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Earth Ministry: By the Waters

By the Waters is one of the two-part Caring for Creation program from Earth Ministries. It is meant to show how human activity significantly affects the amount of water and the quality of water available to other humans across the world. It is also meant to show how to better appreciate water as a life-giving gift from God.

Engaged Organizations: Young Evangelicals for Climate Action

Young Evangelicals for Climate Action is a group of young evangelicals that work on overcoming the climate crisis. Their main goals are to build a movement to act and advocate together, to influence senior evangelical leaders to support climate action, and to hold political leaders accountable.

Christians and Climate Change YouTube Channel

The Young Evangelicals for Climate Change (YECA) created a YouTube channel for religion and environment related videos. They are not produced by YECA, but are still specific to Christians and Climate Change

The Lausanne Global Consultation on Creation Care and the Gospel

The Lausanne Movement is meant to unite all evangelicals and to re-frame Christian missions in a world of political, economic, intellectual, and religious turmoil. The Lausanne Global Consultation on Creation Care and the Gospel was a gathering to build on the creation care components of the Cape Town Commitment. There were theologians, church leaders, scientists and creation care practitioners present from twenty-six different countries.

Climate Change and Climate Change Policy as Human Sacrifice

Climate Change and Climate Change Policy as Human Sacrifice: Artifice, Idolatry, and Environment in a Technological Society was written by Noah Toly to describe the sacrifices that are being forced because of climate change. Toly discusses the modern day changes that are occurring and gives specific examples of how it is impacting people around the world.

Blessed Are the Consumers

In this work, Sallie McFague unites her love of hagiography, the study of the saints, and the urgent need to address overconsumption in the economy and the environment. McFague suggests a close study of lives of the saints. Here specifically, she considers Simone Weil, John Woolman, and Dorothy Day, in the hope that contemporary believers may find a path from belief to faith-inspired action. A kenotic lifestyle, one of self-emptying, the author sees reflected in the lives of the saints considered here. She sees the unified path to kenosis inspired by the “wild space” of voluntary poverty, the awakening of the saint through this poverty to material needs of others, the increase in view of the self to include a universal self, and finally the connection of the kenotic lifestyle to the personal and public spheres of life.

Speaking specifically to middleclass readers, McFague condemns the complacent comfort in which we live that destroys God’s creation, human and nature alike. She calls for a radical understanding of the divine incarnation and expansion of the self to include the universal. An unsettling of traditional theology in favor of recognition that kenotic love is that which fuels the universe is the good news that can oppose the crisis in the economy and environment. McFague brilliantly weaves the example of the saints with our own call to action which must, like the saints discussed, be personal and public.

Ecofaith on the Air

Podcasts are a wonderful resource to connect with experts and learn more about many topics. For faith leaders and laity alike “ecofaith on air” is a wonderful resource to learn more about perspectives in ecotheology. Started in April 2015, they have provided many conversations, panels, and interviews that can be accessed on podcast platforms. The podcast concluded in January 2019, but you can access old episodes that span such topics as World Environment Day and the Cosmic Christ. Episodes range in length from under ten minutes to about an hour.

Deep Green Faith: Holy Forest Kinship

In September 2019, the Beecken Center and the Center for Religion and the Environment are offering a conference that approaches the connections of faith and ecology to trees and forests. Presenters include Matthew Sleeth, MD, Karen Kuers, PhD, Connie Keetle, and Robert Gottfried, PhD. This conference plans to investigate how trees natural interactions with the ecosystem around them and scripture’s engagement of trees may teach us how to live.

Profile: Mary Evelyn Tucker

Mary Evelyn Tucker is a scholar at Yale University where she serves in both the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the Divinity School. She and her husband, John Grim started the Forum on Religion and Ecology at Yale. Beyond this, her work has probed the intersection of religion and ecology.

Journey of the Universe

Journey of the Universe is a multi-form approach that tells the story of the universe. It emphasizes the interconnected nature of the world, and it calls upon the human community to tend to the world on which we rely. An interdisciplinary approach that engages science, narrative, and humanist wisdom. The material is available in a book, documentary, and online course. Beyond these initial forms, the Journey of the Universe has expanded into a YouTube channel and podcast. The documentary is available on Amazon prime and the book is available on amazon or through your favorite independent bookshop. This set is a wonderful resource that may be used in many ways including in movie features or book groups.

Green Congregation Training Manual

For the faith community who wants to increase their creation care through the greening of their congregation, the task can seem daunting. However, the “Green Congregation Training Manual” provides a thorough resource that can help guide congregations. This resource is just one of the many that can be found on webofcreation.org.

Profile: David Rhoads

David Rhoads is a pastor, professor, author, and environmentalist. He was on the faculty at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC) beginning in 1988 and is now a professor emeritus. He is the author and editor of many books including, The Season of Creation: A Preaching Commentaryand Earth and Word: Classic Sermons on Saving the Planet. He also was instrumental in the creation of “The Web of Creation,” a resource for faith communities looking to improve their environmental advocacy.

