Submitted by First Parish in Bedford
First Parish in Bedford, a Unitarian Universalist church, unanimously voted in favor of a resolution to endorse the aspirational goals of the Green New Deal (GND) at its annual meeting of the congregation on June 2, 2019. Feel free to visit the First Parish website and share the GND resolution with your own representatives.
The Green New Deal put forth by Senator Edward Markey of MA and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of NY proposes a ten-year national mobilization effort to address the escalating social chaos we will encounter with runaway climate change. First Parish sees the GND as the only federal plan put forward so far to adequately address the interwoven crises of climate catastrophe and economic inequality at the scale that science and justice demand.
First Parish Bedford thanks the Environmental Team at First Parish Concord for sharing their summary GND resolution. We were both inspired by Sunrise Movement students at Concord Academy and their successful pitch to the Concord Select Board to approve a GND resolution in February.
First Parish in Bedford is located in a problem-solving high-tech engineering community near Boston. Its accomplishments on behalf of climate justice include:
- Green Sanctuary church certification by the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA)
- Solar panels on the church roof, which required winning a local historic district lawsuit
- Climate education programming, including concerts, films, and lectures
- Protests against expansion of fossil fuels, including the Dakota Access Pipeline
- Votes for divestment of fossil fuels and Our Right to a Livable Climate