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!
Most Recent
Global Ministries Environmental Sustainability Program Update January 2023
It was a full year in 2023 for the Global Ministries Environmental Sustainability department as we got back up to speed from pandemic disruptions....
Follow the LEAD—Read the Book
As we bring in the New Year, the Leadership, Education, and Development (LEAD) Hub is offering a five-week book discussion beginning on January 6 on...
Circle Up for 2023!
By Rev. Richenda Fairhurst This month we celebrate a new year, 2023! This celestial action is measured, as the years of Jesus’s life were...
New Edition of Loving People and Planet in the Name of God Coming Soon!
United Women in Faith, Discipleship Ministries, Upper Room, and our Creation Justice Movement have been working together to make the Lay Servant...
United Women in Faith Creation Justice Update January 2023
By Ilka Vega The start of a new year is always an opportunity to remind ourselves of the work we’ve done and take a fresh look at our goals and work...
Climate Finance Team Update January 2023
The Climate Finance Subcommittee drafted three model resolutions related to climate finance, then presented them to the Resolutions Subcommittee for...
Topics
Annual Conferences
2022 Annual Conference Updates
Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference Creation Care Social Action Team Environmental Justice Webinar North Carolina Annual Conference Easter and Earth Day Environmental, Racial, and Community Justice Virginia Annual Conference Green Church Initiative 3.0 Green Church...
A Not-to-Be Missed Opportunity—Meet With Your Bishop About Creation Justice
by Karen McElfishCo-Coordinator, Annual Conference Organizing Team In November 2021 the Council of Bishops released a Climate Crisis Response statement, calling for the following five actions: Encourage and support action on climate change at the annual conference...
Promoting the UM Creation Justice Movement at your Annual Conference
By Cathy Velasquez Eberhart Minnesota Hopeful EarthKeeperUM Creation Justice Movement Communications and Annual Conference Organizing Teams As I write this, I’m just back from attending the 2022 Minnesota Annual Conference. For the first time since 2019, we were able...
Disaster Preparedness and Response Stories From Annual Conferences
Disasters are daunting. Here are some stories from UMC Annual Conferences to offer guidance, examples, and inspiration for dealing with disasters. Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference Stepping Into the Challenge: Statement by Bishop McAlilly Desert Southwest...
Annual Conference Updates
Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference To address the climate crisis and reverse global warming, members of the Baltimore-Washington Conference passed a resolution to create a “green conference" and another to endorse the passage of the Maryland...
UMC Annual Conference Organizing Workshops
To build and strengthen your Annual Conference Creation Justice impact For inspiration, information and ideas to move ahead with vision and energy, invite your current team and potential recruits to view these recordings with you. The UM Creation Justice...
Callings
A Vocational Call to a Creation Care Ministry
Author: Pat Watkins As a missionary in Nigeria in the 90’s, I learned a very important life lesson. Because of the isolated nature of our village (even the Nigerians who lived there said we lived at the “end of the earth”), I had to learn to live my life in...
Creation Justice Calling Story
Author: Dr. Daniel Joranko My creation justice calling story is something of a long and winding road. I graduated from Garrett-Evangelical in 1984. I was uncertain at the time about ordained ministry, but felt a strong call to urban mission work. I secured a position...
Just Don’t Call Me an Environmentalist
Author: Jarrod Davis I never wanted to be called an environmentalist. Growing up in the countryside, I spent my childhood outdoors. I freely roamed the fields and forests near our house and around our family’s farm. I loved the trees and streams, the birds and...
My Calling to Creation Justice Ministry
Author: Paul Slentz Love for the natural world has been an important part of who I am for a very long time. That love was taught to me by my parents, who took my four siblings and me on wonderful camping trips every summer. I especially fell in love with...
Children and Youth
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Disaster Preparedness
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Food Security
Community Gardens
Growing Good Food and Good Ministry!
By Karlah Y. Burton In July of 2019, I attended the "Just Energy for All" training on behalf of United Methodist Women and the Creation Care Summit, Nashville, TN, for the first time. I received so much information, met so many people; but most of all I was inspired...
From Emptiness to Abundance
Tending the garden turns into mission ...This is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches. - Matthew 13:32 In the small Southern town of...
Agriculture
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Global Stories
Manila Episcopal Area Re-Affirmation of Creation Care Towards Disaster Risk Reduction: Building on the Gains in the New Quadrennium
By Romuel “Dojoe” S. Flores, Lay Leader, Bulacan Philippines Annual Conference, Manila Episcopal Area. Disaster Risk Reduction Anchored on Stewardship of Creation In 2018, the United Methodist Manila Episcopal Area of the Philippines Central Conference in the...
Infrastructure
Efficiency Now!
By Jenny Phillips Quiz: What percentage off their current energy bill can an average church save through low and no-cost energy efficiency interventions? 18%25%30% Answer at the end of this article! Global Ministries is partnering with the US Environmental Protection...
Engaging the Local Church: SAVE THE DATES
By Robert Downs A training workshop on practical solutions to greening your facilities and promoting Creation Care within your local church will be offered on-line this winter on Feb 20, 24 & 27; and Mar 3 & 10; 2022. Each session will run for two hours...
What a Church Building Taught Me
By Crys Zinkiewicz I was excited. Off to the Chicago area for my EarthKeepers training, I wondered why Euclid Avenue UMC in the suburb of Oak Park had been chosen. As I approached the building, I got my first inkling. The usual church sign paled in the presence of the...
5 Reasons you should invest with your faith values
When it comes to investment think reinvestment with your faith values There’s been a lot of news about international faith institutions making large transfers of funds in their portfolios out of companies who cause harm to the planet. Although, there hasn’t been a...
Wespath Fund offers Fossil Free Fund for UMC Pension Holders
Effective April 1, 2017, Wespath Benefits and Investments revised the investment guidelines for its Equity Social Values Plus Fund (ESVPF) to provide an option to investors who have a heightened focus on companies’ environmental and social performance. These revised...
10 Things to Learn from The Great American Clean Energy Roadtrip
Each August, I have the pleasure of getting my nephew for a week of vacation. It started when he was eight and it started small. First he would come to Atlanta and see the big city. As he has grown, we’ve included my parents on alternating years. In 2016, it was...
Seasonal
Advent & Christmas
December 2021 Creation Justice Tips
This Christmas season take to heart John Wesley’s Rule for Christian Living: “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can!”...
Greening Christmas
By Crys Zinkiewicz Christmas is a challenge for Christians. We get pushed and pulled by our faith and our culture. Don’t tell me I also have to juggle being green! probably screeches into your mind when you hear about “greening Christmas.” However, you may find that...
Plastic-Free July
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Season of Creation
Resources for the Season of Creation
We’ve rounded up a collection of resources, both United Methodist and ecumenical, to aid in planning for your congregation’s celebration of the Season of Creation (September 1 through October 4). The website for the Season of Creation worldwide movement. Find help...
A Goat?! Reflections on the Blessing of the Animals
I didn’t expect a goat! Of course, there would be dogs, cats, hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, turtles, the occasional lizard, or hermit crab. I had even been prepared for the ferrets that climbed up my arm and around the back of my neck. But I never expected a...
Seven Ways to Embrace the Season of Creation this Fall
By Cara Fleischer, FLUMC Creation Care Task Team Chair Originally published here Around the world, United Methodists and other Christian denominations are celebrating the Season of Creation from September 1 through St. Francis Day on October 4. The theme for 2020 is...