Cover image: Attendees listen during a workshop session at the Virginia Conference Climate Summit. Speakers came to Ashland, Virginia from within the conference as well as from surrounding states to share insights and expertise.
Photo courtesy Rev. Ellen Comstock.
By Rev. Richenda Fairhurst
In March, the Virginia Annual Conference was the first of two to organize creation care-themed gatherings as United Methodists continue to call for moral action on climate justice. Offered as the Climate Summit: Hope in Action for Creation Justice, the March 8th event gathered stakeholders to gather, learn, discern, and listen together, with a special program also to encourage youth participation.
(Read about the second March summit, organized in the California-Nevada Annual Conference, here.)
Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson of the Virginia Conference opened the Summit with prayer and words of encouragement. District Superintendents and other cabinet members also were in attendance, as were conference board and agency leaders, clergy, lay leaders, and local church members.
Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson, episcopal leader of the Virginia Conference, preached about creation care during the opening worship service at the Virginia Conference Climate Summit in March, 2025. Image from the zoom broadcast.
Organized by the Conference Board of Church and Society, the day-long Summit included worship, a World Café conversation, keynote speaker, and twelve workshop leaders who offered a variety of activities and expertise. The roster of workshop leaders brought a wide conversation to the event, and included nonprofit leaders, conference creation care leaders, and those deep in the good work of net-zero efforts, environmental justice, missional evangelism, and sound financial stewardship.
Rev. Ellen Comstock, Clergy Co-Chair of the Virginia Annual Conference Board of Church and Society was a lead organizer of the effort. She hoped to bring in “passionate stakeholders in creation justice at the conference…including youth and college students.” The hope was to better understand how to gain buy-in so the conference might better bring a “passion and ability to advocate for creation justice in the church and in the world.”
Organizers invited Michele L. Roberts, National Co-Coordinator of the Environmental Justice Health Alliance, to be their keynote speaker, and initiated a World Café conversation as Wesley himself might have done, gathering people around tables “to hear different understandings of climate justice from people they didn’t know,” said Comstock, as well as to “energize each person by seeing there were so many minds ready to take in new understandings.”
The World Café proved an enriching start, explained Comstock, “This gave a common basis for the work together. The room was crowded, and the energy level was high and smiles abundant.” When combined with the “wonderful workshop leaders,” the Summit came away with “high marks” from participants.
Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson offered the Word during opening worship for the Summit, preaching from Deuteronomy 8:1-18. She shared that this was a text she had often spoken to during stewardship seasons. Creation care, also, is stewardship, she shared. And, “Where folks mess up is when they forget that all this is a gift.”
The bishop spoke to the gap between human actions and biblical teachings. She explained, “This is a spiritual problem.” She also offered a correction, “Our spiritual call today is to return to the deep worship of God, to deep communication of God through spiritual practices, so that we are a well-formed people.”
She invited the gathered to remember “that God is an amazing creator, and the creation reflects how beautiful and how diverse and how lovely” the creation is. It is human nature to forget what God calls us to, yet, “When it comes to creation care, the call is: remember. Remember who all this belongs to. Remember who gave it to us. Remember that we do not create wealth of our own hands.”
A highlight for Karen McElfish was “hearing the bishop speak.” McElfish was a key organizer for the Summit. As a conference UWF leader, she has served her conference as a delegate for General Conference and as a creation care champion. “I feel it is crucial that our bishop, that all our bishops, be involved in creation care. As leaders within the faith, they have important voices, calling all of us to our roles as stewards of God’s creation.”
In helping to organize the Summit, McElfish spoke to her hopes, “I hoped we would get people from different boards, agencies and groups within the conference, who may or may not realize they have a role in creation justice.”
As an outcome of the conference, McElfish hopes the bishop and conference leaders will be more vocal as they realize “we have roles in creation justice as people of faith.” There is growing interest in that, she says, as “folks have asked if we plan to hold a summit yearly.” While that may be a stretch right now, action is growing and more can be done. A key immediate goal is to “establish creation care teams in every district.”
Organizers from Virginia and California-Nevada have hopes that these conversations can be replicated in the denomination. Karen McElfish and Rev. Ellen Comstock both shared their hopes that the Virginia Conference Climate Summit will mean more people engaging the issue, taking action, and speaking out from local church leaders to the bishops.
The Virginia Conference Climate Summit: Hope in Action for Creation Justice, was held in Ashland, Virginia, on March 8th, at Randolph-Macon College & Duncan Memorial Church.
Speakers and workshop leaders for the Virginia Conference Climate Summit included: Michele L. Roberts, National Co-Coordinator Environmental Justice Health Alliance, keynote; Brian Mateer, Director of Missional Engagement, Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church; Melanie (Mel) Fleisher, Director of Youth and Children’s Ministry, Welborne UMC; Kim Richmond, Convener of Western North Carolina Conference Creation Care Ministries; Rev. Pat Watkins, Retired Elder and first “Missionary for the Care of God’s Creation”; Jane Wilson, Lay Leader and Leadership Board member of Burke UMC; Rev. Alex Joyner, Pastor, Charlotteville First UMC; Rev. Brandon Praileau, Pastor, Wesley Union A.M.E. Zion Church (Norfolk, VA), Virginia Program Director, Solar United Neighbors; Kendra Grimes, Chaplain & Director of Church Relations, Randolph-Macon College; Joseph Donoghue Assessor, Waste Reduction Partners (Asheville NC) member, UMC Western NC Creation Justice Team; Jennifer Secki Shields, Founder & Director of Discovery & Faith Certified Lay Minister, and Jaydee Hanson, Policy Director for the Center for Food Safety.
Rev. Richenda Fairhurst is here for the friendship and conversations about climate, community, and connection. For more conversations, see the team at the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement Café. Find Richenda in Southern Oregon and at JustCreation.org.