Witness and Action for Earth Care
ABOUT VTIPL
Vermont Interfaith Power and Light (VTIPL) is a faith-based organization formed by about a dozen people from different faith communities who wanted to take action to address the climate crisis. They began meeting late in 2002 to begin laying the necessary groundwork for an Interfaith Power and Light organization in Vermont. The Environmental Ministry Team of the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont, with the support of Bishop Thomas Ely, provided the impetus to get this started.
In June 2004, VTIPL officially formed after the officers and Board of Directors were chosen. The Vermont Ecumenical Council (VEC) helped to launch VTIPL and it operated under VEC’s non-profit umbrella for four years. VTIPL was incorporated in the State of Vermont in September 2008.
The Interfaith Power and Light (IPL) movement began in the mid 1990’s. It was started by an Episcopal priest, The Rev. Canon Sally Bingham, and others, including Steve MacAusland, who went on to form Massachusetts Interfaith Power and Light, and helped VTIPL get started. Interfaith Power and Light is the campaign and main activity of The Regeneration Project, based in Vermont; Sally Bingham served as President for the first decade and a half.
Forty states have IPL organizations, and each one is different because each state is different. What all the IPL organizations have in common is that they work with faith and spiritual communities to address global climate change. They are not "chapters" of the national organization. The state IPLs and national IPL are affiliated in a network that shares goals, resources and information.
Presented by Sam Swanson at the Shelburne Methodist Church for the Shelburne Thanksgiving Interfaith Service, sponsored by Shelburne Methodist Church, St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church, All Souls Interfaith Gathering, and Trinity Episcopal Church.
Shelburne Interfaith Thanksgiving
Worship Service Message - Sam Swanson
November 19, 2023
Thank you very much for inviting Vermont Interfaith Power and Light to join with you in this interfaith celebration of Thanksgiving
This afternoon we pause to give thanks for all that we have and commit to helping those who struggle.
Vermont Interfaith Power and Light exists to give voice to a multi-faith commitment to address the immediate impacts of a changing climate, in Vermont and beyond and to support action needed now to avoid worse impacts in the future.
So what is Vermont Interfaith Power & Light . . .
We are volunteers from Vermont’s many different faith and spirit traditions. Our Board of Directors over time has included people from Jewish, Episcopalian, Methodist, Catholic, United Church of Christ, Lutheran, Unitarian Universalist, Islamic, and Budhists congregations.
Vermont Interfaith Power and Light exists to support individual congregation action to confront the climate crisis.
Leaders of our major faith traditions are speaking out, calling for climate action, the action required ● to halt the now rapidly increasing global temperatures, and ● to remedy the already apparent injustice being meted out by the impacts of a changing climate, and ● to ensure the climate remedies address the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable. Faith leaders recognize that the rapidly warming planet is at heart a spiritual crisis.
We celebrate the Earth as a precious gift. We acknowledge our responsibility to care for each other and for the other creatures with whom we share this precious planet.
It has become abundantly clear that the impacts of climate change .... the flooding of streams and rivers close to home here in Vermont, the extreme heat waves in the south and west, the growing number of forest fires in many parts of the world, rising tides that flood coastal communities . . . hurt most the vulnerable among us. The injustice is stark - the most vulnerable have done the least to cause a warming planet but are impacted the most and are least able to recover from the hurts that befall them.
Clearly, the drivers of a rapidly changing climate and its impact on life systems are based on the science of a changing atmosphere and the complex chain of cause and effects that are disrupting life systems. It is all too clear that the actions of the more than 8 billion people who live, love, and work on Earth that are driving these changes. The climate crisis is ultimately a moral crisis that confronts all faith traditions.
This is about the choices we make, in our individual lives, in the businesses that provide us with products and services, and in the policies and programs our government leaders plan and adopt.
Climate scientists now tell us that we have only a short time to slow and reverse global temperatures. In the words of climate scientist Michael Maan, we now find ourselves in what may be termed a fragile moment, a very brief remaining time when we have the opportunity to take bold steps to avert increasingly severe climate changes, to sustain the climate conditions that have over eons enabled human civilization to prosper.
VTIPL exists to empower our Vermont faith and spirit community to act. By working together as a multi-faith community of congregations committed to taking action, we aim to improve the quality of the work each of us is doing, helping each other, empowering the communities of faith to act effectively.
VTIPL exists to empower our Vermont faith and spirit community to act. By working together as a multi-faith community of congregations committed to taking action, we aim to improve the quality of the work each of us is doing, helping each other, empowering the communities of faith to act effectively.
The first pathway . . .
