Creation Justice Blog

News and Stories From Across the Movement

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How to Take Next Steps Toward Divestment

How to Take Next Steps Toward Divestment

“We see a lot of churches moving their money.”  —Julia Frisbie, Executive Director of the Faith Foundation Northwest The February Café featuring Fossil Free UMC and speaking to the question of divestment was a big success. In the run-up to General Conference, thousands of United Methodists and supporters around the world, individually or as part of United Methodist churches, groups, and agencies signed a petition asking The United Methodist Church to divest from fossil fuels. Progress continues! Some key bullet points for quick answers are up...

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February 2025 Newsletter

February 2025 Newsletter

“The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). These are difficult times for people who seek peace, justice, and healing for our human family and for the whole community of life. In Los Angeles, as the devastating fires still smolder and toxins contaminate neighborhoods, rains threaten to bring landslides to the scarred earth. In Washington D.C., as the need for strong climate action increases, the new administration is canceling positive climate programs and has declared an “energy emergency” in pursuit...

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Model Resolutions for Annual Conference Season, 2025

Model Resolutions for Annual Conference Season, 2025

See also this collection of Creation Justice Proposals that were submitted for consideration at 2025 Annual Conferences.Annual conferences begin accepting submissions of resolutions and petitions as soon as February, 2025. Over the last few years, the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement’s Annual Conference Organizing Team has worked to get creation justice resolutions over the finish line by providing sample resolutions for conferences. Further, a number of resolutions were submitted to—and accepted by—the General Conference of The...

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Progress Report on The United Methodist Church’s Goal of Net Zero 

Progress Report on The United Methodist Church’s Goal of Net Zero 

By Bob Downs   In our 2024 General Conference, The United Methodist Church adopted two resolutions calling for the church to achieve net zero emissions of greenhouse gases. The first resolution, Recognizing United Methodist Support for Global Green New Deal Initiatives and Legislative Efforts, was originally drafted for the General Conference scheduled for 2020, and it addresses a variety of efforts to care for God’s creation. The second resolution, Commitment to Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions, focuses on the denomination and...

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Net Zero Needs Fossil Fuel Divestment

Net Zero Needs Fossil Fuel Divestment

The Methodist Church in Britain, a connectional part of The United Methodist Church, divested from stocks in oil and gas in 2021. Photo credit: Baildon Methodist Church, West Yorkshire, by Tim Green, 2020, CC BY 2.0 By Jaydee Hanson   The United Methodist Church cannot meet its net zero goals unless it diversifies from investments in fossil fuels. The net zero goals are targets that all of the agencies of the church and our bishops agreed to meet by 2050. This means that all of our activities as the church at a general level would have...

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What If We Get It Right? A Book Review

What If We Get It Right? A Book Review

During the 2024 General Conference of The United Methodist Church held in Charlotte, North Carolina, a group of United Methodist clergy and lay people joined an interfaith rally and march. The speakers, signs, and the short march called for an end to the big money funding of fossil fuels. Many of us with environmental concerns and a care for climate stewardship have come across the work of Dr. Anya Elizabeth Johnson. Her latest book, What If We Get It Right? continues the discussion of the much appreciated, All We Can Save, incorporating...

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Next Step for UMC Net Zero Agencies: Divest from Fossil Fuels

Next Step for UMC Net Zero Agencies: Divest from Fossil Fuels

By Sharon Delgado   “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). In the above passage, Jesus tells us to value spiritual treasures above our material treasures. This passage also reminds us that how we use or invest our material treasures expresses our spiritual values, for “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” These words are especially relevant in the context of a rapidly heating planet. We United Methodists have a heart for God’s creation and for climate justice. As I write, the Los Angeles...

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Justice Interconnections: Climate, Race, Economy, Health, Migration & More

Justice Interconnections: Climate, Race, Economy, Health, Migration & More

United Methodist and other leaders gathered in front of the White House in Washington D.C. for a prayer vigil in 2014. Together they prayed for a faithful immigration policy and to end deportations. Credit: UMNS photo by Jay Mallin CC BY 2.0. By Mel Caraway The climate crisis is very real. Yet as we look at the climate crisis, we unfortunately have a tendency to oversimplify it. We tend to look solely at the scientific aspects of climate and forget about how climate interconnects with so many other aspects of our daily lives. In order for us...

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Expand Your Impact through Social Media

Expand Your Impact through Social Media

If you’ve subscribed a few months, at least, to the UMCJM newsletter, you know that most of the Advocacy Team’s action alerts have consisted of encouraging you to influence our government officials directly, for the good of God’s creation. We’re called on you to protect the environment through phone calls, letters to editors of print media, emails and so on. This month, though, we’re saying a few words about a way to multiply those kinds of efforts: Using social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and X (formerly known as...

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February 2025 Movement Café: Divestment with Fossil Free UMC

February Movement Café: Divestment with Fossil Free UMCFebruary 19th 2024 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.Divestment with Fossil Free UMCJoin us February 19th for the first Movement Cafe of 2025. The focus is fossil fuel divestment, and conversation will help connect the dots as to why divestment is an important tool to fight climate change....

