November 2025
Introduction
This past year, I’ve had the privilege of working as a CSRS Community Fellow, focusing on how Anglican, United, and Unitarian faith communities where I have some existing connection can deepen their engagement with the climate crisis.
I’ve spent years teaching effective climate communication in both large and small groups. Although I have worked with communications staff in large environmental groups, most of my emphasis has been on breaking a tabu against talking about climate change by equipping people to have one on one conversations so they can navigate climate misinformation and build or maintain individual relationships and communities.
As the effects of climate change become more personal and immediate, we will increasingly need each other for support. To do this at the scale we need we are going to have to work with institutions- spaces where people already gather to share resources, and create change. But the institutions we have are not the ones we need. They must evolve to prioritize collaboration for resilience, equity, and advocacy.
My central question has been: How can we talk about climate change at a large enough scale to make a difference? The subset of questions with which I have worked this year include: What needs to change within our institutions to help us face these oncoming challenges? How can they evolve to better support communities, build resilience, and motivate collective action? Might this provide benefits to the faith communities themselves?
From my experience in organizing, I’ve learned that to scale up impact, you need to start with institutions where one already has connections. I’ve worked with many groups over the years—lawyers, mediators, unions, large and small companies, co-operatives and not for profits, seniors, choirs, service clubs, grassroots community groups, political parties, environmental organizations, and more—but I chose to focus on exploring these questions inside faith communities for this project.
Caution and Invitation
Before diving into my experiences, I want to acknowledge this work reflects only a few modest insights from relatively little engagement with a small number of congregations in only two mainstream Christian faiths and two from the Unitarian tradition. I cannot presume to know much if anything and I certainly I do not presume to speak for other faith communities, as their structures, teachings, and cultures may offer very different opportunities and challenges in addressing the climate crisis. I want to also thank the fellows from the Global South who helped me to remember that lived material realities will always deserve attention.
With this audience, I am deeply curious to hear your own views. Does what I’ve shared resonate with your faith traditions? How might your communities approach these challenges?
Why Faith Communities?
Initially, it was just a hunch: faith groups seemed like “low-hanging fruit” for building momentum. They are places where people already gather for the purpose of equipping each other to love the world and I had some deep and some loose connections. Over time, my conviction deepened.
Faith communities bring something unique to the climate action table:
- A culture of care: These are spaces where people check in on one another—visiting the sick, comforting the grieving, and inviting others into shared activities like choirs. 619 people died during the 2021 heat dome in BC. Most were isolated seniors. No one checked in on them. Faith communities know more about how to do that, at least with their immediate networks than any other institution of which I am aware.
- A legacy of experience balancing dualities: Faith traditions have much to teach us about holding space for both “horror and hope” which we must do to contend with the climate crisis. They might call it heaven and hell or sin and absolution. The human brain finds it difficult to hold two truths at once and our dominant culture avoids doing this almost entirely. A recent report on media coverage of the climate crisis reveals that stories of wildfires are never accompanied by stories of potential solutions. Renewable energy stories never mention the burning of fossil fuels as the cause of carbon pollution. The faith communities with which I engaged can help us all learn to cope with the dual realities.
The climate crisis is worsened by overconsumption and greed. The teachings and stories of many faiths that these lead to unhappiness and that freedom can be found in the concept of “enough” can help insulate us from the multi-million dollar efforts of global capitalism that currently treats climate change as an unavoidable externality if it recognizes it as a threat at all.
Faith communities provide community in various forms to acknowledge loss, imperfection and grief. Their stories comfort the grieving knowing it won’t bring back the dead loved one but it might help knowing you are not alone. Funerals, flowers at Christmas, All Saints Eve, memorials in leaflets naming the dead, Blue Christmas events—they teach us to accept the passing without imagining the world can return to the way it was. They run food banks knowing hunger will not be eliminated even in their own cities.
Their teachings and stories can help us understand that just because everything is not fixed does not mean everything is broken.
One of the main barriers to action on climate change is the feeling of overwhelm. People know their individual efforts are without material impact. Even large ENGOs despair at major victories like persuading the City of Vancouver to ban fossil gas in new buildings. Major groups threaten to pull out of COPS when so little progress is made. Faith communities have a multiplicity of stories that teach that small progress is still progress. Me in my small corner and you in mine, individuals being healed, one person making a difference like the story of the Good Samaritan are woven through and have become so much a part of the dominant culture that it is reasonable to worry that these stories are so powerful that they blot out the need for systems change. But since we are dealing with physics each change does matter and the hope is that if individuals are invested they will support systemic chang. In the meantime these stories help us to care for each other at an individual level and we are going to need that.
Another major barrier to action on climate is guilt. We all contribute to the destruction because it is impossible to avoid doing so. Faith stories don’t shy away from human flaws. They offer pathways for repair and encourage perseverance. We no longer excommunicate or call each other out for failures. No-one can live a low carbon life on their own and we have to get over our guilt if it deters action. These communities embrace resurrection and redemption through acting for the common good.
The faith communities I worked with all teach that individual responsibility must not be confused with systemic injustice. As individuals we are not to blame for the climate crisis. That responsibility rests with the capitalist system and the fossil fuel majors whose internal decision making structures allowed them to both understand and ignore the reality that their products would destroy life while masterfully persuading all of us it would make our lives better. While their success in promoting neoliberal ideas of individual supremacy are powerful, these faith communities continue to have access to other stories like the one where Jesus reminds his followers “When in Rome do as the Romans do”.
