"Creation-Care, 365," Issue #52

As Annual Conference season gives way to summer, I pray that these fruitful days find you and yours enjoying God's blessed Earth.

It was a gift to spend time with many creation-caring friends at our recent PNW Annual Conference. At our Creation-Care gathering last Thursday, some of you shared brief stories of how you, your congreg

ations, and your broader communities are engaging in creative ministries to care for God's creation. We heard of life-giving efforts ranging from introducing homeless children in the natural world, to living "off the grid," to creating/sustaining trails for walking and bicycling. Throughout the coming year, Creation-Care, 365 readers will have a chance to hear these stories and many others in greater detail.

At Annual Conference, our PNW Office of Connectional Ministries (OCM)/Creation-Care Projects team introduced a new initiative: "Climate Justice Ministries." This initiative will identify and celebrate those local churches/ministries that are working to address global climate change: perhaps the most all-encompassing, creation-care challenge of our day.* This initiative will announce such congregations to the broader community -- helping church-seekers to easily identify congregations/ministries that see climate justice as an imperative.

To learn more about this initiative, please see the "Tools for Renewal" section below. You may also want to download the initiative's flier and/or watch the video from Annual Conference that introduces this initiative.

Grace and Peace be with you,

Tanya Barnett

Creation-Care Project Coordinator

PNW Office of Connectional Ministries

Footnote

*For a few examples of UMC concerns about/responses to global climate change, please see the Council of Bishops' pastoral letter/foundational document, UMC Social Principles and Resolutions (click on "Our Beliefs"), and the UMW's Carbon Footprint Toolkit.

Creation Quote

United Methodist Women/Women's Division

"Climate change is our wake-up call,
an opportunity to live more faithfully."

Small Steps... for Greater Good

United Methodists Respond to Japan Tsunami Marine Debris
Excerpted directly from the "Vancouver District Connection" e-newsletter

Background

The PNW Annual Conference has a team of interested persons who are watching over the situation of tsunami debris that will begin to reach the Washington Coast this summer, fall, and winter. At this time, we are not sure how much our coast will be affected but we are preparing for various stages of response.

Actions

The Grass Roots Garbage Gang
Pacific County, cleanup day in the Long Beach area, July 5, providing cleanup bags and instructions at numerous beach access points. Also need volunteers to pass out garbage bags to beach users on July 4 to reduce the amount of litter to be picked up. More info at http://www.ourbeach.org.

International Coastal Clean Up Day

September 15; join a world wide effort to clean up our coasts; check out the Ocean Conservancy website to keep current www.oceanconservancy.org also check

www.pnwumc.org for further info about where PNW [folks] will be!

If you are at the beach this summer and you find debris, be safe: If you don't know what something is, don't touch it. Collect as much information from a safe distance as you can -- including photos -- and report to DisasterDebris@noaa.gov. If the item appears unusual or hazardous, contact the local authorities for specific guidance and instructions.

Tools for Renewal

NEW INITIATIVE:
"Climate-Justice Ministry" Designation

A project of the PNW Conference

"Climate Justice Ministry" Icon

Our PNW Office of Connectional Ministries would like to recognize and announce those churches/agencies that are working to understand and reduce their "carbon footprints." We will do so -- on our online church/ministry directory and at Annual Conference 2013 -- by designating such ministries with the "Climate Justice Ministry" icon that appears to the right.

As church-seekers browse our online, PNW Church & Ministry Directory, they will be able to look for church according to this designation -- they'll be able to match their creation-caring values with the life of your ministry. If your congregation/ministry has already measured its "carbon footprint" and taken steps to reduce it, please contact Tanya Barnett so that we can give you this designation.

If your congregation/ministry would like to receive this "Climate Justice Ministry" designation, please follow these steps:

Please visit the UMW's Carbon Footprint Toolkit and read "What is a 'carbon footprint?'" and "Why is it important to reduce our carbon footprint?"
Calculate your congregation/ministry's carbon footprint by using Interfaith Power & Light's "Congregational Calculator" at www.coolcongregations.org.
Based on these calculations, identify at least 3 priority actions for reducing your congregation/ministry's carbon footprint.
Develop and enact an action plan for addressing these 3 priority actions - please contact Tanya Barnett if you would like help with this step.
Prior to Annual Conference 2013, report your church's progress to Tanya Barnett

Throughout the 2012-2013 year, all churches and ministries that make reasonable progress toward addressing their 3 priority actions will:

Receive the "Climate Justice Ministry" designation (pictured above) in our PNW Church & Ministry Directory
Receive special recognition at Annual Conference 2013

If you'd like to learn more, please contact Tanya Barnett, Creation-Care Projects Coordinator, PNW Office of Connectional Ministries at tbarnett@pnwumc.org.

