Dear Reformation,
Our Eco Ministry is undertaking an exciting new way to serve our neighbors. We are now a CREW certified Resilience Hub. CREW stands for Communities Responding to Extreme Weather. (You can learn more at climatecrew.org).
Reformation is called to respond faithfully to the reality of climate change, and this is one way that we are doing that in this time. As a resilience center, we provide services to our neighbors in the event of extreme weather and education for preparing for these events through ecological stewardship and community outreach.
We are currently a Level 1 Center – which focuses on engagement. That means we will provide resources and educational programs to help people prepare for extreme weather. To access those resources to help in your own preparations, visit relcmedia.org/resilience.
In the coming months, there will be an educational program about preparedness sponsored by our Eco Team. We are also working closely with the Wellness Center at Grace and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Delaware County to expand our support of the community through these partnerships.
If you would like to be involved in this work, please reach out to me and we will add you to the team!
Thank you for all the ways you help us serve our neighbors!
Pastor Alina
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Extreme Humidity, Local Action: Building Our Resiliency Hub
As extreme heatwaves become more frequent, local communities face growing health risks and infrastructure strain from rising temperatures and oppressive humidity. To help our neighbors adapt, Reformation Lutheran Church is working to establish a local Resiliency Hub. We are in early stages of a goal to equip our property with emergency cooling, backup power, clean water, and charging stations during power grid failures or extreme weather. Our goal is not only to serve as a safe haven for our immediate neighbors, but also to create a practical blueprint that can be shared with other faith communities across our region. Key findings from the recent World Weather Attribution study, Fossil Fuels Are Heating America’s 250th Birthday, highlight why this work is so urgent:
- On climate change as the direct driver:
” WBGT reached the highest observed values on record across the study region. (Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBTG) is a measure for humid heat extremes especially designed to measure the impact of humid heat during physical activity. - On future prevalence and accelerating risk:
“Research shows that the likelihood of shattering records is proportional to the rate of warming, meaning that the very fast increase in greenhouse gas emissions in recent years has made such events much more likely.” - On community vulnerability & the need for action plans:
“Cities like New York, Philadelphia and Chicago have activated heat action plans…However, there remains an urgent need for wider accelerated roll-out of heat action plans in light of increasing vulnerability, driven by the intersecting trends of climate change and population ageing, paying also special attention to the mental health impacts of extreme heat.”