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. Matthew Anderson-Stembridge, Executive Director
National Religious Partnership for the Environment
110 Maryland Avenue, NE – Suite 108
Washington, DC 20002
Phone: (202) 481-6685
Fax: (202) 543-1297
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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 information will serve as a guide to the topics covered here.

• Mission
• Introductions to The Partnership Groups:
  • The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life
  • The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
  • The National Council of Churches -- U.S.A.
  • The Evangelical Environmental Network
• What the Partnership Does
• History of the Partnership
• Partnership Accomplishments
• The Partnership’s Board of Trustees

• The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life:
  • General Environmental Statements
  • Service projects and public policy advocacy related to ecology and environmental justice
  • Incorporating environmental concerns into congregational worship and religious holidays and buildings, grounds, and operations
  • Religious environmental education and scholarship
• The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops:
  • General Environmental Statements
  • Service projects and public policy advocacy related to ecology and environmental justice
  • Incorporating environmental concerns into congregational worship and religious holidays and buildings, grounds, and operations
  • Religious environmental education and scholarship
  • Member of the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change, a coalition of national Catholic organizations addressing climate change and its impacts on the most poor and vulnerable
  • Partner and supporter of the Catholic Climate Covenant: The St. Francis Pledge to Care for Creation and the Poor, an initiative of the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change by which individuals, families, schools, parishes, and arch/dioceses commit to Pray, Learn, Assess, Act, and Advocate on the issue of climate change in light of Catholic teaching and tradition

• The National Council of Churches of Christ -- U.S.A.:
  • General Environmental Statements
  • Service projects and public policy advocacy related to ecology and environmental justice
  • Incorporating environmental concerns into congregational worship and religious holidays and buildings, grounds, and operations
  • Religious environmental education and scholarship
• The Evangelical Environmental Network:
  • General Environmental Statements
  • Service projects and public policy advocacy related to ecology and environmental justice
  • Incorporating environmental concerns into congregational worship and religious holidays and buildings, grounds, and operations
  • Religious environmental education and scholarship
• Ecumenical and Interfaith Efforts

Examples of Activities and Programs in Congregations

• Descriptions of a variety of ways that congregations and other religious organizations have responded to environmental issues are available on this site.

Religious perspectives on environmental issues

• This site provides examples of religious responses (activities as well as statements) to the following areas of environmental concern:
  • Food and agriculture
  • Energy
  • Consumption and economics
  • Urban environments
  • Environmental health
  • Environmental justice
  • Land, forests and wilderness
  • Water and oceans
  • Climate and air
  • Animals and plants