"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 | |
Pollinators Featured in the Living Lutheran | |
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Caring for Creation, One Butterfly at a Time
The people of Christ the King Lutheran Church in West Chester, Ohio, are ministering to pollinators—butterflies, to be specific.
When its youth group learned that butterflies, especially the iconic orange and black monarchs, were at risk, the teens planted a pollinator habitat as part of the congregation’s care for creation ministry.
According to Youth for Monarchs, a service-learning program for youth groups that launched its pilot program at Christ the King, the monarch butterfly population has declined 80% in the past two decades, mostly because their habitats, including the milkweed that the caterpillars require, are being destroyed. Now Christ the King has dedicated part of its 8-acre property to growing native plants that feed and attract butterflies, bees and other pollinators.
Read the full article here
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EcoFaith and Hunger at NE MN Synod Walking Together
October 12, Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa
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The annual Walking Together event will take place Saturday, Oct 12th at Lutheran Church of the Cross in Nisswa, MN. Doors open at 8am, with the festivities beginning at 9am. Our theme this year is Walking Together: 50 Years of ELCA World Hunger, as we highlight and mark the ministry of ELCA World Hunger over the past 50 years. The EcoFaith Network will present a workshop at the event.
We invite you to spread the word, share widely with your church, utilize the graphics and information below in your congregational communications, and come celebrate with us all that God has done through ELCA World Hunger and the Northeastern Minnesota Synod!
Learn more and register here
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Pollinator Sanctuary Congregations
Fall Share and Learn
Thursday, October 10, 2024
Lunch Hour
Noon – 1p.m. on Zoom
Hosted by the NE MN Synod Pollinator Project Steering Committee
Access the Zoom link here
For anyone committed to creating sanctuaries for pollinators
- Share your progress or plans
- Ask questions and share tips
- Get information about proper Fall and winter work
- Encourage others through your own experiences
Northeastern Minnesota is a Pollinator Synod
The NE MN Synod now has 48 congregations with Pollinator Sanctuaries in various stages of development on their church property. With the conclusion of the growing season, the Pollinator Steering Committee wants to support those efforts and share information via this zoom meeting on Thursday, Oct. 10 from noon to 1 p.m.
Whether your congregation has a fully developed plot, a first-year effort, or are in the idea stage, we welcome you to
- share your progress or plans
- ask questions and share tips
- get information about proper fall and winter work and
- support other congregations through your own experiences
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This meeting is sponsored by the Synod Pollinator Sanctuary Steering Committee and many members will be there to share their own experiences. If you are unable to attend and would like to contact us, email ecofaith@nemnsynod.org.
As a Pollinator Synod, the NE MN Synod is embracing a vision for regional regeneration of pollinator habitat in which, with the guidance and equipping of the earth-renewing Spirit, all of its congregations and expressions:
- promote pollinator friendly habitats on their grounds, at home and in the neighborhood,
- work to eliminate the use of pesticides and other pollinator-harming chemicals,
- consider themselves “demonstration plots” for earth-honoring experimentation in worship, education, congregational life, building and grounds, and community action.
We seek to live out our call as pollinators of the gospel in our witness to God’s love in Jesus Christ for all creation, sharing practices across our synod and beyond.
Jan Bilden
Chair, Pollinator Project Steering Committee
Members: Bob Gabres, Bruce Garbisch, Kurt Hoffman, Robert Jenko, Laura Raedeke, Tom Uecker
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SAVE THE DATE! EcoFaith Summit 2025 | |
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Earth’s Cries, Earth’s Call: Becoming Midwives of Hope for the Healing of Creation
Saturday, April 5, 2025
First Lutheran, Duluth and online
Lead speakers: Cynthia Moe-Lobeda and Kelly Sherman-Conroy
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Voting for Climate
A Reflection by Pr. Bob Lehner, Saint Paul Area Synod Care of Creation
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 |  | It was a hot summer day in August when a few of us gathered at the start of the parade route. I had walked the parade route many times before, handing out brochures, water bottles, candy, and who knows what. But this day was a little different. This past year, my home congregation, Christ the Servant Lutheran Church in Vadnais Heights, had voted, at its annual meeting, to become a Care of Creation congregation. Following that vote, a few of us met and organized a Care of Creation team. No one was asked what their political afficliation was. The only thing that mattered is they believed that caring for God's creation was part of our Christian discipleship. When the time came to plan for our participation in the Vadnais Heights Day parade, it was suggested by our Mission and Service team that our theme be "Caring for God's Creation." The suggestion was embraced. Now, on this hot summer day, we gathered to decorate the float with bees and butterflies made of cloth and to hand out brochures telling those who sat along the parade route all about our congregation, especially noting that care of creation is central to our ministry. Whether what we did that day will have any effect in terms of evangelism, I don't know. Whether what we did will inspire anyone to take action or speak out, I don't know, but I do hope it helps to spread the word that the church that we are a part of recognizes that we have a climate change crisis that is causing harm to many creatures, great and small, human and non-human,and threatens to create even greater harm, in this earth that we have been given by God as our home, to take care, tend, and nurture.
