Carbon Fast this Lent

Tomorrow, Lent begins with Ash Wednesday. During this time of year, we reflect upon that which separates us from our Creator and seek to renew our relationship with God by fasting from the actions and objects with separate us. Our failure to steward creation is one sin which erodes our relationship with God. This Lent, Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power and Light invites you to join us in a fast from carbon.  By prayerfully reducing our carbon footprints, we can care for creation while reconnecting with the Creator.

As we journey through Lent, we offer you these carbon fast resources:

2012 Daily Carbon Fast Calendar--Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power and Light once again is offering our popular Carbon Fast calendar. Each day offers a new daily action to reduce your carbon footprint this Lent.

Lenten Prayer and Action Guide--This Lent, Earth Ministry/Washington Interfaith Power & Light has partnered with the City of Seattle’s Office of Sustainability and Environment to produce a new carbon fast prayer and action guide. Designed for small groups within a congregation, the curriculum focuses on taking action in three areas of our life with a large impact on carbon emissions: diet, transportation, and energy efficiency.

Blessings to you this Lenten season!

Time for Action!

Next week on Wednesday January 25th, Earth Ministry staff, people of faith, and friends of the environment throughout Washington State are gathering in Olympia to meet their legislators and support bills that will protect the environment and children's health. It's time for Environmental Lobby Day 2012!

Environmental Lobby Day is a great opportunity to become involved in the legislative process. Attendees will:

• Learn about the issues. Get briefed by experts on all three environmental priorities!
• Attend lobbying trainings. Learn the tricks of the trade from top environmental lobbyists.
• Meet face-to-face with their legislators. Practice the power of persuasion.

Does this excite you? There's still time to register! Be one of the Washingtonians to stand up for God's creation.

This year the priorities are a clean energy future, preventing rollbacks of our state's environmental programs, and children's health.  Learn more about children's health and the Toxic-Free Kids Act in our previous post.

Register today!

Can't make it? Your voice is still important. Call 1-800-562-6000 to tell your legislators that as a person of faith, these issues matter to you!

We hope to see you Wednesday!

Hidden Hazard in the Nursery

Toxins in children's products?  It sounds too ridiculous to be true.  Who would want to poison kids?  Yet a new study by the Washington Toxics Coalition and Safer States found 17 popular baby products contained toxic flame retardants.

The study tested 20 products, including nursing pillows, changing pads, car seats, and bassinet pads.  Chlorinated Tris, a known carcinogen that has been linked to neurotoxicity and hormone disruption, was the most prevalent toxic flame retardant in the study.  Out of the 20 products, researchers found chlorinated Tris in 16 of the baby products.  In the 1970s, chlorinated Tris was removed from children's pajamas due to adverse health effects, yet it persists in surrounding our children in our homes, cars, and nurseries.  View the executive summary of the report here.

In the face of this dismal report, there is hope for the children of Washington! The Toxic-Free Kids Act was introduced to the Washington State legislature on Monday (SB 6120 and HB 2266).  Earth Ministry and fellow members of the Environmental Priorities Coalition support this bill.  The Toxic-Free Kids Act will ban chlorinated Tris and other toxins in children's products, while moving towards comprehensive reform by requiring companies to conduct thorough health and safety assessments of potential alternatives.

As people of faith, we recognize that each newborn is a child of God, a blessed creation. We must care for them and allow them to develop. Unfortunately, with Tris and other toxins in children's products, children's risk of cancer and development disabilities is on the rise.

Tell your legislators that caring for the next generation is the responsibility of everyone.  Help parents raise healthy children and care for our future by taking toxins out of baby products.

Christmas is for the birds

by Betsy Cannon

Christmas day is rapidly approaching.  Soon I will visit close friends and family, light the Christ candle on the Advent wreath, and attend my church's candlelight service.  These traditions are central to my celebration of Christmas.

