Eco-Ministry

Message from our Eco-Minister

The Season of Creation runs six weeks from Sept 1 – Oct 6. Here is a prayer written by Wendy Janzen for the Day of Prayer for all Creation that launches this liturgical season. 

We give thanks this day 
for the sun, moon, and stars,
lighting our way,
illuminating beauty, 
energizing all life...

Message from our Eco-Minister

June is a lovely month – a time when gardens are lush and full of blooms, birds sing, and the days are long. In our congregations, it is often a time we celebrate baptism and possibly host an outdoor worship service. As you plan for these services, here are a few resources to help consider how we engage with creation in worship and in our rituals.

• Wild Worship Video
• Baptism & Theology of Water

Message from our Eco-Minister

As we welcome May as a month of budding, flowering, and gardening, we also know that worship planners are thinking ahead to summer (and probably fall already, too)!

• The Summer Leader Magazine (from MennoMedia) is featuring summer worship resources developed by the Mennonite Wild Church Ministerial convened by me.
• MennoMedia is hosting a webinar on Tuesday, May 14 at 3:00 pm Eastern, featuring Wendy and a few of the other contributors. It will be a chance to find out more about this style of outdoor worship, how to adapt it to your context, and to ask your questions.
• Finally, at our Annual Church Gathering in Leamington this past weekend, we used the firefly as a symbol for our theme, “Inspired by Hope.” Perhaps your congregation would like to create habitat for these amazing little beetles that are a unique part of God’s community of creation.
  

Message from our Eco-Minister

April is Earth Month! How is your congregation exploring its relationship with God’s good earth? Are you deepening your awareness of how environmental concerns are discipleship issues? I’m happy to highlight some resources and ideas for your ministry and congregational life for this month and beyond:

Worship Resources & Sunday School Resources
Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle
Consider the Birds

Message from our Eco-Minister

As we have crossed the threshold into 2024, I know many of us have spent some time reflecting on the coming year and setting intentions. For those of you who preach, teach, lead Bible study, or simply read the Bible for your own devotions, I would like to invite you to consider how you can more regularly bring an ecological lens to your interpretation of scripture. Creation care and ecojustice can fit into our sermons on a more regular basis, not just on special focus Sundays.

Message from our Eco-Minister

This can be a tough time of year with longer nights and a mono-chromatic landscape. To counter this darkness, Western secular culture gears up with festive activities, lights, and consumerism. What if, rather than buying all the presents, attending all the concerts, getting the new outfits, and feasting for almost a month straight, we followed the cues of nature to slow down and embrace dormancy, stillness, darkness, and simplicity? What if we paid attention to Chicadees, sunrises, bare branches, ice and snow to see what they have to teach us about incarnation? How can they help bring us into connection with Christ, firstborn of all creation? 

As you reflect on Advent and Christmas, either for yourself or for preaching or leading worship, here are some links to resources that help to bring alive God’s incarnate presence in all creation. Blessings and peace to you all this season of darkness and light.