Creation care and climate change are moral and ethical issues, and church communities are a great place to connect on this topic in a way that is based on values rather than politics. Below are resources for integrating creation care into the worship service and Christian education.
Sermon examples and suggestions
Prayers, poems, liturgy, and worship service resources
Sacred texts
Music
- Links to a variety of Creation Care themed songs and hymns. Appropriate for worship, Sunday School, or singing around the campfire!
Study guides and Christian education
- Links to a variety of study guides
- Links to youth climate lessons
- Every Creature Singing: “A curriculum for followers of Jesus who want to connect their faith with their place”
- Climate Change Religious Education Curriculum from the Unitarian Universalist
- A Brethren climate change study resource
- Keeping the Garden: A Faith Response to God’s Creation, Tim Wiebe-Neufeld and Donita Wiebe-Neufeld. Available from Brethren Press
- Gardening for the Earth and Soul: A Practical for Family and Community Gardening, Heather Dean & Tom Benevento. Available from Brethren Press, with additional resources available at http://http://www.brethren.org/peacebuilding/going-to-the-garden-resources
- Basic Trek: Venture Into a World of Enough: The Original 28-Day Journey, Dave Schrock-Shenk (Mennonite)
- Living More With Less, Doris Janzen Longacre, 1980 (Mennonite)
- Living More With Less Study Action Guide, Delores Friesen , 1981
- The Simple Life: The Christian Stance Toward Possessions, Vernard Eller, 1973 (book study)
Seasonal resources
Messenger magazine series on climate change
- God foretells destruction
Empires come and go with regularity. Are there common traits that seem to lead to downfall?
- Our global home
We cannot ignore the warnings about the potential demise of the place we live.
- Who is my neighbor when it comes to climate change?
What if our understanding of 'neighborhood' expanded beyond our street address, church friends, or professional affiliations?
- No time for denial
We are in a wide-ranging, multi-faceted emergency, requiring an immediate global change--but as Brethren, we have the ability to make a difference
- Changing the climate with justice, mercy, and humility
What if, in choosing to consume less stuff, we got greater clarity about where true sources of contentment may be found?
- Creating a climate for a new life
On a sunny day in May of 2014, Germany generated a record 74 percent of its electricity renewably...Perhaps more surprisingly, Costa Rica currently generates at least 90 percent of its electricity renewably; earlier this year, its national electric utility supplied its citizens with 100 percent fossil fuel-free electricity for a world-record 75 straight days. Denmark, meanwhile, is on pace to achieve total independence from fossil fuels in 35 years, meeting all of its electricity, transportation, heating, and cooling needs with renewables by 2050.
- Creating a climate for peace
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matt. 5:9). Encountering this familiar verse from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, how often are we guilty of unconsciously changing it to “Blessed are the peace lovers…?” Ah, if only loving peace and making peace were one and the same. Loving peace requires
- Creating a climate for justice
“What does a changing global climate mean for the poor, both now and if we stay on the current path?” Authors Sharon Yohn and Laura White address that question in this, their second article in a series on climate change.