Four faith communities in Nelson recently pledged to transition their electricity, heating, cooling, transportation and all other operations to renewable energy by 2035. The Star is publishing a column by each of them, reflecting on this pledge. Today’s contribution, by Julia Roberts of St. Saviour’s Pro-Cathedral, is the last in the series.
St. Saviour’s Pro-Cathedral, the imposing heritage building at the corner of Ward and Silica Streets, may seem an unlikely place to work on transitioning to renewable energy. The original building was built in 1899 and is heated by a hot-water boiler fueled by natural gas.
The building emits about 30 tonnes of greenhouse gases annually, depending on the severity of the winter.
In spite of this daunting number, St. Saviour’s congregation has joined with Nelson United Church, Kootenay Shambhala Meditation Centre, and Yasodhara Ashram to work towards making our operation 100 per cent renewable energy by 2035.
We have been working on climate action with these and other faith communities in the Nelson Interfaith Climate Action Collaborative since the fall of 2015. We have all been blessed to find that we have much in common despite coming from diverse faith traditions. Praying, meditating, and discussing climate solutions have proven to be a very enriching.
From a Christian perspective, concern about climate change arises from the Bible story that God created the Earth and all its life forms “and God saw that it was good.” The story continues that God appointed humans to care for the Earth and its creatures.
As the impacts of climate change such as floods, fires, drought, and famine become more prevalent, our Christian teaching to love our neighbour comes into play. It is a fact that the developed world uses far more of the world’s resources and produces far more greenhouse gas emissions than our poorer neighbours.
While we can help them by donating to international relief agencies, we must also reduce our greenhouse gas emissions in order to slow the pace of climate change.
The imperative to act on climate change has been recognized by our Anglican Church of Canada with the addition in 2013 of a new baptismal vow that asks, “Will you strive to safeguard the integrity of God’s creation, and respect, sustain and renew the life of the Earth?”
The response is “I will with God’s help.” Our national church is acting on this vow by developing a plan to divest its investments from fossil fuels.
And so, the congregation of St. Saviour’s has embarked on the seemingly impossible task of converting our heritage building to 100 per cent renewable energy by 2035.
We will succeed with God’s help and the help of our new friends in the Nelson Interfaith Climate Action Collaborative.