Positions on Social Issues

Economic Justice, Employment, Energy

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Economic Justice

The 1999 Convention supported the 1998 Lambeth Resolution on International Debt and Economic Justice, noting the existence around the world of communities burdened by debt, its concerns for people burdened by debt incurred without their approval and/or without their participation in the decision process, and its serious objections where debt-encumbered funds have been used to make purchases unrelated to the economic needs of local peoples.


Employment and Training

Taking note of the "current economic depression" and its repercussions, including high unemployment among urban youth, Convention in 1975 urged government and voluntary organizations to make "gainful employment and training available to all," further urging the federal government to act as "an employer of last resort when necessary" by organizing constructive programs of employment.

 

Energy: Sources and Cost

Convention in 1979 urged those seeking alternative means of production, release or storage of energy to do so "in love of God and man, as acts of stewardship with responsibility," with no extended use of an energy-producing system until it is fully understood and will produce no waste products which cannot be satisfactorily disposed of "with no danger to the world or its peoples." The 1979 Convention also called for federal and state legislation to help those with marginal incomes meet the rapidly rising cost of home heating oil."

 

Environmnent

Delegates at the 2008 diocesan convention approved a resolution that "endorsed the Earth Charter as a declaration of global ethics consistent with the social, political, environmental and economic justice principles of the Diocese of New York and the Episcopal Church, and called upon the Council of the Diocese and the Social Concerns Commission to develop action steps that the diocese, parishes and individuals may take to implement the principles of the Earth Charter locally, nationally and internationally.

 

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