Religious leaders long have delivered messages of love — for God, family and country — from the pulpit.
A week from Sunday, many will preach about another kind of love: devotion to the environment.
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More about the movement
To learn more about the National Preach-In on Global Warming from Feb. 10-12 go to interfaithpowerandlight.org/preachin. To get updates on an event being organized by Jason Brown, an adjunct professor of ethics at Utah Valley University, e-mail him at jasonbrown644@hotmail.com.
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At least 10 Utah groups and congregations, representing a number of faiths, will take part in the National Preach-In on Global Warming, from Feb. 10-12. They will join more than 1,000 others participating nationwide in the third annual event, which is coordinated by Interfaith Power & Light, a San Francisco-based group dedicated to helping faith communities address climate change.
"It’s not just on Earth Day we should be thinking about what we need to do to take better care of the Earth," said Susan Soleil, executive director of Utah Interfaith Power & Light. "Every religious tenet has stated somewhere in there that this is God’s creation, and we need to be good stewards of the Earth and we’ve got to take care of God’s creation."
Soleil said groups and congregations registered for the event in Utah include Buddhists, Unitarians and Presbyterians, among others.
Those who register get access to sermon suggestions, fact sheets and bulletin inserts about climate change and valentines to send to senators urging them to oppose congressional "efforts to block the EPA’s ability to enforce the Clean Air Act," among other things.
The Rev. Elias Koucos of Holladay’s Prophet Elias Church, a Greek Orthodox congregation, is registered for the event and plans to talk about the environment as part of his homily at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Salt Lake City on Feb. 12, as the congregation prepares for Lent.
"I thought it would be appropriate," Koucos said, "to kind of tie in our obligation as Christians and stewards to look at what we can do to provide a clean environment and do our best in conservation and preservation."
Jason Brown, an adjunct professor of ethics at Orem’s Utah Valley University, also registered, though not as part of a congregation.
Brown, who said he is a nonpracticing member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is working to organize an event for both practicing and nonpracticing Mormons to talk about love for the Earth.
"Religious cultures like Mormonism need to raise their voices about issues like climate change," Brown said. "For any religious culture to abstain from making a definitive statement on our moral obligation to the planet is unacceptable."
The Utah-based LDS Church recently has touted environmentally friendly meetinghouses it has built in Farmington, Eagle Mountain and elsewhere.
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