The Southwest Conference endorsed this effort and invites congregations and members to do so too.
As people of faith, we are called to care for all of God’s children and to protect God’s creation. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is an inspiring, wild landscape. It is home to polar bears, wolves, the sacred Porcupine Caribou Herd that is 180,000 strong, and migratory birds tying the Arctic Refuge to our backyards in the lower 48 states.
Anna Peterson of Conservation Communications is helping to organize a faith statement signed by leaders of faith communities who oppose drilling in the Arctic Refuge. See the full statement attached and below. Would a leader of your congregation be willing to sign on? Please let her know by March 1.
FULL STATEMENT:
As faith leaders, we are called not only to care for all of God’s children and to protect God’s creation but to be outspoken leaders for God’s creation. We, therefore, call for the protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a part of God's creation that stands alone in its wilderness, ecological integrity, and beauty, from the imminent threat of oil and gas exploration and drilling.
The Refuge is an inspiring, wild landscape. It is home to polar bears, wolves, migratory birds, and a Porcupine Caribou Herd that is 180,000 strong. It’s also a sacred landscape to Alaska’s Indigenous Gwich’in communities, who have a spiritual connection to the refuge. The Gwich’in people, many of whom are Episcopalian, are dependent on the health of the landscape and the Porcupine caribou, which provides them a majority of their food source, to maintain their culture and way of life. The Gwich’in refer to this sacred place, the birthing grounds for the Porcupine Caribou Herd, as “Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit” or “The Sacred Place Where Life Begins.”
The exploitation of fossil fuels in the Refuge will contribute to climate change and threaten the ten thousand year-old traditions that the Gwich’in people depend upon to survive. Drilling and the related industrial infrastructure that would come with fossil fuel development would have devastating impacts.
The faith community's decades-long commitment to protecting the Arctic Refuge is inspired by our dedication to defending all of God’s creation, including the fundamental rights of the Gwich’in people.
We gave a spiritual duty to protect the Arctic Refuge for both conservation and Indigenous rights. The rush to auction off the Arctic Refuge to the oil industry has resulted in a deeply flawed process and environmental analysis with no meaningful protections for wildlife, Alaska Native cultural values and ways of life, or the area’s iconic wilderness character.
Once oil exploration and drilling begins, this sacred landscape and the communities that rely upon it for survival will be harmed forever. We must demonstrate our commitment to protecting all of God’s creation and living out our call for justice for God’s people by calling a halt on plans to drill and conduct oil exploration in the Arctic Refuge. We have a moral obligation to promote justice, stewardship, and intergenerational responsibility.
Sincerely,
Congregation/Synagogue/Mosque/Temples' leadership name here