Empowering our community to advocate
We are most effective when voices from individual congregations are advocating action. VTIPL works to help us do this work effectively.
VTIPL participates in the community of public interest organizations, working to make sure that faith community is at the table when plans are being made and key issues evaluated. The Vermont Clean Heat Standard legislation developed and adopted last year provides a good example. Faith community voices successfully pressed for ensuring that the needs of people with the fewest resources, people already struggling to feed and house their families will be addressed in plans to accelerate a switch from fossil fueled heating to clean energy sources
Again and again we hear from legislative leaders that they listen to faith community voices because our views are credible and tied to deeply held values. We have learned that the letters and phone calls to our local representatives are effective at influencing outcomes at key moments in the legislative process. VTIPL works to ensure that your advocacy is timely and connected to the important climate program decisions our government leaders are making.
On this upcoming February 28th Vermont Interfaith Power and Light with Vermont Interfaith Action will host a Faith Climate Action Day at the Vermont Statehouse. We invite you to join us for this day of meetings and conversations with our elected representatives.
This gathering of people from diverse Vermont faith communities communicates powerfully our message that we need to act, and that such action must address the needs of those who are hurt most by a changing climate, the people who are least able to protect themselves and their families. Plan to join us on February 28.
While much of our work is focuses on Vermont, we also track national policies and programs that are being put forward to address climate justice nationwide. VTIPL is part of a national network of more than 40 state IPL organizations that are supported by thousands of faiths communities nationwide. This network enables Vermont congregations to speak effectively on national policy and programs.
Transition The second pathway for our work....
Helping congregations walk the talk on climate change
Vermont Interfaith Power and Light has from our start worked at helping individual congregations to make improvements in their buildings and operations that will reduce their carbon emissions, what we call the carbon footprint.
We have provided more than 200 free energy assessments to congregations statewide. These on-site assessments help congregations identify action opportunities for carbon emission reductions in their buildings.
We also help congregations with funding support to make these improvements. VTIPL’s Climate Action Grant program offers matching grants to enable Vermont faith and spiritual communities to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. For example, these grants can help congregations
Obtain professional energy audits of their facilities,
Reduce energy use by weatherizing congregation building and purchase high efficiency heating equipment, and
Switch from using fossil fuels to renewable energy.
VTIPL’s Climate Action Grant program has awarded more than $200,000 in 40 matching grants to Vemont congregations. We have provided grants that range from a few hundred dollars to obtain a professional energy audits to grants of several thousand dollars for actual building improvements.
These grants are having a big impact. I offer the example of my home congregation, Ascension Lutheran Church in South Burlington. With funding help from this Climate Action Grant Program Ascension has successfully cut by half our climate emissions. The resulting energy bill reductions have repaid the cost to our congregation many times over, freeing up funds we now use to support our church life.
Transition
The third component of our work Supporting congregation volunteers who are stepping up to do this important work extends to everything VTIPL does.
All of our work in one way or another aims to support these congregation volunteers who have embraced this commitment to confront climate injustice, to advocate for community action that will halt reverse the increasing global temperatures, and to help congregations reduce their contributions to the problem.
Beyond communicating news about emerging issues and new action opportunities in newsletters, email communications, and workshop and webinar meetings, VTIPL is also recognizes that this is difficult work. Our work brings us very much in touch with what has already been lost or what we may soon lose: clean air, cool waters, beloved birds, treasured forests, vulnerable communities, not to mention our own optimism and innocence. It can be difficult to sustain hope in the face of accumulating reasons to despair.
In September VTIPL convened a gathering at the Rock Point Commons, Finding Balance in a Times in Time of Darkness: An Equinox Lament & Celebration of Earth. This gathering was facilitated by Jewish, Christian and other spiritual leaders from the VTIPL community. The gathering sought to connect us with nature and one another in ways that leave us newly energized for this important work.
WRAP UP
In closing I want to acknowledge and thank you for support VTIPL has received over the years from people in the Shelburne community.
We have only one part-time staff so much of the work we do is performed by volunteers, especially members of our Board of Directors, which is comprised of clergy and congregation lay leaders. Rev Dick Hibbert, a member of your Shelburne Methodist congregation, plays an important role in sustaining the work of VTIPL. on our Board. Rev Hibbert led the VTIPL as Board President for several years and continues to contribute to supporting the multi-faith community of congregations VTIPL serves.
And, the donations Shelburne’s faith and spirit communities make each year help us to sustain the work we do . We have a small operating budget, depending heavily on volunteers. Your donations make a large contribution to our work.
Thank you.
