Climate Church, Climate World

Jim Antal is a denominational leader, activist, and public theologian. He serves as the national spokesperson on climate change for the United Church of Christ. Yale Divinity School recently honored Antal with the William Sloane Coffin Award for Peace and Justice, in recognition of his lifelong advocacy for nuclear disarmament, racial justice, Middle East Peace, and climate change activism.

Foreword

By Bill McKibben

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Earth Is the Lord’s, Not Ours to Wreck: Imperatives for a New Moral Era

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

1 The Situation in Which We Find Ourselves

What Have We Done?

Taking Responsibility—The Anthropocene

How Long Have We Known?

Are We Paying Attention?

What’s at Stake? How Urgent Is the Crisis?

Are We Choosing Extinction?

We’re All In This Together

We Already Have Everything We Need

Forward Momentum

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

2 A Loving God for a Broken World

Finding God in a Broken World

Should We Try to Keep Our Hearts from Breaking?

Gratitude for a God of Love

How Do We Remain Faithful?

Julian Bond’s Testimony in Handcuffs

The Mine and the Snow Geese—A Story for Our Time

The Story of the Mine and the Snow Geese: A Postscript

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

Interlude: If We Fail to Heed Our Calling

A Letter from a Pastor to Her Congregation on the Occasion of the Closing of the Church on Ash Wednesday 2070

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

3 The Church’s Vocation Today

What’s Church For?

History’s Lessons for an Unprecedented Time

With God, There Are No Externalities

God Calls Communities, Not Just Individuals…We All Live at the Same Address

Our Covenant With God: For All Time—With All Creatures

Golden Rule 2.0

Our Children’s Trust

Confronting the End of Continuity

A Kairos Moment—Time for a Moral Intervention

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

4 The Marks of the Church in a Climate Crisis World

Our Role as Keepers of Continuity

Building Resilient Communities

It’s Not Just About Me: From Personal to Communal Salvation

Step 1: Confess Complicity; Step 2: Change the System

Embracing Spiritual Progress in Place of Material Progress

Sacrifice and Sharing as Guiding Virtues

Embracing Moral Interdependence

Global Warming Intensifies All Forms of Injustice

Confront the Powers and Principalities

Sharing Our Fears and Hopes: Empowering Action

Truth and Reconciliation Conversations in Every House of Worship

Civil Disobedience—the Church Acts on Its Conscience

A Repurposed Church for a New Moral Era

Affirming these Marks of the Church in a Covenant

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

5 Discipleship: Reorienting What We Prize

Resilience in Place of Growth

Collaboration in Place of Consumption

Wisdom in Place of Progress

Balance in Place of Addiction

Moderation in Place of Excess

Vision in Place of Convenience

Accountability in Place of Disregard

Self-Giving Love in Place of Self-Centered Fear

Civil Disobedience and Discipleship

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

6 Worship as a Pathway to Freedom

How Much Is Enough? Climate Talk in Church

The First Announcement at Every Church Service

Invite Weekly Testimonies

Transform Familiar Liturgies and Create New Ones

Organize and Host a Climate Revival

Worship that Includes All Creatures

Ordination Vows and New Life in the Anthropocene

If Earth Were a Sacrament, How Would We Treat It?

Undomesticating Worship

Taking Liturgy to the Street, the Pipeline, and the Tracks

Conclusion

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

7 Prophetic Preaching: Freeing the Pulpit from Fear

Called to Preach on Climate Change

Why Preaching on Climate Change Matters

The Church Was Born for This

Pastors Must Prepare Their Hearts

Cultivating Courage—“Be Not Afraid”

Offer Hope—We Are Called to Change the Story

The Theological Foundation for Preaching on Climate Change

Preaching on Climate Change— Ten Considerations

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

8 Witnessing Together: Communal Action Can Free Us from Fear

Not the Vocation I Started With

What Is Witnessing?

Making Civil Disobedience a Normative Expression of Christian Discipleship

Driven by Love and Gratitude with Fear as a Catalyst

Divestment: Revoking the Social License to Wreck Creation

A New Take on Fiduciary Accountability

A Global Commons—End the Ownership of Nature

Building the Kingdom of God: Society Based on “The Common Good”

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

9 Trump, Biden, Greta—Years of Upheaval, 2018-2022

Finally—A Climate Bill (by another name) Passes

What Made Congress Act on Climate?

Truth Forever on the Scaffold

A New Moral Era—Yes! But Which One?

Nature Cannot Be Deceived

Congregations Responding to Covid and Climate

We’re Paying More Attention to the Climate Crisis

The Green New Deal—Aspiration Amidst Upheaval

Youth Cannot Be Ignored

Imagine If…

What’s a Climate Church?

Our Generation Has a Vocation—We’re ALL In This Together

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

10 Living Hope-Filled Lives in a Climate Crisis World

Not Optimism . . . But Hope

Facing Reality—A Precondition of Hope

Expressing Grief—A Precondition of Hope

Acknowledging the Existential Threat of Climate Change

The Conviction of Things Not Seeable

The Conviction of Things Not Seen—Telling a New Story of Hope

Living a New Story of Hope

Spiritual Practices for Cultivating Hope

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

Epilogue

Imagine: A Message to the Church—Presented by a Teenager in 2100

Questions for Group Discussion and Further Reflection

Appendix

Preaching Suggestions for a Climate Crisis World

Further Reading

Notes

Index

About the Author