"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 | |
EcoFaith Summer Calendar 2024 | |
- Planning your Pollinator Plot 2024 – May 9
- Synod Pollinator Sunday – June 2
- EcoFaith at WELCA Convention – June 11
- EcoFaith at LYO Leadership Training Camp June 12
- EcoFaith Leadership Retreat – August 25-27
| |
|
On Saturday, April 6, 2024, over 300 people (229 in person and 102 online) attended the 8th annual EcoFaith Summit at First Lutheran Church in Duluth. This year’s theme, Cross Currents in the Flood: Building Arcs Together for a Livable Planet, was inspired by the book by Dr. Larry Rasmussen (The Planet you Inherit: Letters to My Grandchildren When Uncertainty’s a Sure Thing) and a myriad floods: literal floods and extreme weather disasters, floods of misinformation, as well as debilitating floods of anxiety and hopelessness. Attendees confronted the reality of the climate crisis, listened for God’s call, and conspired for life across generations. We experienced a powerful call to active hope which arose from the morning keynote presentations and respondents, original music, worship service of water and life, a series of themed workshops (arc-building sessions) and a wide ranging array of displays.
Photos by Arthur Goodman, First Lutheran, Duluth.
Read the full article here
| |
Urgent Action Needed TODAY | |
|
The following is from Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light's Rise and Repair Alliance:
"The Permitting Reform Bill has two versions in motion, one in the House and one in the Senate.
A provision in the Senate bill would relocate the Department of Commerce Energy Environmental Review and Analysis (DOC-EERA) staff from the DOC to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC).
This shift would greatly reduce transparency and independence of environmental review in our State's permitting process, especially with projects like Line 3."
We need you to take action TODAY before the hearing for the legislation.
| |
Brainerd Dispatch features Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa | |
|
Lutheran Church of the Cross in Nisswa celebrated Earth Day on Sunday, April 14, as a reminder that we are connected to and dependent on all of nature — God’s creation.
To recognize Earth Day at LCC, displays were creatively arranged in the narthex to give information on plastic waste, recycling dos and don’ts, and several of the church’s young people engaged people in conversation and handed out informational flyers...
Holding up examples of unrecyclable plastics were sisters Birdie Morsch and Rula Morsch, granddaughters of LCC members Rod and Lori Schneller. Birdie and Rula live in Nisswa, attend Lowell School in Brainerd, and were eager to share their love of nature by helping at the display table.
| |
|
Welcome the Green Season with the first
Synod Pollinator Sunday
June 2, 2024
| |
|
The NE-MN Synod and its EcoFaith Network invite congregations have designated June 2, the first “Green Sunday” of the Season after Pentecost, as Synod Pollinator Sunday. Resources for celebrating are available here for congregations throughout the Midwest, including a litany and hymn suggestions for worship as well as the hymn from the EcoFaith Summit, background information, and guidelines for becoming a pollinator sanctuary. An outdoor blessing for a new or existing pollinator plot will be available mid-May.
Note: Synod Pollinator Sunday is on June 2 as a welcome to the Green Season, but congregations can celebrate it at any time of their choosing.
| |
Your Congregation can Become a Pollinator Sanctuary Too! | |
Planning your Pollinator Plot 2024 – May 9 | |
|
Presentation with initial Q & A – 6:00 – 7:00p.m.
Q & A with continued conversation – 7:00-7:30p.m.
For: Pollinator Sanctuary Congregations and anyone interested in cultivating pollinator habitat
Presented by: the Pollinator Project Steering Committee of the NE MN EcoFaith Network
Join the Pollinator Project Steering Committee on Thursday, May 9 at 6pm to learn from experts in pollinator gardening and hear about pollinator plots at congregations throughout the NE-MN Synod!
RSVP: Tom Uecker (tomuecker1946@gmail.com)
| |
Education for your Congregation | |
|
Are you looking for continuing education for your congregation related to EcoFaith? Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church in Apple Valley, MN, recently hosted a three-part series on creation care as part of their ongoing adult forum. The recordings of forum series include:
| |
|
Books to Share With Children on the Environment
by Vernita Kennen, Saint Paul Area Care of Creation
| |
I’m a retired public school librarian who now coordinates my congregational library. One of the ways I connect my volunteer “book” work with the SPAS Care of Creation work group, is keeping up with new titles for the youngest children. Our children are our hope for the future of the planet and need an early introduction to what they (and we) can do together. Here are three titles I would recommend for sharing with children, ages 3-8. | |
|
Here: The Dot We Call Home by Laura Alary
“This is my home. I live here. But I am not the first…” The child in the story wonders: How can something so big seem so small? And conversely: How can something so small seem so big? Finally, almost overwhelmed by the mess that humans have left behind, in the end she realizes that there is only one thing to do: start where she is.
| |
|
Coyote’s Wild Home by Barbara Kingsolver and Lily Kingsolver
Pulitzer Prize winner Barbara Kingsolver and environmental educator Lily Kingsolver collaborate on their first children’s book, Coyote’s Wild Home. The book takes us into the woods, meadows, and streams of an Appalachian forest where a girl and a coyote pup each have their first woodland adventures
| |
|
The World is Ours to Cherish: A Letter to a Child by Mary Annaïse Heglar
It’s difficult to have conversations with children about things like climate change and environmental disasters but it’s important that children have tools for understanding the world they’re inheriting. Climate writer Mary Annaïse Heglar has written a hopeful picture book, in the style of a letter, to give children an honest look at climate change. She urges children to come together to help the planet.