Brian Pollick pointed out that climate justice requires us to contend with ethics and faith communities have ethical issues embedded in their DNA. He and I asked whether there are any other institutions in our societies that expect participants to consider and live out ethics in their day to day. We were unable to identify any. Can the reader?
(In later reflection I noted Rotary Club’s 4 questions: Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build good will and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned? )
Faith groups often focus outwardly, addressing needs like hunger or poverty. They do so from the perspective of the giver, the one that has the power. But the climate crisis demands something different—it requires us to collaborate in solidarity because we are all vulnerable and we are all already victims.I see this as an opportunity for these communities to step up and therefore to grow in numbers and approach as they turn outwards confident of their value to our world. If they can talk with each other with confidence and hope they can bring that fluency to their neighbours.
My Approach and What I Learned
I partnered with four congregations this year, each with its own dynamics and challenges.
1. Oak Bay United Church (OBUC):
I worked with a group of eight congregants, supported by the minister and the Board Chair, to spark congregation-wide conversations about climate. We held talks, post-service events, and participatory activities that created a strong platform for action. Climate is no longer a taboo topic here, and the congregation is now exploring ideas like mutual aid networks, joining coalitions and emergency preparedness.
2. St. John’s Anglican Church (SJD):
I collaborated with the social justice committee on a series of seminars aimed at building support for integrating climate topics into Sunday services. The hope of the organizers was that this would build support for lay leaders to persuade clergy to change the congregation’s experience in worship services so as to allow space for their climate grief, anxiety and resolve which the data tells us most Canadians feel. The workshops were well attended—about 40 people each time—and well received but there has been little noticeable progress since then. I recently attended a service and except for a reference to Indigenous values of caring for creation and a quick mention of that in a prayer you could spend the full hour and be unaware there is a climate emergency. I worry that my work may have unintentionally deepened the isolation felt by those in the Parish already engaged in climate work. The clergy hasn’t, at least visibly, embraced their efforts. I suspect this left some leaders feeling more unsupported. This experience reinforced for me the importance of addressing the loneliness that climate leaders often feel, particularly within hierarchical institutions like the Anglican Church.
3. First Unitarian Victoria (FUV):
I gave a homily explaining why the congregation’s continued engagement in a broad civil society coalition that works on climate change and social justice is vital. This led to a lively discussion and inspired new leadership within the congregation to deepen ties with each other and the coalition.
4. Esquimalt United and First Unitarian Toronto:
In these congregations, I encouraged the small climate committees to build broader support before launching workshops. At First Unitarian Toronto workshops in February will be widely promoted by the leadership and reach more congregants and involve multiple Unitarian congregations, fostering deeper collaboration. At Esquimalt United I am hoping the same result will be achieved.
What Do I Do?
In all these spaces, I ask participants the same questions. I want to ask them of you now and invite you to answer them together.
- What are you grateful for?
- Who or what do you want to protect?
- What groups are you part of that share this goal?
- Imagine a thriving future. How did that group or institution help?
These discussions were powerful. People felt uplifted, more connected, and more hopeful.
Impacts and Challenges
One of the most rewarding outcomes was seeing leaders felt less alone. Climate leadership can be isolating, but many told me they felt more hopeful and supported.
At OBUC there is now a clear cultural shift—climate conversations are happening openly, and there’s growing interest in wider collaborations. My experience with the others has led me to be sensitive to find ways to support leaders more directly and reduce their sense of isolation. This has helped me personally as I now feel entirely welcome at both OBUC and SJD.
Faith communities can be insular, and power structures within certain traditions make change more complex. But I’m optimistic that by fostering connections between congregations and faith groups, we can scale up engagement and build stronger networks.
From interactions at our presentations at coffee talks I learned to pay much closer attention to the material realities of people’s day to day. Thank those who kept emphasising this. It is a hard and long overdue lesson for the entire climate movement to learn. I hope to offer better leadership on that front both with the climate concerned activists within congregations and when I work within the climate movement helping link climate impacts with the actual concerns and anxieties facing people each day.
Next year I want to help congregations explore how climate adaptation can improve their daily lives while preparing for a future made more uncertain by both the climate crisis and the rise of the extreme right. “Better todays for better tomorrows”. Can we make sure that we weave a web of care around our most vulnerable neighbours both in the church community and in our wider networks which will protect them in the storms to come. Can we share what we do with other groups and faith communities? I hypothesize that starting here will also reduce isolation among climate-aware leaders. by encouraging collaboration across congregations and faith groups.
In Vancouver, I hope to be working with Sierra Club BC which is hosting conversations with 20 faith groups, asking:
“Who is standing with you to help protect who and what you love?”
This question is an invitation to build relationships and strengthen solidarity.
In Victoria I will continue my work with OBUC, hopefully SJD, Esquimalt United. I will also work with this Anglican Diocese to explore connections between the material realities causing anxiety and hope in sample interviews across several congregations.
Across both communities I hope to be working with civil society coalitions to deepen and broaden the impact of civil society coalitions which count faith communities as core members as they contend with the rise of the extreme right which is a significant threat to our climate and to learn more about how to ground our conversations in the day to day.
I will teach climate hope fluency and provide mentorship to a core group of Unitarians at First Unitarian in Toronto as they explore how to deepen engagement with the climate crisis in their own congregation.
Final Thoughts
This year has been transformative for me. I’ve deepened my networks, learned from the CSRS coffee talks and the communities I worked with, and gained clarity on how faith groups can lead in this critical moment. Climate change is the defining challenge of our time, and I believe these communities have the stories, the values, and the capacity to help us meet it—together.