Recently, I learned of St. Francis’s Christmas traditions.  Around 1220, the patron saint of animals was the first to present a living crèche with donkeys, cows, and sheep.  He wanted people experience Christmas as it truly was—in a stable surrounded by a menagerie of farm animals.

Then, on Christmas day, St. Francis believed that all creatures should be included in the celebration. He scattered birdseed, so the larks wouldn’t need to forage but could also join in the feast.

If I could see the Emperor, I would implore him to issue a general decree that all people who are able to do so, shall throw grain and corn upon the streets, so that on this great feast day the birds might have enough to eat, especially our sisters, the larks.

May we, like St. Francis, include the whole of creation in our Christmas festivities this year.

Merry Christmas from Earth Ministry!  Peace and joy to all!

I give thanks

As we enter this Thanksgiving week, we at Earth Ministry are grateful for God's beautiful creation and everything that each of you does to protect and care for creation. Remembering these blessings, we offer this poem, "Awakening" by Harriet Kofalk.

Awakening
in a moment of peace
I give thanks to the source of all peace

as I set forth
into the day
the birds sing
with new voices
and I listen
with new ears and give thanks

nearby
the flower called Angel's Trumpet
blows in the breeze
and I give thanks

my feet touch the grass
still wet with dew
and I give thanks
both to my mother earth
for sustaining my steps
and to the seas
cycling once again
to bring forth new life

the dewdrops
become jewelled
with the morning's sun-fire
and I give thanks

you can see forever
when the vision is clear
in this moment
each moment
I give thanks

May we give thanks each and every morning. A blessed thanksgiving to you this year!

Crossing the Mountains

by Betsy Cannon

This weekend Jessie and I ventured to Yakima to discuss Greening Congregations.  As I had never visited Washington before moving to Seattle two months ago, this was my first time crossing the Cascades.  Although I understand the theory behind rainshadows, I was amazed to see the clouds and rain fade away as we crossed the pass and entered a beautiful, sunny day in Yakima Valley.

Jessie and I had a great discussion with members of Wesley United Methodist's Green Team as well as interested members of other congregations.  Everyone shared inspiring stories.  A Master Gardener spoke about how less than 1% of insects are harmful to gardens.  The rest are either neutral or beneficial, so it is better not to use pesticides.  A couple shared about how they designed their home to take advantage of the sunlight.  Another woman explained how she focuses on changing one behavior at a time.  Once that behavior became a habit, she moved on to another behavior, but if she had tried to adopt several changes at once, she would have failed.

Hearing about the work of each congregation was even more exciting than the individual efforts.  Working our way through the green fields, we discussed worship, education, individual stewardship, buildings and grounds, and community outreach.  One person told about the joy when her church held a Blessing of the Animals.  Wesley members shared about the recycling center that the church runs for Yakima and how they are advocating for county recycling.   Additionally, Wesley maintains an organic garden and shares its produce with members.  At Wesley and over the past two months, I've been astounded by the efforts of Earth Ministry's Greening Congregations.

To learn more about our Greening Congregations and how to get your church involved, visit our website.

As Jessie and I made our way back to the pass, we drove past orchards full of apples and towering walls of basalt.  Gradually, the trees transitioned from golden yellow to deep evergreen and rain began to beat against the windshield.  I found it difficult to believe that such different ecosystems are so close together.

Fresh apples, a stunning landscape, and dedicated people caring for creation made for a wonderful weekend.

Miracles of Restoration

by Betsy Cannon

Last Friday, the Lutheran Volunteer Corps members in the Puget Sound area, including myself, went on a tour of the Lower Duwamish River. This five mile stretch of river in South Seattle is the tribal land of the Duwamish people, an industrial center, and a Superfund site.  

As we boarded the boat, our guide handed each of us a map of the river.  As we unfolded them, we learned that a river once characterized by oxbows follows a nearly straight path today due to channeling.  Several of us identified with the attempt to regulate rivers in our hometowns.  Whether reversing the flow of the Chicago River or diverting the Mississippi away from the Atchafalaya River, we all remembered a time when humans have tried to control nature.

