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Activists take part in a pro-climate demonstration march in Lausanne, Switzerland on September 27, 2019. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
In the year 2050, when today’s 3-year-olds will be 30-year-olds, climate scientists expect the height of the slowly unfolding climate disaster to have arrived. The specifics vary slightly, but most experts warn that some regions will face extreme drought while others are entirely flooded with sea level rise. Dangerous heat and humidity — as some regions of the U.S. have faced this summer — combined with poor air quality will make it dangerous to be outside for a growing portion of the year in many places.
Kevin Hargaden, theologian, and Ciara Murphy, environmental biologist, authors of The Parish as Oasis: An Introduction to Practical Environmental Care are seen in the polytunnel in the garden behind Gardiner Street Parish in Dublin. Their book is a resource for parishes responding to Irish bishops's request that parishes conserve 30 percent of their property for pollinators and biodiversity. (Courtesy of Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice)
With 1,365 parishes that include 2,646 churches across 26 dioceses on the island of Ireland, the initiative has the potential to make a difference to local biodiversity as well as create awareness of global conservation efforts, particularly the agreement of countries at the 2022 United Nations conference on biological diversity (COP15) to return 30 percent of land to nature. It also strives to increase awareness of church teaching on ecology and highlight the role of people of faith in protecting creation.
St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Davis, Calif., became carbon neutral in 2021. The church has made efforts to remove grass and plant native, low-water plant species across its 2.6-acre campus. Photo: Lynette Wilson/Episcopal News Service
Then, when the heat went out, so did the reluctance to put an end to the parish’s dependence on fossil fuels. The parish installed an all-electric heat pump system, replaced functioning gas-powered appliances with electric versions and installed a third solar array. By 2021, St. Martin’s had become carbon neutral and was certified by Interfaith Power & Light as a “cool congregation.”
Sam Joeckel, an English professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Florida, is seen at his North Palm Beach home on Feb. 21, 2023. Joeckel’s contract with the Christian university has been terminated early after a parent complained about a racial justice unit he taught in one of his courses. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel/TNS via Alamy)
Professor Sam Joeckel’s 21-year tenure at Palm Beach Atlantic University ended after a single complaint from a parent who stated that Joeckel was indoctrinating his students. What started out as a typical day in February soon became a nightmare for Joeckel as the dean and provost of the university waited for him outside his classroom to inform him his teaching contract wouldn’t be renewed.
A photo of protesters in the Netherlands. Courtesy The Nuclear Report.
Dutch military police arrested 25 people nonviolently protesting against nuclear weapons and carbon dioxide emissions at Volkel Air Base about 80 miles south of Amsterdam on Aug. 8 and 9, according to Dutch News and Nukewatch.
Tennessee Democratic state representatives Justin Pearson and Justin Jones, who faced expulsion over their participation in gun control protests, and Gloria Johnson, who retained her seat, speak to members of the media following their meeting with President Joe Biden (D) at the White House in Washington, D.C., April 24, 2023. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Justin Pearson ran against Jeff Johnston, and Justin Jones ran against Laura Nelson. According to The Tennesseean, Jones won nearly 80 percent of the vote in Nashville, and Pearson won more than 90 percent in Memphis.
People gather at a makeshift memorial a block from the scene of last Saturday's shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue, in Pittsburgh, Penn., Nov. 3, 2018. REUTERS/Alan Freed
A federal jury on Wednesday voted to sentence Robert Bowers to death for killing 11 worshippers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, the New York Times reported.
Pope Francis accompanied by Portugal's President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa (R) at the end of a meeting at Belem Palace in Lisbon, Portugal, Aug., 2, 2023. The Pontiff will be in Portugal on the occasion of World Youth Day (WYD), one of the main events of the Church that gathers the Pope with youngsters from around the world, that takes place until Aug. 6. ANDRE KOSTERS/Pool via REUTERS
Pope Francis promised on Wednesday to continue to “stir things up” in the church as he arrived in Portugal to preside at a mass gathering of young Catholics aimed at energizing a new generation of believers.
A young boy reads a Bible. Samantha Sophia via Unsplash.
