Climate change is the gravest danger facing humanity today. We are already experiencing its effects — rising sea levels, catastrophic storms, species extinction — but the potential effects of climate change are even more devastating. And while climate change affects all of us, its consequences will be felt most profoundly by the most impoverished and marginalized of the world’s communities.

We cannot remain silent in the face of such a threat. We are compelled to respond.

A contingent from the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) participated in the People’s Climate March in New York City on September 21. There, an estimated 400,000, including 1,500 Unitarian Universalists, took to the streets to demand that the world’s leaders address the crisis of climate change. The march was a stunning acknowledgment that something must be done — now.

In the face of this historic threat to our existence on the planet, the UUA and UUSC are joining with the Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth, the Unitarian Universalist College of Social Justice, and the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association inCommit2Respond, a religious response to the crisis of climate change. Commit2Respond is an initiative for climate justice awareness and action. We invite UUs and all people of faith and conscience to commit to respond in these three action areas:

• Grow the climate justice movement
• Advance the human rights of marginalized communities
• Shift to clean and renewable energy

Commit2Respond starts now. The period between World Water Day on March 22, 2015, and Earth Day on April 22 will focus on explicit commitments in the service of climate justice. But these efforts require our perseverance. We will continue this vital work through the United Nations Climate Change Conference in December 2015 and on through the 2017 UUA General Assembly.

Please spread the word about Commit2Respond through your congregations and invite your family and friends to join us as well. You can learn more about this initiative on theCommit2Respond website. Commit2Respond invites everyone, regardless of religious affiliation or lack thereof, to join us in our commitment to respond to the dangers of climate change.

We saw the power of commitment among the hundreds of thousands who marched in New York City. Our respect for the interdependent web of all existence calls us to act. Please join Commit2Respond now.

In faith,

Rev. Peter Morales President, UUA

Rev. Bill Schulz President and CEO, UUSC