Creation Prayer
God, our Creator, who has intricately and beautifully interwoven all things into the immense tapestry of creation, give us eyes to behold its beauty, give us sensitivity to its intricate design and overall patterns. Where rips and tears and overuse have marred its integrity, give us wisdom and courage to mend and to restore the fabric of your creation as you have created and called us so to do. We pray in the name of Christ who reconciles and renews all things in creation. Amen
Prayer by Rev. Krehl Stringer,
Fergus Falls, MN
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Best Field Trip EVER!
Exploring Regenerative Farming at Walker Farm
St. Paul Synod Area Care of Creation Field Trip
by Laurie Windisch
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On a beautiful fall morning in October, about twenty of us, mainly from the St. Paul Area Synod’s Care of Creation Team, descended on Walker Farms in Princeton, MN in an effort to learn more about Regenerative Farming. Brothers George and Andy Walker are second generation farmers who have chosen to focus on implementing regenerative agricultural practices in order to “build soil organic matter, microbial population density and diversity, and sequester carbon.” https://walkerfarmsmn.com
George and his wife, Anneliese, took all the time we wanted to answer all of our questions, share a wealth of information with us, and show us around their operation. He explained that soil is a DEgenerated resource; hence the need for REgenerative Ag as opposed to Sustainable Ag.
Read the whole article here.
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Parables of Matthew & Regenerative Agriculture
Usually, a biblical reflection begins with a passage from the Bible. This month’s reflection begins instead with an experience. A few weeks ago, I was privileged to be part of the group who visited the Walker Farm, a remarkable “Field Trip” so fully described by Laurie Windisch in the lead article of this month’s newsletter. As I thought about all I had learned, I was drawn to consider the parables of Jesus and how steeped they are in nature, farming, and laborers. So I perused the parables of Matthew, keeping in mind our immersion into regenerative agriculture, the healing of the soil and welfare of the animals. I found the insights I gained from that experience were steeped in parabolic wisdom. I will share five examples.
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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Creation Stories from Congregations |
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Solar Energy Story
Calvary Lutheran, Mora
Submitted by Paul and Karen Larsen,
Members of Calvary Lutheran Care of Creation Committee
Eliminating 333 metric tons of CO2 in 30 years and 85-90% on electric bills
The Care for the Creation Committee at Calvary Lutheran Church in Mora was formed to support the ELCA Social Statement and Advocacy. For many meetings, the committee talked about how we could provide our stewardship for the care of God’s creation to our community. We want to give our environment the best chance to renew and save on clean energy that has been given to us.
A small committee formed to investigate what solar energy could do for our community. Fortunately, a donor stepped forward to help with knowledge and finances learning about solar array.
The benefits to the environment for having solar energy avoids pollution that is created by traditional energy sources such as fossil fuels and nuclear plants. While in use, solar energy will create no harmful emissions or waste.
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We want to hear from you! Share your story with ecofaith@nemnsynod.org |
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What’s So Different About Sulfide Mining?
Zoom Forum presentation and Q&A with Fred Quivik, an expert witness in Superfund litigation
Tuesday, November 16, 6:30 – 8:00p.m.
An expert witness compares the proposed copper-nickel projects
with historical iron ore/taconite and copper mining in the upper Midwest
Read the flyer here. Register by emailing ecofaith@nemnsynod.org
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Equity, Eco-Healing, and Human Health Panel
Four alumni from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, including EcoFaith co-chair David Carlson, share their diverse experiences working on eco-theology and equity:
Patricia Cuyatti, (2010, PhD), former Lutheran World Federation regional secretary for Latin America, the Caribbean, and North America, and pastor from the Lutheran Church of Peru
Yehiel Curry (2013, MDiv), bishop of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod, ELCA
David Carlson (2000, ThM), co-chair of the Northeastern Minnesota Synod’s EcoFaith Network, and pastor of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Duluth, Minn.
Elonda Clay (2007, ThM), director of the library at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio and scholar of science and religion, with interests in ecology, human health, and race
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Creation Advocacy
Standing with Creation
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Update from Lutheran Advocacy of Minnesota here.
Lutheran Delegations at COP26:
The International UN Climate Change Conference, COP 26, will occur in Glasgow, Scotland from Oct. 21-Nov.12. Gathered for the events and negotiations will be leaders from governments, as well as many nonprofit and faith-based organizations from around the world. Both Lutheran World Federation and the ELCA will have delegations at the meetings. The ELCA delegation includes ELCA Advocacy’s Program Director of Environmental and Corporate Social Responsibility, a couple of State Public Policy Directors, some synod level representatives, a few college/seminary students, and the Desk Director for American Indian & Alaska Native Tribal Nations at the ELCA (a member of the Cherokee Tribe).
