Climate petition support from UCA members

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Later this year, the Federal Government will review its climate policy. Christians from across different denominations have seen this as an opportunity to send a strong message about how faith calls them to care for others and the environment. Many are calling on the government to take stronger action on climate change.

A petition supported by a number of faith organisations, including UnitingWorld and Act for Peace, has been circulated in recent months. This petition calls for the Australian government to take stronger action to reduce emissions, transition towards renewable energy, and support poor and vulnerable communities in neighbouring countries as they face the effects of climate change.

Leaders and members of the Uniting Church SA have been instrumental in gathering signatures on these pen-and-paper petitions in their electorate areas.

“We’re presenting the petition to the Hon. Nick Champion, our MP for the Wakefield electorate, on Wednesday 2 August,” Uniting Church SA minister Rev Brian Polkinghorne advises. He has collected more than 600 signatures from the local community.

The petition can be adjusted for different electorates and is currently being circulated in several areas of SA.

Moderator Rev Sue Ellis is encouraging members of the Uniting Church in communities across SA to get involved in this cause.

The Justice and International Mission (JIM) Unit of the Uniting Church’s VicTas Synod have also been active in asking congregations and church members to get on board with the petition.

“One petition in one electorate might be possible to ignore. Any number of email petitions can be deleted. But one hundred-and-fifty old-school, pen-and-paper petitions, gathered by churches, faith communities, schools, businesses and community groups across all of Australia’s 150 electorates is hard to ignore,” their website states.

“By coordinating our efforts, handing the petitions to MPs at one key moment, and having our requests heard by Parliament, we will make it impossible to ignore.”

In South Australia, people involved in gathering signatures are asked to complete the task before the end of July so that they can be presented to the appropriate MPs in early August.

If you are thinking of circulating a petition in your area, please read the guide provided by the VicTas JIM Unit (available here), download a copy of the petition (available here) and advise the Uniting Church SA Communications team via email at Turn on Javascript!

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Comments (3)

  1. Malcolm Boxall 19 july 2017, 22:22 Link
    Yes I would like to comment on this article. More and more scientists who were supporting man made climate change, are now changing their minds and believe it is now a political hoax, because the temperature has not changed more than natural temperature variation. Politicians are promoting it while scientists are abandoning it. As a Farmer we need more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to grow better crops to feed the worlds ever increasing population. It is simply ludicrous to brand an essential element of life as a pollutant.
    In 1942 co2 was 452 ppm in the atmosphere, by 1970 it had gone down to 380ppm and now it is back up to 400ppm, so what is the big deal, this is normal fluctuation. And the temperature has cooled since 1998.
    This is political pressure by the green movement to send our country broke. Lets remember that God is in control of the climate, who are we to think that we can play God.
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