Climate Crisis, Human Journey: A Faithful Response to Migration

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As people who care deeply about the climate crisis and our sacred creation, we cannot ignore the connections between human migration and what is happening to the earth. Our country is the largest historical contributor to climate-changing emissions globally. As such, we are profoundly shaping the instability of ecologies and economies that displace people all over the world – only to then reject and vilify those who are displaced and seeking livable and workable conditions in our midst.

Rev. Dr. Lorraine Cineceros speaks poignantly of our country’s present crisis of migration in a public prayer, excerpted below:

Holy Creator of the Unbordered Sky—

We come to you today not in peace,
but in protest.

We come carrying names they won’t say on the news,
wrists red from zip ties,
hearts scarred from history,
and prayers thick with the sound of our ancestors
saying “Again?” (full prayer here)

With new and ancient eyes, we see that the collision of the current adminstration’s immigration policies with the already present realities of climate change are creating conditions for an unprecedented humanitarian crisis of global migration – especially for our siblings in the global south.

As people of faith and conscience, we are called to continually connect the dots between climate and migration. We are called to resist the normalization of taking too much from each other and from the earth. We are called witness to the truth of unbordered skies, unbordered rivers, and unbordered hearts.

We are called to ground ourselves in what is real: migration has always been a holy expression of creaturely existence. Migration is the shape of the monarch butterfly, generation upon generation journeying back and forth from the Rocky Mountain West to the alpine forests of Mexico and everything in between. Migration is the song of the sandhill crane dancing in our fields each winter, departing in the rush of spring – each way, they are following the direction home. Migration is the creative, restless, adaptive impulse of the human family – ever pushed and pulled into new horizons, longing to exchange stories, art, music, food, culture, life, and love amidst the dignity of our differences.

As we lament and resist the conditions that force people from their homelands, may we also recognize and celebrate the gifts of beauty, creativity, insight, connection, healing and community that are meant to flow freely across our so called borders and between our holy and ever-merging lives.

As a part of our moral calling to protect Mother Earth, may we seek to create the conditions in which people are welcomed to the places we call home with the depths of dignity and love expressed at the core of all our spiritual and faith traditions.

Rev. Clara Sims
Assistant Executive Director, NM and El Paso Interfaith Power and Light

“They Thought They Could Bury Us…” The Church and the Climate Crisis

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“They thought they could bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.”

These words were on the front cover of a small publication someone had left behind at the coffee shop where I was engaged in conversation. The words became sweeter than the latte I was sipping. They are about resilience, yes, but even more—they speak the language of resurrection.

“It’s the story of Jesus—buried and rising. It’s the call of the Church—resilient and rising.” And if ever there was a time to be called out—to be the ekklesia—it’s now.

The Greek word ekklesia doesn’t mean a building or a denomination. It means a people called out from wherever they are into public assembly—to talk about a crisis in the community, or even the cosmos. That’s what the early church did. That’s what we are supposed to do.

And what could be more of a cosmic crisis than climate change?

Now I know—I can hear the objection: “The church shouldn’t get political.” But honestly, when has the church not been involved in the crises of its time, at least when it’s been at its best? Abolition. Civil rights. Peace movements. The call to care for the poor. These weren’t distractions from the gospel. They were the gospel, lived out loud.

So here we are again. The planet is groaning, quite literally. Wildfires, floods, rising seas, vanishing species—not warnings of some distant apocalypse, but signs of one already unfolding. This is not a drill. And yet, this is not a moment without hope.

I want to be clear: the church is still here. Even if people don’t hear about us much anymore. Even if our voice has been drowned out by louder ones that claim Jesus for their own political agenda. Even if some days we wonder if our voice matters at all.

It does. It must.

This is not just a scientific issue, though science is crucial. This is a moral issue. A justice issue. A spiritual issue. The people harmed first and worst by climate disruption are the poor, the young, the marginalized, the voiceless—just the ones Jesus always seemed to be drawn to. And we must not forget the non-human species with whom we share the planet.

If we believe in love of neighbor,
we cannot ignore this.
If we believe the earth is God’s creation,
we cannot treat it like a landfill.
If we believe resurrection is real,
then we must believe that even now, new life can rise from the ash.

The church still gathers every week. We still sing, and pray, and listen. What if we listened to the cries of the earth? What if our prayers included the forests, the coral reefs, the farmers in drought, the children yet unborn? What if we looked at our budgets, our buildings, our energy use—and asked, “What would love do here?”

It’s time to reclaim our voice—not in fear or anger, but in courage and faith.

Let us be the seeds.
Let us be the saints.
Let us be the ekklesia the world needs right now. We’ve been buried long enough.

Let’s rise.

– Rev. Harry Eberts

 

We Are Earth: A Faithful Response to the Climate Crisis

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As leaders in Washington D.C. push harmful climate policies, they endanger us all—including themselves. In our recent newsletter, our Executive Director, Desirée Bernard, calls us to walk together toward justice, healing, and hope. Read her full statement below.

Dear NM & El Paso IPL Community,

Across our beautiful planet and region we are witnessing the impacts of the climate crisis. Each day we struggle to metabolize information about new disasters, threats, and diminishments to our sacred creation. We see extractivist worldviews driving leaders in Washington D.C. to push policies that don’t just harm the planet – they endanger everyone, including the people advancing them. So many of the truths we are called to witness in this moment are weighing upon and breaking our hearts.

“They tried to bury us; they didn’t know we were seeds.”

And still we the people–we are Earth! If we had forgotten, we are increasingly waking up to this reality. When we harm that which sustains us, we harm ourselves. And when we rise to protect that, we are protecting ourselves and our loved ones. Arising to protect. This, too, is who we are.

We the people cannot be stopped in our widespread and still-emerging movements to care for ourselves, one another, and our common home.

We invite you to join our efforts at New Mexico and El Paso Interfaith Power and Light. We are already mobilizing and planning to further mobilize projects that put our faith in action to protect our climate, lands, waters, and people.

Are you or your faith community ready to reduce your greenhouse gas emissions, collaborate on land and water based projects, or advocate for helpful policies? We are here to support you in your desire to do something!

Together we are choosing and will keep walking a path of justice, healing, and hope.

Together, rooted in courage and love, we can and will shape a future where all beings may thrive.

In faith and solidarity,

Desirée Bernard

Executive Director, NM and El Paso Interfaith Power and Light