Open to all.

Sat. June 4, 10 am – 12 pm

The scale and urgency of climate change requires our generation to reassess our lives, re-purpose our religious practice and reorient our assets in ways that align with our covenant with God and preserve the Eden into which we were born.  Come to this workshop to be inspired by courageous initiatives already underway, and to consider how you and others might harness your religious communities to meet the greatest moral challenge humanity has ever faced.  As Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said, “Twenty-five years ago people could be excused for not knowing much, or doing much, about climate change. Today we have no excuse….  To serve as custodians of creation is not an empty title; it requires that we act, and with all the urgency this dire situation demands.”

Reverend Dr. Jim Antal is the Minister and President of the Massachusetts Conference United Church of Christ since 2006 – a covenant of 360 UCC churches along with over 800 authorized UCC ministers who serve throughout the Commonwealth.

After teaching and leading two national peace organizations, Rev. Antal spent twenty years leading vital churches of all sizes in Massachusetts and Ohio.  Rev. Antal brings insight from his mentors – Henri Nouwen and William Sloan Coffin, Jr. – to his work on climate change. He authored and was lead proponent of the UCC’s vote in 2013 to divest from fossil fuel companies – the first denomination to do so.  He has also engaged the spiritual discipline of civil disobedience numerous times, most recently at the White House to stop the Keystone XL pipeline.  In his role as Conference Minister, he is the public voice and strategic leader of the Conference seeking to enlarge the witness of the UCC in Massachusetts.

Rev. Antal will be our guest preacher on Sunday, June 5, at both the 8:45 and 11 am services.