When national religious leaders issue an open letter to Congress on a controversial environmental issue or a religious organization launches an ingenious campaign like “What Would Jesus Drive?” it is important to know the wider context of those events. They are neither as unprecedented nor as isolated from the mainstream of religious life and faith as they may sometimes appear -- though they are no less newsworthy on that account.

For such events are indicators of a broader and deeper awakening of the religious community to the fact that concern for the environment is part of what it means to be religious in our time. This wider spiritual renewal is also signaled by countless other, but less high-profile, events, as congregations highlight creation care themes from the Bible into their worship and education or make changes to reduce the pollution caused by their landscaping and energy use, or as families celebrate seasonal holidays in environmentally aware and responsible ways.

Capturing the wider social significance of that awakening, and communicating it to the public, is as much a matter of paying attention to the changes in the everyday texture of religious life as it is of recording major news “events.”

Press Contact Information

Mr. Paul Gorman, Executive Director
National Religious Partnership for the Environment
49 South Pleasant Street – Suite 301
Amherst, MA 01002
413-253-1515 Phone
413-253-1414 Fax
nrpe@nrpe.org

The Partnership office can help you find contacts in all 50 states, and spokespersons from the Jewish, Catholic, mainline Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, and evangelical Protestant communities, including:

• Clergy and congregational leaders
• Denominational officials
• Scholars, theologians, and ethicists
• Public policy experts
• National agency representatives
• Environmentally active laypersons
• Scientists and educators

You can also find a wealth of reference and resource materials on this website. The following pages will serve as a guide to the topics covered here.