Let Justice Roll Down: God’s Call to Care for Neighbors and All Creation
By Patricia K. Tull
Suggestions for Leaders by Rebecca Barnes
The 2024–2025 PW/Horizons Bible study
We are called to care for neighbors and God’s creation with all our hearts, with particular care for society’s least powerful members who are disproportionately impacted by unjust systems. In God’s first instructions to the nation of Israel we hear “you shall not pervert the justice due to the poor” (Exodus 23:6); in Moses’ final speech at the promised land’s border, he reiterated, “Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue” (Deuteronomy 16:20); and from Amos, the earliest recorded prophet, “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream” (Amos 5:24). Scripture reminds us that we are called to speak out to urge our society to act for just transitions in this fast-changing world.
Path to Peace with Creation: "Follow the Peace Path" Cards
Churches can extend learning with this deck of 52 Peace with Creation Cards, packed with ideas for families to do at home together. Whether a church has summer Sunday school or not, these cards are a great way to stay connected with families and provide parents and caregivers an easy and fun faith formation resource. Purchase one deck of cards for each family.
“Our Kairos Moment: A Study Guide on Earth’s Climate Crisis” is based on the ELCA’s 2023 social message “Earth’s Climate Crisis”. This four-session study guide invites participants to learn about the impacts of climate change and how to respond through videos, storytelling, Bible studies and interactive activities.
The guide’s sessions, each intended for a 60-minute small-group learning experience, are designed to dig more deeply into major themes from the social message. The end of each session features “Make One Change,” an activity that encourages and equips group members to take action through simple opportunities to care for God’s world.
By the end of the last session, groups will have a display of all the “changes” members made during their time together, serving as a tangible reminder of active hope.
Download the study guide: https://www.elca.org/Resources/Faith-and-Society#Studydocs
Creation Justice Ministries designed this resource to help leaders think through all of the ways plastic appears in our culture and to consider questions of how we can best love God, creation, and neighbor In a world overrun with waste and pollution. The resource contains an overview of the plastic crisis, a theological framing, sermon starters, advocacy ideas, and resources for children. Additionally, three original songs were commissioned to fit this year’s theme. The resource includes recordings as well as sheet music.
Download and share this resource as you prepare for Earth day and the days beyond as we turn our hearts away from things made with human hands and begin to fall in love with God’s earth!
Find books, curricula, prayer, music, and worship elements (including a full sermon), and community organizations and businesses grouped to help congregations take next steps in antiracism work, creation care, and addressing intergenerational mental health and well-being in the WaterThreads - Woven Together: Water, Community, Well-Being. Available online and via requested download for member congregations - who should email: ministrylab@unitedseminary.edu - for access.
Water Is Life: Biblical Reflections
We know that Water is Life from almost every book of the Bible. Biblical scholar Diane Jacobson selected five different ways Scripture illuminates water as life and illustrates why and how the Bible encourages us to support remarkable work like that of Winona LaDuke, whose stories, lived experience, and current critical work shaped the 2022 Johnson Symposium.
Free Resource from Rev. Michael Mulberry (UCC): Ash Wednesday to Earth Day Source Book available HERE.
Central to the Lenten study are three actions:
1) Ash Wednesday Action (February 22): call a fast from credit cards held by the four major banks funding fossil fuels/climate disaster: includes links to Stop the Money Pipeline materials for talking to branch managers. Sarah Lasoff, rabbi in a Florida Jewish synagogue in Florida who has spoken to over 13 bank managers provides training materials. The credit card fast lasts until Tuesday, March 21st.
2) Dis-credit Bad Banks Day of Action put forward by Third Act Day on March 21st. Again, an invitation to talk to bank managers seeking transformation. We model persistence and relationships.
3) Finally, with the possibility of no action, there is a Foot-Washing Liturgy and Jericho Walk that can be done on Maundy Thursday (April 6th) or on Earth Day, (April 22nd).
Within the pages are also creation centered Lectio Divina and examen and creation music playlists, as well as a creation-centered baptism and communion liturgy.
Please let Mike know if you use it (mmulberry@gmail.com ) and/or with any questions.
MN Annual Conference UMC created and shares You Are Here: Understanding Creation Care in Everyday Contexts: a free, downloadable, four-week curriculum for youth group or Sunday school exploring how we relate to God's creation on a daily basis within our own home environments. Developed in 2020 by the Youth Ministry team and Hopeful EarthKeepers. Download it here.
Apple and Magnolia unveils the extraordinary connections between trees and the wondrous bonds between all living things. It includes an author’s note offering facts about how trees communicate with one another. A downloadable discussion and activity guide is available at flyawaybooks.com/resources.
WATER WHERE WE LIVE CURRICULUM
This curriculum was created by Growing Green Hearts/Heidi Ferris, in conjunction with the Capitol Region Watershed District, area congregations, Luther Seminary, and The Ministry Lab. Get everyone outside to study the specific water where you live; adaptable to diverse settings.
The Our Angry Eden Discussion Guide is perfect for church groups, book clubs, and individual study.
Planting the Future: How Faith Communities Can Get Involved
Religious communities can contribute to restoring forest ecosystems as part of the current UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. On June 5, 2021, the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative, which partners with the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology and UNEP’s Faith for Earth Initiative, published an issue primer for religious leaders and faith communities on forest restoration. The primer shows how religious groups might support and participate in forest restoration projects and details what such projects can accomplish.
Study & Worship for Progressive Churches: Creation (Donald Schmidt - Author) makes the vision of whole congregation sharing not only possible, but easy. This all-in-one study and worship resource includes everything a congregation needs to enable children, youth, parents, and grandparents to share together in a five-week study of the biblical stories of creation.
Connect-the-Drops: Faith, Science & Youth Leadership Cohorts
Nature: Our First Way Of Knowing God
Nature: Our First Way of Knowing God includes videos, discussion questions, and a suggested spiritual practice in nature — Try This — for each week that can be done either individually or as a group. The study also encourages participants to examine and transform their own lifestyles to help bring health and wholeness to God’s beloved creation.
Presenter: Beth Norcross, founder and executive director of the Center for Spirituality in Nature (centerforspiritualityinnature.org) and adjunct faculty member at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC
