Upcoming Events
Wednesday, March 9 at 1pm – SB783 Hearing
SB783 has been assigned a hearing date in the Judicial Proceedings Committee (JPR) on March 9 at 1pm. Members of the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee will be invited to join JPR to view this hearing. MDEHR will be coordinating with Senator Smith and our strategic partners in creating our oral testimony. Please contact Nina Beth Cardin at nina@mdehr.org if you have a compelling story in support of the amendment.
From the Maryland Campaign for Environmental Human Rights
Support the Maryland Environmental Human Rights Amendment
Ask Your State Representative to Support Passing the Environmental Human Rights Amendment
Support the Maryland Constitutional Amendment for Environmental Human Rights
Protect Our Human Right to a Healthful and Sustainable Environment flyer (pdf)
Organizations Petition – Individuals Petition
The Commission on Reconciliation and the Undersigned Earth Care Congregations encourage members and congregations of the Presbytery of Baltimore to advocate for the passage of the Maryland Environmental Human Rights Amendment as a critical means for pursuing a healthy, supportive, and regenerative global environment for generations to come.
Environmental pollution and the effects of climate change are directly and increasingly having a negative impact on physical and mental health. We are at the eleventh hour. We believe that everyone in this and future generations has the right to a healthy environment. We stand with other people of faith in recognizing the urgency of the environmental crises that threaten the well-being of people now and well into the future.
The Maryland Environmental Human Rights Amendment is designed to provide all who reside in Maryland with the constitutional right to a healthy environment in which to live, work and play.
In passing this amendment, Maryland would join five other states and dozens of other countries in providing for this fundamental right. (Fourteen other states are considering a similar amendment. NY will be voting on one this November.
Our Book of Order is explicit in its expectation that members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) are called to work for “peace, justice, freedom, and human fulfillment, and care for God’s creation.” [G-1.0304].
The General Assembly in 1990 and again in 2010 challenged the church to recognize the urgency of the environmental crisis:
- The Creator-Redeemer calls faithful people to become engaged with God in keeping and healing the creation, human and nonhuman.
- Human life and well-being depend upon the flourishing of other life and the integrity of the life-supporting processes that God has ordained.
- The love of neighbor, particularly ―the least‖ of Christ‘s brothers and sisters, requires action to stop the poisoning, the erosion, the wastefulness that are causing suffering and death.
- The future of our children and their children and all who come after is at stake.
We affirm the words of the Joint Message for the Protection of the Environment issued on September 1, 2021, by Pope Francis, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church: These [present] crises present us with a choice. We are in a unique position either to address them with shortsightedness and profiteering or seize this as an opportunity for conversion and transformation. If we think of humanity as a family and work together towards a future based on the common good, we could find ourselves living in a very different world. Together we can share a vision for life where everyone flourishes. Together we can choose to act with love, justice, and mercy.
TAKE ACTION TODAY by contacting your Delegate and Senator in the Maryland Legislature urging them to support passage of the Maryland Environmental Human Rights Amendment.
We close with these words from the Rev. Diane Moffett, President & CEO of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, “God has a way of challenging us. When we care for and respond to people and creation in this world God has given us to steward — in a way that glorifies God and lifts up God’s people — then I dare say that we are being faithful followers of Jesus Christ.”
Questions from Presbyterian Churches about the Environmental Human Rights Amendment
For more information, to be kept apprised of the program and call to action for this amendment, to invite a speaker to address your congregation or green ministry and for ways to advocate for passage go to the website http://mdehr.org/ Feel free to contact Susan Krehbiel, Social Justice Consultant at the Presbytery, to let us know of any questions and actions you are taking. She can be reached at: skrehbiel@baltimorepresbytery.org
I Support this Call to Action
Signed,
First Presbyterian Church of Howard County
Earth Forum of Howard County
Catonsville Presbyterian Church
Faith Presbyterian Church
Towson Presbyterian Church
First Presbyterian Church of Annapolis
Christ Our Anchor Presbyterian Church
Govans Presbyterian Church
