A release from Creation Justice Ministries, by Sarah Macias
As part of developing our 2024 Earth Day Resource: “Plastic Jesus, Real Faith in a Synthetic World,” we commissioned six artists to gather in retreat and to collaboratively create songs for use in worship that reflect on caring for God’s creation in the face of the plastic pollution crisis. Sarah Macias was their host at Sister Grove Farm.
The songs they created, “Creation is Waiting for Us,” “Fall in Love with the Earth,” and “Plastic Jesus,” appear in the resource used in congregations across the country. Recordings and sheet music can be found at www.creationjustice.org/plasticjesus.
Many thanks for the hard work and creativity of Ken Medema, Andra Moran, John Creasy, Alyssa Creasy, Bryan Sirchio, and Beverly Vander Molen.
At Sister Grove Farm in north Texas, six songwriters gathered in the summer of 2023. Their assignment was a faith response to the desecrating and de-creating impacts of plastic pollution.
These modern-day psalmists came together and were able to be collaborative co-creators by leaving their egos at the door. Consequently, their interconnected kinship with each other and fellow members of Creation was keenly felt.
Perhaps cultivating humility and affection is the first step for all of us in our own creative responses on behalf of creation justice.
Creation is not only waiting for us. Creation believes in us and knows that we are capable of doing what it will take to mend, heal, and repair this farm called Earth.
— Read Macias’s full reflection on the songwriting experience on the blog at www.creationjustice.org/blog/songwriting-retreat-reflection
— Find out more about Creation Justice Ministries, a partner organization of the Church of the Brethren and its Office of Peacebuilding and Policy, at www.creationjustice.org
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