Follow Blog from Copenhagen of Local Ecology Minister Who Made National News on Climate Change

Sister Joan Brown, a local resident who is part of a Franciscan delegation to the climate change talks in Copenhagen, was featured in USA Today’s cover story on Monday, December 7. The lengthy article, which included a front-page color photo of Sister Joan at a prayer vigil that took place last week at the Cathedral Church of St. John (Episcopal) in downtown Albuquerque, described the increasing conviction among people of faith that global warming is an urgent moral and spiritual issue, and portrayed the growing influence of the faith community on the debate over climate change.

Many people can't afford to make this trip," says Brown, who is using frequent flier miles and staying with a Danish family to cut costs. "But all our voices are needed, and this is one small way I can speak to the greatest moral and spiritual issue of our time."

... "I'm going to speak the truth to the delegates there, and try to educate people back here," she says. "It's our obligation for posterity to leave a world that exudes the beauty of the Creator for future generations."

... Other religious leaders in Copenhagen will include Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual head of the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion; Richard Cizik, a former vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals; Jim Ball, head of the Evangelical Environmental Network; South African cleric and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu; and representatives from the National Council of Churches (NCC), which encompasses more than 100,000 Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical and other congregations with 45 million members across the USA.

Sister Joan, who works in ecology ministries for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe, is also Executive Director of New Mexico Interfaith Power & Light (NMIPL), an alliance of one hundred faith communities throughout the state committed to creation care, energy efficiency/conservation and renewable energy.

Her daily blog from Copenhagen can be accessed through the NMIPL website, www.nm-ipl.org/.