Hooray! This month the Green Blades Rising Newsletter turns 1 year old! As the whole world went virtual last year, we were happy we could continue to creatively connect with this newsletter. In the last year, we have built a newsletter with beautiful monthly reflections, book reviews, stories, and resources and a network list of more than 2,000 people. We are grateful for your partnership in inspiring content and readership.
We look forward to continuing to be green blades rising with you through this newsletter and in-person.
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Click the icon above to access this past year's Green Blades Rising Newsletters |
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Stories for the Healing of Creation
Plastic-Free July!
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Plastic Free July is a global movement. Thanks to Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Stillwater and the St. Paul Area Synod Care of Creation Work Group, we just now learned about it. Even though July will have begun when you read about it here, we invite you and your community of faith to jump in!
Check out what it is and how you can participate here.
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Ordination of Colleen Bernu to the
Ministry of Word and Sacrament
June 19, 2021
Congratulations to a member of our network, Colleen Bernu, on her ordination as a deacon of the ELCA! The EcoFaith Network and the St. Paul Area Synod Care of Creation Work Group collaborated with Colleen Bernu and Together Here Ministries throughout the past year in a series of workshops, Called to Arise: Standing at the Intersection of Racism, Inequality, and the Environment. The EcoFaith Network was represented at Colleen’s ordination by Pastor Amanda Kossow and Paul and Diane Jacobson. The EcoFaith Network presented her a stole to honor her calling.
Paul Jacobson shared more about the ordination here.
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Interested in Connecting with the Leadership Team?
If you are interested in what the leadership team does or learning more about our work, contact Dave Carlson or Kristin Foster about our Leadership Team Retreat on September 10-12. You can email them at revkristinfoster@gmail.com and dcarlson001@luthersem.edu
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Season of Creation Workshop
For those unable to attend the Workshop on the Season of Creation led by Pastors David Carlson and Mark Ditmanson on May 27, the recording is available here!
Passcode: T&T4MF=#
Share with your worship team, and get in touch with us with your questions and ideas!
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EcoFaith in Worship and the Word
Preaching for the Whole Creation
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Creation in Preaching
July 11th Deacon Colleen Bernu
How do this week’s readings open you to hear the cry and wisdom of creation and heed God's call to respond in this kairos time?
In each of this week’s readings, we find someone reflecting on the identity of themselves or someone else. In Mark, Herod questions the identity of Jesus. In Amos, Amaziah questions Amos’ identity, and in Samuel, Michal (Saul’s daughter) questions the identity of David. Readings from Psalms and Ephesians encourage us to reflect on our relationship with God, each other and God’s creation - we are asked to ponder our identities as children of God.
Identity is an interesting thing to reflect upon in relation to faith in action. Identity (our understanding of who we are and our perception of who others are) is very much developed through our cultural interpretation of how we fit in the world. Differences in culture can create a gulf between us; a gulf which can lead to misunderstanding, confusion and the alienation of one culture from another.
Read the whole reflection here.
July 18th Pastor Dianne Loufgren
In Duluth, July 18th is Lake Superior Sunday. Our congregation gathers in the park along the lake’s edge for service as we do every Sunday in July and August, but this day we go down into the waters for baptisms. (Yes, it is cold!) We give thanks this Sunday for the Gichi-Gami and for the many waters that make up this land of Minnesota. Today is a natural connection for lifting up the interdependence of creation, humanity and Creator.
Psalm 23 The Psalm for today holds for us the promise and the problem with this six-word sentence: “I shall not be in want.” Such a contrary mantra to our consumer-driven society’s “I want” where we are never satisfied and where wants are so readily confused as needs. That drive for producing and accumulating more and more takes a toll not only on our souls but on the heart and soul of creation.
Read the whole reflection here.
July 25th Pastor Amanda Kossow
It is late June as I write this reflection. The theme of scarcity from 2 Kings and John currently shroud our world. There is a rain famine in many western and mid-western states, while in the Eastern portion of the country there is a shortage of resources, natural and otherwise, to handle the intense storms...
These stories and their silent voices swirled in my mind as I read John’s gospel text. Often our attention is focused on Jesus, Philip and Andrew, who represent the disciples, and the crowd (note that these are all speaking parts). Granted, it is as a whole that the crowd speaks in verse 14. We don’t actually hear from the individuals and families themselves. This time, however, I was drawn to those who have no voice here. The sea. The mountain. The young boy. The harvested grain that was made into barley loaves. The fish. The grass, which by the way is not typically a widespread portion of the landscape on this part of the earth.
Read the whole reflection here.
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Creation in the Bible
Creation as God’s Witness to Human Injustice –
Deuteronomy 30:19-20; Jeremiah 4:23-28
This year, as in so many years past, we have borne witness to endless injustice. It is thus worth noting that God calls on creation itself to be just such a witness. Israel understood that, in that role, the very earth would react if Israel betrayed her covenantal responsibilities.
In Deuteronomy 30:19-20, standing on Mount Nebo, Moses seals the covenant by saying:
I call upon heaven and earth, on this day, to witness against/concerning you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying God's voice, and cleaving to the Lord.
Read the whole reflection here.
By Dr. Diane Jacobson, Professor Emerita, Luther Seminary
Retired Director of the ELCA Book of Faith Initiative
Member, LeadershipTeam of the EcoFaith Network NE MN Synod and
the St. Paul Area Synod Care of Creation Work Group
Mother of Zipporah, the singing dog
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This Month's Green Tips
Feel free to use these striking Green Tips created by two Synod members for your bulletins and general knowledge! These are meant to inspire earthkeeping action!
This month, Laura Raedeke themed her green tips around Xcel Energy announcing it will not invest in a new natural gas plant.
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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Connections with Creation
July-August 2021
July 4 – Lectionary 14/ Pentecost 6
Jesus sent the disciples out without supplies or money, which meant they had to rely on others whom they met on their journeys. Jesus is demonstrating the need for interdependence for survival. A diversity of animal and plant species benefits all of creation. Indeed, biodiversity is essential to life. Plants and other forms of flora provide crops such as cotton for clothing and rubber for gloves. More than half of all medical prescriptions come from wild species. More than three-quarters of the world’s food crops rely, at least in part, on the activities of bees, wasps, butterflies, and other pollinators, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (www.fao.org/pollination/en/). We need this interdependence for survival. What is the health status of pollinators in your area? How could your congregation support their flourishing?
Read all of the Connections with Creation here.
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Book Review
A New Climate for Theology
by Sallie McFague
Sallie McFague is a theologian, teaching at Vanderbilt Divinity School, and Vancouver School of Theology. She has a special passion for reconstructing Christian thought around the idea that Christians rethink their relationship to God, each other and the world; to consider an ecological economic model that reinterprets “the basic doctrines of Christianity: God and the world, Christ and salvation, human life and discipleship.” (p. 95) This thesis is built upon the idea that God, who chose to become incarnate in Jesus, can be thought of having the earth as an embodiment of God’s presence in the world.
Read the whole book review here.
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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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Latest Line 3 News
https://www.stopline3.org/recent
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Thank you for joining us for the EcoFaith Summit on April 17th!
Here is the link for the full video recording of the Summit:
Here is a link to the playlist for all the pieces from the Summit:
Here is a description of the speakers.
If anyone is interested in native milkweed seeds, you can email Alicia Green at mallardlake0806@hotmail.com and she will ship them the seeds along with information!!! Great activity to involve kids!!!
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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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