Creation Justice Blog
News and Stories From Across the MovementSearch by topic for resources to help you make creation justice a priority in your community. We add new topics all the time so check back frequently!
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July 2026 Tips: Do What You Can
Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction. Remember that when you feel overwhelmed or down because of the enormity of our climate crises. Do what you can, wherever you can, whenever you can. That’s very Wesleyan.July Tips Get rid of your junk catalogs. Over 100 million trees are cut down annually to produce junk mail. You get waste, clutter, and deforestation. Opt out of unwanted catalogs through Catalog Choice, a free service from the Story of Stuff.org. Let your lawn grow taller. Traditionally manicured lawns do not allow enough...
Western North Carolina Annual Conference Updates
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...
Ohio Annual Conferences Updates
West Ohio In West Ohio, two local churches received Green Church Certification awards on-stage at Annual Conference: Maple Grove UMC in Columbus and Faith Community UMC in West Chester. Both completed the Green Church Certification process, which includes signing a Green Church Pledge, filling out a sustainability audit, completing two green projects, and agreeing to complete at least one green project each year going forward. During the West Ohio Connections Fair, the Green Church Movement gave away Green Church Kits to churches that signed...
North Carolina Conference Updates
Resolution III Call for Climate Change Adaptation emphasizes that God’s creation is “in peril” and that “caring for Creation requires us to address both the causes of climate change and the impacts of climate change.” The text of the resolution, written by the NC Conference Creation Care Committee, outlines a number of impacts to the state and overall impacts to issues including rising temperatures, droughts and wildfires, rising sea levels, increased strain for the socioeconomically disadvantaged, and the increasing risk to human lives. The...
Mountain Sky Conference Commits to Fossil-Free Investments and a Just Transition
DENVER, Colo., June 2026 — The Mountain Sky Conference of The United Methodist Church voted during its 2026 Annual Conference to affirm fossil-free investments for conference funds and a just transition for communities and workers connected to fossil fuel industries. The resolution aligns the Conference with The United Methodist Church’s 2050 net-zero greenhouse gas emissions goal and frames climate change as a moral, spiritual, and justice issue affecting vulnerable communities and God’s creation. “This action reflects our commitment to...
July 2026 Movement Café: Climate Change Science and Advocacy
July 2026 Movement Café Climate Change Science and AdvocacyJuly 15, 2026 9am AK / 10am PT / 11am MT / 12pm CT / 1pm ETSponsored 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.Climate Change ScienceWhat is a “super El Niño?” With the heat of this summer already smashing heat records on land and sea, we turn to Dr. E. Jamie Trammell to help us understand the science behind the 2026 heat. Join us for the...
Welcome from the Environmental Justice Desk at GBCS
Grace and peace to you all, and welcome to a new voice in this newsletter! I'm Darina Regio, the new Director of Environmental Justice at the General Board of Church and Society, where I lead the agency's work on climate justice, sustainability, clean water, and food justice. My focus is on advocacy, coalition-building, and engagement with faith-based and secular partners to advance healthier and more resilient communities. Before joining GBCS, I worked at the intersection of international development, governance, public policy, and security...
June 2026 Newsletter
As United Methodists we have a shared mission to “make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” In a rapidly changing world facing climate instability, energy transition, and political diruption, we have the opportunity as people who follow in the way of Christ to shape those changes in ways that increase love and compassion and support the flourishing of all God’s good creation. This June newsletter highlights rapid changes underway in our global energy system and offers resources and inspiration to help steer those...
June 2026 Tips: First, Do No Harm
First, Do No Harm!Second, Do Good!Third, Stay in Love With God! These General Rules of John Wesleyapply to creation justice ina myriad of ways, beginning with how we think—First, do no harm!June Tips Stop using Styrofoam. This single-use “convenience” has its raw materials extracted from the earth, leaches harmful chemicals into hot food or drink, adds to the volume of methane from landfills, and exposes production workers to permanent nervous system damage. Switch to reusable containers for food and drink. Fossil-fuel-based fabrics...
Bill McKibben Speaks with New England Methodists
By Rev. Richenda FairhurstMany United Methodist Conferences now have active creation care teams. The team in the New England Annual Conference, the New England Creation Care Circle, is among the first such teams, and members are active in local churches and with conference leadership. They also have a team specific to organizing a virtual Creation Care Café. The café meets every fourth Tuesday, at 7pm Eastern. This month the internationally known New Englander, Bill McKibben, joined the Cafe for a presentation and Q&A. Many United...
June 2026 Movement Café: Data Centers
June 2026 Movement Café Energy Impacts of Data CentersJune 17, 2026 9am AK / 10am PT / 11am MT / 12pm CT / 1pm ETSponsored 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.Energy ShiftsData Centers, energy use, and rising energy costs are a hot topic of conversation at a number of Annual Conference sessions this year. Even as it is ever more urgent to reduce energy costs to the purse and the environment,...
