The big blue marble of the Earth dominated the movie screen in the sanctuary of Adath Israel Congregation in Lawrenceville — both the opening shot of An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s testament to the reality of global warming, and the opening salvo of an interfaith initiative to spur the community to greater environmental awareness and action.

“This is the kickoff for something more substantial in the community,” said the synagogue’s Rabbi Daniel Grossman as about 70 people gathered in the sanctuary for the screening of the film on the evening of Feb. 8. “This is a catalyst to get people motivated to say: What do I do next, communally and individually?

“One of the things we’re looking for is to partner with other faith-based communities…to see whether we can share resources and affect community policy,” the rabbi said. “Now is the time for us, in partnership with the rest of the community, to really sit down and say: What do we do now?”

The program, which was timed in proximity to Tu B’Shevat, the Jewish New Year of the Trees, was sponsored by Adath Israel in conjunction with two environmental coalitions, Sustainable Lawrence and GreenFaith. The former is a coalition of congregations, businesses, organizations, and residents working to create an “eco-municipality” in Lawrence Township.

GreenFaith, a New Brunswick-based interfaith coalition, organizes faith-based legislative advocacy on environmental issues.

Pam Frank of Lawrenceville, a member of Adath Israel who is active with both coalitions, spearheaded the move to bring the program to the synagogue.

“This is an opportunity to really start to think about how we can organize locally and have a greater impact,” Frank said. “It’s sort of a central place for people of faith who care about this issue to get together and talk about it.”

Screening the film was also a way to gauge local interest in environmental issues, said Carine Fram of Lawrenceville, another Adath Israel member who participated in planning the program.

“We need to get this whole topic discussed,” Fram said, “and to show people, through houses of worship, that you could develop a sense of responsibility and hone in on [the issue of] ethical and moral sustainability.”

GreenFaith has brought free screenings of An Inconvenient Truth to about 120 houses of worship around the state in recent months, according to its executive director, the Rev. Fletcher Harper. “It’s a way of bringing a critically important message to the community and a starting point for more environmental activity here in the synagogue,” Harper, an Episcopal priest, said in an interview.

“It’s a really engaging way for many communities of faith to introduce themselves to environmental issues,” he said. “I hope houses of worship will become committed to conserving energy and using renewable energy and to advocating for policies that will help us defeat global warming.”

Dealing with such challenges is a matter of both individual and collective action, said Ralph Copleman, founder and executive director of Sustainable Lawrence.

“What I hope will come out of this evening is a continued raised awareness, on the one hand, and a commitment to take action steps,” Copleman said. “Each of us needs to decide how we’re going to address the sustainability issue for ourselves in community with others.

“Any religious community can look at the way it uses energy — how we cool a building, how we heat a building, how we electrify a building, how we clean a building, how we use food in a building,” he said. “The way we use energy is perhaps the number one challenge we all face.”

Religious congregations are uniquely positioned to take the lead on environmental issues, Copleman added.

“There’s nothing like a spiritual sensibility to give you a framework for how you relate to the natural world,” he said. “Sustainability is about redefining how we relate as a species to the natural world. Any religious faith is capable of giving us a framework for dealing with those questions.”

For information about upcoming activities in connection with the environmental initiative, call the synagogue at 609-896-4977.