the catechism in the Book of Common Prayer it asks:
Q: What does it mean to be created in the image of God?
A: It means that we are free to make choices: to love, to create, to reason,
and to live in harmony with creation and with God.
As human beings, created in the image of God, part of our vocation
is to 'live in harmony with creation'; and perhaps the greatest challenge facing
us in this area is the reality of climate change. What is happening with our
planet? How might we be contributing not to its harmony, but its discordance?
And what can we do, individually and collectively, to respond in a faithful way?
The first step is to find out what is happening. Since Boulder, CO,
is home to 3 of the top 5 institutions in the world that study climate change,
there is local scientific expertise on the subject, several of whom are in our
congregation. This CD includes a suite of five presentations developed from an
Adult Forum sequence held at Saint Mary Magdalene in January – March, 2007.
Presentations include:
Climate Change Realities – a power point presentation that shares scientific understanding about climate change – what has already been observed, and what scientific models tell us will happen in the future. This presentation was developed by Dr. Timothy Killeen, Director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado and the President of the American Geophysical Union.
The World as 20 People – an activity for use in an Adult Forum or Youth Group setting, that visually demonstrates the distribution of population, resources, and emissions in different regions around the world, and explores the responses to climate change in the context of our faith. This activity was developed by Dr. Roberta Johnson (Killeen), Director of Education and Outreach at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and Executive Director of the National Earth Science Teachers Association.
God and Global Warming – a power point presentation that explores our responsibility to be good
stewards of the things entrusted to our care, in the context of Christianity.
What is our theology of stewardship in a world that will eventually run out of
fossil fuels? What about the exploration of alternative sources of energy, what
about conserving and using less of the energy we have? What about living more
simply to enable a better quality of life for others? This presentation was
developed by Lyle Smith Graybeal.
Personal Actions – a power point that presents practical steps that we
can take individually and collectively to reduce our personal and family carbon
footprint. This presentation was developed by Lois Adamson of our
congregation.
How to reduce your community facilities carbon
foot print - St Mary Magdalene's
vestry has made it a goal to have our congregation become energy neutral--that
is, providing as much energy as we use. David Petroy, an expert in alternative
energy solutions, has developed this power point to share some of the lessons we
have learned for our church, and provides suggestions for your facilities.
Our Adult Forum sequence on climate change was well received by our
congregation, and we hope that you may find these resources useful as well. If
you would like additional information about the program we offered, or about the
presentations themselves, please be in touch with Mike Houlik via e-mail at
Mike.Houlik StMaryMagdalene.org or
303-530-1421.
A PDF version is provided if you either do not wish to download the viewer or
prefer a PDF. Any animation in the presentations will be missing in the PDF
versions.
CD Contents include:
· Climate_Change_Realities.ppt PDF Version
· The World as 20 People Activity:
o The World as 20 People Activity Guide.doc PDF Version
o World as 20 People Participants.doc PDF Version
o Regional Distribution Data Table.doc PDF Version
o World20People.ppt PDF Version
· god_and_global_warming.ppt PDF Version
· SMM Climate Personal Actions.ppt PDF Version
· SMM_Community_Climate_Footprint.ppt PDF Version
· ortho_long.mpg – an mpeg movie that shows NCAR Global Circulation Model predictions for temperature into the next century
· seaiceper_ice_total.mpg – an mpeg movie that shows the decline of sea ice in the Arctic predicted by the NCAR model for coming decades
· ppviewer.exe – PowerPoint Viewer, which will allow you to view the .ppt files above if you do not have PowerPoint on your computer.
