During the hottest month on record — July 2023 — the sun sets over Echo Park, where the Sept. 16 diocesan Climate Change Summit will be held at St. Paul’s Commons. Photo: Bob Williams
[The Episcopal News] With July 2023 now on record as the hottest month worldwide, the Bishop’s Commission on Climate Change has set a summit meeting for Saturday, Sept. 16, at St. Paul’s Commons in Echo Park, asking each congregation in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles name a representative or team to attend either in person or virtually online.
Focusing on practical action by congregations and individuals, the Climate Change Summit will underscore U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s recent statement that “the era of global warming has ended” and “the era of global boiling has arrived.”
“The summit is a great opportunity to bring our diocesan community together to do what we can to address this issue which affects our whole world. It’s not easy work but it is necessary work,” said the Rev. Canon Melissa McCarthy, diocesan canon to the ordinary, who chairs the 30-member commission on behalf of Bishop John Harvey Taylor.
“The church has tremendous potential to make a difference,” McCarthy added. “I firmly believe we can do anything we are called to do when we are working in community and with God’s help. The issue of climate change needs our concerted, intentional, and communal attention.”
The summit has been called in keeping with Diocesan Convention resolutions adopted last November.
Summit topics will include priorities of reducing carbon footprints and use of fossil fuel while adopting green technologies.
The summit program will bring news of Commission partnerships, including the “Climate Connections” disaster resilience plan, now a pilot project, engaging congregations in strategic, collaborative response to crises including earthquakes and heatwaves. Made possible by a grant from Southern California Edison, the program is coordinated by Lucy Jones, Ph.D., a Cal Tech seismologist and parishioner of St. James’ Church in South Pasadena, who co-chairs the Commission’s Disaster Resiliency Subcommittee with Mary Nichols, a lay leader at St. James’, Los Angeles, and former head of the California Air Resources Board.
Summit presentations will be announced when confirmed.
An online registration portal for the Sept. 16 summit is here. All are welcome to register for either the in-person or online program.
Box lunches, available for a donation of $12, will be provided during the 9:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. program. St. Paul’s Commons, the diocese’s administrative and ministry hub, is located at 840 Echo Park Avenue, Los Angeles, with free parking available in the on-site garages.
Further information may be requested from Samantha Wylie, coordinator of Diocesan Convention, by email at swylie@ladiocese.org.