The Founding of the Partnership: 1990-1993

Establishment of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment

On the evening of May 12th, 1992, senior representatives of faith groups who had been participants in deliberations over the past two years met to discuss further initiatives and an appropriate vehicle with which to move forward. The group offered the following resolutions:

• Major faith groups and organizations will accelerate programs of theologically sound, biblically grounded initiative as an expression of faithful stewardship of God's creation.
• Efforts will be undertaken within denominationally-based or affiliated bodies and not in formal partnership with the scientific community. The Joint Appeal will be dissolved, although conversations with scientists would continue informally.
• These initiatives will be undertaken in an interreligious affiliation but with each participating body responsible for its own programs and staffing. A National Religious Partnership for the Environment will be established with four founding, independent governing bodies.

• A board of trustees will be chosen to exemplify breadth of interreligious engagement. An executive committee will be drawn from senior staff of the member groups to oversee execution of program and governance. A secretariat, reporting to the executive committee, will provide support to and among the four partners.
• Over the next year, participating faith groups and organizations will develop three-year plans to be enacted individually and through the rubric of the Partnership.

Bishop Browning, Rabbi Schindler, Dr. Hestenes, and Bishop Malone were chosen to serve as an interim steering committee during this period of program planning.

Signatories of these resolutions included:

• Bishop James W. Malone, Chair, Domestic Policy Committee, United States Catholic Conference, and Bishop of Youngstown
• Mr. John Carr, Secretary, Department of Social Development and World Peace, United States Catholic Conference
• Dr. Ronald Sider, Professor of Theology & Society, Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Director, Evangelicals for Social Action