September 2, 2025

To the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church, greetings.

Siblings, we greet you in the name of the Creator, who created the heavens and the Earth. We greet you in the name of the One who spoke the Word through which everything came into being. We greet you in the name of God who ordained not just life but also restored life and established everlasting life, by the inheritance of this Earth, our planet home.

Bishops, we write in gratitude for the recent words of witness the Council has brought to the violent injustices we face. We are a people who must first do no harm, who must reject every kind of evil and seek the kingdom and kin-dom of God. The testimony of the bishops in previous letters to address environmental crises in 2009 and 2021, as well as the recent letters addressing immigration, diversity, equity, inclusion, and international programs to feed the hungry and care for the sick, is testimony gratefully heard, testimony and leadership that upholds the boldest, greatest, and most essential Commandment: to love the Lord with all our heart and love our neighbor as ourselves.

In The United Methodist Church, justice and righteousness stand hand in hand. Doing good in the United Methodist tradition means holiness of heart and a stalwart commitment to do what is good, not merely to speak the word that is good. Action for creation justice is integral with attention to human rights, Indigenous people and land justice, racial justice, and life itself. The World Council of Churches urges people of faith to immediate and coordinated global action to address ecocide. This crisis of profit and fossil fuels threatens our children and grandchildren alive now, as well as the children of generations to come. When these are lost, who then will praise God?

For we must act. We must take action now for creation justice, to preserve, restore, and steward creation for the flourishing of human beings and all living things. It is urgent that the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church bring substantive spiritual leadership to this crisis of sin and short-term selfishness so egregiously unjust that those with the least power to do anything about it are the most harmed. Within decades, all could be lost. 

The scientific community and people of faith, both, have raised the alarm! These next decades we share together are not “yet to come,” they are with us and unfolding right now. Our current path is creating one billion refugees, making swaths of the globe uninhabitable, emboldening violent and repressive regimes, and causing mass global extinction.

We write from local churches and communities primarily across the United States, and we confess that the United States has the highest emissions per capita, continues to expand pipelines and exports, and has historically contributed the most to global carbon emissions. While all forms of environmental injustice must be healed, we acknowledge that in the United States and elsewhere ongoing use of fossil fuels continues to be the primary cause of emissions, and that these emissions cause deadly impacts, especially to the most vulnerable, globally.

We are called to the path that leads to life. Yet despite long knowing the harm of burning fossil fuels and the need to stop new projects, fossil fuel infrastructure continues to be subsidized, funded, and built, and global emissions continue to rise. How can we as people of God understand this? Look to the stubbornness of Pharaoh that caused the loss of every first born child. Look to the rebellion of Korah, and the cost of sin, for when the ground shook, all were lost—every man, every woman, every child, and everything that was alive where they stood.

The challenges we face are material, but also deeply spiritual. We fight side-by-side from the sucking mud of yearly 1000 year floods and the choking swirl of ash from burning forests. We fight for life, for home, for our neighbors and for our communities. We fight to pull us back to God. This challenge cannot be met without the leadership of The United Methodist Church.

We are not crying from the wilderness. We are at the center of the church. The body—the grass roots people of the church—have stepped up. The people of the church, in conferences, agencies, and General Conferences have over and over again affirmed the call to creation justice and environmental stewardship, including a pledge, shared by the bishops, to achieve net-zero by 2050.

United Methodists are addressing resilience, building local church lighthouses, opening evacuation centers, installing solar panels, forming green teams, raising up creation in worship and prayer. Half of all United Methodist conferences in the U.S. now have Conference Creation Justice Coordinators (Caretakers of God’s Creation Coordinators). Hundreds of United Methodists have trained as Global Ministries EarthKeepers. Entire conferences have divested their funds from fossil fuels. We ask the bishops: Will you join us? Will you lead us? What are you investing in?

In order to save lives—in order to be a salvation people—we must address creation justice. Local churches in every district seek guidance, support, and words of comfort and encouragement from their church leaders, from those with the most power to speak, be heard, and act. Churches and their communities need hope and strategic mobilization for preparedness, resilience, and rapid de-carbonization, taking action on the immediate drawdown of fossil fuel emissions, and with special attention of the harms to the most vulnerable.

We must move from words to action to address the spiritual and ecological crises afflicting God’s Creation. Look to the efforts of the Anglican Church in the UK and be inspired! We seek leadership from the Council of Bishops to lead with and support strategic action for God’s Creation alongside the local churches, conferences, Conference Creation Justice Coordinators, and the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement (UMCJM).

Our hope and prayers for the Council:

• Develop Interfaith, Interagency, and Constituent Partnerships: The Council of Bishops will affirm, amplify, and partner in the creation justice, creation care and environmental stewardship advocacy efforts where they are already active, including in the work of the United Women in Faith, General Board of Church and Society, General Board of Discipleship, the General Board of Global Ministries, and the Native American Inter-Tribal Caucus as we continue the work of repentance related to the ongoing and historical harms from the Doctrine of Discovery, as well as, working with and affirming other Ecumenical and Interfaith religious partners. 

• Divest from Fossil Fuels: The Council of Bishops will support fossil fuel divestment at every level of the church, affirm and promote Wespath’s fossil free Social Values Funds, and provide witness for continued full divestment of the denomination in accordance with the mission, social principles, and priorities of the Church. In addition, serving bishops will work to divest pension and other funds in their annual conferences, following the example of several conferences that have already accomplished this. The Methodist Church of Britain and the Methodist Church of Ireland have also already divested, as have many of the U.S. protestant denominations.

