Leadership Training

The Partnership has convened briefings and trainings for thousands of clergy and lay people. In so doing, it generated not only leadership for new religious programs but fresh allies for environmental initiatives outside the faith community.

• Partnership leaders have enlisted support for programs in meetings of all Catholic bishops and state Catholic conference executives; senior officials of 34 mainline Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, and Black church communions; officers of 26 national Jewish agencies.
• In close to one hundred regional trainings, faith groups have prepared over 5,000 clergy and lay people to lead congregational projects and to undertake collaborations with representatives of other sectors in society.
• Jewish environmental educators and rabbis participated in a Jewish Environmental Sea Kayak Expedition in Alaska.
• The National Council of Churches has offered training and support to emerging practitioners engaged in faith-based environmental work through its Faith and Eco-Justice Fellowship program.
• The Jewish Global Environmental Network develops partnerships and projects through which Jewish environmental leaders in Israel and around the world can work together toward a sustainable future for Israel.

The Partnership has undertaken local and national public policy initiatives. In so doing, it has sought to present moral principles, beyond political partisanship, to help guide action for the common good.

• Interfaith Global Climate Change Campaigns have been established in 20 states, and an Interfaith Climate Change Network has recruited 25,000 individuals as advocates for national climate policy.
• The U.S. Catholic bishops have published a pastoral statement entitled "Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence, and the Common Good."
• 40 senior religious leaders have recently composed "Let There Be Light," a religious reflection on energy policy.
• Evangelical Christians were widely credited for having helped prevent rollback of the Endangered Species Act.
• The Jewish community has enacted a two-year campaign to prevent deforestation.
• A delegation of Christian and Jewish leaders met with officials from Ford, General Motors, and the United Auto Workers to deliver an “Open Letter to Automobile Executives” and hold substantive discussions on fuel economy.