Cheryl Pyrch, 7256 Devon Street, Philadelphia, PA 19119. cpyrchksummitpres.net 

My name is Cheryl Pyrch. I'm the pastor at Summit Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, and 

serve on the Board of the Pennsylvania Chapter of Interfaith Power and Light, people of faith 

responding to climate change as a moral issue. Thank you for this opportunity to testify in 

support of the Clean Power Plan. 

At IPL and in my congregation we're concerned about climate change for the reasons of justice, 

compassion and gratitude for God's creation that others have spoken about. 

But I'd like to tell a parable about timing. It's a true story. 

Our church was built over 100 years ago. It's a massive structure made from Wissahickon 

Schist, built for a congregation of a thousand; for decades Summit has been a congregation of 

one to two hundred. The leadership has cared for the building responsibly, with limited 

resources, and dozens of community groups use it. But over the years, certain projects had to be 

deferred. One of them was the tower. For a while, folks had noticed signs of trouble: small 

cracks, a disturbing bulge. Six years ago the trustees acted. They called in a top drawer 

engineering firm. The engineers proposed a$56,000 solution, and encouraged us to begin 

sooner rather than later, although there was no immediate danger. So we got into gear, raised 

four hundred thousand dollars in a capital campaign, and got quotes from different contractors. 

But just before the work was to begin, a large stone fell from the tower in the middle of the night. 

A much smaller stone fell on the head of a deacon who was peering at one of the new cracks. On 

closer inspection, we realized that in the two years it had taken to get ready, the situation had 

changed. Two harsh winters, two freeze and thaw cycles, had pushed the tower to a tipping 

point, and it was now beginning to collapse. So the engineers came up with a new plan, and 

$180,000 later we thought we were done. But almost immediately an ominous crack appeared 

in a different part of the tower. More engineers, another plan, the assurance that taking it down 

would be just as expensive, and $320,000 later (total), our tower is now secure. You can 

worship safely at Summit. But the survival of the tower came at a much greater cost than if we 

had known, or been able, to act earlier. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent that could 

have been used for other projects or ministries. 

After this up close and personal experience with tipping points, we hear the scientists when they 

warn us of tipping points in the climate. We hear them when they tell of cascading extinctions 

and possible eco-system collapse. We understand the fierce urgency of now, in both a moral and 

practical sense. I can't speak for everyone in the congregation, but I'm glad the EPA is acting, 

even in the face of heated political opposition. There are costs to limiting carbon emissions, and 

those who face loss in the transition to a new economy must be supported. But the costs of delay 

are so much greater. And the stakes are so much higher than with our tower. 

You are doing holy work! Thank you.