Connect with other congregations in your community to act together on climate and justice.
Across nearly every great movement in our history — abolition, civil rights, sanctuary for refugees — people of faith have shown up in the public square and helped bend the arc of history towards justice. Climate action and environmental justice ask the same of people of faith today.
Many of us have already done faithful work for ourselves: shrinking our carbon footprints, greening our congregations, lifting up creation in our liturgy and teaching. That work is absolutely necessary. Sadly, on its own, it is insufficient. Our individual efforts cannot meet the scale or the urgency of the climate crisis, or confront the systems and interests that drive it. For that, we have to carry our work and our prayers into the public square and the corridors of power. We have to work collectively and institutionally, as well as individually.
"People of faith are the sleeping giant of the climate movement. I can now see the beginning of a path through which that sleeping giant will arise and pastors, rabbis and other faith leaders across the country will be able to engage the biggest moral challenge we've ever faced."
— Rev. Dr. Jim Antal
By starting a Faith Action Network, you are helping us awaken the giant.
In cooperation with religious and secular environmental groups across the Commonwealth, MassIPL convenes the Faith Action Network for Climate & Environmental Justice to mobilize faith-based activists to persuade and hold accountable our legislators and other decision-makers. Grounded in their home congregations, FAN Teams reach across boundaries of faith tradition and denomination in unified strategic campaigns for shared policy goals. MassIPL offers training, guidance, and support to FAN Teams, giving priority to those in legislative districts where religious environmental activism can have the greatest impact.
If you've read this far, you already have what it takes: a commitment to climate and environmental justice, a grounding in your faith tradition, and neighbors to work alongside. A FAN Team begins with the simplest of things — your own story of why you care, shared with others until it becomes a story of us, gathered into a first meeting, and turned toward concrete action together.
Our FAN Toolkit walks you through each of those steps, from voicing your own climate story to choosing the campaign your team will take on.
If you'd like to start a Faith Action Network in your community, or simply learn more, we'd love to hear from you. Reach out and tell us a little about who you are, and we'll help you get started with a FAN in your own context.
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Join our network of 250 member houses of worship working together on environmental stewardship and climate change.
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Timely calls to action when your voice matters most — at the State House and beyond.