Joshua was one of the star students in his Sunday school class at a Black Baptist church he and his family attended; his teacher raved about Joshua’s helpfulness and engagement. But when it came to preschool, Joshua’s parents were perplexed.
“Every day the preschool teacher has something negative to say about [him,]” Joshua’s father later told researchers.
An LED lightbulb on a pink background. Michał Turkiewicz via Unsplash.
Around 2017, Hamline Church United Methodist, in St. Paul, Minn. contracted an energy audit for its nearly 100-year-old building in the hopes of learning how their building might save energy and reduce emissions. Diane Krueger, a lay leader of the church’s “EarthKeepers” team, said contractors recommended the church insulate their heating pipes and change many of their lightbulbs to LEDs.
Protests at the Supreme Court of the United States on the day Roe v. Wade was overturned. June 24, 2022. Ted Eytan / Flickr.
For the 49 years that Roe v. Wade protected legal abortion across the country, religious groups, including Catholic bishops and conservative evangelicals, became some of its loudest and best-known opponents. And when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, many Christians claimed it as both a political and spiritual victory.
Sinead O’Connor, 1989 Grammy Awards, via MPTV through Reuters.
Known as much for her outspoken views on religion, sex, feminism, and war as for her music, she will be remembered in some quarters for ripping up a photo of Pope John Paul II during a 1992 television appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” declaring: “Fight the real enemy.”
Original photo of Derek Webb courtesy Webb. Graphic by Tiarra Lucas/Sojourners
Musician Derek Webb, who started out with the band Caedmon’s Call in the 1990s, has “spent a career gnawing on the hand that feeds me in the evangelical Christian world,” he told Sojourners. From his time in Caedmon’s Call to his work as a solo artist for the past 20 years, Webb has outlined a winding and vulnerable journey of doubt, love, grief, and freedom. Most recently, Webb has been reckoning with his evangelical past, writing what he calls his “first Christian and Gospel album in a decade.”
Children raise their arms during a church service. Erika Giraud/Unspalsh
In May, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy declared social isolation to be a U.S. public health crisis for its link to depression in youth and increased risks for many health conditions in older Americans.
Little Engineers Day Nusery at The Engine Room, community centre and and church at the heart of the new housing development in the Hale Village, Tottenham Hale, North London, U.K., 2017. Via Alamy.
As congregations age and shrink across the U.S., churches find their sizable buildings often become underutilized. The solution might be found in addressing the child care crisis.
Delegates attend the Church of England General Synod meeting in London, Britain, Feb. 9, 2023. REUTERS/Toby Melville
The Church of England will work towards drafting new pastoral guidance and other material needed to allow same-sex couples to receive blessings from priests over the next few months, it said on Saturday.
In the last century, Southern California has warmed by three degrees. The region is increasingly vulnerable to water scarcity, wildfires and coastal erosion. Small changes like those on St. Mary’s campus are an integral part of the wider Episcopal Church’s response to climate change. Photo: Courtesy of St. Mary’s
Over the past two years, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, which sits on a hill four blocks away from the Pacific Ocean in Laguna Beach, Calif., has overhauled its property, adding drought-resistant native plants to its gardens and installing a drip irrigation system to avoid water runoff.
Web designer Lorie Smith, plaintiff in a Supreme Court case who objects to same-sex marriage, poses for a portrait at her office in Littleton, Co., Nov. 28, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt
In a blow to LGBTQ+ rights, the Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the constitutional right to free speech allows certain businesses to refuse to provide services for same-sex weddings, ruling in favor of a web designer who cited her Christian beliefs in challenging a Colorado anti-discrimination law.
Students attend the 367th Commencement Exercises at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., May 24, 2018. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down race-conscious student admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina in a sharp setback to affirmative action policies often used to increase the number of Black, Hispanic, and other underrepresented minority groups on campuses.
An aerial view of Ascension of Our Lord Orthodox Church in Karluk, Alaska, on Kodiak Island. (Courtesy photo)
In the United States, many church congregations face tough decisions about their future—and, to an extent, the future of the planet. Demographic changes over decades have led to many congregations becoming older and smaller than they once were. In many cases, that can leave a handful of people taking care of a large, older building in need of often expensive upkeep and repairs.