Introducing

Green Blades Rising
 An online publication of the
EcoFaith Network
NE Minnesota Synod ELCA


E ven during a time of pandemic, green blades are rising among us to repair our relationship with the torn web of creation.

What is Green Blades Rising ?

Green Blades Rising is a new on-line publication of the EcoFaith Network of the Northeastern Minnesota Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, nurturing a grassroots movement for stewardship of the earth for the sake of the whole creation.

To what does the name ‘Green Blades’ refer?
The publication’s name comes from the Easter hymn, Now the Green Blade Rises (ELW #379), which portrays the Resurrection in the earthy language of buried grain rising like green blades from the soil. Green blades are rising in a grassroots movement for the care and healing of a wounded creation. Green Blades Rising points to the Resurrection reality at work in a grassroots movement now stirring to repair our relationship with the torn web of creation.

Who is this publication for?
Green Blades Rising is for congregations, pastors, creation care teams, educational and outreach ministries. It is for ANYONE who hears the creation cry out to us, who hears God’s call to serve and preserve it.
  • Moments of Arising video releases
  • Green Tips
  • Training, learning, and action opportunities
  • Reflections from members of the EcoFaith Leadership Team
  • Links to information and opportunities from other creation care resources
  • Other regional earth stewardship initiatives.

What will it contain?
Green Blades Rising will be a bulletin board of relevant news and notices. These will include:

We want to hear from you!
We want to share your stories and photos of earth keeping activities where you live! Please send your stories, ideas, and photos to revkristinfoster@gmail.com.   
" Moments of Arising " Video Series
In celebration of the 50th Jubilee year of Earth Day, the EcoFaith Network of the NE MN Synod ELCA is developing a year long video series Moments of Arising . Created by videographer Linda Kalweit and the EcoFaith Network Leadership Team, with photography by Will Stenburg, this series invites you, even during the coronavirus pandemic, to look and listen for green blades rising throughout this Jubilee Year in and for our wonderful creation.



Watch the introductory video now: Moments Of Arising---An Invitation
Reflections by Kristin Foster, Mark Ditmanson, and David Carlson inviting you in this 15-minute video to listen and look for green blades rising, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, in the Jubilee Year of Earth Day. Watch the introductory video here.
Introducing the First of 8 New Videos - Just Released

Promise
You send forth your Spirit…and so renew the face of the earth. Psalm 104:30
Promise is the first in a series of eight short videos in the Moments of Arising video series. Each one flowing from one of the stanzas of the hymn Now the Green Blade Rises--  four original stanzas (ELW #379) and four newly composed, environmentally focused stanzas .  Each of the 8 videos will include prayer and a relevant message by a different speaker.

Promise, released for a time of Pentecost, flows from stanza 1 of Now the Green Blade Rises .


Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
Green wheat that in dark earth many days has lain;
Love lives again, that with the dead has been;
Love is come again like wheat arising green.

Copyright 1928; Permission for use of the text by J.M.C. Crum in Moments of Arising
Video Series granted by Oxford University Press and C.F. Peters Corp.

The video contains beautiful photographic images that accompany a Thanksgiving for Baptism led from Grand Maris on the north shore of Lake Superior, a flute and soprano rendition of stanza 1, and a message about practicing resurrection with the earth by Nate Anderson, pastoral minister at Oak Lake Lutheran Church in rural Kerrick, Minnesota.   Watch the Promise video here.


All Moments of Arising videos are available at  http://www.nemnsynod.org/moments-of-arising-series.html  as they are released.


Additional Videos Available
Earth Day’s Jubilee Year



Professor Diane Levy Jacobson explores the ancient tradition of jubilee proclaimed in Leviticus and Isaiah and continuing in Luke, and how it is connected to Earth Day 2020, now in its 50th year. With breath-taking nature photography by J. David Levy, the video contemplates jubilee ideas of rest for the land, release from servitude, relation to the foreigner and immigrant, and other concepts that are strikingly connected to our experience in this time of climate crisis, cultural tension, and pandemic strife. 
Click here to view the video.

For the script for 22 Moments of Arising, click here.

For Sabbath and Jubilee Passages in Professor Jacobson’s video click here.

Earth Day, Our Moment to Arise


Around the world, youth and young adults are urging us to heed the climate emergency -- for the sake of their future, for those who are marginalized, and for all life on Earth. In this video, Earth Day, Our Moment to Arise , four high school and young adult climate advocates from the upper Midwest – Izzy Laderman, Johanna Bernu, Kayli Skinner, and Jordan Stone, with EcoFaith co-chairperson Pastor Kristin Foster -- probe the intersections between the coronavirus pandemic and the climate crisis, and challenge us to make critical decisions about a profound and shared change in direction. 
Click here to view the video.
What is the EcoFaith Network? The EcoFaith Network 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. Learn more about the EcoFaith Network, grant resources available for congregational and community creation care initiatives, tips on starting a Green Team at your church, and many other resources. 
Stay Connected with the EcoFaith Network