"Now the green blade rises from the buried grain" | |
An online publication of the EcoFaith Network NE-MN Synod with Saint Paul Area Synod Care of Creation | |
Keynote speaker Larry Rasmussen is author most recently of The Planet You Inherit: Letters to My Grandchildren When Uncertainty’s a Sure Thing (Broadleaf Books, 2022), awarded the 2023 Nautilus Gold Prize for best 2022 book in Ecology and Environment. He is the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. | |
|
The Planet You Inherit: Letters to my Grandchildren When Uncertainty's a Sure Thing
by Larry Rasmussen
Review by Rev. Dr. Dennis Ormseth
Saint Paul Area Synod Care of Creation Work Group
We face uncharted territory, Larry Rasmussen warns in his recent book, The Planet You Inherit: Letters to my Grandchildren When Uncertainty 's a Sure Thing. We -- homo sapiens, that is -- stand at the edge of the abyss called the Age of the Anthropocene, the age of human domination of the entirety of nature. Addressed to his two grandchildren, Eduardo and Martin, the letters in this incredibly engaging book were written with deep regret to have been part of the crowd which has unfairly placed them before such immense difficulty. As their grandfather, Larry hopes to provide the boys (and us, with our progeny, of course), a map of "the world for a different way of life" in "a new age of discovery and a dangerous pilgrimage." The phrase captures both the sense of adventure and an awareness of peril which pervade the book.
Read the whole review here
| |
Applications for NE-MN Synod Microgrants Now Open! | |
|
Each year, the EcoFaith Network provides microgrants to congregations, camps, and campus ministries in the NE-MN synod for projects related to creation care. Projects in a variety of areas are eligible for funding in pursuit of the following mission goals addressed by EcoFaith Network efforts: worship, education, congregational life, buildings and grounds, community action, and other creation care centered activities. Grants are available in amounts between $100-$1000.
Applications need to be received 30 days prior to the EcoFaith Network Leadership Team monthly meeting to allow for consideration during the upcoming meeting.
Learn more and find application materials here
| |
|
The Lawns of Eden Or Paradise Lost?
Discovering our Many Lawn Alternatives
by Paul Jacobson, Saint Paul Area Synod Care of Creation
| |
|
An estimated 40 million acres of grass “decorate” our nation, from tiny to the above gargantuan, thousands of golf courses and manicured parks, most of them barefoot friendly if you don’t mind trespassing or walking on pesticides and herbicides. One article (#NoMowDays by Christine Osborne from the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, www.deq.utah.gov) lists some frightening statistics. Lawn-mowing uses roughly 800 million gallons of gas per year. 17 million gallons are lost through spillage and evaporation from old-style gas cans. One 4-stroke lawn mower operated for 1 hour uses about what an average car will use on a 500-mile trip and the equivalent of 11 new non-electric cars running for an hour.
What can we do? Our landscaping culture, to say nothing of the lawn-care industrial complex (LIC - is there such a thing?) is highly resistant to change. The image of a monoculture lawn that requires constant loving attention, chemicals, and oodles of water has been part of the western world’s culture from time immemorial. But the dream of a more natural, multicultural, alternative lawn which doesn’t crave chemicals and water, has begun to crop up all over the place, even in picturesque exurban housing developments — and (drum-roll) in The University.
Read the full article here
| |
COP28 Conversation with ELCA Representative | |
|
On Tuesday, March 5th at 7pm, Christ the King Lutheran Church in New Brighton will host Tammy Walhof, director of Lutheran Advocacy Minnesota, for a presentation on her experience at COP28 in Dubai. Walhof was one of four representatives from the ELCA to attend the climate summit in Dubai.
Lutheran Advocacy Minnesota is a ministry of the six ELCA synods in Minnesota.
Watch an interview with the ELCA Delegates to COP28 here
| |
|
Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light (MNIPL) is hosting a webinar on March 5th at noon with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (MCEA) to discuss important environmental priorities for this year's legislative session. They invite you to "Learn more about the Rise and Repair coalition, our agenda, and MCEA’s work to advance climate action while protecting Minnesota’s bedrock environmental laws and preserving community input."
Learn more and register here
| |
Updates from the NE-MN Synod Pollinator Project! | |
|
Check out our new map of the Pollinator Project on the EcoFaith website!
The monarch migration from the mountains of Mexico usually begins near the end of February or the beginning of March. If you would like to follow the migration in real time, go to: journeynorth.org. The first migrants from Mexico usually arrive in Northern Minnesota during the last weeks of May. They will be looking for milkweed and other native/nectar pollinator plants.
