The fossil fuel divestment spirit is sweeping faith communities around the world. Today, the trustees of the Union Theological Seminary in New York City voted unanimously to begin divesting the school\u2019s entire $108.4 million endowment from fossil fuels, becoming the world\u2019s first seminary to take this dramatic step in the fight against global climate change.<\/p>\n
Union\u2019s decision is especially significant because of the seminary\u2019s reputation as a center for progressive social change. Union\u2019s faculty has included great thinkers like Walter Rauschenbusch, Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, James Cone, Cornel West, and others.<\/p>\n
As 350.org founder Bill McKibben put it in our press release about the announcement, \u201cUnion is the cradle of progressive Protestantism in the US, so I expect this decision will have a major impact. Not only is Union a moral leader, it’s also a resident of Manhattan with long ties to the city’s leaders, meaning that divestment now has a foothold in the world’s financial capital. I predict this will be the first of many seminaries that heed the call to stand up for God\u2019s creation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the last year, the financial case for divestment has become increasingly clear. Earlier this spring, the Natural Resources Defense Council partnered with BlackRock, one of the world\u2019s largest investment firms, to offer a fossil free fund–a sign of how the movement is becoming more mainstream.<\/p>\n
For Union, however, the financial argument was secondary to the moral imperative to divest. \u201cScripture tells us that all of the world is God\u2019s precious creation, and our place within it is to care for and respect the health of the whole,\u201d said Union President Serene Jones. \u201cAs a seminary dedicated to social justice, we have a critical call to live out our values in the world. Climate change poses a catastrophic threat, and as stewards of God\u2019s creation we simply must act.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cClimate change is affecting this globe, it\u2019s killing people, and it\u2019s going to destroy what the world looks like as we know it,\u201d said Michael Johnston, the head of Union\u2019s investment committee and a former Executive Vice President with Capital Group Companies, one of the world\u2019s largest investment management organizations. \u201cAs a seminary we have a moral obligation to no longer profit from the misery inflicted on God\u2019s creation by the production of fossil fuels. I hope that people see our actions as a beacon of hope, and recognize that there are things we can do as a country and as a people to cut down on our greenhouse gas emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Union is part of a growing movement of religious institutions around the world who have taken up the divestment campaign. Dozens of churches, from Anglicans in New Zealand to Quakers in the United Kingdom, have divested their holdings. The United Church of Christ of Massachusetts and Minnesota, the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Oregon, the Maine Council of Churches, and others have all supported divestment.<\/p>\n
Union\u2019s announcement will hopefully build momentum for other religious communities to take action. Next week, the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) will consider a fossil fuel divestment proposal at its General Assembly in Detroit. Twelve regional Presbyteries across the country have already voted to affirm the climate-change overture. Just this February, the Mid-Kentucky Presbytery<\/a>, in the heart of coal country, joined the effort. The Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations is expected to debate divestment this summer, as well.<\/p>\n According to divestment organizers in NYC, Union\u2019s decision will also increase pressure on the city to divest its pension funds from fossil fuels. \u201cNow that divestment has a firm foothold in Manhattan, the pressure is building on New York City to divest its pension funds from fossil fuels. Union Theological Seminary has helped make the moral case crystal clear: it is wrong to invest in companies that are wrecking the planet and imperiling the future of NYC,\u201d \u00a0Lyna Hinkel from 350 NYC.<\/p>\n \u201cUnion\u2019s vote to divest is prophetic and strong,\u201d said the Rev. Fletcher Harper of GreenFaith, an interfaith environmental group which has advocated fossil fuel divestment and clean energy reinvestment by religious institutions. \u00a0\u201cThe seminary\u2019s commitment highlights the grave danger posed by climate change and the fossil fuel industry, and is a model for seminaries globally.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The fossil fuel divestment spirit is sweeping faith communities around the world. Today, the trustees of the Union Theological Seminary…<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6085,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gofossilfree.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}