More & More Solar Panels

From an Article by Pilita Clark, The Financial Times, September 1, 2016

Wind and solar farms have always had faithful adherents in the environmental movement but now more than 3,500 churches have turned their back on fossil fuels to embrace renewable energy.

Churches from a range of denominations have either made such a switch or registered their interest in doing so, but Roman Catholics have proved especially keen, according to figures from religious charities released on Thursday.

Nearly 2,000 Roman Catholic parishes have forsaken conventional energy in favour of green electricity in 16 dioceses, the charities said. Some made the decision after Pope Francis issued an encyclical last year urging the world to cut its dependence on fossil fuels.

“Pope Francis challenges us all to ‘care for our common home’, and by adopting renewable energy we will directly help people threatened, and already most severely affected, by climate change,” said John Arnold, Bishop of Salford, one of the 16 dioceses to have switched.

“There are many ways in which we may respond to the threat and the reality of climate change and adopting renewable energy for our church buildings must be a priority.”

In some cases, churches had banded together to use their collective buying power to secure green energy tariffs from companies that bought or produced at least 80 per cent of their electricity from renewable sources, said Tim Gee, campaigns leader at Christian Aid.

A number had saved money but in certain instances this was because the churches had not switched suppliers in a long time, he said.

“The very cheapest electricity supplier is still fossil fuels,” he said, but the churches had still been able to obtain the cheapest available renewable energy tariffs.

The overriding reason for acting, he added, was to send a message to governments and investors that there needed to be a shift away from fossil fuels if the world were to avoid dangerous levels of climate change.

“There really is a wave of enthusiasm for it,” Mr Gee said. “It’s relatively recent and it’s really sped up in the last year.” Some synagogues and mosques had also made the shift, he said.

Some of the companies benefiting from the churches’ shift are smaller green energy groups such as Ecotricity and Good Energy rather than the larger “big six” suppliers.

At least 100 Quaker meeting houses have switched to renewables by dealing directly with seven-year-old Good Energy.

The move is part of a wider trend, according to the Energy UK trade association, which represents the big six companies as well as smaller groups. “There is a real and increasing demand in the market for an energy supply contract which is based on more renewable sources,” a spokesman said.

Christian Aid and the other charities that have collected data on churches are switching to green energy have not yet calculated the financial impact of their move on more established energy companies. “It’s certainly millions that have been shifted,” said Mr Gee.

More than 900 Salvation Army buildings have switched to renewable energy suppliers, according to the charities’ data.

Nearly 700 churches from several denominations have individually signed up for green power tariffs through the Big Church Switch website, which offers a simple way for churches to shift to green tariffs.

Nicholas Holtam, the Bishop of Salisbury and the Church of England’s lead bishop on the environment, said the churches’ move was a response to a complex environmental crisis.

“It is important that Christians rediscover older traditions of a godly relationship of humanity to the wider created order,” he said. “One simple thing we can do in response to such a crisis is to switch to using clean energy in our homes, communities, schools and places of worship.”

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​Churches put their faith in renewable energy

From an Article by Gemma Childe,  The Acre News, April 7, 2016

 The Big Church Switch, facilitated by Christian Aid and Tearfund, is inviting hundreds of thousands of worshippers to switch energy suppliers and urging their churches to follow suit.

It aims to offer Christians who are concerned about climate change a practical way to support clean energy. The project will pool the buying power of thousands of individuals to leverage green deals with energy providers. A new website www.bigchurchswitch.org.uk provides information for those considering making the switch, to make it as easy as possible.

The Bishop of Salisbury, the Rt Rev Nicholas Holtam, who leads on environmental issues for the Church of England, said, “The Big Church Switch is a simple, practical, good idea. It supports the move to renewable energy. If Lent is about renewing our lives in response to the love of God here is a way to follow. You can do it, and so will I.”

Ben Niblett, Tearfund senior campaigner added: “Switching is a great way for Christians to love our neighbours and show the government we want more action on climate change, like investment in clean, renewable energy.

“Christians care about our neighbours in the UK and around the world being hit by climate change – we’re seeing more floods, more droughts, and more people going hungry – so we think this will strike a chord.”

See also:  www.FrackCheckWV.net

Stewardship of the Earth is hardly a new concept in Christian thought – it’s mentioned in Genesis – but a growing number of religious leaders are getting out of the pew, marching on the picket line, and becoming specific-issue activists.

“We’ve seen a transition occur over the last 10 years, particularly in the American evangelical movement,” said Joseph Grieboski, founder and chairman of the Institute on Religion and Public Policy. “We’ve seen entire denominations take positions on things like fracking. As energy becomes a more important priority the religious community is going to feel a greater demand to be engaged in the public discourse about it.”

Some religious denominations, such as the United Church of Christ (UCC), have taken direct aim at fracking, the natural gas extraction technique used extensively in the  Marcellus  Shale and other fuel reserves across the nation. Last week, a group of about 75 protesters gathered at the Smithfield UCC in downtown Pittsburgh (shown in picture above) before picketing a nearby natural gas industry conference.

The church didn’t organize the event but allowed its halls to be used by Marcellus Protest, western Pennsylvania’s leading anti-drilling group. The UCC doesn’t give specific marching orders to its members, but encourages them to get involved in local environmental causes, said the Rev. Jim Deming, UCC’s minister for environmental justice. “We ask people to examine their own lifestyles, how much [fossil fuel] they use, and where it comes from,” Mr. Deming said. “We speak to our churches, not for them. Our congregations can choose what they say. But every decision has a moral component to it. It’s all about making choices.”

The Christian-green movement has at its core the “Evangelical Climate Initiative,” a 2006 document that has now been signed by more than 200 prominent pastors and other religious leaders. It asserts that “human-induced climate change is real,” and calls on evangelicals to use more renewable energy and buy hybrid vehicles.

 The Interfaith Global Climate Change Campaign was active in West Virginia starting about 1998 and continuing thru 2010 to some degree.  “Since our training event in December, 1999, we have had good success in getting congregations to do a Bible study on the issue and to become ‘energy stewardship congregations,’” said Marcia Leitch, a Presbyterian educator writing about ten years ago, who coordinated the West Virginia Interfaith Global Warming Campaign. This group continued activities for a number of years, meeting with churches and with government officials.  A sustainable energy charter was drafted in 2004, a portion of which follows :

 West Virginia Sustainable Energy Charter

  (Two of eight principles presented here.)

Because we have a responsibility towards all of God’s family and creation, therefore we affirm: (1. ) There is scientific consensus that global warming is already affecting weather and climate. Furthermore, this warming is, in significant part, caused by human activity. By far the largest cause is burning of fossil fuels. This destructive manipulation of the environment is unprecedented in human history. ( 2.) Impacts will become much worse over time. These include more frequent and severe weather events, heating and drought, wild land fires, reduction of agricultural productivity, immense ecological destruction, massive species extinctions, and serious and spreading human health problems.