Follow our ELCA participants with #ELCAatCOP26 and @ELCAadvocacy. Lutheran Advocacy-MN will try to keep up on Twitter and Facebook, also, with posts, retweets, and more (@LuthAdvocacyMN and https://www.facebook.com/luthadvocacymn).
We also invite you to participate in a Webinar with our ELCA COP26 participants on Tuesday, Dec. 7, at Noon (Central Time).
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Taxing Pollution? Update on Federal Climate Legislation
Citizens Climate Lobby, submitted by Carol Tack
There is some positive news out of Washington! Legislators and President Biden are considering corporate pollution fees in the budget negotiating process. This would work best if there is also a dividend given back to help lower income people deal with increases in energy costs. At the present time the market price of fossil fuels does not reflect the true cost. Oil, gas and coal companies do not pay the cost of pollution. According to The National Academy of Sciences the burning of fossil fuels causes $120 billion annually in mostly health related damages.
President Biden has pledged to cut America's carbon pollution 50% by 2030. Most economists think the fastest way to achieve this is to charge corporations a fee on fossil fuels at the source (mines, refineries or first pipeline). A market price on carbon would encourage businesses to innovate. Bill Gates has said, “Without a carbon tax there’s no incentive for innovation or plant buyers to switch” to clean energy.
You can learn more about the details of a carbon fee at: citizensclimatelobby.org. After you have learned about the need for a carbon fee please take action. Write to President Biden at www.whitehouse.gov
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Carol Tack is a summer member of Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa, Minnesota and a member at First Lutheran, Decorah, Iowa the rest of the year. She is involved in the Creation Care Team at Lutheran Church of the Cross and the EcoFaith Network NE MN Synod Leadership Team.
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Wherein Lies Hope?
Reflections on Glasgow Summit and Beyond
Melissa Foster, Chair of St. Paul Lutheran Church Green Team, Evanston, IL
Starting on Halloween and extending to Nov. 12, the UK will host the 26th Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, bringing together the world’s leaders to accelerate action towards the United Nation’s stated goal of reducing global carbon emissions by 50% by 2030.
Given that the promises at the Paris Conference have not been implemented, given that the U.S., which is the biggest carbon emitter per capita has not been able to pass climate legislation, given that China and India are still furiously building coal plants, and given that even Canada, which parades a green image, is ripping up its boreal forest, the lungs of the planet, for toilet paper and forcing yet another deadly oil pipeline (Line 3) across the America’s heartland, the prospects for humanity appear grim indeed. We seem to be re-enacting the Biblical story of the God’s people straying from their love of God and hurtling toward disastrous consequences.
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Worship with the Whole Creation
Tools for Preaching and Worship
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Green Blades Rising Preaching Roundtable
November 7, 2021 - All Saints Sunday
Pastor Krehl Strenger, Fergus Falls
The liturgical and theological territory covered from Reformation Sunday (or alternatively “The Greatest Commandment”) through All Saints Sunday, Signs of Apocalypse, and Christ the King is broad. And as many of us know, this territory has traditionally been dominated by narrower anthropological rather than ecological concerns. This presents some considerable opportunities for the church today--a church that must reform to broaden its understandings of “neighbor” and “saint” to include all of creation; a church that must testify boldly to the increasingly apparent apocalyptic signs befalling the planet, and yet offer a still credible witness to the sovereignty and faithfulness of God. One can trace a “narrative arc” or “eschatological trajectory” created by these final moments of the church year that can help those with eyes to see and ears to hear find their place within the emerging eco-reformation to which God is calling the churches to engage for our time. A similar narrative arc exists within the Season of Creation (typically 4-6 weeks at the beginning of autumn) that for all of its three lectionary cycles culminates in World Communion Sunday.
Read the whole commentary here.
