"Now the green blade rises from the buried grain" |
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An online publication of the EcoFaith Network NE-MN Synod with Saint Paul Area Synod Care of Creation |
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Check Out Our New Website! |
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We are excited to announce that the EcoFaith Network NE-MN and the Saint Paul Area Care of Creation have a new website! Check it out here at ecofaithnetwork.org!
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The 2023 EcoFaith Summit is Just Two Weeks Away! |
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In-person registration closes on April 9, Easter Sunday.
Learn more about the engagement sessions here and speakers here.
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Join us for a party after the Summit on April 20th at 7pm! Co-hosts Kali Kadelbach and Rachel Wyffels will lead a session to celebrate, connect, and share meaningful experiences from the Summit.
The Zoom link will be sent to all Summit participants after the Summit.
To receive the link as a participant, register here for the Summit.
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EcoFaith Network Partner Congregations: Has your congregation become a partner?
The following congregations in the Northeastern Minnesota Synod have made or committed to making a financial contribution to the EcoFaith Network.
Bethel-Trinity, Bovey
Bethlehem, Brainerd
Bethlehem, Grand Marais
Calvary, Mora
Gloria Dei, Duluth
Holden, Isle
Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa
Trinity, Cass Lake
Trinity, Hovland
We thank you!
Help nurture the growing ministry of the EcoFaith Network by becoming an EcoFaith Network Partner Congregation in 2023. Become an EcoFaith Network Partner Congregation in 2023 and make a financial contribution of any amount.
Every congregation who has made a contribution or budgeted commitment to the EcoFaith Support Fund in 2022-2023 will be recognized at the Synod Assembly in Brainerd. We hope that your congregation will be on that list, part of a growing network in support of living out God’s call to stewardship of the earth!
Learn more and find partner congregation forms here
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Climate+Justice Events in Duluth |
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From April 4th-13th, Climate+Justice will take place, a speaker series via zoom, in-person gatherings in Duluth, and social media posts, as part of the World Wide Teach-in on Climate and Justice hosted by Bard College.
Climate+Justice will examine the ever increasing impacts of climate change and explore how we can empower ourselves to create a more resilient, sustainable and environmentally just city. Through engagement and education, how can we cultivate our imaginative capacity to not only see what's clearly happening but to respond to the climate challenges facing us with creativity and compassion, and move forward with hope?
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by Tammy Walhof, Director, Lutheran Advocacy-MN
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) Citizens’ Board was originally created in 1967 as a tool to protect both the environment and the voice of regular Minnesotans. It included citizen representation in decisions such as approving permits or overseeing projects under environmental review.
In 2015, following corporate pressure, the Minnesota Legislature abolished the Citizens’ Board. Since then, public input on environmental and health decisions has been greatly diminished, with the MPCA at times even referring to those seeking permits or variances as “the client.”
This year the legislature is considering a bill to reestablish the Board, and to make it more representative of Minnesota’s racial and economic diversity. It’s a chance to help bring democracy back to MPCA decisions and protect the air, water, and land we all need to live healthy lives.
Read the full update here
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MNIPL is hosting a webinar with a legislative update on April 4th. They write:
"Please join our webinar on Tuesday, April 4, 7-8 pm to hear the latest updates about groundbreaking climate justice legislation that MNIPL staff and volunteers have been helping to move forward.
MNIPL Strategic Policy Director Sara Wolff and Legislative Affairs Organizer Juventino Meza will explain the key bills in play, how you can support them, and what to expect for the rest of the 2023 MN Legislative Session.
We will give particular attention to the MN Climate Innovation Finance Authority (MN CIFA) legislation, which has the potential to leverage $500 billion in state and federal funding for climate projects throughout Minnesota, and will benefit those most affected by the climate crisis."
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Green Blades Rising in Congregations and Synods |
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Our Rain Garden
by C. Linda Siluk
House of Prayer Lutheran Church, Oakdale, MN
Saint Paul Area Care of Creation
Several years ago people from our county, Washington County, came to our church and asked our leaders if we would be interested in having a rain garden located close to one of our parking lots. They would find a partner to build it. Since we had issues of standing water on our parking lots from storms or snowmelt, and we have a creek close by. We felt that it would be beneficial to have one. After our partner built a rain garden for our church, we signed an agreement that we would take care of it during the following two years.