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Apply Now to the Global Ministries EarthKeepers Spring Online Training

Apply Now to the Global Ministries EarthKeepers Spring Online Training

Photo from the 2024 Global Ministries EarthKeepers Training, Baltimore, MD This is the year to develop your leadership in creation care and justice ministry. You have ideas for action with your church or your community, but how can you make that happen? Bring your idea to the Spring 2025 Global Ministries EarthKeepers Training!  This spring training is a fully online project incubator where you will receive training in eco-theology, antiracism, community organizing, and project planning. All participants plan a project during the training....

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Climate Finance and COP29

Climate Finance and COP29

Rev. Dr. Becca Edwards (far right) pictured with (L to R): Rabbi Yonatan Neril, Executive Director, Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development; Rev. Melanie Mullen, Director of Reconciliation, Justice and Creation Care for The Episcopal Church; Archbishop Serafim Kykotis, Greek Orthodox Archbishopric of Zimbabwe; Rev. Dr. Lisa Graumlich, Professor, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences and President of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).By Becca Edwards In Luke 12, we read the parable of a man who receives an unexpectedly bounteous...

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Training Locally for Impact in Climate-Changed Ethiopia

Training Locally for Impact in Climate-Changed Ethiopia

“Ethiopia, despite contributing minimally to global greenhouse gas emissions, is consistently cited as one of the most vulnerable countries, not only in Sub-Saharan Africa regions but also globally, to climate variability and change.” —Heliyon via ScienceDirect A Report From Rev. Gezu Mossissa  Rev. Gezu Mossissa serves in the Ethiopia Mission District, working ecumenically with the Ethiopian Council of Churches, and he is a former District Superintendent to the Mission District. Confronted with the changes to climate impacting his country...

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Intergenerational Cooperation in Climate Change

Intergenerational Cooperation in Climate Change

Photo Credit: UN DRR with UNICEF 2009 CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.These children, their photo taken in 2009, would now be adults. Their playfulness and joy fills this photograph. Today their lives as adults should include the opportunities they need to thrive. Globally, the efforts of justice, resilience, and wellbeing are essential to building a hopeful world. The World Council of Churches works widely in coalition in witness with local to global organizations such as UNICEF and the United Nations. United Methodists acknowledge this work, calling people...

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A Theological Reflection on Divestment From Fossil Fuels

A Theological Reflection on Divestment From Fossil Fuels

By Rev. Pat Watkins   God told Adam to “till and keep” the garden, the first vocational call laid upon humanity that we know of.  God asked Noah to preserve all the animals that God had made, a uniquely human task of preserving God’s creation. The covenant that God made with Noah and family also extended to all the animals and Earth itself.  Job rather painfully learned that life with God is not about the accumulation of wealth as a result of living a good, upstanding life, but is more about living in right-relationship with one another...

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February 2025 Tips: Advocacy

February 2025 Tips: Advocacy

FebruaryTo stand alongside in support, To give voice to, to defend what is right To do so on behalf ofthe best interest of others. As followers of Christ, we are called to love God and God’s CreationAnd to love our neighbor, especially those most in need of justice.Advocacy is our job.It comes in many different forms. Share these Tips with your family, friends, and congregation. Choose any or all. Forward them to someone you care about. Cut-and-paste to put them with your email signature, in your letters and emails, worship bulletins,...

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January 2025 Newsletter

January 2025 Newsletter

After the results of the 2024 elections, looking ahead doesn’t readily result in hope, which we normally expect from the future. Let’s look back instead to steady us now as we move forward into 2025, continuing to build on the Movement successes of 2024. Although some seeds planted may take much longer to bear fruit, we have this assurance from Scripture: “We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s...

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December 2024 Newsletter

December 2024 Newsletter

The month of December has always been a liminal space for me. While our culture is winding down the year – with businesses seeking to finish in the black, news organizations recapping their best stories, and winter finally getting here (maybe?) – the Church is already starting a new liturgical year, looking toward what God is doing (historically, currently, and forthcoming). This newsletter is just such an offering, reflecting on past, present, and future activities around creation care and justice. It is also an invitation to experience this...

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January 2025 Tips: A Reminder from God’s Seasons

January 2025 Tips: A Reminder from God’s Seasons

January is just a few days past the darkest day of the year, December 21. With this month’s long dark nights,it’s hard to not let our disposition and energy darken too. But January is ever inching forward into the light. God’s seasons remind us that theLight came into the worldand the darkness did not overcome it. God remains faithful, working through the dark toward a new season. We can follow God’s leading. Share these Tips with your family, friends, and congregation. Choose any or all. Forward them to someone you care about. Cut-and-paste...

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Looking Ahead/Looking Back

Looking Ahead/Looking Back

After the results of the 2024 elections, looking ahead doesn’t readily result in hope, which we normally expect from the future. Let’s look back instead to steady us now as we move forward into 2025, continuing to build on the Movement’s successes of 2024.   Several of our United Methodist Creation Justice Movement (UMCJM) newsletters during 2024 focused on getting creation justice into the thinking of policy-making bodies, including federal, state, and local legislators. Every month highlighted one or two Action Alerts, giving United...

