After a brief hiatus due to holiday travel and ordination exams, the weekly Episcopal Climate News column is back! Feel free to copy and paste this green-living tip and theological quote for your parish newsletter or bulletin, editing or shortening as your space requires. Share this week’s column on Facebook.
Living on God’s Earth
By Episcopal Climate News, facebook.com/EpiscopalClimateNews
This week’s earth-friendly living tip: Ask Congress to end the environmentally devastating government shutdown
The partial government shutdown is now the longest in U.S. history. Among the many harmful results of this shutdown is an untold amount of damage to creation: Our beloved national parks are being trashed, faithful career staffers at the EPA and other agencies are unable to do their jobs, and federally funded scientific research has been stalled.
According to The Episcopal Public Policy Network (EPPN), an official program of the Episcopal Church, “Shutting down our government is a failure of leadership and recognition of the responsibility that comes with being an elected official. The government shutdown has far-reaching implications for our country as it impacts the livelihoods of federal employees and their families; as well as of those relying on federal support for food, housing, medical services, and more.”
EPPN asks all Episcopalians: “Please call your members of Congress to urge them to fund the government immediately, and ask for a way forward on immigration policy.” The central Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121. If this number is not working, you can look up your senators’ numbers directly on their office websites.
Episcopal Climate News quote of the week: The Rev. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas
“Baptized into a love that extends through all Creation, a love that insists that life and not death will have the last word, we rise up as healers and justice-seekers, as prophets and activists, as people unafraid to confront the powers-that-be. That’s what the early Church was known for. Remember the complaints that were lodged against the first followers of Jesus? They were charged with “turning the world upside down” and “acting contrary to the decrees of the emperor, saying that there is another king named Jesus” (Acts 17:6-7).…What better time than now to take hold of the prophetic power of our baptism, and to confront the forces that are unraveling life on Earth?”
– From a January 13 sermon, “Baptism into the Community of Creation,” by the Rev. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas. Rev. Margaret, an Episcopal priest, serves as Missioner for Creation Care in both the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ.
Episcopal Climate News 
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