Baltimore-Washington Conference Divests from Fossil Fuels
By Rev. Sharee WhartonThe Baltimore-Washington Conference took a meaningful step toward faithful environmental stewardship at the 242nd Annual Conference by successfully passing the Resolution on Fossil Fuel Divestment. Rooted in a deep commitment to creation care and justice, the resolution was presented by Cynthia Taylor, who helped bring both clarity and urgency to the issue.Support from the floor further strengthened the call, with Sherie Koob and Rev. Sharee Wharton offering compelling statements that connected the resolution to our...
Energy and Transformation
By Cathy Velasquez EberhartThe Great Turning is a name for the essential adventure of our time: the shift from the industrial growth society to a life-sustaining civilization…The Great Turning is a reality. Although we cannot know yet if it will take hold in time for humans and other complex life forms to survive, we can know that it is under way. And it is gaining momentum, through the actions of countless individuals and groups around the world. To see this as the larger context of our lives clears our vision and summons our courage....
A Faithful Dive Into the Growth of AI Data Centers
By Dawn LewisArtificial Intelligence (AI) is swiftly being integrated into our lives. And, that incursion is happening quickly. Everything from our social media accounts to our appliances to our decision-making is shaped by AI in today’s world. AI and its impact on our lives and livelihoods are definitely a topic for discussion, but there is also the issue that AI usage requires extensive networks of data centers, which for them to function requires massive amounts of energy as well as lots of water and large land tracts. Around the country,...
Promoting Energy Solutions
By Ian Urriola-SchonewolfThe “Equip and Resource Local Church Trustees for Carbon Neutral Evaluation and Planning” resolution before the Upper New York Annual Conference seeks to help local churches move from abstract creation care commitments to practical, actionable planning. Building on existing commitments already found in both the Book of Discipline and recent General Conference legislation, the resolution aims to deepen the relationships between the conference’s Creation Care Justice Team and local church boards of trustees to magnify...
May 2026 Newsletter
The May Newsletter and May flowers are arriving! In Oregon, May blooms include the mimicking monkeyflowers, hairy balsamroot, and Pacific ninebark—a wild rose! For joy! The solitary bees that overwinter in the ninebark’s hollow stems are waking up. I am in prayer for our communities and wild lands as this year will be one of extraordinary drought. A record warm winter has left us with only 2% of our mountain snowpack. More than ever we see the urgency to care for each other and creation.This newsletter is packed with the resources you...
April 2026 Newsletter
As followers of Jesus, we ask ourselves, “What can we do?” We know actions count. We have responsibilities. We care. We know we can’t be wholly letting go. This edition of the newsletter brings the needs of water into focus. With so much of our Earth covered by water, with water such a necessity for all of life, we have a myriad of ways to do something, and the articles and stories below call those to mind. But sometimes we are called to let go of our need to “do” and to trust instead. Be sure to read and savor “The Nest You Leave...
Worship Series Coming for Season of Creation
Worship Series Coming from UMCJM for Season of Creation, featuring themes related to the Feast of Creation/Creation in Christ Sunday by Rev. Laura Baumgartner As has been the pattern for the last several years, the Worship Team from the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement is developing a new Season of Creation worship series for use in September 2026 or when worship leaders determine it is best for their congregations to be introduced to the change in the calendar. Given the new liturgical holiday, Creation in Christ Sunday/The Feast...
Embracing Creation’s Call: Reflections from the Kootenai National Forest
Cover photo: Sunlight shines over the Kootenai River in the Kootenai National Forest. Photo by Rev. Ross JanovecBy Pastor Ross Janovec04/30/2026Living and ministering in Libby, Montana, nestled within the vast expanse of the Kootenai National Forest, has very much shaped my understanding of creation justice and the sacredness of our shared home. Here, the towering Tamarac, rushing rivers, majestic mountains, and expansive skies are not distant backdrops but intimate companions for the lived experience of my daily life and ministry. This deep...
May 2026 Movement Café: New Feast Day of Creation
May 2026 Movement Café New Feast Day of CreationMay 20, 2026 9am AK / 10am PT / 11am MT / 12pm CT / 1pm ETSponsored 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.New Feast Day of Creation The Holy Spirit is bringing something new! On September 1st, the church celebrates a new holy day, the Feast of Creation! For United Methodist calendars, this day will be called Creation in Christ Sunday. This new holy...
May 2026 Creation Justice Tips: Loving Nature
Uncommon care for our common green spaces—national, state, city, neighborhood, and pocket parks, greenways, biking and hiking trails—each a patch of Eden, calling us to tend and keepfor all creatures for all time.May 2026 Immerse yourself in nature. Try forest bathing (using all your senses to connect to your environment), hiking, enjoying a park, hunting for waterfalls and wildflowers, going to a botanical garden or arboretum, getting out on the water in a sailboat, kayak, or canoe. Renew your commitment to care for the nature that renews...
