PB Sends Climate Delegation

An 11-member delegation representing Presiding Bishop Michael Curry will attend the 23rd United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany, Nov. 6-17.

Known as COP23, the United Nations Climate Change Conference is an annual meeting to focus on global dialogue and action on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Previous meetings have produced the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and the 2015 Paris Agreement, which serves as the basis for standards on climate action and lowering carbon emissions.

Led by Bishop Marc Andrus, the delegation will offer a spiritual presence through daily interfaith prayer and worship and by encouraging active churchwide participation by Episcopalians through virtual participation and social media.

A video from the Presiding Bishop is here.

These are the delegates:

• The Rt. Rev. Marc Andrus, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California
• Jack Cobb, domestic and environmental policy adviser, Office of Government Relations
• Lynnaia Main, the church’s representative to the United Nations
• Dr. Sheila Andrus, ecological entomologist and science manager
• The Rev. Andrew Barnett, associate for music and worship at the Washington National Cathedral and environmental scholar
• Michael Coffey, an atmospheric scientist and professor at the University of the South
• Nathan Empsall, Episcopal Church Global Partnerships/U.N. intern and communications specialist, and Yale Divinity School seminarian/master’s in environmental management student at Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies
• Perry Hodgkins Jones, writer and member of the Episcopal Church Advisory Council on the Stewardship of Creation
• The Rev. Melanie Mullen, the church’s director for reconciliation, justice, and creation care
• Tom Poynor, Episcopal Chaplain, UC-Berkeley, and scholar in theology and the arts
• Bill Slocumb, director of Episcopal Camps and Conference Centers and member of Episcopal Communicators

Matt Townsend

Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.