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UMCJM Welcomes and Congratulates New EarthKeepers

UMCJM Welcomes and Congratulates New EarthKeepers

UMCJM Welcomes and Congratulates New EarthKeepers On November 19th, United Methodists and supporters gathered on Zoom and Facebook Live to celebrate the commissioning of 67 new United Methodist EarthKeepers. These EarthKeepers came from trainings both online and in-person in Baltimore, Maryland, and St. Paul, Minnesota. Those called into EarthKeeping came from 30 different annual conferences. The 2024 class of EarthKeepers included both clergy and lay people, young adults, retirees, church members, and conference staff. Those leading the...

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Resources for Advent: New Advent Hymns and More!

Resources for Advent: New Advent Hymns and More!

By Rev. Richenda Fairhurst Creation care and environmental justice resources continue to grow, including the growing library at the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement. The need for more resources that reflect God’s creation is being met one song, one prayer, and one worship series at a time. This year the UMCJM worship team developed two series, one for the Season of Creation and another for Eastertide, upcoming in 2025 and available through  Discipleship Ministries. For creation-attuned Advent resources in particular, see the new...

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Worship and Relationship in the Spring Forest Community

Worship and Relationship in the Spring Forest Community

Header: Row of vegetables growing at Spring Forest Farm. The community employs regenerative methods for growing and nurturing the farm. All photos courtesy Elaine Heath.A reflection by Rev. Denise Honeycutt Online-enabled Morning Worship Each morning at 8am folks gather on zoom from around the world as a part of Spring Forest, for 20 or 25 minutes to read and reflect on a passage of scripture, to pray for the natural world and our personal concerns and joys. It is a grounding way to begin my day with like-minded folks as well as those who see...

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December 2024 Movement Café: Advent Worship

December Movement Café: Advent WorshipDecember 18th 2024 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.Advent Worship The December 2024 Movement Café offered an online worship opportunity with the theme, “Tending to Advent: Preparing the Way.” This service of word and music was offered to nourish our spirits and help us tend our souls. The texts for the...

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COP29 Wraps Up – Faith in Stories From the COP

COP29 Wraps Up – Faith in Stories From the COP

Photo credit: COP29 at Baku: Photo by Paul Kagame CC BY-NC-ND 2.0The United Nations’ Council of the Parties (COP29) began on November 12th, the 29th gathering of global leaders, envoys, corporations, non-governmental organizations, and people of faith. Decisions made at COP affect every living thing on the planet, but these decisions especially affect hundreds of millions of the most vulnerable.  The talks wrapped up on November 25, three days later than scheduled. The delay was caused by lack of consensus as the most powerful, and most...

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The Big Silence 2024

The Big Silence 2024

The Big Silence A 4-Day Mostly Silent Retreat January 13–16, 2025July 20–23, 2025www.TheBigSilence.orgThanksgiving to New Year’s Day often feels like a sprint from one activity to the next until you stumble into the new year exhausted and in need of a big deep breath—physically and spiritually. Do you have a plan to recalibrate for 2025? Plan now to come to The Big Silence Retreat, January 13–16, 2025 at the beautiful St. Francis Springs Prayer Center in Stoneville, NC. Now in its 13th year, this retreat is co-led by two United Methodist...

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December 2024 Tips

December 2024 Tips

The famous “three” were attuned to nature and saw in a star-studded sky the one that would guide them to travel—most likely bringing with them support folks, family, and friends—to One who was worthy of their efforts. They brought their gifts as an expression of worship. And they went home another way to keep the Precious One safe. May our journey to this Christmas be filled with such wisdom. Share these Tips with your family, friends, and congregation. Choose any or all. Forward them to someone you care about. Cut-and-paste to put them with...

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November 2024 Newsletter

November 2024 Newsletter

In October we were so fortunate to have a Movement Café featuring the good work of United Methodist institutions of theological education in relation to creation justice. We learned about the creative and difference-making curricular and co-curricular programs at four of our United Methodist schools of theology—Boston University School of Theology, Drew Theological School, Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary, and Methodist Theological School of Ohio. Their programs are representative of excellent creation justice work being done at...

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4th Annual Fall Festival: Saint Matthews UMC Greensboro, NC

4th Annual Fall Festival: Saint Matthews UMC Greensboro, NC

By Karlah Burton On Saturday, October 5, 2024, the Creation Care Ministry at Saint Matthews UMC, hosted a fall festival—an Earth advocacy/healthy eating based fair. In 2023, SMUMC became a commissioned “Green Church” as designated by the Western NC Conference. The Green Church Initiative of the Western NC Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church suggests (Item B-7, Discipleship) that participating churches host a creation care fair inviting outside organizations to do displays and booths that help raise awareness.  This year the list...

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November 2024 Movement Café

November Movement Café: Relationship, life, and Practice in Regenerative Monastic Community with Elaine HeathNovember 20th 2024 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.Relationship, life, and Practice in Regenerative Monastic Community with Elaine HeathRead more about the Café and Spring Forest HERE and on UM Insight, Missional United Methodist...

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