Creation in Christ! Ecumenical and Methodist Resources for the Feast of Creation
New! Creation in Christ Sunday/Feast of Creation is coming to churches September 1, 2026. See “What Is a Feast Day? Questions and Answers About the New Feast of Creation.”A brand-new Christian feast day, the Feast of Creation, comes to the worldwide church this year on September 1st. This new feast day is the culmination of years of discernment across Christian traditions globally, starting in earnest in March at Assisi, Italy, in 2024. For United Methodists and denominations following the Revised Common Lectionary, this new holy day will be...
Creation in Christ Sunday and the New Feast of Creation
Find out more about the new holy day observance for the United Methodist Church, Creation in Christ Sunday / Feast of Creation! Celebration of the brand new world-wide Christian feast day begins on September 1st, 2026. What is a feast day? Church world is abuzz with stories about a new Feast Day for Creation. So, what is a feast day? A “feast day” is a special day on the yearly church worship calendar. For Christians, feast days are holy days. These are days to praise God with special emphasis on events of the scriptures and the life of the...
Save on Your Energy Bill With a Phone Call
We would like to introduce a quick way to check your energy bills that might immediately help you save thousands of dollars. This comes from the Green Team at Mountain View UMC in Boulder. They were able to help Lafayette UMC in Colorado save more than $5000/year simply by making a phone call to their electrical utility. NOTE: We know that across the four states of our conference, there are multiple utilities to deal with. We have learned this simple savings from our work with XCEL Energy. We believe that this is available through other...
If the Ocean Has a Soul: Review
by Rev. Richenda Fairhurst There was so much to love about this book. Perhaps, though, I have to start with the stories. Rachel G. Jordan has a gift for sharing the insights and wisdom of her Christian faith alongside her true-life experiences as a marine biologist studying coral ecosystems and coral preservation. Each story she offers is both a faithful reflection and vibrant case study of God’s perfect cosmos. For Rachel, as a Christian and a scientist, the glory of God is reflected in every underwater inch of the creation, in every fist of...
The Nest You Leave Behind
By Dottie Yunger Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths (Psalm 148:7)There is a moment in the life of a sea turtle that feels, at first, like absence. She leaves the sea and comes ashore—awkwardly, heavily, out of the element that usually holds her. She searches, tests the ground, and finally begins to dig. It is not a graceful process. It is slow, deliberate, and exposed. And then, when the nest is ready, she lays her eggs. As they drop, she catches them in her hind flippers. One after...
New Creation: An Easter Reflection
By Sharon Delgado This post includes an excerpt from “Creation Crucified: The Passion of the Earth,” which is Chapter 4 of Sharon’s book, The Cross in the Midst of Creation “In the midst of suffering and death— be it individual, social, or ecological— the promise given to the Earth community is that life in God will reign. So speaks the resurrection.” — Cynthia Moe- Lobeda, “A Theology of the Cross for the Uncreators”Amid today’s threats to democracy, rule by corporations and plutocrats, escalating violence, economic suffering, environmental...
Clean Water/Clean Heart
By Gregory Waldrop Why do we call our planet Earth; most observers would look at its 75% fluid make-up and name it, more appropriately, Water! As the Creation stories suggest and evolution theorizes, when water arrives and finds its place in our world, life abounds. Once water shows itself, life happens full force. In our faith life, new life shown in baptismal waters requires everything water provides—cleansing, support, refreshment, nourishment, relief, adventure. Water makes life and holy water makes life new. Where in your...
Creation Care Sermon from Rev. Suzanne Calhoun in Cal-Nevada
“Broken Creation Care”From Broken Together Lenten Sermon Series by Rev. Suzanne Calhoun, Nevada City United Methodist ChurchCalifornia-Nevada Annual ConferencePreached March 8, 2026Scripture: Genesis 1:1-2:3Video available on YouTube ChannelNCUMC Church @nevadacitymethodistchurchAs we come to the place of broken creation care in our series, we are moving this week from the ways that we personally are broken, the ways that community is broken, to the ways that certain things about the world that we share globally are broken. And I thought that...
April 2026 Movement Café: Marine Ministry ~ Oceans and Discipleship
April 2026 Movement Café Marine Ministry: Oceans and DiscipleshipMarine EcotheologyApril 15, 2026 9am AK / 10am PT / 11am MT / 12pm CT / 1pm ETSponsored 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.Marine Ministry: Oceans and DiscipleshipMarine Ecotheology The April Cafe will celebrate Marine Ministry: Oceans and Discipleship featuring Rev. Logan Jackson with Marine Ecotheology, Rev. Dottie Yunger...