Our Savior's Lutheran, Outing
We are anxious to get plants in the ground before the snow flies so that Spring will give us a few more mature plants for the Monarchs to feed on. Our Savior’s is working with the Cass/Crow Wing County Soil and Water Districts who assisted in surveying an area, suggested plants, and estimated the cost. The goal is to raise $1700 which SWCD would match and are planning a 10 x 10 raised garden under the church sign. In addition they are tilling up a patch on the west end of the parking lot which would have wild/native flowers and intend to plant in the spring. Other projects include teaming up with the Lions to get plastic benches to install by the sign; the altar guild is now washing and reusing plastic cups and hoping to replace them with glass; they are using the china cups and plates in the church kitchen.
Our Saviors Lutheran Church, West Duluth
We are excited to announce a pollinator garden is in the process of being completed on the northern side of the church. Weed barrier plants have been laid down which will decompose after a few years. So far, 320 plants have been planted with 30 more still to be planted. These include chokeberry and honeysuckle bush, milkweed, sedges, hyssop, golden rod, asters, bee balm, coneflower, sneezeweed, columbine, figwort, butterflyweed, and a few others. We do have a fence around the area to keep rabbits out to keep them from eating fresh plants. We would like to thank the Our Savior’s Foundation for funds to buy the plants, mats and fencing as well as thank Thrivent for materials for two water barrels also installed in the area. Don’t hesitate to stop by and take a look at the garden or inquire as how to start your own pollinator garden.
| |
Your Congregation can Become a Pollinator Sanctuary Too! | |
Invitation to NE-MN Congregations to Become 2024 EcoFaith Congregation Partners | |
|
Green blades of care and concern for the creation are arising in congregations throughout our synod and beyond! Thank you to our EcoFaith Network 2023 Partner Congregations for your prayers, financial support and ministries, as we live out God’s call together to be stewards of the earth for the sake of the whole creation.
Baptism River, Finland
Bethel-Trinity, Bovey
Calvary, Mora
Calvary, Mora
Church of the Cross, Nisswa
Holden, Isle
Faith United, Iron
First, Duluth
First, Duluth
First, Hibbing
First, Aitkin
Gloria Dei, Duluth
Knife River, Knife River
Our Redeemer, Pine City
Our Savior’s, Outing
Immanuel, Princeton
Trinity, Cass Lake
Trinity, Hovland
Zion, Grand Rapids
Zion, Milaca
Help us nurture the green blades rising movement of creation care by becoming an EcoFaith Network Partner Congregation in 2024 with a financial contribution of any amount.
Learn more and find congregation partner forms here
| |
|
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
Reaching net-zero emissions by 2050: transitioning to a clean energy economy that supports goals for CLIMATE, CONSERVATION, AND COMMUNITIES
| |
Worshipping with the Whole Creation | |
Green Blades Preaching Roundtable | |
|
The Green Blades Preaching Roundtable weekly reflections by a variety of preaching writers on the ecological implications of each Sunday’s lectionary.
The Roundtable editor, Kristin Foster has some remaining openings for writers in 2024 and would welcome new and returning writers for these Sundays. Please email her if interested at revkristinfoster@gmail.com.
| |
|
Third Sunday in Lent
March 3, 2024
Luke Pederson, SAM, Chair of the Northwest Synod of Wisconsin's Creation Care Team
John 2:13-22
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
Psalm 19
Exodus 20:1-17
In “A Sand County Almanac”, Aldo Leopold wrote, We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.
“A community to which belong”—how often do we view the land as a community of which we both a part of and dependent on? A community to which we have responsibilities, where neglect or abuse affect the whole community? How can this connect with us as members who belong to the Body of Christ?
Read the full reflection here
| |
|
Fourth Sunday in Lent
March 10, 2024
Rev. Nathan Sager, D. Min., Duluth, Minnesota
Numbers 21:4-9
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2:1-10
John 3:14-21
In our Gospel reading today, Jesus is teaching the Pharisee Nicodemus.
As he did, he used Old Testament images to convey theological truth.
I notice two in particular: wilderness and serpent.
He didn’t hold up a Christian t-shirt…or a 3:16 sign at a football game.
He held up wilderness and serpent.
Jesus and Nicodemus were not on the same theological page.
But both knew their history, and God’s hand revealed in nature.
