Mourning Dove in cover image was crocheted by Esther Peterson
By Nancy Victorin-Vangerud
“The love part, that’s what I want to teach Callie.
I want the love part to be the most important thing.”
Recently, journalist Margaret Renkl observed that “The most important environmentalists are four year olds. Her comment struck home as I reflected on my experience with UMCJM’s “New Life Is Breaking Forth” Eastertide worship series as I covered for a colleague on sabbatical.
As a retired university chaplain, I had no worries about bringing my eco-theological lens to the task of preaching. But what was so daunting that first Sunday was facing a dozen children gathered along the front pew for the “children’s message.” I wondered how I could convey the heart of the creation justice curriculum to children.
I shouldn’t have worried at all! The children knew more than I did about each of the six weekly “hatchlings” featured in the curriculum—a turtle, salmon, frog, crow, monarch butterfly, and mourning dove. The children queried me with their own fun facts about our earth-kin: “Did you know that…?” They also knew about environmental challenges along with practical steps we can take to positively impact habitats.
Each week I included a short video clip of the focus hatchling so we could hear and see them as honored worship guests. The children immediately empathized with the creatures and moved their own bodies and used their
Mobile at Eden Prairie UMC, Eden Prairie, MN
voices to identify with them. In response to a few open-ended questions, the young ones expressed consideration and moral regard for the creatures and for plants and trees too. I concluded those children are certainly earthkeepers, but we might also call them citizen conservationists and nature mystics. They visibly and vigorously approved God’s will be done, “on earth as it is in heaven.”
It has been a while since I was regularly involved with children’s ministry. But I was deeply moved by the shift that occurred over the course of our “Life Breaks Out” series. The “children’s message” became not so much a message to the children as their message to the rest of us in the congregation! We beheld an identity at the core of this younger generation as they absorb the serious global challenges they know they will be facing. They bring their innate ecological consciousness to bear on what it means to be alive, unlike so many of us who are “environmental” when we get around to it, when it’s convenient, trendy, or profitable, or when the law requires it. Those children sitting on the front pew truly love God’s world.
Image used with permission of parent and child.
So, look out! Children will grow up to become youth and young adults who call us to accountability. Like the young activists making plans for COP28 this December in Dubai, demanding a place at the decision-making table. Like the 16 youth plaintiffs who recently brought the lawsuit Held v. State of Montana, alleging that the state has violated their constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment. As 18-year-old plaintiff Lander Busse from Kalispell, Montana, characterized the end of the lengthy legal proceedings, “This is just the beginning.”
Just the beginning? Should we hear in his voice an ominous tone? Or an inviting one—the beginning of what? Wow—the youth plaintiffs have turned their mourning into action! Thing is, in so many ways, we are just beginning. So many of our United Methodist congregations are just beginning when it comes
to climate change adaptation, creation justice advocacy, and eco-liturgical renewal. But as Rilke said, “Resolve to be always beginning—to be a beginner!” My hope is that all of us—you, me, United Methodists everywhere—keep beginning. Keep learning how to live from the place of love for God’s world.
We already have the leaders!
As Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children…” (Matthew 18:3).
Nancy Victorin-Vangerud is a Hopeful Earthkeeper and Retired Elder of the Minnesota Annual Conference
References:
- Camille T. Dungy, Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden (New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, 2023), 175.
- Margaret Renkl, “Only One State in America Includes the Study of Climate Change for All Grades,” (New York Times, June 19, 2023).
- Micah Drew, “With Landmark Climate Trial Over, Youth Plaintiffs Describe It As ‘Just the Beginning,’” The Flathead Beacon (June 20, 2023), https://flatheadbeacon.com/2023/06/20/with-landmark-climate-trial-over-youth-plaintiffs-describe-it-as-just-the-beginning/