The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what to hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope.

Barbara Kingsolver

The Ohio Region of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has just started and recognized an eco-theology ministry they call the Creation Care Team.  They look forward to serving regional congregations who desire to walk more gently on the earth. Congratulations!

Check out their webpage.

Ohio joins the Kentucky and Indiana Regions in hosting regional creation care teams. Regional creation care teams bring together individuals from congregations across large geographic areas. The teams share ideas and stories and support congregations and ministries in creation justice. If you would like support to start a creation care team in your region, contact Carol Devine.

"We'll only be open one day a week. Won't do any advertising. No prices on the menus. We'll serve mostly what we grow in the garden - and no pepperoni. And we'll look on this work as an 'experiment of faith." That's what Erin and Robert Lockridge said two years ago, when they decided to open a pizza place called Moriah Pie in Norwood, a small town part of greater Cincinnati.

"We wanted to grow the food ourselves, because we find that to be an act of prayer, an act of making sense in a world that sometimes doesn't make sense. It involves our bodies and it grounds us in a good way," says Robert.

They start serving at 4:30 p.m. and it's now been open for 100 Friday nights. No prices are set at Moriah and at the end of the meal customers get a cloth envelope. They can put in what they like, or as some do, put in change or nothing.

There are only a few signs that the café has a purpose beyond pizza. In the kitchen just before opening, Robert gathers the Moriah staff for a prayer. On a windowsill out in the dining room there's a bible and a prayer book. Erin and Robert have found they can make a living from their work on Fridays. They rent the café and pay their help. They own their house, share a car with a neighbor and take vacations. (Excerpt from an NPR story)

Green Faith, Interfaith, Power and Light and Green Chalice invites us to take part in Light for Lima, a global series of vigils on the evening of December 7. The vigils will occur in the middle of the Lima Framework Convention on Climate Change where our leaders have to work out the fundamentals of a climate agreement. They will then have a year to work on the details so that world leaders can sign the treaty in Paris December 2015. They need to know we support their work. We pray that they will be determined and generous in overcoming any difficulties for the sake of our planet, and our future.

Learn more and Sign up to take part, here.

STEPS: 

1. Have an active Green Team.

2. Sign the Alverna Covenant as a team or as a congregation. 

3. Make at least 3 changes that demonstrate your congregation's commitment to caring for God's creation. 

THEN e-mail the following information :  

1. Congregation name, City, State, address and phone number; 

2. the date the Alverna Covenant was signed;

3. and the changes made by your congregation to walk more gently on God's creation.

National Religious Partnership for the Environment invites us to add our names to a petition. Call on our political leaders to craft a moral global framework for the UN climate negotiations that will culminate in Paris 2015. Click here to sign the petition. Select "Disciples of Christ" as your religious affiliation.