Faith & Food

In June of 2004, the Center for Closing the Health Gap held its first board meeting. Its mission was to eliminate racial and health disparities in the Greater Cincinnati community through education, advocacy, and outreach targeting the African American, Latino, and white Appalachian populations. The vision of the Health Gap was to make Greater Cincinnati a healthier region for all. The Health Alliance was the major funder of the Health Gap along with Mercy Health Partners, TriHealth, and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Within a few years, the City of Cincinnati became a funder of the Health Gap, along with other health care organizations helping to fund the grassroots organization.

From 2008-2010, The Center for Closing the Health Gap in Greater Cincinnati partnered with several neighborhood churches and partners in the Avondale area, outside of Cincinnati to improve access to affordable foods. This led to an eventual partnership with the Food Trust to create lasting change.

Media Planet: Impacting Our Future

This organization publishes content that addresses many current global and local. This includes a number of articles on issues like hunger, deforestation, and more. It can be difficult to know where to start when one decides to make more earth conscious decisions, but this website offers perspectives on global issues and more personal approaches to creation care, like in their article “Why It’s Smart to Invest in Sustainable Water Heaters and HVAC Systems.” The articles available in this resource are very helpful to introduce issues currently plaguing our planet.

The Baltimore Food and Faith Project

Started as an initiative of the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. This organization connected with faith communities in attempts to improve food security and the food systems in the Maryland area. By connecting food to the ethics of faith, they offer many opportunities to reflect on one’s own earth stewardship.

Food and Faith Project

The Baltimore Food and Faith Project works to unite faith communities around issues of food systems in the Maryland area. They work to improve the food crisis at a systematic level, but Jason Jordan-Griffin was personally affected by the work of Baltimore Food and Faith Project. He joined a program called “Food and Faith” when he felt that he was not treating his body as the temple God had given him. The program includes lessons from a nutritionist and faith based perspectives on eating well, not only for one’s self but for one’s community and the world. Jordan-Griffin found that this deeply affected his connection with the faith-based moral and ethical implications of eating. The article below outlines the benefits of uniting mindful eating with faith practices.

FaCT Ohio

A group of anti-fracking activists were meeting in northeast Ohio. Faith leaders at that meeting thought it would be beneficial to approach the issue of fracking from the perspective of faith. They have grown to now include members from 45 faith communities primarily in Ohio but West Virginia is also represented. They welcome anyone to join their organization regardless of background or faith. They work to provide education and advocacy materials on energy conservation and renewable energy for faith communities in Ohio. They also hold regular statewide meetings. Their website includes a blog that is regularly updated.

The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Resource Page

The Christian Church sees their mission to move toward wholeness for the whole world as directly connected to their commitment to creation care. Their resource page offers links to connect with Green Chalice, a partnering ministry that is the official creation care ministry for The Christian Church. Links to further reading, resources for mindful eating, and the Alverna Covenant (a creation care covenant) can also be found on the page.

Ohio Fair Trade Network

The Ohio Fair Trade Network works to support fair trade products in Ohio retailers. They began working with the InterReligious Task Force on Central America to bring more fair trade resources to Ohio. They also partnered with Hiram College and John Carroll University to offer internships. They have continued to partner with faith groups as they work to establish a fair trade network in Ohio.

The InterReligious Task Force on Central America

The InterReligious Task Force on Central America (IRTF) was founded in Cleveland in the 1980s after four US women were killed in El Salvador. They gather across religious denominations and traditions to work for peace and justice in Central America. They expose the negative realities of globalization including the ecological destruction that has occurred in Central America. They advocate for human rights and in sponsoring fair trade they also support environmental stewardship.

In May 2019, they held two Food Action Forums, one on alternative food systems and another on alternative trade organizations.

InterReligious Task Force on Central America Environmental Human Rights

The Cleveland based organization The InterReligious Task Force on Central America holds Environmental Human Rights as one of their primary issues. Throughout Central America, large companies are forcing native communities out of their land to exploit it for natural resources. This group works to fight against this attack which often results in negative consequences for the land and the people.

“Mama Earth Needs Better Loving”

In an opinion article for the Columbus Dispatch, Suzette Martinez Sandring offered a faith-inspired reflection on Earth Day 2019 that considers the necessity of change in our attitude and action toward the rest of creation.

Huffington Post Interfaith Environmental Organizations

In 2014, Huffington post noted the trend of faith groups to make their voices heard in conversations about how to encourage and improve care for the environment. The author of the article, Antonia Blumberg collected fourteen interfaith organizations that are active across America in environmental efforts.

National Letter to President Concerning Environmental Roll Backs

In October 2018, 132 faith communities, including seven Ohio-based faith communities, signed a letter to President Trump, EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler, and Secretary Ryan Zinke to implore them to maintain the environmental protection measures, including the clean water rule.

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