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Climate Change and the Church

Published Date: January 2, 2018

After a global meeting on climate change, Andrea Baare contacted us to share what took place there and how the people of God are involved. Here is what they had to say about the event:

UN World Climate Conference (COP23) in Bonn, Germany: UMC delegation enjoys traditional Methodist hospitality

(Article by Manfred Tubbesing, translation by Dr. Andrea Baare, D.Min. 2005)

The song, “It’s a Small World,” comes to mind when we have surprise encounters, even when we have never met each other before. During such moments we translate this saying into joint goals. The Evangelical Methodist Church in Bonn, Germany gladly followed the request of the small delegation from the United States to meet while they attended the World Climate Conference here. The Tubbesing family hosted the exchange in their home. “After all, home groups are a Methodist tradition,” said Ursula Tubbesing during the welcome.

Global sociopolitical organizations, such as the World Mission of the United Methodist Church in Atlanta, sent members to the United Nations Climate Conference in Bonn, Germany. The Evangelical Methodist Church in Germany delegated the voluntary referee for the Kinder-und Jugendwerk Süd (Child- and Youth Welfare South), Mr. Daniel Obergfell.

The effects of the American stance on climate change enjoyed particular interest. The Reverend Jenny Phillips, founder and executive director of Creation Change, a United-Methodist non-profit organization, as well as her fellow-delegate, John Hill, confirmed that agencies, administrations, and especially the pertinent organizations continue working on the global goals of the previous conferences and treaties. Dr. Wolfgang Hoffmann, who was significantly involved on behalf of Germany in the “Rio Declaration” in 1992 with a focus on the environment and development, stated that the signaling effect America’s statements have on other countries is critical.

Jenny Phillips characterized her call to vocation within the United Methodist Church this way: “Concerning climate change, parts of our church are at the forefront internationally.  As a denomination with a worldwide presence and a global vision, we are in the unique position to experience the entire range of the climate crisis directly, which illustrates how important our commitment is for humans as God’s created beings and for creation.” We often feel that we hear far more about the negative effects of climate change than about the successes of implemented measures for climate protection.

Nevertheless, the enormous dedication of thousands of people from around the world to a myriad of topics remains unbroken, which can procure a positive change in the environment and global development, for which we thanked God in a joint Lord’s Prayer.

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4 responses to “Climate Change and the Church”

  1. Garry Hogue says:

    Honestly, you haven’t seen this “crisis” coming for years? further, you haven’t seen how players have placed themselves into position to scoop up the money that the fearful are willing to part with in order to “save the planet? Once this money is in place, it will work against Christianity, and do nothing for “the planet.” Ask yourself this question: What is the proposed solution for getting the planet’s climate change under control? …And if global scientists are so sure about the problem, and what they should do about it, why haven’t we heard the solution? And how much of that solution needs to be applied before the planet is under control?
    Like I said, you should have seen this coming–and you shouldn’t have fallen for it.

  2. James Mace says:

    Good stewardship requires us to be very skeptical of globalist elites abusing science to create a disingenuous myth of anthropogenic climate change in false prophecies of doom to frighten people into surrendering power (of which we are to be good stewards). Let us not be foolish dupes supporting a political power-grab by those misusing religious motives in erecting a blasphemous god-state.

    • R. T. Wilson says:

      Well put, James, so happy to say we were in class together. Good Stewardship is a part of faithful discipleship. The great hoax of disingenuous science in order to gain fascist power and control by former socialists communists has been discredited over and over again. Follow the money for a real perspective on this issue and you will know how the globalists left seek to control the world.

  3. R. T. Wilson says:

    I cannot understand why Asbury Theological Seminary posted this article.

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