August Movement Café:
Caretakers of God’s Creation Annual Conference Position
August 21st 2024
10am PT / 11am MT / 12pm CT / 1pm ET
Sponsored by the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement, the informal, virtual space of the Café facilitates conversation, connection, and community focused on creation care and justice issues.
Caretakers of God’s Creation Annual Conference Position
The August Movement Café enjoyed great hope and energy around a new key position in every conference in The United Methodist Church: a Caretaker of God’s Creation Coordinator. These Coordinators will have the opportunity to lead creation justice task forces across the denomination, building teams and connecting with co-learning networks. At the August Café we heard from Jaydee Hanson, the catalyst for this Coordinator, who shared some history, including that in the 1980s there were 5 staff people at the General Board of Church and Society dedicated to environmental protection issues. We heard also from Grace Pugh Hubbard, Creation Care Coordinator for the New England Conference, and Kim Richmond, Task Force leader for the Western North Carolina Conference who shared their experiences in leading teams and developing creation care programs, as well as a customizable Coordinator Job Description for different regional contexts. Karen McElfish, a UWFaith leader and General Conference Delegate together with Rev. Mel Caraway, a creation care task force leader in Texas, also shared a ’Get Started 101’ to help conferences navigate the question of how to begin. A lot of great information was shared at this well attended Café.
SpeakerS
Jaydee Hanson is the policy director for Center for Food Safety; member of Mount Olivet United Methodist Church, Arlington, Virginia; former staff executive for environmental justice, General Board of Church and Society and serves on the board of Caretakers of God’s Creation.
Karen McElfish is an UM Earthkeeper. Her home conference is the Virginia Conference, where she has several leadership roles, including the Northern Virginia District Lay Leader, Member of United Women in Faith’s Program Advisory Group, Chair of Annual Conference Organizing team for UMCJM, member of Virginia Conference Creation Justice team, co-chair Conference Legislative Network
Kim Richmond is a UM EarthKeeper. She started the Creation Care Ministry in her home church, Maple Springs UMC, in Winston Salem, and is active in the Western NC Conference Creation Care Ministry, serving currently as the convener (coordinator) for that team. She is also a Climate Reality Project Leader and the Advocacy Chairperson for her local Audubon chapter.
Rev. Mel Caraway is a retired clergy member of the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. In retirement he is very active in climate justice advocacy. He has worked in higher education, both in administration and student activities, studying African Colonial and British History. In Texas he served as a Volunteer in Mission, with Habitat for Humanity, in local housing relief efforts, served in board leadership in North Texas and currently convenes the North Texas Conference Green Team and is the Interfaith Climate Coordinator for Texas Impact/Texas Interfaith Power and Light.
Grace Pugh Hubbard is a UM EarthKeeper. She serves as Climate Care Coordinator for the United Methodist New England Conference. She brings organizational skills from her first vocation as a music director and passion for Peace with Justice from her work with United Women in Faith and Ecumenical Women of the United Nations. Grace has worked in four UM conferences in Tennessee and New Jersey and now resides in Essex, Vermont.