Columbus, Georgia To Host Inaugural Green Team Summit
COLUMBUS, Ga — Georgia Interfaith Power and Light (GIPL) will host their first Columbus Green Team Summit at St. Thomas Episcopal Church on Saturday, September 30, 2023, from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. This Green Team Summit is an opportunity for faith leaders, local officials, and environmental activists across middle Georgia to come together to address the effects of global warming on the community. The theme: Greening Our Faith.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that caring for people and caring for creation go hand-in-hand. Rising temperatures, the contamination of waters, drought, wildfires, extreme weather, and pollution are harming people here and around the world,” says Rev. Grace Burton-Edwards, Rector at St. Thomas Episcopal. “We see this Summit as an opportunity to gather people of faith around issues of earth stewardship and hopefully mobilize us all to greater action.”
Rev. Dr. Jennifer Ayres, Associate Professor of Religious Education at Emory University, will offer the Summit’s keynote address. Ayres is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the author of several books including, Inhabitance: Ecological Religious Education.
“The environmental challenges facing us are complex, urgent, and perhaps overwhelming,” Ayres says. “Religious communities can respond by learning, and re-learning, what it means to live in and love our communities and our ecosystems well.”
In addition to Ayres's remarks, there will be a series of workshops to equip congregations to build their green teams, implement practical climate solutions like solar, access funding related to the Inflation Reduction Act, and get more involved in climate advocacy at the state and federal levels.
Codi Norred, Executive Director of GIPL, says “It is our hope that participants will leave this Summit inspired and equipped to get to work making Georgia a more sustainable and livable place for all!”
Admission to the Summit is $20. Lunch, coffee, and light snacks are provided. Those interested may learn more and register now through September 15, 2023, at www.gipl.org/events/gtsc23.
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Georgia Interfaith Power and Light (GIPL) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that works across the state to mobilize people of faith toward environmental action. As part of the national Interfaith Power and Light movement, GIPL sees its response to global climate change, resource depletion, environmental injustice, and pollution as an extension of faith.