I can't help but think that the earth is speaking out. It is speaking loudly and clearly with hotter weather, rising sea waters, more intense storms, etc. It is begging for us to do something. We, too, need to speak out, if only to make our votes count. This IS NOT a political issue. It IS an existential threat to the planet as we know it. A very consequential election is soon upon us. As part of our identity as Christians, we cannot be silent. Passing out brochures at a parade is not enough. Those who seek our votes must know that for us this is an issue of faith and discipleship and loving one's neighbor and is a high priority, not just for us as individuals, but for all of our fellow creatures, great and small, human and non-human. May His Spirit be upon us as we speak this truth.
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Vote for Climate: Using Relational Organizing to Get Out the Vote with Sen. Zaynab Mohamed | |
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Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light (MNIPL) writes, "Join Senator Zaynab Mohamed, Mayflower Church, and MNIPL for a conversation about relational organizing, a tool that helps us reach out to people in our communities to get them to vote for people who care about the things we care about: policies that support a green future and authentic repair for the harms of climate change.
This session will offer concrete tools for you to make a plan to vote, tell your story about your commitment to addressing climate change, and help your loved ones get to the polls."
Register here!
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Election Resources from Interfaith Power and Light | |
Your Congregation can Become a Pollinator Sanctuary! | |
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This Month's Green Tips
Here are Laura Raedeke's Green Tips from Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa
June 2024 Was the 13th Consecutive Month to Set a New Average Temperature Record: What This Means for All Living Beings, Including Us.
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Worshipping with the Whole Creation | |
Green Blades Preaching Roundtable | |
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The Green Blades Preaching Roundtable weekly reflections by a variety of preaching writers on the ecological implications of each Sunday’s lectionary.
The writing schedule for the Green Blades Preaching Roundtable in 2025 is now open. Please email revkristinfoster@gmail.com if you would like to write for a Sunday. Here are the guidelines for writing reflections.
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21st Sunday after Pentecost
October 13, 2024
Tamela K. Walhof, Lutheran Advocacy – Minnesota St. Paul, MN
Amos 5:6-7, 10-15
Psalm 90:12-17
Hebrews 4:12-16
Mark 10:17-31
One of the most revelatory discoveries of my life was learning that the words justice and righteousness are not separate words in many languages. The Spanish word ‘justicia,’ looks a lot like the English word ‘justice.’ But it kept showing up in my Spanish Bible in places I knew my English language Bible translated as righteousness. In Hebrew, the words ‘tsedekah’ (f) / ‘tsedek’ (m) refer both to justice and righteousness. I’ve since learned that the Greek ‘dikaiosune’ (used in the New Testament) does as well.
In fact, whether using tsedekah, dikaiosune, justicia, justice, or righteousness, it’s all about ‘right relationship’ – right relationship with God, right relationship between people, (and communities or nations), and right relationship among and between all that God has created. When Jesus was asked, “Teacher, what is the greatest commandment?,” he super-sized it with love – Love God and Love your neighbor. He went on to say, “On these two commands hang all the law and the prophets” – which, of course, holds true when you evaluate much of what is in the Old Testament.
Read the full reflection here
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22nd Sunday after Pentecost
October 20th, 2024
Pastor John Stiles
Our Redeemer, Pine City, Minnesota
Mark 10:35-45
When do we ever hear about a plan that calls US to serve? A plan that involves sacrifice from EVERYONE, particularly as it involves the long-term care and stewardship of Creation? Clearly, nature lives alongside us in every way. We are intrinsically linked to every other living organism on the planet. Whether we outlive nature by turning our back on it remains to be seen. Everyone knows that the climate is warming, causing global chain reactions for which we are only beginning to understand the consequences.
