This is a page of advocacy resources to help you
Living out our faith goes beyond individual actions, our own households, or our own churches. We are called to follow the example of Jesus and the prophets–to be courageous in proactively shaping our communities and our world to better align with our faith values. In the United States, we have a democratic system that requires active input from people of faith and good conscience. A healthy democracy requires people to be educated, organized, and engaged at every level.
The two-weeks of COP29 talks, held in the Azerbaijan capital Baku in November 2024, were marked by division between wealthy governments resisting a costly outcome and developing nations pushing for more. The first few months of 2025 in the US have seen changes that endanger climate solutions: cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic & Atmospheric Association, National Forestry Service, climate research and some lifted restrictions on oil & gas drilling, and on logging. We have a lot of advocacy work to do.
To contact your senators:
- California: Adam Schiff & Alex Padilla
- Nevada: Jacky Rosen & Catherine Cortez Masto
- Other States: click here
To contact your representatives:
- California: click here and then click on their individual names
- Nevada: Dina Titus, Mark Amodei, Susie Lee, Steven Horsford
- Other States: click here
Here are some resources to help you and your church:
Creation Justice Ministries, formerly the National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Program, lists a set of current actions that is updated each month. They also offer a brief 5-step process to taking action:
- Testify at Public Hearings
- Organize your Community
- Get Published
- Directly Contact Decision Makers
- Take Action with Policy Factsheets
The book The Art of Advocacy Strategy: A Small Book About How to Make Big Change written by Jim Schultz of the Democracy Center can be freely downloaded. It is a step by step guide to developing an effective strategy, drawn from more than three decades of work with activists across the US and five continents.
United Methodist Creation Justice Movement connects and supports groups within the United Methodist Church and beyond for the work of creation care, justice, and regeneration. They have a page with action alerts.
Fossil Free UMC is part of the global fossil fuel divestment movement and is advocating for the screening out of fossil fuels from our investments at all levels of the UMC. They have frequent blog postings with ways to join their advocacy work.
The General Board of Church & Society of the UMC is dedicated to the work of living faith, seeking justice, and pursuing peace. They have an Environmental Justice section on their webpage on current legislative advocacy actions.
Interfaith Power & Light partners with thousands of congregations to address climate change and inspire and mobilize people of faith and conscience to take bold and just action on climate change. They have a set of current action alerts.
GreenFaith brings together people of all faiths and spiritualities to work for climate justice. They have a set of current campaigns and some events that you can join.
350.org is an international environmental organization addressing the climate crisis with the goal of ending the use of fossil fuels and transitioning to renewable energy by building a global, grassroots movement. They have lots of actions on their website and you can also find local groups in California – the Sacramento group offers Student Environmental Activist Training.
Third Act is a community of Americans over sixty determined to change the world for the better by harnessing generational power to safeguard our climate and democracy. They have some national campaigns listed on their site. They also host national community-wide calls, workshops, trainings and thematic, facilitated conversations.
Climate Action Now has a downloadable app so that you can take meaningful actions on your phone.