Photo credit: Olivia Hobson, Cascadia Daily News The First Congregational Church of Bellingham hosted a Climate Revival event Nov. 5, bringing religious leaders, city employees and faith-based organizations together to talk about climate change and environmental justice.
The Bellingham Multifaith Network for Climate Justice (MNCJ)'s Sacred Earth Fair on July 31 was a wonderful time for building community and resilience in the midst of the climate crisis. Click to see pictures from the fair!
"For the believer as well as the nonbeliever, the plagues of heat waves, droughts, wildfires, floods and storms — extreme weather events brought about by climate change — are bedeviling the environment and the lives of people all over the world. The crisis is forcing communities to question their relationships to nature and the world around them. As environmental consciousness grows, members of faith communities are among those seeking to engage with the reality of the climate crisis."
"The Multi-faith Network for Climate Justice is a group of Bellingham residents from faith and wisdom communities that gather monthly to discuss climate change and justice. Gross said the group fills participants’ unmet craving to explore the intersection between their faith and human-caused climate change, which is bringing more frequent, severe extreme weather and disrupting ecosystems around the world. 'People came because their own faiths weren’t talking about it, and they wanted to,' Gross said."
The Earthkeepers Podcast recently interviewed three members of the Multifaith Network for Climate Justice (MNCJ), Earth Ministry/WAIPL's affiliate in Bellingham: Deb Cruz from the Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship, Steve Hansen, a Buddhist from the Insight Meditation Society, and Andrea Shupack from Congregation Beth Israel.
On December 6, 2021 the MNCJ (an affiliate of Earth Ministry/WAIPL) Leadership Team approved the signing of a letter from the Electrify Bellingham Coalition that encouraged the city council to pass polices requiring new building electrification policies. The leadership Team finds the letter to be consistent with, and supportive of, the MNCJ’s mission, vision and guiding values.
In the fall of 2021, The Multifaith Network for Climate Justice (MNCJ), an Earth Ministry/WAIPL affiliate, initiated a community Net of Interconnection project. The inspiration for this project is rooted in the mythic story of Indra’s Net. MNCJ’s Net of Interconnection was created with the intention that it would “travel” throughout Whatcom County faith and wisdom communities as well as houses of worship to display, and additions to the Net would be made along the way.
