BALTIMORE – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.) this week joined a broad cross-section of representatives from Maryland’s faith and environmental communities at the Cathedral of the Incarnation for a discussion on how the local community of interfaith conservationists is working toward common goals, including protecting clean air and water, with an eye toward global change. 

Senator Cardin also heard remarks from Jodi Rose, the executive director of the non-profit Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake, and perspectives from clergy and congregations statewide. Several participants detailed environmental restoration projects they had joined with their congregations to complete on the grounds of their houses of worship. Others spoke of their concerns about environmental stressors at the global scale. Cardin strongly applauded their efforts and commitment to unity at a time when the opposite is too often commonplace.

“It seems that we never have to search far to find discord in the world today, so it’s really inspirational to look around a room and see leaders from so many different faiths from so many parts of Maryland all deeply committed to working side-by-side to improve the environment,” said Senator Cardin. “It’s also exciting to see how our faith leaders and their congregations have partnered effectively with some leading environmental organizations like Blue Water Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in order to get big things done. Actions like theirs are a key to protecting and restoring the environmental quality of our region and our globe, especially in an era of increasingly intense threats to the natural world. They are showing that creativity and unity can help build the environmental integrity of our communities.” 

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