Thanks, and blessings on your ministry.

Lectionary Links

Some excellent on-line sermon helps -- most of which coincide with the Revised Common Lectionary:

"Care for Creation Weekly Text Reflections" by Dr. Dennis Ormseth, Lutherans Restoring Creation
Eco-Justice Ministries' Reflections by topic and church season
"Environmental Reflections, Lectionary Year B" from the Environmental Stewardship Commission of the Episcopal Diocese of MN
"Green Pointers for Preachers" from Christian Ecology Link
"Radical Gratitude" ("whole-life stewardship") archives from the Northwest United Methodist Foundation

Events & Actions

Summer 2012

July 5 (Longbeach area, WA): GrassRoots Garbage Gang beach clean-up
August 18 (Seattle, WA): "The Duwamish, A People and a River": Boat Tour of the Waterway
August 25-30 (Seattle, WA): Episcopal Leadership Institute for Young Adults' Eco-Justice Immersion Experience (application deadline: June 15)

Creation Keepers

365 Days of UM Inspirations
Creation Keepers' year in review

Since Annual Conference 2011,* Creation-Care, 365 has featured over 26 "Creation-Keepers" -- individuals and congregations throughout our region who are engaging in creation-care in practical, inspiring, faith-filled ways. Below you'll find a compilation of these amazing people and their efforts, with links to the archived issue in which they are profiled (when you open each archive, please click on "Creation Keeper" in the left-hand column). Together, these Creation Keepers display great faith, creativity, and hope for God's renewed creation. Thanks and blessings to you all!

Bothell UMC (Bothell, WA): Food bank and community gardens ministries
Rev. Joel Aosved/Winds of Grace (Bellingham, WA) "A Maritime Ministry of Presence and Sustainability"
Camp Birchwood (Chugiak, AK): Climate-caring youth
Hillview UMC (Boise, ID): Green micro-lending
Beacon UMC (Seattle, WA): Clean neighborhood, caring church
Langley UMC (Langley, WA): Greening worship, transportation, and education
Edmonds UMC (Edmonds, WA): Comprehensive composting, energy audits, creation-caring worship and other actions
Blaine Memorial UMC (Seattle, WA): Food bank gardens and composting
Joesph UMC (Joseph, OR): Gardens vs. childhood obesity
Trinity UMC (Seattle, WA): Energy retrofits, gardens, greening worship and education
Cheney UMC (Cheney, WA): EPA Energy Star Congregation
Rev. Mary Brown (Snoqualmie UMC, WA): Life-long creation-care minister
Rev. Paul Graves (Sandpoint UMC, ID): Creation-care preacher
Cass Community UMC (Detroit, MI): Solar panels, green jobs, recycling, fighting obesity, and pedal-powered energy
Wesley UMC (Yakima, WA): "Recycling Heroes"
Queen Anne UMC (Seattle, WA): In-home blessing of the animals and farmers market gleaning
Denis Long (Grangeville, WA): Creation-caring rancher and pastor
First UMC Bellevue, WA: Creation-caring field trips, forums, and preaching
Sander & Jan Kallshain: Seattle Seed Company
Valley & Mountain UMC (Seattle, WA): "Green from the Start"
Pat Watkins (VA Conference): "Caretakers of God's Creation"
Gretchen Engle/PNW Office of Bishop: Measuring and reducing our carbon footprint

*To view the "Creation Keepers' year in review" between 2009-2010, please click here.

Recent UMC Creation-Care News

Creation-Care at PNW Annual Conference, 2012 video
From GBCS: "Updating U.S. Food & Farm Policies" study guide
"How Did God's Creation Fare at General Conference 2012?" report

"Creation-Care, 365" is a free, bi-weekly resource of the PNW Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. Subscribers are welcome to reprint any/all of the materials contained within; cite "Creation-Care, 365, www.pnwumc.org." Thanks and God bless you in your creation-caring efforts.