An online publication of the EcoFaith Network NE-MN Synod with St. Paul Area Synod care of creation |
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Welcome to the first co-sponsored Green Blades Rising!
For the first time in this September issue, Green Blades Rising is being co-sponsored by the EcoFaith Network NE-MN Synod and St. Paul Area Synod Care of Creation. What a wonderful way to celebrate our growing partnership and the work of creation care in our synods! We are grateful to all who helped make this happen.
We invite you to join in the effort! Donate below to support the newsletter.
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Time to Celebrate: A Victory in Creation Advocacy
by Rachel Wyffels
We have a great victory to celebrate in creation advocacy. And in the journey of creation advocacy, it is essential that we do so because our victories are as joyful as they are hard-fought.
The Inflation Reduction Act passed at the federal level this August. This is the most significant climate legislation in our country’s history and is expected to reduce U.S. emissions by 40% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels...
Friends in the advocacy field have told me that they have been working toward a victory like this for over 20 years. And so I encourage you to find a way to celebrate today. Our work together grows the path forward for systemic change and the healing of all creation.
Read the full update here
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Green Blades Rising in Congregations and Synods |
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Pollinator Pilot Project Update
by Tom Uecker
The Pollinator Pilot Project has begun. Six congregations in the NEMN Synod ELCA are working on establishing a pollinator garden on their church property. These six congregations are: St. Andrews Lutheran in Grand Rapids, Our Redeemer Lutheran in Pine City, French River Lutheran in French River, Bethesda Lutheran in Malmo, Our Savior's Lutheran in Outing, and Bethlehem Lutheran in Twig.
The goal for the first year is just to keep the young plants alive and establish a good root system. Year two will involve continued plant growth and root development. Year three will be full blown pollinator plants ready for the pollinators.
In addition to the six pilot congregations, another six congregations are interested and considering future pollinator gardens. Information from the six pilot projects should be helpful.
Read the full update here
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The Goats Got it Done!
The Creation Care team of Bethlehem Lutheran in Brainerd recently completed a project to clean up about one acre of undeveloped church property overrun with buckthorn. This project was made possible through a micro-grant from the NE Synod EcoFaith network.
The solution to buckthorn? Furrier than you might have guessed.
After working with a Master Naturalist from the Minnesota Extension Service, Bethlehem's creation care team worked with Joe Ambrosia, owner of Brainerd Lakes Goats, to create a plan to remove the buckthorn.
The goats were on the property from July 29 to August 19.
In addition to eating the buckthorn, the goats provided the opportunity to gather in community. The creation care team planned an event on Wednesday, August 3rd that included a potluck, outdoor worship, and goat petting.
Bethlehem envisions that the property will provide a nature sanctuary for learning and education, opening other options such as a pollinator gardens, holding Sunday and Bible school learning events, and creating nature paths benefiting the local area including schools.
The creation care team plans further congregational engagement with the project, including God’s Work Our Hands Projects and help from Sunday school classes and adults in the site preparation, plantings, and planning process.
Way to go, goats, and way to go, Bethlehem!
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SPAS Care of Creation Excited about Partnership
by Don Schuld, SPAS Care of Creation co-chair
The St Paul Area Synod (SPAS) Care of Creation Work Group has, over the past couple years, had a fruitful, spirit-filled relationship with the Northeast Synod Eco-Faith Leadership Team. Through our bi-synodical members, Diane and Paul Jacobson, joint work on two Eco-Faith Summits and the Called to Arise – Standing at the Intersection of Racism, Inequality and the Environment webinar and contributing newsletter articles, we have discovered that in many areas, we can be stronger by combining and sharing our ideas and efforts. As a result, the SPAS Care of Creation Work Group is making a more formal commitment to our partnership by purchasing a share of the Northeast Synod Eco-Faith Leadership Team’s Communication Coordinator’s time and becoming a co-sponsor of the Green Blades Rising Newsletter. This position that will be filled by the young and talented Rachel Wyffels.
This sharing of the Communications Coordinator, in addition to facilitating the monthly newsletter production, will assist us in planning and preparations for joint events such as ecofaith summits and retreats as well as assisting in the receipt and maintenance of databases relevant to the work of the St. Paul Area Synod’s Care of Creation Work Group.
We expect we will need to review and adjust this arrangement going forward. We also hope that this might serve as a model as we begin for working with other synods across Minnesota and in nearby states as well.
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Do you have a story to share? We want to hear it! Please email Rachel, EcoFaith Network Communication Coordinator, at ecofaith@nemnsynod.org.
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Coming this Fall: Practicing Regeneration with the Whole of Creation
This March, the EcoFaith Network of the Northeastern Minnesota Synod and St. Paul Area Synod Care of Creation along with seven partner organizations hosted a zoom conference entitled Holy Ground, Holy Table: Regenerative Practices for the Wholeness of the Earth. The presenters shared stories from their own remarkable work around food and farming which are now available as recordings, accompanied by original music videos.
Starting in October, we invite you to experience these videos. Share in on-line conversations, reactions, and ideas about other regenerative practices. Learn how to better support the Creation’s own capacity for regeneration!
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EcoFaith Network Leadership Retreat
by Pastor Kristin Foster, EcoFaith Network NE-MN Synod Co-Chair
August 14 – 16, 2022
Camp Onomia
A chorus of baby owls in the rafters of a gazebo greeted us on Sunday afternoon, August 14, as we gathered at the beautiful Camp Onomia for the annual EcoFaith Leadership Retreat.
