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Join the KCC Program Unit on Local Economies and the Environment

Please click here to read our Policy Statement on Caring for God's Earth. This policy was adopted, unanimously, by representatives of all of the Kentucky Council of Churches' member judicatores and congregations. This statement shapes the boundaires of what the KCC can do to educate and advocate.

This body has not been meeting for long, but is assembling a speakers bureau; has co-sponsored a mountaintop flyover to raise awareness of religious leaders to MTR; has secured healthy, organic, and locally-produced food for the Kentucky Council of Churches' Annual Assembly (at a more affordable rate than non-local, organic sources); and after consultation with Wendell Berry and the Community Farm Alliance has co-sponsored (with Oxfam International) an ad in Kentucky newspapers to try to save food stamps and reform mega-farm subsidies without hurting small farmers as Congress prepared to make massive cuts somewhere in the Ag budget; and we selected Gerry Roll and Jean Beard to attend a meeting in Washington DC to present our agenda before Federal leaders and the media.

This group exists to:

· Make local people aware of justice issues involved in the production and distribution of goods, agricultural and otherwise.
· Network with faith-based and other organizations that have an interest in environmental justice issues and local economy issues so we can jointly publicize events, and make people aware of needs, problems, and resources that will be useful in helping to understand the issues and look for solutions that faith-based groups can embrace.
· Make memembers of our churches aware of the value of buying products that are produced locally, and where such products are available for purchase.
· Promote better health through promotion of healthy food, water, soil and air throughout the Commonwealth.

The Kentucky Council of Churches (KCC) is a cooperative organization of thirteen different branches of the Christian family tree in Kentucky, Protestant and Catholic, having a total membership of more than 800,000 Christians. It was established in 1947, succeeding the Kentucky Sunday School Union, which began in 1865. Today the Council includes, as full members, twenty-two regional judicatories of eleven different denominations, including three conferences of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, one district of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the statewide region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), one synod of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, the two KY dioceses of the Episcopal Church, the KY synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the four KY presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., four dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church, one conference of the United Church of Christ, and the three KY conferences of the United Methodist Church— all as full members at these "mid-judicatory" levels. Such regional representation is permitted by the current KCC Constitution and By-Laws, but individual congregational membership is also possible. Individual Baptist, Reformed, and independent Christian Churches are also full members of the Kentucky Council of Churches. Quakers, the Salvation Army, and the Kentucky Baptist Fellowship have decided to try out KCC membership with official “Observer Status.” Membership in a KCC member body is not required to join the KCC Program Unit on Local Economies and the Environment.

Contact Chris Skidmore at 859-269-7715 or wcbs at kycouncilofchurches.org to join this Program Unit
or click here to sign-up online!