The Creation Care Ministry Team of the Western North Carolina Conference had a wonderful opportunity at their Annual Conference event to spotlight their programming and introduced two petitions before those assembled. In their 15-minute presentation, six members of the team spoke variously about the following:
- Featured the WNCC Bishop’s Climate Summit held on April 18th and location of resources, including recordings of three pre-Summit webinars;
- Recognized five churches who earned the conference Green Church Award in the past year;
- Named seven churches that have installed solar arrays on their church rooftops as points of contact for other churches that might be interested in doing the same (one email has already been received!);
- Offered support to local congregations wishing to start a Creation Care/Green Team;
- Announced Church Land Use workshops coming soon to each district, as well as a fall online book study of Love in a Time of Climate Change, Second Edition, by Rev. Sharon Delgado;
- Advertised the benefits of and need for churches to have conducted energy efficiency assessments, as well as the upcoming fall 2026 EarthKeepers training being held “next door” in Atlanta;
- Highlighted sustainability practices that were initiated by the team and followed this year at AC;
- Highlighted the new “Creation in Christ Sunday/Feast Day of Creation” as well as resources for celebrating the Season of Creation;
- Featured upcoming Eco-Mission opportunities; and,
- Introduced two petitions (one was to Reaffirm General Conference 2024 Creation Care and Justice Legislation and the other was to Establish Creation Care as a Conference-Wide Priority) which passed with unanimous support!
The team also held a photo contest that attendees at AC could enjoy and on which they could vote for their favorites. The contest theme was “Seeing God Through Nature’s Lens,” which brought in 37 submissions and lots of viewers/voters through the Creation Care Ministry tent/table area. What a great AC2026 for Creation Care!
