“There’s a long-standing belief that human beings are meant to do whatever they want more or less [with the environment],” Page said. “But in the last fifteen years, there’s been a real change, and Christians have begun to see climate change as a moral issue.”

Page has worked at Harvard to mobilize religious people around climate change issues, including helping organize a Climate Convocation at Memorial Church early last month, which featured multi-faith advocacy for environmental causes and key-note speaker William E. McKibben ’82.

“It’s time for people who do believe in combating climate change to speak up about it,” Page said. “The stakes are very high...it’s an issue [of] death and destruction.”

For Bishop Roy F. “Bud” Cederholm, suffragan bishop of the Massachusetts Diocesis, climate change and environmental degradation is not only definitively linked to Christian theology, but is at its core. It is the “most serious ethical, moral, and justice issue that the church faces today” and should be at the forefront of churches’ agendas, he said.

Cederholm, the acclaimed ‘green’ bishop of Massachusetts, has been active in the past years in getting Anglican churches on board about climate change, encouraging churches to become more energy efficient and network with state-wide groups to pressure politicians to change public policy.

“Creation is a gift from god, it’s an absolute sin to destroy, abuse and harm it in the ways we’ve done,” Cederholm said. “I want my grandchildren to have an earth with the resources and beauty we have all been blessed with. We need to repent, repair, and renew the creation of the earth.”

—Staff writer Natasha S. Whitney can be reached at nwhitney@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Jessie Jiang can be reached at jiang9@fas.harvard.edu.