Download Press Release - The Episcopal Church in Vermont

Press Release
Date: June 12, 2015
Contact: Joseph Gainza – [email protected], 802-522-2376
Christopher McCandless – [email protected], 802-862-8665
Vermont Ecumenical Council and Bible Society Issues Statement on the Environment and
Economic Justice: Deplores “Systemic Sin”
The Vermont Ecumenical Council and Bible Society today released a four page statement outlining the
moral dimension of environmental destruction and associated economic disparities.
Vermont has experienced severe weather conditions over the last several years, epitomized by tropical
storm Irene and more recently by severe and long lasting winter cold spells. The trustees of the
Ecumenical Council, consisting of leaders of major Christian denominations in the state, agreed to add
their voice to growing concerns about the climate crisis and its effects on the most vulnerable
populations around the globe.
“While no single weather event can be directly attributed to climate change, the accumulating evidence
of severe weather such as the historical drought in California, the unprecedented rain storms in Texas
and Oklahoma, extremely powerful hurricanes and floods in the Asian Pacific region and elsewhere, as
well as Vermont's experience, attest to a worldwide climate crisis,” said Joseph Gainza, chairman of the
committee that prepared the statement.
Christopher McCandless, a Quaker and member of the VECBS trustees, remarked “as people of
religious faith who believe what the world’s climate scientists are almost unanimous in telling us about
climate change, we think it is important to raise the moral imperative for action.”
The statement took two years to prepare while the members of the Peace, Justice and Integrity of
Creation committee familiarized themselves with the science, human and economic effects of climate
change, as well as the statements of many national and international church bodies. The statement is
being released near the long anticipated release of Pope Francis' encyclical on the environment.
“We believe the document which the trustees have approved will compliment what the pope will be
saying, what Bartholomew, the 'Green' Patriarch of the Orthodox Church has been teaching, and indeed
what every major body of nearly every religious tradition in the world is promoting. We understand the
pope will emphasize that the climate crisis and its impact on the poor is not only a technical, social, and
economic issue, but most especially a moral challenge to the wealthiest nations most responsible for the
climate crisis,” added Gainza, himself a Roman Catholic.
Members of the VECBS hope to encourage people of religious faith to support and work with the many
organizations in Vermont working for effective legislation and policies to aid in restoring climate
balance, and to end further reliance on fossil fuels to avoid deepening the crisis.
The Right Reverend Thomas C. Ely, Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Vermont, and a trustee of
VECBS commented: “This important paper from the Trustees of the Vermont Ecumenical Council
represents well the way that shared values and convictions from people of faith working together can
speak to current concerns. This paper, and the way it connects issues of climate change and global
poverty, gives voice to concerns that are very much on the minds and hearts of Episcopalians and other
people of faith. Climate justice and economic justice are the most important moral issues of our time
and I commend this contribution from the VEC to all the people of Vermont and beyond.”
In the words of McCandless: “We hope the document will serve to inform and engage the Vermont
faith community to take further action to slow down and reverse the unprecedented rapid warming of
the atmosphere and to mitigate the devastating impact on the world’s poorest people.”
The statement highlights the destructive nature of the present industrial system: “Modern, industrial
societies have broken the bond with the natural world. In the pursuit of profit, many of the largest and
most powerful institutions of these societies have exploited natural systems to the point that the earth
can no longer assimilate the wastes produced, nor regenerate fast enough to replace what is taken...We
are living off the earth's capital with the likely result similar to what would happen if a household
continued to live beyond its means. This society-wide break with the natural world has a name:
'systemic sin'.”
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