But more than the channelizing of the river, we were devastated to hear of the PCBs in the salmon, the toxins in the sediment, and cranes driven from their home.  An industrial shredder used to rip apart cars and appliances appeared as a monster looming on the bank.  Although the environmental degradation is terrible, it is equally incredible what has been accomplished.  Now, a park sits along a restored riverbank.  Toxic sediments are being removed from the riverbed with pinpoint accuracy.  Industries contain their chemicals, instead of using them in the open.  Cranes and other wildlife are migrating back.

There is still much work to be done.  Toxics in the water are well above health standards.  Pollutants banned decades ago remain in sewers and flow into the river.  The polluted water disproportionally harms minority and low-income communities.  With over 500 outfalls, contamination continues to run directly into the river.  Still, it is important that we claim our successes and remain hopeful.  Dedicated work can lead to recovery. 

On the boat ride back to the dock, I saw two sea lions surface as a kingfisher dove and snatched a couple of fish from the water.  To me, that’s a miracle.

Moving Planet Seattle

On Saturday, September 24th, Washingtonians gathered around Lake Union for a day of education, action and fun at Moving Planet Seattle.

In solidarity with over 2,000 events in 175 countries for 350.org's annual day of action on climate change,  Earth Ministry, Climate Solutions, the Sierra Club, 350 Washington, Washington Environmental Council, Transportation For Washington and many other community organizations came together to host Moving Planet Seattle.  In the theme of moving beyond fossil fuels, the day focused on the need to end our reliance on coal and oil and to take action on urgent issues facing Washington state and the Northwest, including halting coal exports and supporting a wider array of transportation choices.

Earth Ministry table.  Photo by Paul Anderson

Moving Planet Seattle kicked off with almost a hundred people taking action in workshops on coal and oil and continued into the afternoon with over a thousand people converging on Lake Union Park via bus, bike, on foot, on skate boards, roller skates, paddle-boards, sail boats, canoes, electric vehicles and more!  At the park, attendees attempted stand-up paddleboard yoga, rode a conference bike, registered for Undriving licenses, and learned how they could be involved at the many information tables.

LeeAnne at the rally.

Earth Ministry's very own LeeAnne Beres emceed the rally.  Each of the featured speakers spoke proudly of Washingtonians working to move our state beyond fossil fuels - including Mayor of Seattle Mike McGinn who rode his bike to the event and spoke out against coal export terminals. Washingtonians have also worked hard to end our state's reliance on coal, protecting our communities' health and God's creation.

The day ended at Plymouth United Church of Christ.  The young adult recipients of the David Brower Youth Award spoke about the environmental justice issues in their home communities.  The event also marked the launch of the new national United Church of Christ Environmental Justice Center in the Seattle area.

The iconic 350 photo.  Photo by Paul Anderson

Earth Ministry thanks the many organizations who made Moving Planet Seattle possible.  We  are blessed to have such wonderful partners!

Moving Planet Seattle Hosts:

• 350 Washington State
• Climate Solutions 
• Earth Ministry 
• Pacific Northwest Conference, UCC
• Sierra Club
• Transportation for Washington
• Washington Environmental Council

Gold Sponsors:

• Seattle Office of Sustainability & Environment
• Seattle Parks & Recreation
• Seattle Department of Transportation

Silver Sponsors:

• Bishop's Committee for the Environment, Episcopal Diocese of Olympia
• Home Performance Collaborative
• Plymouth United Church of Christ
• UnDriving
• ZipCar

Bronze Sponsors:

• BikeWorks
• Cascade Bicycle Club 
• Center for Wooden Boats
• Seattle Dutch Bike Company
• Sellen
• Surf Ballard/WASUP Yoga
• Urban Surf

Community Sponsors:

•  aLIVe, CoolMom, Family Bike Expo, FeetFirst, FUSE, Maryhill Ratz, Natural Resources Defense Council, National Wildlife Federation, NW E-Bike, NW EcoBuilding Guild, Salish Sea Trading, SCALLOPS , Skate Like a Girl, Spokespeople, Transit Riders Union, YES! Magazine, Yoga for Bikers, and many more!

