Environmental Justice Ministries

During a six week campaign of civil disobedience in 1982, a movement was born that made national headlines and introduced the world to the issue of environmental racism. Learn more about this inspiring movement in which the UCC became the driving organizational force.

In 1987, the UCC’s Commission for Racial Justice published the first report to comprehensively demonstrate environmental racism across the nation with its report Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States. A 20th anniversary report took that research further in demonstrating that when facilities were clustered together in an area the likelihood of racial and economic disparities increased. In 2020, a report entitled “Breath to the People: Sacred Air and Toxic Pollution” added another dimension of research by focusing on the children who live near polluting facilities and are particularly vulnerable to toxic emissions.

In 2013, the UCC was the first denomination to pass a resolution calling for divestment from fossil fuel companies. In 2019, the UCC was the first Christian denomination to endorse the Green New Deal. In 2021, the UCC became the first mainline Protestant denomination to publicly affirm and proclaim that nature has rights.

The Pollinator is a digital platform of the UCC for the sharing of ideas and inspiration, so that we might become more fruitful in the pursuit of environmental justice. Its focus is the building of a faith-filled and faith-rooted movement for the care of creation. Read the Pollinator blog and sign-up for its newsletter.

Whether it is taking on climate change or addressing the lead poisoning of children, environmental justice ministries could not have a higher purpose or calling than they do now. Join the movement and become a Creation Justice Church. Learn about the five steps for doing just that.