Read the full reflection here
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22nd Sunday after Pentecost
October 20th, 2024
Luke Pederson
SAM Trinity of Norden and Good Shepherd
Northwest Synod of Wisconsin
Mark 10:35-45
Hebrews 5:1-10
Psalm 91:9-16
Isaiah 53:4-12
The Gospel text from Mark is one of my favorites. When James and John, the “sons of thunder” ask Jesus to give them positions of power, glory and honor at his right and left hand in his kingdom only to be told that, like Peter when he confessed Jesus as Messiah, they do not understand what they are saying. They too are thinking of human things and not divine things. Again, Jesus takes our human notions of power, honor, and glory and flips them upside down. This text comes after Jesus has for the third time foretold that he will be handed over to suffer and be sentenced to death, and three days later rise again. Fear, I think, motivates these two disciples to ask Jesus for positions of honor and glory, just as they had earlier argued among themselves who is the greatest. Fear of what they will face, fear of losing Jesus, fear of change. Indeed, I think it is the fear of change that underlies their request.
Read the full reflection here
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Reformation Sunday
October 27, 2024
Pastor David Carlson, Duluth MN
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 46
Romans 3:19-28
John 8:31-36
Using the concept of “reformation” to describe the ecological conversion and movement being called for today in both church and society is not new. One substantive piece for preachers and church leaders to consider was published over a decade ago by David Rhoads, “Reflections on a Lutheran Theology of Creation: Foundations for a New Reformation,” Seminary Ridge Review 15, no. 1 (2012). It is accessible at http://seminaryridgereview.org.
The shifting in these reformations from an old paradigm to a new one can be thought of in terms of bondage and freedom. To use images of John 8, like the people Jesus encounters who don’t remember their enslavement, it can be difficult for us to see our captivity, both collective and individual, to systems and ways of thinking and being that are harmful to people and the planet. “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin,” Jesus says, a reminder of the brokenness of our relationships not only with each other, but also with air, waters, soils, and other creatures, brokenness from which we cannot extricate ourselves. But Jesus, the Son, makes us free to live in a new way, to have a place in his “household” – a word in Greek (oikos) related to ecology and economy – one we could imagine as God’s new creation, healing and flourishing, repairing and life-giving for all.
Read the full reflection here
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Connections with Creation
October
October 13 – 21st Sunday after Pentecost
Amos calls us to “seek good and not evil” and to “establish justice in the gate” (5:14-15). The “gate” was the public forum of the time for debate, adjudication, and righting wrongs. The second reading reinforces our calling to do justice, asserting that “no creature is hidden” before “the one to whom we must render an account” (Heb. 4:13). Approaching Election Day, it is timely to read the ELCA social statement “Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope, and Justice.” Among this church’s commitments: “The principles of participation, solidarity, sufficiency, and sustainability will shape our advocacy . . . [through] communication with governments and private entities, attendance at public hearings, selective buying and investing, and voting.” Let’s seek good and do justice.
Read all Connections with Creation for October and November
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Soil and Spirit
by Ian C. Williams
Review by John Hanson, EcoFaith NE-MN Synod
The last two book reviews I wrote had to do with the contrast of “Western” colonist view of the world and the indigenous world view, universal world-wide. Williams does call attention to that. “When much of the world chases after Western cultural values of status and wealth driven by the constructs of capitalism, consumerism, racism, classism, how do we as a collective orient toward what is and has always been our responsibility: the evolution of humanity?”
Williams doesn’t try to convince the reader climate change is real, nor to shame the reader and guilt into action. Rather, “This book is meant to revive humanity. To restore integrity to the human race, one individual at a time. To transform the culture of our civilization by reconnecting us to our true nature – one that coexists with the natural world as natural beings.”
Read the full review here
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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:
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Earth Harmony, Thursday, October 10 - Black Earth Wisdom: Soulful Conversations with Black Environmentalists, by Leah Penniman (2023). Meeting 8:00-9:00 a.m. in person at Chester Creek Cafe in Duluth.
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Religion & Science, Wednesday, October 16 - The Three Ages of Water: Prehistoric Past, Imperiled Present, and a Hope for the Future, by Peter Gleick (2023). Meeting 8:00-9:00 a.m. via Zoom. Contact Pastor Carlson for the link or for more information, pastor@gloriadeiduluth.org
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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!
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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/
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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.
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SPAS Care of Creation
We are called to care for God's creation as a central part of our Christian faith and identity.
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