Earth Day: The Beginning of New Commitments
Today is Earth Day, when people all over the planet celebrate our beautiful, life-giving, and fragile Mother Earth.
This year our eight Unitarian Universalist organizations teamed up and created an unprecedented network of concern and action: Commit2Respond. Climate Justice Month, which has been running since World Water Day (March 22), ends today-and we ask you to join us in committing to action in the face of climate change!
Saving our biosphere is possible, but it will take a paradigm shift and a revolution of values to get there. Our framework is simple: to meet this challenge, we need to shift to a low carbon future, advance the human rights of affected communities, and grow the climate justice movement.
Over the course of this month, spiritual leaders have led us through a transformative process. We have connected with our love for Earth, reckoned with the great loss we are experiencing, reconciled with our current reality while remembering the joy of being alive, and committed ourselves to serious action to save our planet and ourselves. Thousands of us have found inspiration and hope in these messages.
This has been an exciting month, and the work has only just begun. Powerful programming on climate change and climate justice is being planned for General Assembly this year as well as an Action of Immediate Witness to galvanize support for a sustainable treaty in Paris during the United Nations Summit on Climate Change. Through Commit2Respond, we'll stay connected, organize ourselves and we'll celebrate our progress together.
Today is Earth Day. It's the day for all of us to commit in love for our planet and all the beings who live and thrive here. Today is the last day of Climate Justice Month, but the first day for us to shift, advance, and grow.
The road before us is long. Dismantling the current paradigm will take great intention from all of us. But it is possible. And it is necessary. Today is an end, but it's also the beginning of creating a new world-together.
Wishing you a peaceful, joyful, and hopeful Earth Day.
Sincerely,
Rev. Maria Cristina Vlassidis Burgoa
President
Diverse Revolutionary UU Multicultural Ministries (DRUUMM)
Cathy Seggel
President
Liberal Religious Educators Association
Rev. Peter Morales
President
Unitarian Universalist Association
Rev. Kathleen McTigue
Director
UU College of Social Justice
Rev. Peggy Clarke
Steering Committee
UU Environmental Justice Collaboratory
Rev. Don Southworth
Executive Director
UU Ministers Association
Irene Keim
Chair, Board of Directors
UU Ministry for Earth
Rev. Bill Schulz
President and CEO
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee