Creation Care Network E-news |
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Dear friends,
• Hurricane Laura. California on fire. A so-called “inland hurricane” in Iowa. The startling discovery that the Greenland ice sheet may have already melted past the point of no return. Glaciers in South America, glaciers in Asia, glaciers in Canada, and sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic – all of them melting at an unprecedented rate. Within our lifetime, coastal cities could be uninhabitable, and millions of people displaced. Now is the time to fall in love with Earth and all her communities, human and more-than-human, and to rise up to protect our neighbors and each other.
• Creation Season begins TODAY! As we do every year on September 1, we begin the season with prayer, joining a World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. In a time of so many challenges – ecological, social, and political – it’s hard to stay spiritually centered. I hope you will take some time today to pray. How is God speaking to your heart? What inspiration, encouragement or call to action will come to you in silence? Today could be the perfect day to go outside for a prayerful walk and encounter God in the trees and sky, and in the earth beneath your feet. How do you feel led to pray for God’s Creation?
• I invite you to pray with me as I lead “Praying with Our Bodies,” a five-minute prayer that was filmed outdoors by my husband, Robert Jonas, beside our pond in Ashfield, and broadcast last week at American Climate Leadership Summit 2020. The prayer is accompanied by birdsong and features Jonas on the Japanese bamboo flute.
• How will you and your community celebrate Creation Season (Sept. 1-Oct. 4)? We’ve updated our diocesan website resources for ways to Pray, Learn, Act, and Advocate, including – for instance – Good News Garden Movement; Faith Climate Voter Campaign; articles that connect climate change with COVID-19, and climate change with racial justice; worship resources; and lots more. Drop by and take a look.
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• I’m excited that Creation Season Preaching Circle begins today at 4:00 p.m. If you are a preacher, lay or ordained, in the Diocese of Massachusetts or Western Massachusetts, please join us. You are welcome to come to one or all four of our one-hour meetings, as we reflect, learn, and pray together about our Gospel call to protect the web of life entrusted to our care. After a guest speaker presents, we will discuss the lectionary readings for the coming Sunday.
Creation Season Preaching Circle is free of charge and led by the Rev. Dr. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas and the Rev. Anna Woofenden. It will include ecumenical guests Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade, Pastor Darriel Harris, Rev. José Reyes, and Dr. Wilson Dickinson.
Creation Season Preaching Circle will meet on:
- Tuesday, September 1st at 4:00 p.m. with Rev. Dr. Leah D. Schade
- Monday, September 14th at 11:00 a.m. with Pastor Darriel Harris
- Monday, September 21st at 11:00 a.m. with Rev. José Reyes
- Monday, September 28th at 11:00 a.m. with Dr. Wilson Dickinson
For information and to register, please click here.
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Season of Creation Resources include:
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Season of Creation Weekly Devotional: Leaders from The Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church in Canada, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada collaborated on a set of weekly devotionals for the Season of Creation 2020. In Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s words, “Liberating, life-giving God, help us to know that we and the world you have created are truly the work of your hands. Give us knowledge and wisdom to care for your handiwork now and for future generations. Amen.” The Devotional is also available in a double spread format here.
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Season Of Creation website: This website includes the Season of Creation 2020 celebration guide which includes this prayer, information on events and how to take action to celebrate the season, with ideas for an outdoor prayer service, creation walk or pilgrimage, sustainability event, or preaching about creation throughout the Season.
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Episcopal Liturgical Resources for Honoring God in Creation: Explore a host of liturgical resources for honoring God’s creation, from The Episcopal Church’s Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music. En Español aquí.
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Creation Care Resource Page: Compiled by Episcopalians from across the Church, this page includes resources on loving formation (teaching, preaching, worship), liberating advocacy for environmental justice, and life-giving conservation and sustainability efforts. Users are invited to share their best resources here.
St. Francis Day Resources include:
Lutherans Restoring Creation is preparing a Creation-focused worship service using the lectionary texts for Pentecost 16 (September 20, 2020) that congregations can download and use however they wish. It will include participants from all over the country, including Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, Rev. Dr. Barbara Rossing, Rev. Lenny Duncan, and Rebekah Bruesehoff, as well as numerous parish pastors and members of the Lutherans Restoring Creation Board of Directors. Music will be provided by Marty Haugen, the Rev. Dr. Leah Schade, and Pastor John Tirro. More details, including a bulletin, will be sent to you if you register below:
You will be sent the link by 9/14 to download materials for your worship service on Sunday, September 20th (or however you wish!)
• Sept. 24 - 30 Climate Preparedness Week is hosted annually by the Boston-based group, Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (CREW). CREW is dedicated to learning, service, and actions that better prepare our communities for extreme weather events, and to providing the resources and space to think about the ways that climate change disadvantages some communities more than others.
This year’s theme is Social Resilience is Climate Resilience. All events will be virtual.
Faith-based congregations and organizations are welcome to host events, with CREW available to offer suggestions for speakers and to help publicize, or you can partner in publicizing the week’s events to your congregation or organization. See the developing list of events, and opportunities for your congregation’s participation here.
