Melody Zhang
Creating a cultural shift within the church around the issues of climate, and building a church network of climate advocates in Washington D.C.
Region
Washington D.C.
Affiliations & Roles
Climate Justice Campaign Coordinator, Sojourners
Melody Zhang is a Climate Justice Campaign Coordinator at Sojourners in Washington, DC. Sojourners is a Christian advocacy organization and media platform focused on the transformation of self and society towards a more just, peaceful, and compassionate world. Melody’s mission as the Climate Justice Lead is to create an energizing lens of the climate crisis for people of faith, and particularly for Sojourner’s readership.
Melody’s work focuses on creating a cultural shift within the church around issues of climate. Melody achieves this by uplifting young people who then influence their pastors' and religious leaders' understandings of climate change and by finding common language to mobilize communities on climate, especially among communities of color. As a young woman of color herself, Melody deems this very important.
Melody is working to build and activate a nationwide church network of “Climate Champion Congregations” by identifying critical leaders in each church who become powerful climate advocates for their communities and at the federal level. She aims to design and craft a comprehensive climate curriculum that incorporates basic biblical foundations of earthkeeping, stewardship in the church, climate awareness and education on a local, state, and federal levels, and activities for climate advocacy as a person of faith, including scriptural analysis, webinars, videos, and films.