{"id":3925,"date":"2015-07-24T17:12:39","date_gmt":"2015-07-24T17:12:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=3925"},"modified":"2015-07-24T17:12:39","modified_gmt":"2015-07-24T17:12:39","slug":"church-leaders-bring-fossil-fuel-divestment-closer-to-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=3925","title":{"rendered":"Church Leaders Bring Fossil Fuel Divestment Closer to Home"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><em>by Eric Galatas\/TNS<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3926\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3926\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3926\" src=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/gr-47094-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"The U.S. Episcopal Church is encouraging parishes to address climate change by reinvesting local portfolios, worth some $4 billion, in clean energy. The church\u2019s governing body passed a resolution to divest $380 million from fossil fuels at its national convention. Photo: Smallbones\/Wikimedia Commons.\" width=\"600\" height=\"428\" srcset=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/gr-47094-1-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/gr-47094-1-1-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/gr-47094-1-1-405x289.jpg 405w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/gr-47094-1-1-280x200.jpg 280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3926\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The U.S. Episcopal Church is encouraging parishes to address climate change by reinvesting local portfolios, worth some $4 billion, in clean energy. The church\u2019s governing body passed a resolution to divest $380 million from fossil fuels at its national convention. Photo: Smallbones\/Wikimedia Commons.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>AUSTIN, Texas &#8211; To combat climate change, U.S. Episcopal Church leaders recently voted to divest $380 million in holdings it has in businesses involved with fossil fuels.<\/p>\n<p>Betsy Blake Bennett, an archdeacon from Nebraska, attended the recent convention in Salt Lake City. She says the next task is to begin conversations in local Episcopal parishes, which control some $4 billion, to consider reinvesting in clean energy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook at our portfolios, see if where our money is matches the gospel values that we preach,\u201d she states. \u201cLife is sacred and creation is sacred, and it\u2019s our duty to not let everything die without putting up a fight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bennett says plans for talks are already underway in her diocese, but adds others may join in as late as winter during annual parish meetings.<\/p>\n<p>The Christian denomination did not elect to divest its largest holdings &#8211; $9 billion in pension funds.<\/p>\n<p>Bennett notes the challenges to dropping fossil fuel investments are not unique to the church. She acknowledges concern about lower returns on portfolios, and potential job losses. But she\u2019s hopeful the message from the convention will help parishes focus on the long-term impact.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKeeping in mind that no one is going to be exempt from this,\u201d she points out. \u201cIt\u2019s important to kind of look down the road and ask questions about what our community might look like at the end of the century if we don\u2019t do anything about climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Episcopal decision comes on the heels of Pope Francis\u2019 recent call for action on climate change.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, the United Methodist Church announced it was taking coal out of its $21 billion portfolio.<\/p>\n<p>The United Church of Christ was the first U.S. denomination to divest, dropping fossil fuels from some $750 million in holdings two years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Eric Galatas\/TNS AUSTIN, Texas &#8211; To combat climate change, U.S. Episcopal Church leaders recently voted to divest $380 million in holdings it has in businesses involved with fossil fuels. Betsy Blake Bennett, an archdeacon from Nebraska, attended the recent convention in Salt Lake City. She says the next task is to begin conversations in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3925"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3927,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925\/revisions\/3927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}