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Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020, 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Last year, more than 45 global interfaith organizations gathered for the first interfaith-based consultation to address the climate emergency. In 2020, a coalition of planning partners is pleased to invite you to our second interfaith consultation, "Good Trouble for a Healthy Planet." This 2020 virtual consultation will address the impact of human activity on
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the planet, the urgent need for action to obtain sustainable and resilient communities, and the development of recommendations for moving forward. Two keynote presentations and eight concurrent workshops will be supported with web-based materials and social media tools to equip participants. This watershed moment requires action by all, especially faith voices of insight and hope.
The Consultation will focus on eight areas. A description of each workshop can be found here. I hope you will join me and sign up for a couple of workshops!
- Envisioning a Sustainable and Just Economy for a Resilient World
- Taking Responsibility for the Climate
- Buen Vivir: Pathways to a Healthier Planet
- How to Activate More People of Faith to Action
- Solutions that Work: Adaptation and Mitigation
- Climate Migration (including displaced persons)
- Climate Grief
- Restoration and Nature-Based Solutions
Sponsored by The BTS Center, in collaboration with the Maine Conference United Church of Christ, the Maine Council of Churches, and Renewal in the Wilderness
September 24-25, 2020, Online
Over the course of two days in September, we will gather for online sessions and will log off for some intentional, self-guided, offline sessions, returning to digital space for continued learning and reflection. We look forward to this blend of online and offline experiences, which will weave together to facilitate learning, nurture respite, and deepen community.
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Convocation 2020 invites spiritual leaders, faith communities, and change-makers to embrace a transformative response to the current climate crisis. If anything, COVID-19 has revealed even more clearly the ways in which “business as usual” threatens the sustainability of the planet and the health and well-being of all life. This global pandemic and the broader challenges of global climate devastation call for spiritually grounded leaders who adopt an intentional, embodied practice of hope — leaders who dismiss the paths of denial and despair and choose to live in a state of active engagement. This kind of hope is deeper than passive optimism — it is a way of being in the world, rooted in faith, expressed in action, and sustained by contemplative practice.
A gifted line-up of presenters — ecological innovators, spiritual guides, and ministry practitioners — will confront the flawed values of Western culture that prioritize individualism, consumerism, and unrestrained growth, while calling us to just and sustainable practices that protect the common good and honor the sacredness of our planetary home. Incorporating music, the arts, and contemplative practice, Convocation Reimagined will lead participants to a deeper, more spiritually grounded engagement with God’s Creation.
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• “Preaching Gospel Hope in a Time of Climate Crisis”
A two-day online workshop
October 16 & 17, 2020
Next month I will lead United Theological College’s annual KJ Campbell Workshop on preaching. There’s no need to head to Montreal – the whole event will be held online. All preachers are invited!
Climate change is called the moral challenge of our time, yet many preachers avoid discussing it. Through a mix of presentations, small group conversation, and whole group discussion, we will discuss the spiritual/moral imperative to preach about climate change, identify obstacles to climate preaching, share the latest research on how to communicate about climate, discuss theological keystones, consider the links between climate, poverty, race, and other justice issues, and receive theological and homiletic resources.
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• Vote for climate and get out the vote! We urgently need principled, well-informed, and trustworthy leadership in this country. November’s election comes at a critical time in human history.
Here are two ways you can help:
1.) Environmental Voter Project is a non-partisan group with a clear mission: to persuade more environmentalists to vote in every election. “The Environmental Voter Project aims to significantly increase voter demand for environmental leadership by identifying inactive environmentalists and then turning them into consistent activists and voters.” They don’t endorse politicians; instead, they focus on voters.
2.) #Faith Climate Justice Voter Campaign, organized by Interfaith Power & Light, mobilizes people of faith to vote with climate and Creation in mind. This national campaign has a major focus in seven states: Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
From Massachusetts, we can support the Faith Climate Voter Campaign by reaching out to people of faith in the seven focus states, encouraging them to get more involved and to vote in November. You will receive all the tools and training you need to volunteer remotely from home!
If you or your congregation is interested in volunteering to help the Campaign, please fill out this form and the Campaign will plug you into volunteer activities you can help with.
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Rev. Anna Woofenden harvests some late-summer vegetables and models what urban gardening can look like: rows of pots wrap around her house. Photo: submitted. |
Thank you for your prayers and witness as we learn to cherish the whole of God’s Creation. |
Blessings,
(The Rev. Dr.) Margaret Bullitt-Jonas
Missioner for Creation Care
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Lotus flowers. Photo credit: Robert A. Jonas |
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Opportunities for engagement |
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Environmental Voter Project
This nonpartisan Environmental Voter Project ultimately persuaded 58,961 eco-conscious voters in six states ― Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Nevada and Pennsylvania ― to cast ballots for the first time last year.
Read more
www.environmentalvoter.org
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Good Trouble for a Healthy Planet
Free webinar
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This webinar will address the impact of human activity on the planet, the urgent need for action to obtain sustainable and resilient communities globally, and develop strategies for moving forward to address climate change. Concrete actionable recommendations gleaned from the discussions will be captured for inclusion in a strategic path forward.
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CREW
Announcing Climate Prep Week 2020! Watch our 2020 Interfaith (Virtual) Climate Summit. Sign up to get the latest updates. CREW is a network of local leaders building grassroots climate resilience through inclusive & hands-on education, service ...
Read more
www.climatecrew.org
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If you've enjoyed this newsletter, please feel free to forward to one or two friends you think may be interested.
Blessings!
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MBJ photo: Tipper Gore, 2014 |
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