Bishop Eugene Sutton of Maryland has joined with seven other religious leaders in his state to call on Episcopal clergy to preach about climate change on the weekend of September 25-27.
I’m sometimes asked why many in the Diocese have been so outspoken on climate and energy issues. I speak out because I believe I am called, as all people of faith are called, to protect “this fragile earth, our island home,” as we pray in The Book of Common Prayer.
For too long, we have been getting our state’s energy from sources that make our neighbors sick and disrupt our climate. We can do better for the sake of our children and their futures as well as for our responsibility to “tend the garden” as we read in Genesis. I truly believe what our diocesan ministry, Maryland Episcopal Environmental Partners (MEEP), says on our website, “…caring for the environment is core to our spiritual vocation.”
I’m proud of the work parishioners in our diocese have done to save energy and support clean energy for their facilities and in their homes. It was impressive to see so many Episcopalians in Annapolis advocating for cleaner energy. Dozens of Episcopal priests were among more than 230 Maryland religious leaders who joined me in speaking out for stronger clean energy legislation in Maryland last year.
As my friend Bishop Wolfgang Herz-Lane of the Delaware-Maryland Synod of the ELCA wrote in the Baltimore Sun last month, “With God’s help, we can turn the stumbling blocks of environmental degradation to the stepping stones of a world where Creation and our neighbors thrive.”
Many thanks to the Episcopal churches already planning to participate in “Climate in the Pulpits” and a warm invitation to those of you in Maryland to consider doing so. Sign up here.