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.
We’re looking forward to our special district creation care event next Saturday, April 27, 10 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. at Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren in Elgin, Ill. We hope you can join us! There is no charge for this event, and all are welcome.
Plastic first started being created on a global scale in the 1950s. Since then, annual plastic production has exploded to an estimated 460 million tons as of 2019. While plastic has many beneficial uses, single-use plastics have become a real environmental threat.
This year “The People’s Tree” comes from Monongahela National Forest in the beautiful Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia. While it makes its way from town to town on its tour to Washington, D.C., its old-growth arboreal neighbors in the forest are at risk of being harvested for timber.
New Community Project turns 20 this year! Over these two decades, we’ve covered a lot of ground and want to offer some high-lights of our work. Of course, numbers don’t tell the whole story, as our impact isn’t always visible and countable. But figures do perhaps provide some indication of progress toward our oft-stated goal of “changing the world.” So let’s see how they add up!
Upcoming Youth and Young Adult Ministries programs and events include National Junior High Sunday on Nov. 6, 2022; Christian Citizenship Seminar on April 22-27, 2023; National Youth Sunday on May 7, 2023; Young Adult Conference on May 5-7, 2023; and National Junior High Conference on June 16-18, 2023.
Our spiritual, cultural, and traditional belief systems speak of creation as a garden. Humankind, it is said, is the receptacle and caretaker of the garden. After more than two years of pandemic crisis, ongoing wars and conflicts, and a heating planet, the nations of the world have resumed in-person meetings to discuss their mandates and treaty bodies regarding life in the garden called earth.
“Blessed Tomorrow,” the faith program of ecoAmerica, along with a host committee, is convening a roundtable of 20 to 25 national faith leaders, in person, to discuss and plan denominational, organizational, and collective efforts to catalyze public engagement and political action on climate solutions.
The Church of the Brethren’s Office of Peacebuilding and Policy along with the Brethren Creation Care Network will be hosting a webinar about watershed stewardship on March 30 at 7 p.m. (Eastern time). We will be featuring special guest David Warners from Calvin University and also inviting interactive participation by Church of the Brethren attendees.
Prominent speaker, activist, and best-selling author Shane Claiborne is the keynote speaker for the March 26-27 “Seeking First the Kingdom” spiritual renewal event at Lancaster (Pa.) Church of the Brethren. The event focuses on the theme “Living Simply in a Complex World.”
