EARTHKEEPING NEWS
A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY

Volume Six, Number One
November/December 1996

METHODIST CONFERENCE TAKES STRONG STAND FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

Meeting in Sacramento in March 1996, the California-Nevada United Methodist Board of Church and Society unanimously passed resolutions calling for protection of the old growth trees in the Headwaters Forest and to restore environmental protection laws that have been overruled by the Salvage Logging Rider of 1995. These were subsequently passed by the Annual Conference along with other environmental resolutions.

The resolution asked the Annual Conference to call on members of Congress and the President to:

  1. Institute a full and immediate repeal of the Salvage Logging Rider.
  2. Immediately lift the moratorium on listing new species as threatened or endangered.
  3. Refuse to pass any legislation that would weaken the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, or other laws that protect the environment.
  4. Fully fund environmental protection programs of the Environmental Protection Agency and Interior Department.
  5. Re-authorize the Endangered Species Act in its full strength and with full funding.
  6. End corporate subsidies for harmful environmental practices.

The Resolution also called upon pastors and members of local churches to become knowledgeable about these issues and exert their influence to ensure protection of the environment for future generations.

In addition, the General Conference of the United Methodist Church in 1996 passed, without argument, a resolution, Toward a Dioxin Free Future, thereby aligning the United Methodist Church with the environmental organizations working on the Campaign for a Dioxin Free Future, started by Greenpeace.

Follow-up activities in many of the 350 Methodist churches in the Conference include speakers on the issues, as well as on non-violent conflict resolution.

For more, write Rev. Sharon Delgado, Chair of Board of Church and Society, California-Nevada United Methodist Conference, 164 Hollywood Ave., Santa Cruz CA 95060; 408/429-6800.

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