Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the Summit in Copenhagen

Archbishop Desmond Tutu at the Climate Summit in Copenhagen with a brief word from United Methodist Women

Jacob and Esau: Heaven and Earth and the Climate Change Summit

In a video diary from his journey from Israel to Copenhagen, Rabbi Michael Kagan speaks about climate change and humankind's responsibility for balance within creation. In his first entry he teaches from the Bible using the images of Esau and Jacob. Jacob and Esau represent Heaven and Earth; Jacob, loved by his mother is ethereal - heaven. Esau, loved by his father, is a hunter - earth. Both are needed for harmony, wholeness, completeness. In his dream, Jacob sees a ladder stretching from Earth to Heaven. According to Rabbi Kagan, we are the ladder. If the ladder is broken, Heaven and Earth are disconnected and all of creation is thrown out of balance. We are the ladder. We must not break our connection to the spiritual or to the earthly. We are needed to hold this great creation together.

Odyssey Networks is presenting videos of all kinds from the Climate Change Summit. Check them out.

Churches to Ring their Bells for Climate Change - December 13

"Churches will chime in for environmental stewardship by sounding their bells or other instruments 350 times at 3 p.m. on Sunday. The 350 chimes represent the parts per million that many scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere," says an article from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

I live in the Pacific Northwest of the US. It is the most beautiful place on Earth. Mountains, plateaus, valleys, desert, whales, salmon, bears, huge evergreens, fruit trees, tulips, wheat, brooks and rivers everywhere, cougars, moose, elk, otters, seals, and sea lions - life is abundant here. It is a blessing to see the sun paint the sky every hue imaginable as it rises and sets. Everyday offers a new breathtaking scene. But, when I look at God's miraculous, wondrous, powerful world and I see the negative impacts that humankind leaves upon it, my heart breaks. Climate Change is something the authors of the Bible could never have foreseen. The ability for human beings to change the climate of the Earth? For us to kill reefs, create dead zones in the water, make it increasingly difficult for ice to form on the poles, to cut down whole forests? It was unforeseeable and unthinkable.

Today it is observable, but it must become thinkable. I believe that our congregations, as the arms and legs of Christ in the world - the great healer, the redeemer, the prophet, God in sandals - it is our Christian obligation to care for God's creation. Congregations need to start thinking about the planet and all of its inhabitants - all God's creatures, every one - and to take clear and bold steps to call for public policy that values this holy and living organism called Earth. We need to start talking about Climate Change and how we might become a force for healing and wholeness - Shalom. We have the ability. We have the tools necessary. We have everything we need to heal this Earth and all that makes her so wondrous. We are the stewards of God's creation - the creation upon which God's holy eyes looked and delighted, into which God breathed life pronounced it "good."

If your church has a bell tower, ring your bells this Sunday at 3 PM. If you don't have a bell tower, find some other way to "chime in" 350 times to show the world that Christians care, are informed, and are ready to do our part not only for the healing of the nations, but for the healing of the Earth itself.