Read the full reflection here
| |
|
Fifth Sunday in Lent
March 17, 2024
Melinda Quivik, Saint Paul, Minnesota
Jeremiah 31:31–34
Psalm 51:1–12
Hebrews 5:5–10
John 12:20–33
In this era of reckoning with global climate chaos, this Sunday's readings invite us to think expansively in terms of our own lives about that grain of wheat falling and sprouting new grain in John 12. Jesus may well be speaking of his own death and the resulting good that will come from it. Death must precede resurrection, certainly. And the good that comes is expansive. From the death of one single stalk of wheat can sprout two to thirty kernels. The metaphor is apt; that dying grain is about the lives of all of us. Try on the idea that we are all grains of wheat called to die to the ways we live that harm other people and Earth. We are called to oppose all that is death-dealing in our world. For that, something in ourselves––in our vision, in our theologies, in our actions––must die.
Read the full reflection here
| |
|
Palm Sunday
March 24, 2024
Rev. John Stiles, Pine City, Minnesota
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2:5-11
Mark 14:1-15:47
As Paul says in Philippians, Jesus “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.” For Jesus, all the pomp-and-circumstance ended in his bearing our sinful consequence. All the pageantry ended in travesty. It was his majesty to give the people their wish to “save us” by taking it upon himself. All the hurt and shame; the hatred and thirst for revenge so that we might be free. Between these two parades, one of pageantry and one of mockery, Jesus shows us how to love and what true power looks like.
Read the full reflection here
| |
|
Maundy Thursday
March 28, 2024
Pastor Greg Kaufmann, Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin
Exodus 12:1-4, (5-10), 11-14
Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
How does one show love for one another today? We know that the effects of climate change disproportionately impact the most vulnerable people/countries in the world, and we know that climate change is being exacerbated by lifestyles many of us in the developed countries of the world consider our right to enjoy. What might this call us to change in our own lives?
Read the full reflection here
| |
|
Easter Sunday
March 31st, 2024
Pastor Claire Repsholdt, Patchogue, NY
Mark 16
This Easter, I’m concentrated on the promises God makes to us, at baptism and for the rest of our lives, and on the simple ways that any kind of water can remind us of those baptismal promises. My parsonage is located only 5 minutes from the Great South Bay, a brilliant scoop of water that lies between Long Island, New York, and her beloved cousin, Fire Island. It’s one of the greatest treasures I’d never heard anything about when I lived in the Midwest.
Read the full reflection here
| |
|
Connections with Creation
March
March 3 – Third Sunday in Lent
Without a human voice, the heavens declare God’s glory and tell of God’s handiwork (Ps. 19). This is a bold, beautiful image, especially given the modern knowledge that space has no particles to carry sound. Perhaps this declaration is in the ordering of solar systems, where gravity holds together disparate planets for heavenly purpose. Maybe it’s in the dark matter we can’t see as it impacts other particles or the dark energy we can’t explain as it expands the universe. Perhaps it’s the capacity for light to travel endlessly. Even for all we can explain in terms of how things happen, there’s no evident answer for why. Except, of course, a loving God whose handiwork makes space for life like yours and mine.
Read all Connections with Creation for March and April
| |
|
EcoFaith Book of the Month
Laudate Deum:
To all people of good will on the climate crisis
by Pope Francis, 2023
Review by John Hanson, retired pastor, EcoFaith NE-MN Synod
I respect Pope Francis’ concerns on the topic of climate change and its impact on the planet as a theologian of the Christian church and as a trained scientist. He can speak with authority in both fields. In doing so he also reveals the heart of a pastor. His writing on the effects of climate change are primarily addressed at the impact it has on the most poor and vulnerable among us, as well as the environment in its entirety.
Read the full review here
| |
|
Through the College of St. Scholastica, Pastor Dave Carlson of Gloria Dei in Duluth facilitates two monthly book discussion groups, to which all are welcome:
-
Earth Harmony, Thursday, March 14 - The Planet You Inherit: Letters to My Grandchildren When Uncertainty's a Sure Thing by Larry Rasmussen (2022). Meeting 8:00-9:00 a.m. in person at Chester Creek Cafe in Duluth.
-
Religion & Science, Wednesday, March 20 - Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross (2023). Meeting 8:00-9:00 a.m. via Zoom. Contact Pastor Carlson for the link or for more information, pastor@gloriadeiduluth.org
| |
|
Check out the Green Lectionary Podcast!
Creation Justice Ministries produces a podcast that it describes as "a conversation on scripture with a creation justice lens." Check it out here!
| |
|
Trying to figure out how Faith and Science work together every week?
Listen to The Faith and Science Podcast, following the Revised Common Lectionary each week and try to answer that question. It can be found at wherever podcasts are found or at
https://thefaithandsciencepodcast.podbean.com/
| |
Read. Watch. Listen. Share! | |
The EcoFaith Network NEMN Synod
Living out God's call to be stewards of the earth for the sake of the whole creation.
| |
SPAS Care of Creation
We are called to care for God's creation as a central part of our Christian faith and identity.
| | | | |