Together, 26 people and one dog from six upper Midwest synods worshiped,
nurtured relationships, celebrated current work, learned from each other, and began discerning the future that is germinating from what is growing now in each of our synods and among us together. We came to a keen appreciation that relationships, especially in one-to-one conversation, are at the heart of everything we do in a faith-based response to the needs of the creation.
Read the full retreat update here
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The Green Blades Preaching Roundtable offers weekly reflections on the ecological echoes, implications, and intersections of each Sunday's lectionary. A wide range of writers wrestle with the weekly lectionary in light of God’s love for the whole community of creation at our present ecological and civilizational turning point.
We welcome new subscribers to the weekly roundtable and new writers for 2023. Contact Kristin Foster, editor, at revkristinfoster@gmail.com to inquire about writing or to be added to the weekly email list.
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Pr. Daphne Urban, Bethany Lutheran Church, Red Lake Falls, MN
Sunday, September 4, 2022
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Psalm 1
Philemon 1-21
Luke 14:25-33b
The Psalter, or book of Psalms, is unique in the way it brings human word and word of God together in an inseparable unity. The people of God hear God addressing them as their human prayers and hymns that bear witness to the nature and work of God, in their lives and in all of creation. The book of Psalms has been serving believers of every generation as a biblical source of prayer and praise.
Read the whole reflection here
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Rev. Emily Meyer (she/her), Executive Director of The Ministry Lab
Sunday, September 11
Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28
Psalm 14
Exodus 32:7-14
Psalm 51:1-10
1 Timothy 1:12-17
Luke 15:1-10
The RCL texts for September 11, 2022, illustrate the arc of justice and right-relationship as it is problematized by human fragility. God’s call to repentance requires humility and courage to step away from supremacist notions of perfection as we step toward God’s gift of New Life for individuals, communities, and creation.
‘Repentance’ carries baggage. Let’s consider setting some of it down: One key debate of our pre-teen sleep-overs was whether or not it was a good idea to tell
someone when they had green stuff in their teeth. The pro side argued that a good friend tells a person they’ve got gross stuff in their teeth so they can get rid of it to avoid further awkwardness. The dissent declared the embarrassment of finding out in front of, or even in proximity to, other people would be enough to ruin one forever.
I always favored the former. I’m pretty sure that’s where most of us wound up.
Read the whole reflection here
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Logan McLean Strike
Sunday, September 18
Reflection on Jeremiah 8:18-9:1
We don’t have to look far into our relationships or newspapers to see that our world needs a balm that truly heals. We have forgotten our common heritage. We long for healing and forgiveness whether we are conscious of it or not. We need a Great Physician to bring us to health and wholeness. For us Christians, we garner hope from Jesus Christ, who healed with just a word, dined with saints and sinners, and overcame death and the grave. Christ showed us a different way. Christ reveals the path for true peace by bringing all of creation under God’s
roof as one family. But this peace is not an easy peace.
Read the whole reflection here
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Melinda Quivik, ELCA pastor and Editor-in-Chief of Liturgy
Sunday, September 25
Amos 8:4–7
Psalm 113
1 Timothy 2:1–7
Luke 16:1–13
Here are the admonitions which come at us like flashing neon lights from this day’s scripture
readings:
The future begins now.
Do not desire to be comfortable.
The question they pose is whether it is possible to appreciate and care for the things of this world and Earth itself without falling into love of security which is often achieved by building up
riches?
Read the whole reflection here
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Connections with Creation
September-October
September 4 – 13th Sunday after Pentecost / Lectionary 23
Psalm 1 represents faithfulness with a beautiful, strong image from nature: a tree planted by a nourishing stream. Consider the full organic force of the image: leaves, trunk, roots, watershed, and hydrological cycle. Without water, there would be no life: no human beings, no trees, nothing. Baptism immerses us in this great gift. God’s promise of life speaks to us from Earth’s flowing water, and when we receive that promise and trust God’s goodness, we begin to regard all life sacramentally. The waters of baptism are holy because all water, through which the Creator fashions life on our blue planet, is holy. In Deuteronomy God calls the people to a new faithfulness by choosing life. In Luke, Jesus calls the disciples to give up all their possessions and so discover life as if for the first time: an abundance beyond any of our possessing.
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EcoFaith Book of the Month
The Bald Eagle "The Improbable Journey of America's Bird"
by Jack E. Davis
My wife gave me this book as a present because we enjoy watching the eagles on Turtle Lake. As I began reading, it became apparent that the book was much more than tracing the history of the bald eagle in the U.S. It was a journey through the history of our nation on many levels, including our regard for nature, environment, and the threats that have accrued throughout that history...
In the epilogue, Davis concludes with this: "Bald eagles have become guide, as Telia Hann's mother described to her son, for paying attention to the physical world, its nuances, its sublimity, and the history within in, to see the world as a moral universe and to form an ethical and emotional tie with it - to move beyond a purely sensory awareness to live, from deep within, in kinship with bald eagles, as native people have." Amen to that.
Read the whole review here
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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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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
Here are John McDonald's Earth Stewardship Tips from Gloria Dei, Duluth
Here are Steve Spigarelli's
Green Tips from First Lutheran, Aitkin
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Read. Watch. Listen. Share! |
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BBC
Columbia Climate School
The Christian Century
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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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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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