Friday Nudge: Thrilling News!
Have you heard of the World Council of Churches? And a great book to recommend!
Friends, I got the most thrilling news on Monday! At their Executive Committee meeting in Nigeria earlier this month, the World Council of Churches (WCC) elected me to be a member of the Commission of the Churches on Climate Justice and Sustainable Development. I am very excited to join the diverse members of this international committee to help guide and support churches around the world in their efforts toward climate justice and increasing sustainable development.
Welcome! I’m Jessica, and this newsletter is about faith and climate action. You can subscribe by clicking here:
About the World Council of Churches
I don’t know if you are familiar with the WCC; it is an international group comprised of 352 churches that represent more than 580 million Christians around the world. The churches that belong to the WCC are found in more than 120 countries around the world. The ecumenical diversity is great:
WCC member churches can be found in all regions of the world and include most of the world's Orthodox churches (Eastern and Oriental), as well as African Instituted, Anglican, Assyrian, Baptist, Evangelical, Lutheran, Mennonite, Methodist, Moravian, Old-Catholic, Pentecostal, Reformed, United/Uniting and Free/Independent churches, Disciples of Christ and Friends (Quakers).
While the Roman Catholic church is not a member, it often sends delegates to attend meetings.
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While my work will not begin for a little while, I am asking people to send me their questions and concerns that they hope will be addressed by this Commission. I would love to know what your questions are, either with respect to climate justice and sustainable development or about the WCC more generally.
What questions do you have for me about climate justice and sustainable development?
What questions do you have about the WCC?
Book Recommendation
Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast by John Vaillant (Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2023)
I had no idea that a large tome about the 2016 wildfire in Fort McMurray Alberta, one that describes in close detail the history of the oil industry in that province, explains the physics of fire and how global heating has messed with its original role in boreal forests, and presents an hourly play-by-play of the encroaching wildfire on Alberta’s city of more than 80,000 people could be such a gripping page-turner.
Yet it is; this book tells the harrowing tale of the fire that burned through the town in three days in May, eventually burning nearly 1.5 million acres before it was extinguished in July 2016. It is remarkable that no one was killed by the fire, although two people died in a vehicle collision while fleeing the city.
Vaillant is remarkably cohesive in his telling of the way in which the wildfire itself, being in the oil centre that is Fort McMurray, is a result of the fossil fuel industry’s relentless hunger for more and more oil and gas, leading to the climate emergency that has led to the weather conditions for stronger, hotter wildfires than we have seen before.
I first borrowed this book from the library. A few pages in, I knew that I needed my own copy to mark up and to have on hand as an excellent reference for understanding the nature of fire in our new climate reality, the increasing risk of wildfires in Canada and elsewhere, and the insidious consequences of the fossil fuel industry. I encourage you to buy or borrow a copy, too.
Have you read Fire Weather? What did you think?
Congratulations- your enthusiasm for the task at hand and determination to make a meaningful contribution to the work of the Commission are admirable. With so much on the line here, any efforts to build relationship and community in the service of adapting to climate change and healing Earth must be encouraged. I know this intellectually, but in my heart, I do not have much hope that significant change will happen soon enough. Still we must try. I read Fire Weather this past summer. Any book by Vailliant is always well-researched and well-written. However, I have to admit I got bored by some of the details, maybe because I am more informed than most. I think for people who are curious about what is going on with all these fires this book will be fascinating. The history of the development of the tar sands in Alberta was interesting to me. It helps me understand why so many Albertans feel the way they do about their oil. The link to Christianity is fascinating... And all these threads are still playing out in that province, much to our dismay.
Congratulations, Jessica! working with the commission certainly sounds like something you're meant to do.