Board, Agency and Seminary Connections

General Boards and Agencies

See more information about Board and Agency Creation Justice commitments in the United Methodist interagency commitment to just and equitable net-zero emissions.

General Board of Global Ministries

EarthKeepers: Global Ministries’ EarthKeepers training equips United Methodists for creation care ministries in their communities. umcmission.org/earthkeepers

The Environmental Sustainability program seeks to increase the use of renewable energy, particularly in disaster response and health care, works directly with churches to launch environmental projects in their communities and collaborates with other United Methodist agencies to achieve just and equitable net-zero emissions by 2050. umcmission.org/environmental-sustainability

United Women in Faith

13 Principles and Steps to Sustainability
These are intersectional, incorporating how all of our values are incorporated together: accessibility, affordability, carbon footprint, healthy beverages, just economic opportunities, local solidarity, multigenerational inclusion, paper use, racial justice, toxic reduction, waste reduction, water use, well-being of participants. Intro-to-13-Steps-to-Sustainability

General Board of Higher Education and Ministry

The General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (GBHEM) has been charged by the church to create greater awareness in clergy education and training on global ecological crises (Section 1033, Book of Resolution, 2016). To answer this charge, The Clergy Lifelong Learning Office at GBHEM created the Ecotheology Travel Seminar to serve as a training tool for the church’s focus on environmental issues. The Travel Seminar takes pastors around the world to learn more about the environmental crises Methodists are facing. The inaugural seminar took place in Peru.

Wespath Benefits and Investments

Wespath Benefits and Investments (Wespath) is a not-for-profit agency that has been serving The United Methodist Church for over a century. In accordance with its fiduciary duties, Wespathadministers benefit plans and invests over $23 billion in assets for over 100,000 participants and over 100 United Methodist-affiliated institutions. Wespath Benefits and Investments maintains the largest reporting faith-based pension fund in the world, which is among the top 100 pension funds in the United States. Its sustainable investment activities are carried out by Wespath Investment Management, the agency’s investments division. https://www.wespath.org/climatechange/

General Board of Church and Society

As revealed through the creation story of the Bible, humankind has struggled from our earliest days to live in right relationship with the created world, with each other and with God. God’s vision of shalom invites all of creation to know wholeness and harmony and yet too often we have treated creation simply as a resource for humankind’s use.

https://www.umcjustice.org/what-we-care-about/environmental-justice

The United Methodist Publishing House

The United Methodist Publishing House (UMPH) is committed to practices of responsible stewardship of creation and care for the environment. This stewardship is apparent in at least three ways in our ongoing work: in the content we provide; in the attributes of our printed products; and in the efforts of our staff to promote a healthy environment.

https://www.umph.org/

Seminaries

Iliff School of Theology

Center for EcoJustice

OBJECTIVE: To create a Center recognized within the general public and the academy as a resource for and leader of environmental justice. To that end, the Center will participate in four activities: 1) a yearly conference where six papers from different constituencies are presented with the objective of publishing the papers in an edited volume to comprise The Iliff Environmental Justice Book Series; 2) to plan yearly eco-tours to different parts of the world to study the problem and explore possible solutions to our current ecological crises; 3) develop a film and arts festival which will be held simultaneously with the Environmental Justice yearly conference; and 4) become a center for activists groups engaged in transformation.

United Theological Seminary

United Theological Seminary recognizes the goodness of creation and humanity’s call to be good stewards of it. In union with the other members of the Trinity, God the Father created the universe, which is the handiwork of God and the recipient of God’s continual, loving, and life-giving grace (Gen 1:31; Job 38:41; Psalm 104:30; Rom 4:17). Although human shortsightedness, selfishness, and sin negatively affect creation, God the Son identifies with the suffering creation through his incarnation (John 1:1-14; Phil 2:6-8); liberates and rectifies humans from their slavery to sin and death through his life, death, and resurrection (Rom 5:15-21; 6:5-14); and reconciles all things to God so that the whole creation will be set free from its slavery to destruction (Col 1:20; Rom 8:21). God the Holy Spirit groans with and intercedes for creation while leading and empowering people to live in ways that support the flourishing rather than the destruction of creation (Rom 8:19-26).

Duke Divinity School

First Fruits Biblical Orchard

The mission of First Fruits Biblical Orchard is to inspire students, faculty, staff, and all Christians to recognize our interdependence with all God’s creation, to support biblical and theological reflection on God’s redemptive activity in and for creation, to engage in lifestyles of service and care in response to God’s call to till and keep our garden homes, and to empower Christians to take practical steps to reorder and restore humanity’s broken relationships to creation and the Creator.

Boston University School of Theology

Faith and Ecological Justice Program

The goals of the Faith and Ecological Justice Program are to both prepare students for meaningful and effective engagement in faith-based environmental work and help them explore the rich depth of religious resources for such work. Students may choose to do so by taking classes as part of their degree program without obtaining a certificate, taking classes as part of a degree program towards the completion of a certificate, or by completing a certificate outside of a degree program.