This post is taken from an article by Helen Dalzell and we gratefully appreciate her permission to use it.

On the first Sunday in February, the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Falmouth, in Massachusetts, sets time aside to acknowledge the cold weather. "It's a sacred time of year in some of the Northern cultures," says Rev. Robert Francis Murphy. "Many people talk about Groundhog Day but there's something else that happens in this season. This is the time for Imbolc and Candlemas and for coming to terms with winter." "Don't hibernate!" is the slogan in the Cape Cod congregation. For the past seven years, Sunday services in January and February have encouraged people to help their neighbors during a difficult season. The fellowship works with community groups and with other religious organizations to educate people about fuel assistance and oppportunities for home energy conservation. Special attention is given to the needs of low-income families. "In Ireland and in much of Europe, people talk about the problem of fuel poverty," notes Rev. Murphy. "If a household is spending more than ten percent of its income on heating and lighting, the family is spending too much. On Cape Cod, some working families are spending 15-20% and even more. And they're also using automobiles to meet their basic transportation needs. Keep this in mind when people talk about global warming." The global warming problem has provided a wakeup call for many Americans. Environmentalists want to reduce America's dependence on fossil fuels, in order to reduce greenhouse gases and other forms of pollution, but transforming the nation's energy economy won't be easy. Taxes on gasoline and home heating fuel may reduce energy consumption but they will place an extra burden on the poor. New technologies may, eventually, reduce consumer energy prices but low-income families may be the last to enjoy the benefits. "If my landlord puts a wind mill in the parking lot, he'll probably raise my rent," said one of the women who recently spoke at a citizens meeting sponsored by the Falmouth fellowship. The Falmouth congregation has started to gain national attention because of its unusual approach to global warming and other energy concerns. "We start with the acknowledgement that human rights are energy dependent," notes Rev. Murphy. "All people need adequate sources of energy that are safe, affordable and sustainable. In our part of the world, many people pay too much for energy and some people need more energy in order to survive. Their thermostats should go up, not down." The congregation distributes information about fuel assistance and energy conservation propgrams through community food pantries, senior centers, health care facilities, and holiday fairs. During the week before Thanksgiving Day, over six hundred flyers were placed in grocery bags given away by the town's community services center. Two hundred flyers were distributed at an interfaith Thanksgiving Day service. On Christmas Eve, a collection was taken to help support homeless shelters and affordable housing on Cape Cod. For the past seven years, the Falmouth fellowship has helped to sponsor a family festival on New Years Day. Every year, a collection is taken to assist low-income people in winter. In addition to their community education and fundraising work, some members of the church have become involved in political advocacy. Members of the fellowship protested when the White House proposed a major decrease in federal funding for the fuel assistance program for low-income people. Others have become advocates for expanded public transportation programs, services for the homeless, and home energy conservation.The elderly and people with disabilities, and people who rent property, often find it difficult to make the repairs and to install the new equipment that will reduce energy waste. It's important for government programs to provide energy assistance to the needy. "We don't have all of the answers for the global warming problem," says Rev. Murphy. "However, we do know that the Unitarian Universalists have seven principles that, together, in one wholesome package, speak for environmental justice. In the midst of the global warming discussion, we stand in solidarity with people who have often been pushed aside." The 1994 General Assembly resolution "Environmental Justice" has been a major source of inspiration for the Falmouth fellowship. The late Marjorie Bowens-Wheatley and others who were active in racial justice and economic justice campaigns wrote the resolution at a time when the environmental justice concept was still new to many Unitarian Universalists. The goal in the early 1990s was to bring environmentalists and other social justice advocates together. Early attention focused on community and occupational exposures to toxics. In recent years, the environmental justice discussion has expanded to include energy issues. The Falmouth fellowship has been invited to do a presentation on its energy work at the national State of Environmental Justice in America conference at Howard University Law School, in Washington, DC, in March. The presentation will be repeated at the General Assembly, in Portland, Oregon. On April 14, the congregation will be involved in a community event called "Global Warming and Environmental Justice" that will take place on Cape Cod. Basic information on all of these activities is available on request. Contact: Rev. Robert F. Murphy, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Falmouth, 840 Sandwich Road, Falmouth, MA 02536.