In recent years, the call for environmental stewardship has been echoed by religious leaders, including the late Pope John Paul II and Billy Graham.
Now a new group, Kentucky Interfaith Power & Light, is working to answer that call and help mobilize the state's religious community to act against global warming.
"As people of faith we have a strong sense that anything we do to address the climate change is not just something we ought to be doing, it's something we're called to be doing by God, to be good stewards of the Earth and that which we have been given," said the Rev. Joel Weible, associate pastor at Highlands Presbyterian Church and a member of the group.
The group, formed in December, is the local branch of the national Interfaith Power & Light movement. Such groups exist in 26 states, with about 4,000 congregations of nearly all faiths participating.
The local group will be host of a gathering at the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center today for members from local faith communities interested in learning what they can do to help. The gathering will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the center, which is behind St. Agnes Catholic Church on Newburg Road.
About 15 people from about a dozen religious organizations are scheduled to attend the gathering, organizers said. More are welcome, but it might be too late to put in a reservation for the lunch.
The Rev. Joe Mitchell, a Passionist priest and director of the center, said stewardship has always been a key component of the Christian understanding of humanity's relationship to creation, but the consensus of what it means has been shifting toward kinship and caring for the Earth.
The Rev. Jerry Cappel, priest at Resurrection Episcopal Church on Southern Parkway, said many people may have more desire to help than knowledge about what they can do. The group offers a way to turn that desire into action, he said.
"There is a growing awareness of both the urgency and the necessity for the religious faith community to get involved," he said.
