Faith congregations will meet this Sunday in Eugene at the United Methodist church to address the issue of global warming during the “Cool Congregations: People of Faith Caring for God’s Climate” conference.
Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon designed the session, which is the last of four regional meetings designed to mobilize church members in Lane County to reduce their use of fossil-fueled energy.
“(It’s) getting down and doing something about it at home,” said Rev. John Pitney, of the United Methodist Church.
He said while the conference deals with teaching people about energy issues, it’s also focusing on how to get people to mobilize.
“It is a stretch for a lot of people in our faith community to see a response (to other things) outside of church walls on a Sunday morning,” he said.
Churches, which are part of the Ecumenical Ministries, view the global warming effort as a faith ministry and relate it to their religious beliefs that it is important to care for the earth, Pitney said.
“Our bottom line has always been that creation is God’s,” he said. “Earth belongs to God, we are just strangers and guests here.”
The Oregon campaign is one of 18 in the nation that is trying to bring together a wide spectrum of groups to work on global warming. Jenny Holmes, the environmental program director for Oregon’s Ecumenical Ministry, said the diverse religious congregations involved will help the group’s main focus.
“What it comes down to is (global warming) that it will affect the poor of the world more than those who are better-off,” she said.
Part of this weekend’s conference presents workshops on ways to reduce energy use at the household level. One of the workshops will focus on the use of fluorescent bulbs.
“It helps to show some people how to use them and how to figure out what bulbs will fit in different types of lamps and sockets,” she said.
Besides the hands-on workshops during “Cool Congregations”, participants will hear about the science of global warming from state energy analyst Christopher Dymond.
Dymond said global warming is a broad term used to describe changes occurring in our atmosphere that began showing up 15 to 20 years ago.
“It has a time delay and takes a while for something to show up,” he said. “It’s trapping heat that is thickening our earth’s atmosphere.”
Dymond will co-present the main session with his father, Dr. Jack Dymond, Professor Emeritus of Oceanography at Oregon State University.
“Since most of our climate is ocean-driven, my father will present data on where the current research is at on climate science,” he said. “Since I work with solar energy, I’ll show examples of what the rest of the world is doing.”
Individuals can also attend Sunday’s conference, which will be held at the First United Methodist Church at 1376 Olive Street from 12:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. There is a $10 fee.
Sue Ryan is a community reporter for the Oregon Daily Emerald. She can be reached at </> [email protected]