Workshop gives tips to go green
Professor Mark Davies put three questions before the women attending "Greening Your Congregation," an optional class at the UMW Annual Meeting.
1) What does faith teach us about relating to creation?
2) When did you first fall in love with nature?
3) When did you first realize something’s not right in the way humans are relating to nature?
"I think it’s important to get in touch with your feelings about nature, to take it personally," he said, in order "to do something about it."
Rev. Dr. Davies recalled hiking with his dad in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge as a child, growing up in Lawton. That’s where he fell in love with nature — and where he first heard about the near-extinction of the American bison.
Today’s scientific data identifies human impact as causing great acceleration in the extinction of species as well as climate change, Davies said. He urges equipping homes and churches in more ecologically sustainable ways.
He handed out useful resources for group studies and local-church action. Among them: "25 Steps Under/Over $25," from the Cool Congregations program by Interfaith Power & Light; and "Climate Justice: A Call to Hope and Action," a UMW study.
The Oklahoma City University professor led the 2016 Mission u study on climate justice and is scheduled to present part two next July.