• Advocate for the Most Vulnerable: The Council of Bishops will advocate for creation justice, especially for those who bear the worst impacts of an unstable climate. It is our hope that the council will speak for environmentally just principles, policies and practices in arenas and gatherings of national and international policymakers and nation states, addressing the importance of reducing emissions, phasing out fossil fuels, eliminating plastics, and achieving a rapid and just transition.

• Take Action in Annual Conference: Members of the Council of Bishops who oversee Episcopal areas are encouraged to demonstrate visible, active and permission-giving support for both clergy and lay Global Ministries EarthKeepers, conference and local church green teams and green team leaders, and climate resilience and disaster relief coordinators, as well as working with conference boards of church and society to see that Conference Creation Justice Coordinators (Caretakers of God’s Creation Coordinators) are appointed in all conferences as required by the 2024 Discipline. Efforts should include establishing robust funding to ensure these efforts are successful. In addition, in the pastoral training, appointment, and itinerancy process for conference staff and pastoral appointments, consider the short few years of time remaining to address climate change while we still can. Ensure that appointments made reflect appointees with the necessary gifts and experience in addressing the current ecological and environmental crisis and intersectional justice ministries.

• Lead Action in Boards and Agencies: Members of the Council of Bishops who serve with, alongside, in leadership of, and in appointing members to denominational boards and agencies, in recognition of what is at stake, are asked to ensure that the boards and agencies they lead or guide are aware of, and acting with growing capacity to, address the climate crisis, environmental crisis, and the crisis of faith these combined crises represent.

• Bring Attention to Needed Resources: The Council of Bishops is asked to recognize the need for deep discipleship work addressing creation justice and yet the absence of adequate teachings reflecting God’s work of creation and God’s commandments concerning discipleship. This work may best be accomplished by encouraging the General Board of Discipleship to continue to develop creation care worship liturgies, as well as theological and  discipleship materials, and by encouraging the United Methodist Publishing House to support both the work of the Board of Discipleship and the eco-theological work and practice as it is being undertaken in United Methodist seminaries.

• Partner with the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement: It is also hoped that the Council of Bishops will support and amplify the work of the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement as the movement continues to develop educational and church polity materials to mobilize creation justice discipleship and develop teaching specific to the need to eliminate the burning of fossil fuels. This amplification includes the effort of Fossil Free UMC to address the urgent financial concern that the mission of The United Methodist Church and the fossil fuel investments of The United Methodist Church are in conflict.

• Recognize Fossil Fuels Are the Disaster: In a stable climate, the term “disaster” refers to destructive harm that deviates from the norm, and “disaster relief” is material, spiritual, and actionable remedy applied to relieve, restore, make whole, renew, and heal that harm. Failure to act to address fossil fuel emissions to this point has resulted in the scientific and observable fact that human activity has destabilized the climate and disaster is no longer a deviation from the norm, but an ongoing occurrence. As such the Council of Bishops is urged to ensure that the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) operates with an understanding of fossil fuel pollution and excessive atmospheric CO2 as the overarching disaster that must be addressed with fullscale mobilization to reduce emissions in order to effectively live out the agency’s stated mission of “relief.”

• Raise Up Our Social Principles: Further we ask that the Council of Bishops affirms and encourages study of the “Community of All Creation,” Section 1 of the Revised Social Principles, specifically the following:

“A sharp upsurge in greenhouse gases over past decades already has resulted in a steady rise in sea levels, growing acidification of the world’s oceans, increased droughts and famines, and the intensification of extreme weather events. Climate scientists warn that the window of opportunity for reversing the negative effects of global warming and climate change is rapidly closing. Without concerted action by individuals, churches, communities, shareholders, businesses, governments, and international organizations, the negative effects will become irreversible.”

• Be Visible in the Local Church: And most importantly, in addressing the urgent need to amplify creation justice for the reasons stated herein, that the work of the agencies, boards, and the Council of Bishops call for action, attention, study, encouragement and support in every local church in the denomination. There is no holiness but social holiness, and no work of discipleship more powerful than the work of the Holy Spirit in the pews of the local church and conference. 

In summary, what we seek is three fold: 

1. We are prayerful for the Council of Bishops to enter into conversation with us at the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement to seek actionable and urgent next steps to amplify creation justice in the denomination. 
2. We seek support and resourcing to address creation care and environmental stewardship and creation justice in the boards and agencies, and also especially in the local church and annual conference. 
3. And, as a beginning to all of that, we seek a straightforward and clear statement from the Council of Bishops, followed by strategic action, that communicates strong and unambiguous leadership and leaves no room for doubt, avoidance, or misinterpretation.

Our call for creation justice is a call to protect, restore, and rightly share the gifts of creation for the sake of the community of all creation. The United Methodist Church needs the leadership of our bishops.

We ask the council to lead a bold, joyful, and courageous church in the transformation of the world, a transformation of faith and heart in covenant with our Creator. By the clay from which we were created, and in the radiant promise of resurrection, we are a restoration people. We believe in the power of Christ and the Holy Spirit. We believe restoration can and will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven. All possibility shines before us, right here on this good Earth, our planet, home.

In Christ,

The Coordinating Team of the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement