Oahu churches will take up the subject of climate change at two events this month.
On Sunday, Church of the Crossroads will celebrate national "Valentine’s Day Preach-In on Global Warming and Climate Change," sponsored by Interfaith Power and Light, with simultaneous worship services at 10:30 a.m. at two locations.
The Rev. Kyle Lovett will preach at the Episcopal Church Camp in Mokuleia, at68-729 Farrington Highway, and Kati Corlew will speak at Church of the Crossroads at 1212 University Ave. on "Climate Change Justice, Faith and Action."
Corlew is a research fellow with the Pacific Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessment Program at the East-West Center, a news release said.
"If there is a real and basic change in attitude and behavior on global warming, it has to come from one’s inner conscious faith perspective," Chuck Burrows said in an email. He is a spokesman for Church of the Crossroads, a founding member of Hawaii Interfaith Power and Light (HIPL), the local branch of Interfaith Power and Light.
"As former Vice President Al Gore stated in his award-winning film, ‘An Inconvenient Truth,’ several years ago, global warming is not only an economic, political and environmental issue, it is a moral issue that needs to be dealt with," Burrows said.
"We as Pacific Islanders are experiencing the rise of sea level first in the low atolls of Kiribati and Tuvalu and in the high islands of Hawaii. We, as religious interfaith groups, stand with our Pacific cousins and also with our Arctic Native Alaskans to safeguard their natural and cultural resources and their lifestyles," said Burrows, who is a member of HIPL.
Since President Barack Obama called on citizens to take action on climate change in his second inaugural address, participants in the preach-in will be signing and sending him Valentine’s Day cards to ask him to "Love the ‘Aina," Burrows said.
The Church of the Crossroads event is part of a three-day national observance that began Friday, during which clergy present sermons on climate change and ask people to send valentines to the president asking him to support legislation on this issue. For more information, see www.preachin.org.
On Feb. 17, Jeff Burgett will talk about "The Moral Dimensions of Climate Change" at Lutheran Church of Honolulu from 6 to 7:15 p.m. as part of a free church lecture series, "Exploring Boundaries and Beyond."
Burgett is science manager for the Pacific Island Climate Change Cooperative, a group of 19 government, education and nonprofit organizations that provides scientific and technical tools to help conserve natural and cultural resources.
"This session will examine the causes and potential consequences of climate change, and explore the moral dimensions of our individual contributions to the future that we will collectively determine," Burgett said in a news release.
The lecture and discussion will be followed by a service from 7:30 to 8 p.m.
The church is at 1730 Punahou St. Call 941-2566 or visit www.lchwelcome.org for information.
