Worship and Global Warming

On Friday, February 2, 2007, theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Changeissued its latest report about the prognosis for global warming and the degree to which human activity has contributed to it over time. The findings of the report were stark and conclusive. Global warming is happening and will continue for several centuries, with global temperatures and sea levels rising every century and significant changes occurring in the distribution and type of precipitation across the planet. It is ninety percent likely that human activity has played a significant role in the extent of the changes that are to come. Starkest of all, even if CO2 emissions were to be reduced to the level they were in 2000 (which is substantially less than they were in 2005), the climate would continue to warm for centuries to come.

What we already knew from the United Nations Framework for Climate Change datais that the energy sector is by far the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions among developed countries. Although that overall sector has shown a very modest decline in emissions among developed countries between 1994 and 2005, within that sector both energy production and (especially) transportation have continued to show significant increases.

So what does all that have to do with worship in The United Methodist Church?

Given current realities, perhaps not as much as it might:

1. Few of our congregations pray for the earth and the creatures upon it.
   
2. We do not have a baptismal vow that speaks of our care for the earth.
   
3. We do not have an agency or structure in The United Methodist Church whose purpose is to help us as individuals and congregations live out our call to stewardship of the earth's resources.

The first of these we can all change — immediately! Add the earth and all God's creatures to your prayer list this Sunday, and keep them there!

The second will require General Conference action if it is to become an official part of our ritual. Meanwhile, you can teach that when we speak of "resisting evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves," we include resisting forces that lead to human destruction or disruption of the planet's ecosystem.

These two could be important steps. You can expect the General Board of Church and Societyto provide guidance as well.

Meanwhile, there are at least two further action areas we can start thinking about addressing today as worshipping communities. Given that energy production and transportation are the two areas that have continued to increase rather than decrease within the largest sector of greenhouse gas emissions, reducing the amount of greenhouse gas producing energy we use in the places where we worship and in getting to and from those places may be the most important ways to start.

Reducing Energy Consumption and Greenhouse Gases in the Sanctuary
For those of us who live in temperate zones, probably the largest use of energy by far is spent on heating and cooling the air in our sanctuaries. That cost may be magnified if we are heating and cooling that air all week long but actually using the worship space one or two days per week. Talk with you local utility company or a heating/cooling company about ways you can radically reduce your needs to heat and cool air in sections of the building that are not going to be used by anyone much of the time. And remember, heating and cooling in worship spaces is a relative novelty! Our ancestors in the faith worshipped in spaces that had no sources for doing either for many centuries.

But what about during worship itself? In addition to heating and cooling air, many of us also use energy in lighting, sound systems, musical instruments, projection systems, motorized screens and computers, to name a few. That doesn't count the energy used to run computers and office equipment during the week to produce worship bulletins and other "disposable" items for use in worship. Are there practices, even while using these technologies, that could lead to a net reduction in greenhouse gas emitting energy use for the worship gathering itself?

Talk to some environmental engineers as well. There may be some ways to increase the passive heating or cooling (temperature stabilization) of your worship space. If you have places where sunlight enters the worship space, you might consider installing brick or stone in areas where the sun shines more intensely and for the longest time. The brick or stone will heat slowly during the day and release its stored radiant energy over time during the colder hours of the night. Think about paint and fabric colors as well. Dark colors absorb light energy, while brighter colors reflect it.

And if you're in a climate that is conducive to it and it doesn't create allergy problems for your congregation, consider adding live plants to the worship space. The plants will use CO2 and release oxygen.

Reducing Energy Consumption and Greenhouse Gases on the Way to Worship
Within the energy sector, transportation (both automotive and commercial) continues to produce by far the highest increases in greenhouse gas emissions. Finding ways to reduce the amount of energy that individuals in your congregation use to get to worship or other church related activities may be an even more significant arena to explore and begin to take cooperative action.

Churches in the 1970s and 1980s that were using buses to transport many of their members to worship were on to something . Carpooling should be another tactic to explore seriously. Don't limit your carpool route to members of your own congregation. This can be a significant opportunity for ecumenical cooperation. And consider bicycles or walking — eliminating fuel emissions altogether!

If your community provides mass transit that is at all convenient for folks to use to get to worship, strongly encourage its use. And if your community has no mass transit system, or only limited services, consider how your congregation might partner with other congregations and community groups to advocate for mass transit, while also committing yourselves to use it whenever you can.

Consider how you can help your congregation become more savvy about alternative fuel sources for automobiles. Keep in mind that while reducing fossil fuel consumption help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, not all alternatives to fossil fuels will necessarily reduce these emissions.Some studiessuggest that the fossil fuels associated with converting corn to ethanol, for example, may exceed the energy output that ethanol could provide, while others find a modest improvement in net fossil fuel usage. To date, however, there are no studies that show that ethanol produces any less greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuels. And if you look at fuel efficiency ratings, so-called "flexible fuel vehicles" that can use either E85 or gasoline experience a twenty-five to thirty percentreduction in fuel economy when using E85. So even though less fossil fuel is used for the same trip, even more fuel has to be burned — which may lead to a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

Ask yourselves as individuals and a congregation whether it is reasonable or good stewardship to expect people to "commute" to your worship facilities from many miles away. And if you conclude it is not, start to develop creative alternatives. Perhaps you could become more local in more places (but remember — keep ALL energy and emissions costs in mind!). Or perhaps you might consider releasing members from your congregation to re-seed or even plant congregations in their local neighborhoods and communities.

Finally, don't forget shipping costs. Consider how the things you use for worship get to you. Are there ways you can reduce the number and frequency of physical items being shipped to your church? Are there ways you might be able to get more worship resources from local sources or online?

These are some suggestions for starting your congregation's conversation about how it can be a positive player in what will become a global project to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As one of the presenters at the IPCC press conference in Paris noted, it is quite possible for individuals or groups to decide to reduce their contributions to greenhouse gas emissions and for those decisions, added up, to make a larger positive impact globally than might have been anticipated, without requiring anyone to become ascetical.

We'll hear more from IPCC in April and May as the other two working groups (impacts/adaptation and mitigation) report in and a final summary report is issued in November for global deliberation and action. But with the science document alone, we have a solid foundation upon which to begin now to talk about our possible responses as Christian individuals and as congregations… and even as denominations or ecumenical cooperatives.

Let the conversations begin!