Our diverse religious and spiritual traditions call us to work for social change that embraces differences based on race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, and disability. We believe relationships must be centered in justice and equity within the human family, as well as with all of the natural world. We bear this responsibility with integrity and accountability, striving to be a network that models what is right, even when the path is not obvious or easy. Pennsylvania Interfaith Power & Light is actively working to become an organization that reflects these values.

As advocates for people and planet, we acknowledge the following:

We acknowledge Indigenous peoples who were forcibly removed from the lands of so-called Pennsylvania through brutal acts of violence and colonization. We recognize their loving stewardship of these lands and acknowledge the value of Indigenous ways and wisdom in our environmental and climate work. We acknowledge the ongoing presence of Indigenous peoples on these lands and their efforts for recognition which continue to this day, especially through the Land Back movement.

We acknowledge African American peoples and the brutal histories of violence and oppression through enslavement, segregation, and redlining. We commit to identifying and addressing systemic racism and anti-Blackness. We recognize the need to end the historic disenfranchisement of Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color, address racially rooted economic and health disparities, counter policing and carceral structures, and dismantle structures of racial and economic marginalization including through the practice of reparations. Black Lives Matter.

We acknowledge that climate change impacts are felt more strongly by women, communities of color, children and youth, elderly, LGBTQIA2s+, disabled, and the poor. We acknowledge ongoing colonization and occupation (and the militarism that accompanies it) as leading causes of the global climate crisis. We acknowledge the disproportionate impacts of rising temperatures and sea levels on small island communities and the Global South. We acknowledge the direct connections between the changing climate and increases in forced migration, displacement, and rising refugee populations.

We acknowledge the complexities of building multi-faith coalitions and networks while affirming the necessity of these spaces. We commit to fostering a network that reflects the religious diversity of our region and that works to address discrimination, bias, and harm against communities on the basis of their religious practice or ethnic identity (including but not limited to Anti-Arab sentiment, Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, Orientalism, and Religiocentrism). We reject Christian nationalism and supremacy.

We acknowledge Article 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution which states: The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. We recognize that disproportionate burdens of pollution and climate change have fallen on vulnerable communities in our Commonwealth in negligence of this mandate, and that institutions and corporations must be held accountable for this injustice.

As advocates for people and planet, we affirm our commitment to the following:

• Principles of Environmental Justice as outlined by the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991
• Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing
• Equitable and Just National Climate Platform
• United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
• Fossil Fuel Non Proliferation Treaty
• Declaration on Climate Change of the 2015 Parliament of the World’s Religions

Regular text indicate new commitments; italics indicates previously held commitments re-affirmed

We commit to being a learning organization, honoring the stories and voices of those most-impacted as we build organizational culture and priorities. We commit to the practice of bidirectional communication, relationships, and community input. We commit to cultivating awareness of power dynamics, dominance culture, and patterns of oppression, while attending to the work of decolonization and to the specific acts of centering self- and community- care in this pursuit. We recognize that these commitments will take personal and collective responsibility, the sidelining of the right to comfort, and a willingness to acquire new knowledge and skills.

We will strive to center these values in our public programming, active campaigns, internal processes, policy positions, training and recruitment efforts, funding and development, and beyond. We recognize that each acknowledgement and affirmation within this statement requires specialized attention. We will work to develop specific and measurable frameworks to guide and assess our outcomes along with opportunities for growth. We commit to being transparent about our process and progress as we move towards practicing beloved community.

Together, we strive towards just and sustainable futures for all who call this planet home.

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Adopted on August 27, 2024

Pennsylvania Interfaith Power & Light Board of Directors
Sarah Klinetob Lowe
Rev. Stacy Chavis
William Cozzens
Vanessa Lowe
Phyllis Blumberg

Pennsylvania Interfaith Power & Light Team
Katie Ruth
Renika Weimer
Tyler Fowler
Arielle Sternman

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