What is a rain garden? A rain garden is a bowl shaped garden that is built where it will capture rain and snowmelt (stormwater runoff ) before it reaches a storm sewer or nearby stream, creek, lake, or river. This runoff water may include: leaves, grass clippings, fertilizers, and pesticides. This special garden would filter this polluted water by slowing it down, and then this runoff would soak into the ground within the next two days. This project would help our sewer system, lakes, creeks, rivers, and streams become cleaner.
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Applications are now open for 2023 EcoFaith micro-grants!
The EcoFaith Network - NE MN Synod grant program equips God’s people to take specific new initiatives in response to God’s call to be stewards of the earth by providing seed money for specific ministry initiatives.
Grants between $100 and $1,000 are awarded each year for proposals from congregations and other church expressions, primarily in the Northeastern Minnesota Synod.
If your congregation is awarded a micro-grant, one or two members of the EcoFaith Network will offer support and encouragement, and invite you to share your experience as a way of inspiring other communities of faith.
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Do you have a story to share? We want to hear it! Please email Rachel, EcoFaith Network Communication Coordinator, at ecofaith@nemnsynod.org.
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Green Blades Preaching Roundtable |
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The Green Blades Preaching Roundtable weekly reflections by a variety of preaching writers on the ecological implications of each Sunday’s lectionary.
To inquire about writing for the Green Blades Preaching Roundtable, or to receive these reflections on a weekly basis, contact Kristin Foster, editor, at revkristinfoster@gmail.com
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Rev. Luke Lekander, Outing, MN
Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday
April 2, 2023
Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2:5-11
Matthew 26:14-27:66
The Passion is for all of Creation, humanity inclusively but not humanity exclusively. And that, my friends, is good news. Without the woods and the waters and the beasts of all kinds, without clean air and natural seasons and specific temperatures, all these things we take for granted, all these things on which we are wholly dependent, without them we are lost. But Jesus’ self-emptying love is for the salvation of all Creation! Now we are freed and empowered to do the same. My friends, let it be. Give yourself over to God’s will. Let go of all the fear, let go of the ego, empty yourself as Jesus does so that we may love one another and love all of Creation as ourselves.
Read the whole reflection here
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Rev. Dr. Benjamin M. Stewart, Two Harbors, MN
Easter Sunday
April 9, 2023
Acts 10:34-43
Jeremiah 31:1-6 (alternate)
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Matthew 28:1-10
John 20:1-18 (alternate)
The easter readings are loaded ecological imagery. A few motifs are especially fertile:
The tree. They put Jesus to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day (Acts 10:39b-40a). Here preachers may draw on the profound tradition of interpreting the cross as the tree of life, God welcoming the exiled world to return to Eden. See Gail Ramshaw’s chapter on “Tree” in her Treasures Old and New and James Cone’s contemporary classic, The Cross and the Lynching Tree: in the work of these scholars preachers are challenged to engage both the scars of radical evil and the flowering of revolutionary promise embodied in the symbol of the tree of the cross.
Read the whole reflection here
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Pr. Logan Strike McLean, Florence, Oregon
Second Sunday of Easter
April 16, 2023
Acts 2:14a, 22-32
Psalm 16
1 Peter 1:3-9
John 20:19-31
These days, we are learning more about trauma-informed care. Many life experiences qualify as traumatic, as we define it as any enduring emotional response that results from living through a distressing event. Trauma unsettles a person’s sense of safety, self, and ability to regulate emotions and figure out one’s relationships. It affects how one thinks about the future, the possibilities that lie ahead. As a hospital chaplain and pastor, it’s hard not to read Thomas through the lens of trauma. And there isn’t much to read, as Thomas is mentioned hardly at all in the Fourth Gospel.
Read the full reflection here
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Rev. Emily Meyer, Executive Director of The Ministry Lab, Minneapolis
Third Sunday of Easter/ Earth Sunday
April 23, 2023
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19
1 Peter 1:17-23
Luke 24:13-35
The first verse of the Hebrew text for every week in Lent - and then the first verse of the Gospel reading for Palm Sunday through today - sets its story in a very particular place: grounding God’s people in a specific land or location - and alternately imploring them to literally dig in, root, and grow there, or calling and anointing them to ‘go’. Given the journey theme of Lent, this is not remarkable or surprising. What I lift up today is the land itself and our human need to be connected to the soil of a place.
