Mennonite shares insights on climate change with government leaders

November 20, 2015 | Web First
Deborah Froese | Mennonite Church Canada

Willard Metzger will attend the United Nations Framework Climate Change Conference, Nov. 30 to Dec. 11, 2015, in Paris, France, on behalf of The Canadian Council of Churches (CCC), where he serves as a vice-president. Metzger is Mennonite Church Canada’s executive director.

In 2011 Metzger met about a dozen senators on behalf of CCC. At that meeting he shared his perspectives about climate justice and faith with a group of senators and members of Parliament in Ottawa–including Canada’s new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, then a Liberal MP. Metzger discovered that it wasn’t the first time Trudeau had made a connection between faith and climate change.

 “Whether individuals believe that climate change is human induced or not, the facts remain that sea levels are rising, deserts are expanding, violent storms are becoming stronger and more frequent, and that the poor, especially children, are paying the highest price,” he said to the group.

Following his presentation, Metzger offered a copy of his booklet Thanking God with Integrity: Volume II: Table Grace in a World Struggling with Climate Change (World Vision, 2010) to each senator and MP.

But Trudeau declined the booklet. “He told me that he already had a copy,” Metzger reflects. “Then he said ‘and it’s really good.’”

Read the text for Metzger’s 2011 message to the senators and MPs here.  The book Table Grace in a World Struggling with Climate Change is available at CommonWord. 

Metzger says he hopes to reconnect with Prime Minister Trudeau and other Canadian leaders at the 2015 Climate Change Conference.

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