WICEC

What is the Wisconsin Interfaith Climate and Energy Campaign?

WICEC (formerly the Wisconsin Interfaith Climate Change Campaign, WICCC) is one of more than 20 state campaigns of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment (NRPE). The aim of WICEC is to inform, train, and activate religious congregations of all faiths to take concrete steps to reduce global warming and work toward a sustainable future out of a faith-based value orientation. It is the belief of all involved that our religious faiths can ethically inform a sustainable future and that inter-religious projects foster healthy, sustainable and secure communities through creative relationships between diverse people.

At this unsettling juncture of our sojourn as a species – when we’ve found out that our impact on Earth is enough to change even the climate, yet when we still have no serious plan to start turning things around – it makes total sense that the most dynamic leaders of the environmental movement are those who trust in miracles. Not the folks who send you the tote bags or the glossy calendars with requests for donations each year but the ones who, whether they’re churchgoing or not, share a basic belief that people can rise above immediate selfinterest…[Religious leaders of the Interfaith Climate and Energy Campaign] recognize that anthropogenic climate change is probably the greatest moral challenge our species has faced. Ultimately, the real test of our mettle will be whether we can lift ourselves out of inertia and denial in time to transform our economy, and maybe even our consumerist culture, for the sake of other species, faraway islanders and people yet unborn…[G]entle, non-partisan arguments can help persuade Americans to begin to consider their obligation to provide ‘natural security’ for future generations…[We] now need to count on the Quixotes and the faithful as we never have before. The more we suspend disbelief and act as if unity and common sense are possible, when it comes to fighting for our air, water and climate, the less worthy of ridicule that goal will seem. More and more these days, I hear environmental scientists using the word “threshold” – implying a breakthrough point at which all the disparate forces building up on college campuses, in city halls, and in churches and synagogues, will tip the scales in favor of a turnaround from our seemingly suicidal current course. It may take, in the words of singer Lou Reed, “a busload of faith” to believe that day will come in time to save us.

Taken from Katherine Ellison's book Frontiers in Ecology

NRPE

The National Religious Partnership for the Environment (NRPE) was founded in 1993, by four major religious communities, across a broad spectrum of faith groups which together serve over 100 million Americans. These are:

•·The U.S. Catholic Conference (USCC), the policy agencies for all bishops, clergy, and parishes of the Catholic Church.
• The National Council of Churches of Christ (NCCC), a federation of 34 Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, and African-American denominations.
• The Coalition on Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL), an alliance of agencies and organizations across all four Jewish movements.
• The Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN), a coalition of 23 evangelical Christian programs and educational institutions.

The NRPE seeks to weave care for God's creation throughout religious life in such a way as to provide inspiration, moral vision, and commitment to social justice for all efforts to protect the natural world and human well-being within it. It calls upon multiple resources to enact a comprehensive vision:

•Religious teachings and traditions from scripture, theology, worship, social ethics, and education.
• Diverse constituency to encourage efforts across racial, ethnic, economic, political, and cultural boundaries.
• Social teachings to offer religious as well as scientific and economic perspectives to environmental thought.
• Tens of thousands of congregations through which to undertake community-based initiatives. Public policy agencies and networks to educate citizens about legislative and executive initiatives. Public policy agencies and networks to educate citizens about legislative action.
• Public policy agencies and networks to educate citizens about legislative and executive action. Communications outlets to present messages in the language of faith and values.
• Educational institutions to instruct the young and adults and to train future leaders.
• Capacity to convene diverse sectors of society in cooperation for the common good.
• Historic ability to awaken and sustain dedicated citizen action.
• Potential to offer a comprehensive vision of human place and purpose equal to the deepest causes of the environmental challenge.

The national climate and energy campaign has been honored in numerous and diverse local, regional and national publications. Most recently, the Ecological Society of America’s periodical celebrated its achievements (see quote above). Press coverage of the Wisconsin campaign has been equally favorable, appearing in newspapers throughout the state.