Hello, my name is Erica!
I am part of the EcoFaith Network Leadership Team and the new Communications Coordinator. I live in Brainerd and am part of Lutheran Church of the Cross in Nisswa. I grew up in Decorah, IA learning about climate change and its affects on the world, which led me to study Environmental Policy at Concordia College in Moorhead. I currently work at Region Five Development Commission as an Environment and Energy Planner.
I am excited to stay connected with you about creation care in our synod! Please reach out to me to share stories, resources, and thoughts on creation care: ecofaith@nemnsynod.org
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Synod Sustainability Stories
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In 2014, the Northeastern Minnesota Synod, meeting in Assembly, affirmed earth stewardship as integral to every faith practice. Each month, Green Blades Rising will offer information and highlight one or more examples around the synod and region of integrating creation care in our worship, community action, education, congregational life, stewardship, and care of building and grounds.
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Creation Care in Worship:
Sunday in the Laurentian Conference
T
his summer, three congregations of the Laurentian Conference collaborated in a Creation Sunday Worship Service: Immanuel Lutheran Church, Tower; Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, Hibbing; and Trinity Lutheran Church, Cook. Recording the service together at Trinity, they used the
Liturgy for Earthkeeping by Dakota Road
. Pastor Kristin Foster, co-chairperson of the EcoFaith Network Leadership Team, NE MN Synod, was the guest preacher.
You can watch the service
here.
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Creation Care in Grounds:
Lutheran Church of the Cross
in Nisswa
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Lutheran Church of the Cross in Nisswa, MN installed a solar array next to its community garden four years ago. Each year, the array has provided about 8% of the church's electrical needs and over four years has saved the equivalent of about 63,000 pounds of carbon dioxide.
Figure out your solar array's greenhouse gas equivalences
here
.
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We want to continue sharing synod stories like these! If you
have a sustainability story to share from your congregation, please email ecofaith@nemnsynod.org
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Synod Member Eyes on Creation Reflections
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"It is the gift of nature from the heavenly Father, the gift of my participation in that wonderful natural world that will see me through this perilous experience. I encourage all to find their own connection to the gift of life, the natural world and our partnership with God in it." -Rev. John Hanson
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Announcements & Resources
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A Resource for the Upcoming Season of Creation!
Did you know that September starts the season of creation?
Click here
to find more resources about the season of creation and how you could add it into your worship and congregation.
By concentrating our worship on God's creation and our relationship with creation, we can seek ways to heal rather than exploit creation. The season of Creation helps us care for our planet home rather than destroy it.
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New Moments of Arising Video
This video
continues the EcoFaith Network’s video conversation series, Moments of Arising, flowing from the haunting Easter hymn,
Now the Green Blade Rises. Exploitation
features the performance of Paul Jacobson’s arrangement of stanza 2 and a reflection by Deacon Candidate Colleen Bernu, member of the Fond du Lac Band of Ojibwe and chair of the synod’s
Together Here
Task Force. Read more about this video
here
and see all the videos
here.
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This Month's Green Tips
Feel free to use these helpful Green Tips created by two Synod members for your bulletins and general knowledge! These are meant to inspire earthkeeping action!
Here
are Laura Raedeke's Green Tips Lutheran Church of the Cross in Nisswa and
here
are Steve Spigarelli's Green Tips from First Lutheran in Aitkin.
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Creation Care Ambassadors offering a power point presentation and next Creation Care Ambassador training on September 18.
New Creation Care Ambassadors can lead a Zoom presentation for your congregation or conference!
Three people of the EcoFaith Network, NE MN Synod, have completed the training as
Creation Care Ambassadors
with Lutherans Restoring Creation and Blessed Tomorrow. They are available to offer 90 minute power point presentation and discussion on
Caring for Creation Today
in your congregation or conference.
Their first presentation will take place on
Tuesday, September 1, 6:30-8:00p.m., via Zoom,
for Zion Lutheran and St. Andrews Lutheran, Grand Rapids, and other area congregations.
They welcome contact from you!
If you are interested in Creation Care Ambassador Training, the next training is scheduled for September 18, 2020 from 11:30 to 4 pm Eastern Time.
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Partner Feature: Lutherans Restoring Creation
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Lutherans Restoring Creation is a grassroots movement promoting care for creation in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Check out
their website
for creation care resources for advocacy, worship, and education.
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Check out the
Relational Organizing for Transformational Change t
raining offered by Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light
Register learn more about the August 6th, 4:00 - 5:30p.m. training
here
.
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The EcoFaith Network of Northeastern MN is a growing network of ELCA Lutheran congregations and their members in northeastern Minnesota with a mission to live out God's call to be stewards of the earth for the sake of the whole creation. Through social media, seminars, resources on current environmental justice issues, project micro-grants and active inter-and intra- congregational conversations, the EcoFaith Network encourages grassroots creation care actions among the Synod’s 133 congregations and leadership within their communities.
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