Announcing our 2011 Finalists!

This year heralds Earth Ministry's 4th annual Celebration of St. Francis Creation Care Sermon Contest. Join us this year at Keystone United Church of Christ in Seattle on Saturday, October 1st at 4pm for four short and thought-provoking sermons by our finalists from around the nation.

Our finalists offer their inspired call to care for God's creation because they believe in the work of Earth Ministry. The sermon contest is a fundraiser to support the religious environmental work of Earth Ministry. Admission is free, but we need you to show up and vote with your dollars to select the winners of this year's sermon contest.

Our 2011 finalists are:

Paul Graves, Sandpoint, ID
Did Francis Have a Weed-Whacker?

Rev. Stephanie Johnson, New Haven, CT
Abundance

Bill Scarvie, Bainbridge Island, WA
Changing Forms of Light

and

Gil Waldkoenig, Gettysburg, PA
Margins and Hope

Two awards will be presented: The People's Choice Award will go to the contestant with the highest number of votes as indicated on the donation ballot. The Franciscan Philanthropist Award will go to the contestant whose votes raise the most money in support of Earth Ministry's work and mission.

In addition to these great sermons, members of Earth Ministry's forty-four Greening Congregations will be honored for their greening work. The sermon contest will be followed by a heavy hors d'oeuvres reception.

Please join us as we celebrate God's gift of creation!

Continuing the work of Environmental Justice

Each August Earth Ministry transitions to a new Outreach Coordinator. As the team bids farewell to Dana, I am settling into Seattle and beginning to work with Greening Congregations. Although each Outreach Coordinator has different skills and background, each of us is passionate about environmental stewardship. Like Dana, Clare, Chris and others, I am spending a year of service to work towards social justice and to live simply and sustainably through Lutheran Volunteer Corps. As part of my commitment to social justice, I will be working with Earth Ministry on environmental stewardship.

On Monday, I hiked to Annette Lake with four other Lutheran Volunteers. The lush forest of the Pacific Northwest captivated me. At home in South Carolina, I recognize birds and can name each tree, and by the time I finished college in Minnesota, I was well acquainted with the prairie ecosystems. Now west of the Rockies, I hear new bird calls and discover new plants. As the scenery changes, I also meet new people and ideas. Along the trail, conversations with the other volunteers ranged from the musings of Aldo Leopold to the costs and benefits of eco-tourism, from current documentaries to amazement at God's creation around us. Listening to my fellow volunteers, I became increasingly excited to begin my work at Earth Ministry and to encourage the Christian voice in environmentalism.

In June I graduated from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota with a degree in physics. Although I was a physics major, I spent a term focusing on conservation biology research and studying environmental anthropology. Over the course of the semester, I became increasingly aware of the connections between the people and the land and how each impacted the other. Instead of focusing simply on numbers and genetics, I had to incorporate the fairness to the people who used the land. Each of us are connected to and part of the environment. Through environmental stewardship, we honor these connections and praise God for this wonderful creation. I look forward to continuing to explore our obligations to environmental stewardship with the Earth Ministry community over the next year.

On the Naming of Green Teams

by Clare Brauer-Rieke

This last Sunday, Ballard First Lutheran Church in Seattle held a Name the Green Team contest. Throughout the last month, members of the congregation - young and old alike - submitted their ideas for the new green team's title: "Disciples of Recycle," "Earth All-Stars," "Green Beans," "Green Eggs and Ham," and "Verdant Veritas" were just a few of over thirty submissions.

