Dear Companions in Creation Care,
Have you noticed how each newsletter features the writing, photos, creativity, and knowledge of so many different people dedicated to EcoFaith? Featuring the offerings of so many people is my favorite part of this newsletter and of the environmental movement in general. It takes all of us and all of our unique talents to make a difference!
This month we have some new additions to the newsletter, including creation in the bible reflections from Dr. Diane Jacobson and Sunday creation connections from Augsburg Fortress. I hope you take a moment to soak in all the knowledge and beauty each person shares in this newsletter and in all the good work being done in our Synod!
If you have something you want to offer or even just a good word to say about something you enjoyed in the newsletter, please share! This newsletter belongs to you!
-Erica Bjelland, EcoFaith Communications
ecofaith@nemnsynod.org
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Next Up for Called to Arise: J-Term Workshop
Earth Day's Jubilee Year
Tuesday, January 26, 6:30 – 8:00p.m.
Featuring Professor Diane Jacobson’s inspiring overview of the significance of the Jubilee Year in both Hebrew and New Testament scripture, and its deep relevance for today, connecting economic and racial justice and the environmental crisis.
From Death to Resurrection
Tentatively scheduled March 2, 9, 16, 23
Four workshops featuring the final four Moments of Arising videos with accompanying articles, gathering digitally around God’s call to arise at this intersection of racism, inequality, and the environment.
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A huge THANK YOU to everyone who helped develop, moderate, and participate in the first five Called to Arise workshops, From Promise to Lament!
About sixty people participated in these workshops. Thank you to the steering committee and moderators:
Lars Anderson, Erica Bjelland, Colleen Bernu (coordinator), Martha Lue, David Carlson, Kristin Foster, Larry Johnson, Kevin Lattu, Jordan Lutz, and Don Shuld.
We plan to have a discussion guide for these workshops available for congregational study groups in the near future.
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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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EcoFaith in Congregations:
Concordia Lutheran, Duluth Climate Justice Congregation
"Concordia’s journey to become a Climate Justice Congregation began back in 2008 when a couple of members of Concordia, who were interested in caring for the environment, attended a
workshop introducing The Green Congregation Program, hosted by Gloria Dei Church...I soon realized that for us to have a Sustainable environment, equity/justice was as important as caring for the environment."
Read more about Concordia's journey in becoming a Climate Justice Congregation and tips for becoming a Climate Justice Congregation 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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EcoFaith in Worship and the Word
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New! Creation in the Bible
Reflections on creation, earth care, ecojustice
"We often talk about how the first chapter of Genesis addresses creation of the earth and all creatures. But in this anticipatory season of Advent, the beginning of the church year, have you considered that Genesis 1:1-2:3 also addresses the creation of time?"
Check out the whole reflection here.
Dr. Diane Jacobson is Professor Emerita of Old Testament, Luther
Seminary and the retired Director of the ELCA Book of Faith Initiative.
Her extensive speaking, writing, and workshop leading often
highlights the ecological dimensions of the Bible.
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New! Sunday Creation Connections
This section comes from Sundays & Seasons and brings creation connections for every Sunday.
"Springtime shoots and sprouting gardens are a long way off for the North American households approaching winter...Isaiah envisions righteousness growing among the faithful like earth’s plants springing forth. Even now, under the cover of snow or frozen soil for some of us, seeds await the return of longer days and warm sun."
Check out the December-January creation connections here.
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Preaching for the Whole Creation:
Commentary on the Lectionary
For Advent
"Anybody ready for making a fresh start on our common life in the coming new year? The anxiety of the pandemic, the passions of the presidential election, the economic disruption and uncertainty, the hastened degradation of the environment, and most espescially, the loss of dear friends and family, will forever mark 2020 as a year both unforgetable and best left behind. Yes, we really need a fresh start! Can we expect the Year of our Lord 2021 to bring anything better? The Season of Advent gives the church a head start, so to speak, on a new beginning, come 2021, and our relationship to creation figures significantly in that initiative. The Gospel of Mark, source of our readings this next liturgical year, is well tuned to lead us into this reality; its opening words, “en arche” (Mark 1:1), echo Genesis 1:1. The Advent texts offer insights concerning a new departure for the people of God, an intervention that would so change the world that the faithful would come to speak of “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17). In that spirit, we can surely set forth with real hope for a fresh start!"
Read the EcoFaith Advent lectionary commentary here.
Written by Rev. Dennis Ormseth. Rev. Ormseth has been writing ecologically oriented commentary on the lectionary for many years. He is active in Lutherans Restoring Creation, the EcoFaith Network of the Minneapolis Area Synod, and a member of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
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Moments of Arising:
A Video Series for the Jubilee Year of Earth Day
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Watch the latest Moments of Arising video, Death!
V - Death
When our hearts are wintry, grieving or in pain,
Your warm touch can call us back to life again.
Fields of our hearts, that dead and bare have been,
Long for love to come like wheat arising green.
Death is the latest video to be released of Moments of Arising, a video conversation series being created by the EcoFaith Network NE MN Synod during the Jubilee year of Earth Day for nurturing the green blades of a grassroots movement to repair our relationship with the torn web of creation.
The eighth video in the series, Death is the fifth of the short videos wrapped around the eight stanzas of Now the Green Blade Rises, four original stanzas of the Easter hymn and four environmentally focused stanzas, composed by Paul Jacobson.
Death features a reflection by the Rev. Dr. Anna Madsen, director of OMG and the Spent Dandelion Retreat Center, and a litany by seminarian Mac Mullins. Woven throughout the video is a compelling performance of the stanza with Paul Jacobson’s exquisite arrangement, and the stunning photographic imagery of filmmaker and video designer Linda Kalweit.
We invite you to watch this video by yourself or with a group from your congregation.
You can watch all the videos here.
NEXT TO BE RELEASED on December 15: Incarnation
Featuring Litany by Claire Repsholdt; Reflection by Rev. John Hanson; Lyrics and
arrangement by Paul Jacobson, video production design by Linda Kalweit, and host
Pastor David Carlson
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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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Book Review
Louv states: “This book asks: What would our lives be like if our days and nights were as immersed in nature as they are in technology? How can each of us help create that life-enhancing world, not only in a hypothetical future, but right now, for our families and for ourselves?”
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Seven overlapping precepts, based on the transformative powers of nature, can reshape our lives now and in the future. Together they form a singular force:
1. The more high-tech our lives become, the more nature we need to achieve natural balance.
2. The mind/body/nature connection, also called vitamin N (nature) will enhance physical and mental health.
3. Utilizing both technology and nature experience will increase our intelligence, creative thinking, and productivity, giving birth to the hybrid mind.
4. Human/nature social capital will enrich and redefine community to include all living things.
5. In the new purpose place, natural history will be as important as human history to regional and personal identity.
6. Through biophilic design our homes, workplaces, neighborhoods, and towns will not only conserve watts, but also produce human energy.
7. In relationship with nature, the high performance human will conserve and create natural habitat – and new economic potential – where we live, learn, work, and play.
Young, old, or in between, we can reap extraordinary benefits by connecting – or reconnecting – to nature.
This book review is by John Hanson, a retired pastor living on Turtle Lake, north of Grand Rapids, with his wife, Linda. He is a member of the NE MN Synod EcoFaith Leadership Team.
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What We've Been Reading
Here are a few other resources the Leadership Team is reading!
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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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