VTIPL has active and dedicated officers and board members who are committed to working with Vermont’s faith communities and individuals to take action on the climate crisis. Our network of members is growing (the faith community member list is posted on this website under “Membership”, and individuals are also encouraged to join). If your faith community is not yet a member, please ask them to join! Together, we can take meaningful steps and have an impact. Global climate change is a moral and spiritual crisis; it is right that faith communities set an example and take an active leadership role in addressing it.
VTIPL Board Members, Officers and Staff
Richard Butz
Professor Rebecca Gould
Rosanne Greco
Frank Guillot
The Rev. Richard Hibbert, Webmaster
Ron McGarvey, President
The Rev. Sister Laurian Seeber
Sam Swanson, Treasurer
Harris Webster
The Rev. Nancy Wright, Vice-President
Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder, Coordinator
Meet Our Board and Staff
Board President
Ron McGarvey
Ron has been a member of Vermont Interfaith Power and Light since 2005. As a volunteer, Ron has provided free energy assessments for over 200 Vermont faith communities. These assessments identify opportunities for energy efficiency improvements and referrals to resources that can provide technical assistance and/or financial incentives. He has also been involved in the development and operation of the Katy Gerke Memorial Program which can provide matching grants for energy audits, efficiency and renewable energy projects.
Prior to joining VTIPL he was the Director of Residential Energy Services for Efficiency Vermont and prior to that Manager, Energy Conservation Service for MichCon, a natural gas distribution utility in Michigan.
Board Vice-President
The Rev. Dr. Nancy Wright
The Rev. Dr. Nancy Wright is the pastor of Ascension Lutheran Church, S. Burlington, Vermont, and the Environmental Liaison for the New England Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. She received the M.Div. degree from Union Theological Seminary, New York City, and the Doctorate of Ministry degree in Leadership Studies from Boston University School of Theology. Pr. Nancy worked as a congregational coordinator at Earth Ministry, Seattle, and as a Program Associate at CODEL--Coordination in Development, which supported sustainable development projects around the world. Wright coauthored Ecological Healing; A Christian Vision (1993, with Fr. Donald Kill), "Christianity and Environmental Justice" (Crosscurrents, June 2011), and the chapter "Living Water" in Living Cosmology: Christian Responses to Journey of the Universe (2016). She and her congregation, with the support and cooperation of Vermont Interfaith Power and Light, created the Congregational Watershed Discipleship Manual, which she and fellow Board member Richard Butz co-authored . It is available in both Christian and interreligious versions.
Treasurer
Sam Swanson
Sam, a founding Board member of VTIPL, over time has served as Board Vice President and President and now serves as Board Treasurer. In addition to his long-term volunteer commitment to VTIPL, Sam has contributed to Vermont’s climate change action efforts serving on the South Burlington Energy Committee, the Vermont Clean Energy Development Board, and the governing board of Renewable Energy Vermont. Sam is a member of Ascension Lutheran Church in South Burlington where he has helped organize a sustained effort by this congregation to contribute to the global campaign to address climate change. Over a twenty-year period, Ascension has reduced electricity use by more than 35 percent and cut natural gas use by more than 50 percent. Now retired, Sam spent the first half of his work-life addressing the environmental impacts of energy at the New York State Public Service Commission and the second half at not-for-profit public policy organizations, initially at Western Resource Advocates in Colorado and then at the Pace Energy and Climate Center at Pace University’s Elizabeth Haub School of Law.
Board Member
Richard Butz
Richard retired to Vermont after 46 years of college teaching in areas including ceramics, design and engineering technology. A Lutheran minister father and nurse/administrator mother who both loved fishing and nature, imbued in him an obligation to serve and a passion for the environment. Believing that people will care for the quality of water if it drips in their laps, he initiated a boat building program in Buffalo for urban youth and their families, coupled with water testing, to give them access to and perspective of local waters in which they fished and played. This led to a popular manual, Building the Six Hour Canoe, that gave amateur builders a simple and inexpensive way to get on the water and provided a model that could be used to create similar programs around the world. He has served as president of the board of Buffalo Niagara River Keeper, The Maine Crafts Council, and is on the Bristol Energy Committee, and the boards of The Addison County River Watch Collaborative, Vermont Interfaith Power and Light and the Church Council of Ascension Lutheran Church in South Burlington. Along with his pastor Nancy Wright, he coauthored the Congregational Watershed Discipleship Manual sponsored by VTIPL. He also volunteers as teacher and worker at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum.
Board Member
Prof. Rebecca Kneale Gould
Becky is a Professor of Religion and Affiliate in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College. She is a graduate of several training programs at Elat Chayyim Center for Jewish Spirituality. Becky is a member of the Addison County Havurah.
