Environmental Justice

The Ecology of Prayer

Picture courtesy of .paxgaia.ca

The Ecology of Prayer is an essay written by Fred Bahnson in Orion magazine where he discusses how crucial it is for people of faith to actively be engaged in stopping climate change and making the world a more sustainable place. Bahnson directly asks Christians:  “If the underlying message is that we just need to green up our lifestyles without any real sacrifice, what’s the point? But no, I fear that the crisis before us will ask far more of us than we realize. Climate change can’t be just another bullet point on the church mission statement. We need a deeper form of political engagement, one that leads us to confront the darkness of the human heart.” To read The Ecology of Prayer, click here.

Pennsylvania order asks Supreme Court to uphold its Religious Rights

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The Adorers of the Blood of Christ have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether their religious freedom rights were violated by the construction and pending use of a natural gas pipeline through its land. The petition asks the Supreme Court to determine how extensively the government must respect claims under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and whether the construction violates their religious freedoms under the RFRA. To read more on the Adorers of the Blood of Christ and their petition, click here.

Your Vote. Our Voices. Speak Up for Our Future, Get Out and Vote!

American electorate graphic

Picture courtesy of unitedmethodistwomen.org

United Methodist Women wants to encourage everyone, especially women, to get out and vote.

“Your vote has the power to move us closer to creating a world in which justice rolls down like water and righteousness as a mighty stream. So, get out and vote! You have the power to pull a lever to change the conversation about our national priorities. You have the power to organize a car pool to take the homebound to their polling stations. You have the power to use the United Methodist Women Election Checklist to find out which candidates support our vision of a nation with clean air, with maternal and child well-being; a nation where workers earn a living wage and a nation where we offer educational opportunity rather than juvenile detention.”

To read more on the importance of voting, click here.

Beyond the Steeple: New Life in Texas

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elca.org/

Beyond the Steeple: New Life in Texas is a video on New Life Lutheran Church in Dripping Springs, Texas. Every Sunday, rain or shine, they hold their worship outdoors under the live oaks on their property. The short video shows an average Sunday at the church and also talks to members about their experience attending a church with no building. Pastor Kara Stewart stated, “I love that in order to come to worship I need to know what’s going on in the world, like the actual creation world not just world events; that we pay attention to what the land will be experiencing when we’re here.” To watch the video on New Life Lutheran Church, click here.

EcoFaith Recovery

EcoFaith Recovery

Picture courtesy of ecofaithrecovery.org

EcoFaith Recovery is a faith-based leadership development effort in the Pacific Northwest. Their purpose is to revitalize congregational ministries to participate in the healing of creation. They envision themselves as the tree of life, rooted and growing at the junction of ecology, faith, and recovery. They hope to create and network small groups and learning communities that can discover new and sustainable ways of being, to engage, mentor, and nurture one another in spiritual, economic, and community leadership, and to build and re-build powerful institutions that can employ the resources of Christianity, creation, cosmos, and community toward the work of healing. To read more on EcoFaith Recovery click here.

Food Security: Dream of Feeding Hundreds Comes True

Brother Paul Kennedy, member of the Dominican Order, grew up in Cincinnati with a dream of running a restaurant. Today, he is fulfilling that dream in an unexpected way; every weekday, he is in charge of feeding the physical and spiritual hunger of more than 300 people at the Holy Family Soup Kitchen in Columbus. Brother Paul stated that, “What always was important to me about the restaurant business was the chance to communicate with people as much as the chance to feed them. But regardless of what I did, every job I’ve had in the past was focused on service to people. Here at the soup kitchen, I get the chance to do the kind of work I wanted to while growing up, while at the same time getting to know the people we serve and developing a rapport with them.” To read more on Brother Paul Kennedy and the Holy Family Soup Kitchen, click here.

ELCA World Hunger’s 40 Days of Giving

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Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has relief programs around the world and in 2018, they created a “40 Days of Giving.” During this lenten program highlights several programs in India, Malawi, and the United States that revolve around food and agriculture, education and income, health and wellness, refugees, and women’s rights. To read the entire brochure on the goals of these projects and the impacts they could have, click here.

Speaking Out for Justice: United Methodist Women Advocate for Oil and Gas Regulations

Speaking Out for Justice

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United Methodist Women members asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to protect the vulnerable as a way to speak out for justice.  Three United Methodist Women members raised their voices on behalf of the vulnerable, women, and children in Washington D.C., speaking out against a possible postponement of regulations affecting natural gas and oil production. To read more on how and why these women spoke out for justice, click here.

ELCA Hurricane Florence Disaster Response

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elca.org/

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in American (ELCA) has created a bulletin insert to show the need for support in response to Hurricane Florence. The insert explains the needs of people in the Carolinas and what a donation or a gift to the cause could do. To download the insert, click here.

A Passion for Justice and Jesus

Picture courtesy of elca.org

A Passion for Justice and Jesus is a story of faith in action from Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It is a story about a mother and her children and how they got involved with her church through a passion for justice and Jesus. It is meant to be used as a bulletin insert to show examples of faith in action and to inspire others. To read more or download the bulletin insert, click here.