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THE REIGN OF CHRIST – November 21, 2021
Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14;
Revelation 1:4b-8; John 18:33-37
Pastor David Carlson, Gloria Dei Duluth
Jesus’ encounter with Pontius Pilate here reminds me of something Yale campus pastor William Sloan Coffin once said, “Truth is above harmony. Those who fear disorder more than injustice invariably produce more of both.” The truths of Jesus – his confusing parables, his welcome of unclean people, his care for the poor and marginalized, his turning over the tables of the moneychangers at the temple – all of these truths were difficult to handle. In some ways they produced disharmony – certainly for the religious authorities and eventually jeopardizing his personal safety. And yet Jesus was willing to risk this disharmony in order to bear witness to the truth – not simply a truth about people who were being neglected or a truth about the injustices of the powerful – but also the truth about God, that God’s justice, God’s love will prevail in the end. As we reflect on the reign of Christ in a world impacted by climate change and a pandemic, polarization and skepticism, he reminds us that truth is at the center of his purpose. This is why I was born, he says, this is why I came, “to bear witness to the truth.” And the truth of Christ rises above the apparent harmony or disharmony that continues to characterize our lives today.
Read the whole reflection here.
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First Sunday in Advent November 28, 2021
Jeremiah 33:14-16, Psalm 25:1-10, 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13, Luke 21:25-36
Pastor Melinda Quivik
Sometimes scripture can be light-hearted and even funny. In this Lukan passage, Jesus demonstrates that he has a clue about gardening: when leaves start appearing on the fig tree, summer is soon to arrive. It might be a fairly banal bit of knowledge, but it demonstrates that even God acknowledges natural theology. In essence, Jesus is saying that we can discern things about eternity from the things we see around us on earth. That’s a pretty sophisticated theological conclusion to assert.
Of course, it isn’t the whole story; God’s way is far beyond what occurs in the natural world. In God’s way, a dead man was raised from the dead. (Not natural.)
We might say that we didn’t need right now to be hearing that we need to stay alert for signs of destruction. Just right now we have already a number of reasons to fret because many of us are deep in terror over climate change. Yet, as we enter a new church year with this very Sunday’s sobering texts, we are hearing the truth of our times.
Read the whole reflection here.
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We want to hear from you!
If you are interested in providing a preaching roundtable reflection, email revkristinfoster@gmail.com
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This month John Hanson is sharing books he has reviewed since inception.
If people want more information on a certain book, you can get a hold of John at jkhpolish2@gmail.com
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Book Groups in the Synod
EARTH HARMONY BOOK DISCUSSION, Nov 11 - The Oreck-Alpern Interreligious Forum of the College of St. Scholastica offers a study group on environmental stewardship, facilitated by Pastor David Carlson. These sessions explore a variety of spiritual perspectives that recognize our deep creaturely interrelatedness, lament our negative impact on the earth’s well-being, and highlight our vocation as stewards. The group usually meets on the second Thursday. This month, we are reading chapters of Caring for Creation: The Evangelical's Guide to Climate Change and the Environment (2016) by Paul Douglas & Mitch Hescox. A Zoom meeting is planned from 8:00-9:00 a.m. (contact Pastor Carlson for the link: pastor@gloriadeiduluth.org).
Iron Range Congregations Caring for the Earth Book Group
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Tuesdays, November 9, November 23, and December 14
1:00 – 2:30p.m.
Hope Community Presbyterian Church
Fifth Avenue, Virginia, MN
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Connections with Creation
Nov 7 – All Saints Sunday
Psalm 24 set alongside the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead tells us that God has authority over all aspects of creation, from life to death. The psalmist declares that “the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it” (v. 1), while Jesus’ command for the dead to rise puts human efforts to dominate nature in perspective. As much as we have attempted to gain mastery over land, water, animals, insects, other humans, and the very processes of life, our hubris has often done more harm than good. Even as we mourn those who have died—and especially those whose deaths resulted from injustice, violence, and ill health due to environmental conditions—we proclaim God’s vindication and draw courage from Jesus to face the tombs of our time. We declare that the Alpha and Omega dwells with us and among us.
Read all the November Connections with Creation here.
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This Month's Green Tips
Feel free to use these striking Green Tips created by Synod members for your bulletins and general knowledge! These are meant to inspire earthkeeping action!
This month, Laura Raedeke green tips focus on pollution.
Here are Laura Raedeke's Green Tips Lutheran Church of the Cross
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Read. Watch. Listen. Share!
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We want to hear from you!
If you are interested in sharing anything with the network in the newsletter, email ecofaith@nemnsynod.org
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In Case You Missed These EcoFaith Events...
EcoFaith Summit
Here is the link for the full video recording of the EcoFaith Summit:
Here is a link to the playlist for all the pieces from the Summit:
Here is a description of the speakers.
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Click here to see previous
Green Blades Rising newsletters
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The EcoFaith Network NEMN Synod
Living out God's call to be stewards of the earth for the sake of the whole creation.
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