Board Member
Rosanne Greco
Rosanne Greco is the newest member of the Board, joining it in October 2024. She grew up in a rural area of Scranton, PA surrounded by fields and woods, and lots of animals, including horses, sheep, chickens, birds, dogs, and cats. That’s where she developed a kinship with nature and animals. She was raised Roman Catholic, went to Catholic schools, and was taught by the Sisters of Christian Charity. Right after eighth grade, Rosanne entered the convent where she lived (and prayed) for seven years. She left the convent, worked her way through college, and then joined the U.S. Air Force in order to use the GI bill to get an advanced degree, which she did. She has a BA in Psychology, a MS in Counseling and Guidance, and all course work completed for a PhD in International Relations. Rosanne served on active duty for 30 years. She was a intelligence officer specializing in strategic nuclear weapons and arms control, and retired as a full Colonel in 2003.
Rosanne moved to Vermont primarily because of the state’s reputation for respecting and protecting the natural environment. But after seeing open lands destroyed for housing developments, she started advocating for the preservation of the natural environment. She was elected to the South Burlington City Council. During her tenure, she enacted a pause on development in order to adopt plans to conserve the rural lands in the city. She also joined the South Burlington Land Trust, and was elected to its Board of Directors. In June 2024, she was elected President of the Land Trust.
After leaving the Catholic Church, Rosanne found her religious home in Unitarian Universalism (UU). She joined the First UU Society of Burlington (FUUSB), and became an active member of the Society. She volunteered on multiple FUUSB committees, including being the chair of the Social Justice Committee and the chair of the Climate Justice Committee. She also started and chaired a climate conversation group. She was elected to the FUUSB Board of Trustees, and served on that for a few years, during which time she led the annual fund-raising effort. She currently participates in Sunday services at both the FUUSB and at All Souls Interfaith Gathering in Shelburne.
Rosanne has always had a deep spiritual connection with nature. Her passion to protect the natural world is integral to her spiritual beliefs. This has led to her activism work around the climate crisis. She firmly believes that nature can save us from the worst of the climate crisis if human beings change our culture of accumulation and exploitation to one of sharing and compassion.
Board Member, Webmaster
The Rev. Richard Hibbert
Dick Hibbert is a retired United Methodist pastor who last served the First United Methodist Church in Burlington. It was during that ministry that he joined the board fo VTIPL, serving at times as oits secretary and president. In retirement, he took up the responsibility of managing the organizations website, taking a break from active board membership. He has recently rejoined the board as a full member and is continuing to serve as its Webmaster.
Board Member
The Rev. Sister Laurian Seeber
Sister Laurian is an Episcopalian nun and retired priest. She began working for Creation more than a quarter century ago in work to prohibit aerial spraying of forests. In one way or another, she has been working for Creation ever since.
Board Member
Harris Webster
"For 40 years, I was essentially a secondary social studies and English teacher mostly in Lansing MI. I started off teaching in a UCC mission school in Turkey for 3 years, and ending up teaching in Japan as sister-city teacher for three plus years.
For the last 24 years I've been in retirement in Montpelier, active in the Unitarian Church of Montpelier, but also taking short stints of teaching in India and Cambodia.
I've had several social justice passions over the years. The first involved race relations playing a challenging role in helping integrate an all-white high school. The second was a passion for being a world citizen. The last major passion was about the abuse of our Earth and how we can bring about a Sustainable Age.”
(Harris is also a great fan of walking and self-described “awe-walking”!)
Board Member
Frank Guillot
Frank is a semi-retired architect. Over 50 years of practice, he has addressed a wide range of building types, especially churches, medical practice facilities and affordable and special needs housing. Response to the need for energy conservation and sustainability has been a central concern. Active in the Episcopal Diocese of Vermont, he oversees the operation of the Solar Orchard at Rock Point in Burlington and the ongoing energy conservation and CO2 reduction efforts there.
Our Coordinator
Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder
Chelsea Steinauer-Scudder is the author of MOTHER, CREATURE, KIN (Broadleaf Books, 2025) and has a background in nonprofit communications work. After receiving her masters of theological studies in comparative religion at Harvard Divinity School, her work and writing became focused on the confluence of relationship to place with experiences of the sacred. She served as Communications Coordinator for Kairos Earth in Canterbury, NH, from 2014-2016. From 2017-2022, she worked as a staff writer and editor for Emergence Magazine. Her writing has been featured in The Common, The Slowdown, Crannóg Magazine, EcoTheo Review, From the Ground Up, the edited poetry collection Writing the Land, and in Katie Holten's The Language of Trees: A Rewilding of Literature and Landscape.