Greetings companions in creation care!
Fall and the changing leaves is my favorite time of year, but this Fall seems to be bringing even more changes with the election, climate change disasters, and the change of being indoors more now with a pandemic.
I hope you will find some hope in the stories below of so many people in our synod working toward change and action.
Peace to you all and the world.
If you have stories to share, I would love to hear them: ecofaith@nemnsynod.org
-Erica Bjelland, EcoFaith Communications
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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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Creation Care in Programming:
Grand Rapids Churches
"The altar in the sanctuary at St. Andrews Lutheran Church in Grand Rapids is in front of a two story
window, with a cross embedded, and tall pines, maples, and forest floor as a background. We are
always reminded of God’s wonderful creation, be it when summer winds blow through the trees or in
winter when the snows are heavy. When floating the idea of a creation care, we knew there would be interest." Read more about St. Andrews' Creation Care work here.
Join members of St Andrews and Zion Lutheran in Grand Rapids for a Zoom event tonight!
Restoring Creation: The Great Work of Our Time
Monday, October 5
6:30 – 8:00p.m.
A Workshop Sponsored by Zion and St. Andrew’s Lutheran Churches, Grand Rapids Area
Featuring a power point presentation
by Blessed Tomorrow in conjunction with Lutherans Restoring Creation
Why we care as Lutheran Christians
Scientific data of climate change and its human impacts, including here
Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 840 4894 3313
Passcode: 014722
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"Normally, the monarchs arrive at their winter homes around the first of November which is a holiday in Mexico (Day of the Dead). We were sad to see the monarchs leave, but the indigenous people in this part of Mexico celebrated the monarch’s return. Church bells would ring when the first monarchs were spotted."
Read more of Tom Uecker's following of monarchs 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 Microgrants Available
Did you know your congregation is eligible for an EcoFaith Microgrant of $100-$1,000? You can apply to help support new earth stewardship initiatives in the areas of Worship, Education, Congregational Life, Building and Grounds, and Community Engagement.
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Announcements & Resources |
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Preaching for the Whole Creation:
Commentary on the Lectionary
October 11 - November 1
"Preaching in the month of October in 2020 takes place as our nation begins voting in one of the most hotly contested elections in recent memory. Media commentators commonly describe what is at stake as the future of our democracy. Thus it seems important in this commentary focused on care of creation that we should ask after the significance of care of creation in the perspective of Christian faith for the future of the nation, and the weight which Christian voters should place on that concern as they make their choices. As we shall show in what follows, the readings for this month provide a solid basis for addressing such questions." Read more of the 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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Reformation Sunday Resource
On the final Sunday of October, Lutherans and others celebrate Reformation Sunday, historically rooted in Martin Luther's publication of 95 Theses against the sale of indulgences. Many church leaders have been suggesting that we are called into a new reformation where the gospel speaks to the healing not only of our relationship with God but the healing of our relationship with God's creation.
Pastor David Carlson's 9.5 Theses for Earthkeeping describes the core Lutheran teachings that point us toward this new reformation. Read the whole 9.5 theses here.
Pastor Carlson is pastor of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Duluth and published his 2016 D. Min. dissertation, Earth Stewardship and the Misseo Dei: Participating in the Care and Redemption of All that God Has Made.
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Book Discussion Group
Starting Tuesday, October 20
by Elizabeth A. Johnson
An examination of the relationship between faith in God, the scientific insights of Charles Darwin, and ecological care within a crisis of biodiversity.
Monthly on third Tuesdays, starting October 20
2:00 – 3:00 p.m. via Zoom
Hosted by Iron Range Congregations Caring for the Earth
A link will be provided upon registration
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Moments of Arising:
A Video Series for the Jubilee Year of Earth Day
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Have you seen the Moments of Arising video, Slumber, yet?
Slumber features the performance of Paul Jacobson’s arrangement of stanza 3 (stanza 2 in the original Easter hymn). Jordan Lutz, the Sustainability Project Manager for Bemidji State University and Lutheran Campus Ministry board member, offers a prophetically challenging reflection on current manifestations of “love by hatred slain”. Jordan Stone, a Luther Seminary Jubilee Scholar from Sioux Falls South Dakota, opens us with an original litany.
Have you watched the currently released Moments of Arising videos? Here is the full list of the videos and you can see all the videos here.
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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
God of Earth: Discovering a Radically Ecological Christianity by Kristin Swenson
“What if Jesus, the incarnation of a universal and eternal God who desires reconciliation and fullness of life, is also present and alive with us today, in and through this pulsing blue-green planet Earth?”
The above quote summarizes the thesis of the book, God of Earth: Discovering a Radically Ecological Christianity, by Kristen Swenson; 2016; John Knox Press. In her book she raises the question of God sending Jesus into the world to reconcile all of creation, human and non-human, to God’s loving care.
Swenson uses the liturgical year, Advent through Pentecost to help understand how Christians can see the incarnate God, Jesus Christ, as creator and redeemer of the whole cosmos. For instance, to view the Christ child in this way: “...the attention, love, and care the baby Jesus draws forth from us by his very nature as a poor infant is the same as earth’s – to attend, care, to take delight and to worry over the earth is to worship the newborn God.”
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The God of earth calls us to honor, love, care for the creation given to us. The Christian faith therefore, is to be lived by caring for this world as we trust in God’s redemption in Christ in the world to come. We are called to invest in and use renewable energy as God daily engages in blessing and renewing the creation.
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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Other Resources
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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