Read the full reviews here
| |
Applications for NE-MN Synod Microgrants | |
|
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
| |
|
This Month's Green Tips
Here are Laura Raedeke's Green Tips from Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa
Changing Our Food and Farming Systems: Making Peace with Nature
| |
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.
| |
|
Sixth Sunday of Easter/Celebration of Spring
Sunday, May 5th
Pastor Dianne O. Loufman, First Lutheran Church—faithlovecommunity, Duluth, Minnesota
Acts 10:44-48
Psalm 98
I John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17
My husband and I just returned from Paris where we encountered spring in cherry blossoms, redbuds and vines drooping with wisteria blooms; in baby ducks swimming in one of the Tuileries Garden ponds and in the canopy of trees already in leaf. Creation surrounded us in paintings where brushstrokes sought to capture the beauty of the created world or intertwined humanity and creation in new or maybe unintended ways.
| |
One that caught my imagination was Anselme Boix-Vives painting entitled: Plans for Peace...As the notes of it read, “Boix-Vives paintings celebrated a world teeming with life forces. Surrounded by a verdant plant decor, this supernatural figure combines human and zoomorphic features.” The intertwining of humanity and creation in the painting speaks to the reality of our existence which we are called to protect. Is it any wonder that the figure that draws both together is called a supernatural one?
| |
Read the full reflection here | |
|
Seventh Sunday of Easter
May 12, 2024
Dennis Ormseth, St. Paul, MN
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
Psalm 1
1 John 5:9-13
John 17:6-19
As congregations hear the readings for this last Sunday of the Easter Season, perhaps only a few participants might be moved to comment, “well, Easter was great, but what happens now? What do we do next?” Families quickly move on to their list of spring activities, with graduations, weddings, plans for summer camps high on the agenda. The notion that the congregation might consider what they should do next in terms that relate specifically to the care of creation will not seem so strange, however, if the message of God's love for all creation we have been developing these past weeks has been persistently presented by the congregation's pastor. And the strange episode in our first reading this Sunday, the replacement of Judas by Matthias in the circle of Jesus followers could well prompt final food for thought relative to that message. Indeed, the narrative offers a fascinating stepping -off point for some summary reflections on the significance of the Easter lectionary for the church's commitment to care of creation.
Read the full reflection here
| |
|
The Day of Pentecost
May 19, 2024
David Ackerson, Messiah Lutheran Church, Mountain Iron, Minnesota
Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
Romans 8:22-27
John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15
Yes, we can this year remember the historical Pentecost, we can worship our Lord on this day, but there is more we must do: we must, Romans 8, by grace show up; we must step out in action, and we must move on down the road, advancing God’s plan for us, which means to advance God’s plan for one another and for all Creation. How do we do that? Let us look through the lens of the imagery of “fire.”
Read the full reflection here
| |
|
Trinity Sunday
May 26, 2024
Rev. Emily Meyer, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Isaiah 6:1-8
Psalm 29
Romans 8:12-17
John 3:1-17
This Trinity Sunday, I would be tempted - no matter the weather - to move worship - or at least the sermon - outside. Spend time noticing the Divine Presence in the grandeur and simplicity of each element of creation around you, including within the human bodies assembled.
Define Martin Luther’s understanding of pan-en-theism, as Larry Rassmusen reminded us at the EcoFaith Summit on April 6, including Luther’s appreciation of creation as God’s self-portrait - the original and most Divine sermon.
Wonder how the heavens are telling the glory of God (Psalm 19:1).
Consider how we are born anew by water and the Spirit.
Explore the presence of Love, as Augustine describes the Trinity: Love, Beloved, and Lover, in the elements and beings, around, in, with, and among the congregation.
Read the full reflection here
| |
|
Connections with Creation
May and June
May 5 – Sixth Sunday of Easter
In Psalm 98 the whole earth rejoices for God, the righteous judge. The seas, the lands, the creatures of the depths, and all the animals roar with delight. The rivers and hills sing out because God is judging the earth! Psalm 98 does not fear God’s judgment because it brings joy to all of creation—human and nonhumans alike. God’s victory is for everything on earth. This psalm proclaims that justice does not only exist between humans but also between us and the earth. God’s justice is ecojustice. Seeking God’s justice for all creation is about seeking joy for all creation—joy for humans seeking equity, for lands yearning for freedom, and for all the creatures who call these places home.
Read all Connections with Creation for May, June, and July
| |
|
EcoFaith Book of the Month
Native
by Kaitlin Curtice
Book Review by John Hanson
In this book Kaitlin Curtice explores her identity as coming from a white parent and a Potowatomi, indigenous, parent; with the main focus on what it means to be indigenous in white dominated United States. Along the way she calls attention to native American views on the earth and environment, and how her indigenous heritage reframes her view of God....
In a chapter entitled, “Land and Water,” the author points out that Potowatomi women are water protectors, (as are many women in indigenous tribes.) Then she reflects her Christian heritage by saying: “What if our stories of baptism in the church were rooted in that same idea of new beginnings, of person hood, just like the new beginnings after the flood, after everything is drenched and overcome? What might we learn from the water? What might we learn if we listen, if we wade in – unafraid, untethered, and uninhibited – ready to become the ones we were created to become?”
Read the full review here
| |
|
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.
| | | | |
