Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

I often tweet about climate change. Occasionally I’ll go to meetings of an organization called 350.org and every now and then sign a petition or post some flyers. All of these things feel small in the face of a big problem.

On Sunday, however, as I marched with more than 300,000 other people down the streets of Manhattan, I felt as if I were doing something big.

Now, I suspect the average Episcopalian, like me, is not a radical. I’ve never loved marching or shouting chants. I would have rather spent my Sunday reading or watching a movie.

Yet, there I was, with other people from my church marching against climate change, doing what felt necessary. Not only our planet and the creatures in it, but also many humans are suffering because of climate change and it will only get worse. To ignore the problem is to turn our back on our neighbor.

Many of us know this, but we often despair in the face of what feels like an overwhelming problem, something beyond our ability to solve. I’ve often felt this despair myself. Many churches, including Episcopal churches, have not begun to dialogue internally about climate change, largely because of a perceived lack of a clear solution. But this should not be an excuse for apathy, especially for people who believe in God. If anything, a faith that teaches us to pray is one that reminds is that we are small, that our understanding is incomplete, but that our smallness and confusion is no reason for silence and inaction.

Every Sunday we sing and pray together to a God we do not understand in a world that can be overwhelming. If this is not good training for collective action, I don’t know what is.

We are called to service, not silence, to give of ourselves in the face of the overwhelming brokenness of the world. Come and follow me, Jesus says. He doesn’t say how it will all work out in the end, just calls us to take up our cross and start moving.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t plan and seek the best course of action. The march would never have happened if it weren’t for months of planning by many dedicated people, including many Episcopalians and other people of faith. I am grateful to all of them, as well as the people who marched and all the people who could not make it but supported us.

There's something about meeting with others that gives us strength that makes it easier to do the most difficult things. We are called to act, but we are not called to act alone. In that we can find hope.