Read the whole reflection here
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This Month's Green Tips
Use these in your congregation's bulletins, Facebook pages, websites, or newsletters!
Here are Laura Raedeke's Green Tips from Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa
The Products We Buy: Facing the Challenges of Our Modern, Industrialized, Chemically-driven System
Here are Green Tips by Steve Spigarelli, First Lutheran Church, Aitkin
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EcoFaith Connections with Lent & Easter
by Melinda A. Quivik,
Former professor of worship and preaching
Editor-in-chief of the journal Liturgy
Saint Paul Area Care of Creation
For our first Creation Connections event of 2023, Melinda Quivik prepared beautiful reflections on connections with creation for the seasons of Lent and Easter.
Quivik writes, "Each Sunday in Lent and Easter gives us images that feed our abilities to envision God’s desire for us as creatures who live together with other created life forms. Each Sunday the readings are windows into healthy and whole living."
Read the full reflections here
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Creation Care Videos for Lent or Easter
Produced by the Creation Care Affinity Group of the NW Minnesota Synod
Time frame: roughly 7 minutes each
Uses: adult forums, sermon series, Midweek services.
- Pastor Genelle Netland: Psalm 96 "For the Beauty of the Earth"
- Pastor Krehl Stringer: Genesis 8:15-22; 9:1, 8-13 -"God's Everlasting Covenant."
- Pastor Dennis Preston - Exodus 16:4 “I Buy, Therefore I Am”
- Tyler Bublitz: Job 12:7-13 - “Observing God”
- Pastor Daphne Urban: Job 28:20-27 –“The Peace of God Amidst the Storms”
- Beth Monke: Psalm 146 – “Climate Justice”
- Pastor Jonathan Dodson: Matthew 13:3-8 - "Born to Sow"
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Connections with Creation
April
April 16 – Second Sunday of Easter
Jesus invites Thomas to touch his wounds. Today we touch the wounds of God’s creation and overcome any doubts that the climate crisis is real. Fossil fuel groups are working hard and spending millions of dollars to keep the American public doubtful and confused. The same groups who once spread doubt about the risk of smoking tobacco are now behind efforts to mislead us about the reality of climate change. Some groups even try to spread doubt about the validity of science. Yet Jesus invites Thomas—and us—to face the truth of crucifixion. Because of Christ’s resurrection, death does not have to be the end. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you,” says Jesus (John 20:21), sending us out to take our place in the great work of healing the wounds of creation and to restore the living systems upon which we, and all creatures, depend.
Read all Connections with Creation for April and May
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by John Hanson, retired pastor
In place of a book review this month, I am suggesting that you download a free conversation guide from Christian Century magazine. It is entitled "Responding to Climate Change." You can go to christiancentury.org/climate to download it. There are timely articles by top climate experts, a hands-on list of things church members can get involved with to mitigate climate change, and a reading list.
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Through the College of St. Scholastica, Pastor David Carlson of Gloria Dei in Duluth facilitates two monthly book discussion groups, to which all are welcome:
- Earth Harmony, Thursday, April 13 - The Archipelago of Hope: Wisdom and Resilience from the Edge of Climate Change by Gleb Raygorodetsky (2018). Meeting 8:00-9:00 a.m. in person at Chester Creek Cafe in Duluth.
- Religion & Science, Wednesday, April 19 - An Immense World by Ed Yong (2022). Meeting 8:00-9:00 a.m. via Zoom. Contact Pastor Carlson for the link or for more information, pastor@gloriadeiduluth.org
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Trying to figure out how Faith and Science work together every week?
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Read. Watch. Listen. Share! |
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Enter the Bible Podcast
Inside Climate News
World Resources Institute
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The EcoFaith Network NEMN Synod
Living out God's call to be stewards of the earth for the sake of the whole creation.
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SPAS Care of Creation
We are called to care for God's creation as a central part of our Christian faith and identity.
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