Before the vote, the founding members of the green team narrowed the voting pool to three: "Ballard First Renewtheran," "Greendom Come," and "Verdant Disciples." The congregants' ballots were collected in the offering plates, and while the pastors tallied the final count, the green team took the stage to ask other interested people to get involved; in addition to a more formal invitation, they led the church in a hymn-sing to a creatively rewritten "green" version of Jesus Loves Me.

At final count, "Greendom Come" won the day. Prizes were awarded not only to the winner, who received a Green Bible, and to the other two finalists, who received BPA-free waterbottles, but to a variety of entries based on such categories as creativity, theological insight, cuteness, lyricism, and most entries submitted on one paper (the greenest participant). The sanctuary was alive with laughter and applause.

Get your congregation involved! If you're not already, become a Greening Congregation with Earth Ministry and join the movement of environmental stewardship. All congregations can come up with fun new ways to engage their members and their youth. Be creative! Participate with joy.

Superhero of the Week: Dana Swanson

Earth Ministry's Dana Swanson was recently caped as Superhero of the Week by the Washington Toxics Coalition! The excerpt below is reposted from the ToxicsWAtch blog.

Pssst. Hey. Did you know that everyday people have joined forces to protect kids from toxic chemicals in products? They’re pretty steamed about toxic chemicals in things they use every day. So they’ve formed the League of Everyday Superheroes to stop toxic chemicals from invading our homes.

Green Girl, AKA Dana Swanson, is the Outreach Coordinator at Earth Ministry, an organization that works “to inspire and mobilize the Christian community to play a leadership role in building a just and sustainable future.” She is a recent graduate of Augustana College, where she developed a passion for environmental stewardship while interning at an organic farm. She pursued an interest in food and agricultural issues volunteering with Farm to Fork, building bridges between the college and local growers. We asked her a few questions to learn even more about her superhero powers!

Who would be your celebrity sidekick? Kermit the Frog

If you could have any superpower what would it be and why? I’d want to be able to teleport from one location to another – less pollution than driving and way more fun.

What do you do to be a superhero for kid’s health? Children deserve protection from everyday toxins that can negatively impact their health. I don’t understand the effects of most toxins, how can we expect kids to discern a safe product from a harmful one? Someone has to speak out to protect our children because kids have more important things to do, like turn a cardboard box into a castle.

Why do you support the Children’s Safe Products Bill? When I have children, I know I’ll have to worry about runny noses, diaper rash, and bullies – but parents should not have to worry about formaldehyde in baby blankets. Supporting the Children’s Safe Products Bill is easy, stressing about the levels of cadmium in plastic cups is not.

Want to be a superhero like Dana? Take the Superhero Pledge and receive recipes for homemade, non-toxic cleaning products!

Submit an Entry to Earth Ministry's Creation Care Sermon Contest

What sparks your passion for faith-based environmental stewardship?

The sacredness of water?
Christ’s call to speak for those without voice?
The impact of climate change on impoverished communities?
Seeking the reflection of the Creator in creation?

Share your message of faith, hope, or action for the Earth at Earth Ministry's Celebration of St. Francis on Saturday, October 1, 2011!

Who: All clergy and lay leaders

What: A creation care sermon

When: Submit by July 31, 2011

4 finalists announced August 12

Sermons given on October 1

Where: Seattle, WA

Why: To inspire and mobilize other people of faith to care for God’s great gift of creation

Submission Deadline

July 31, 2011

Download the flyer here for more details on contest rules, judging, and prizes!

For more information, contact Earth Ministry at emoffice@earthministry.org
or call (206) 632-2426.

Reflections on the Power of Water in the Holy Land

Seattle Pacific University professor and former Earth Letter Editor Doug Thorpe shares a moving contemplation of the power of water in the Holy Land, as he experienced it on an Earth Ministry eco-justice trip to Israel, Palestine and Jordan in January, 2009. The following excerpt was featured in the April 2011 Edition of Soujourners Magazine.

By: Doug Thorpe
Former Earth Letter Editor

"I lay myself down in the Dead Sea waters. It's the middle of January and I’m travelling with a group led by Earth Ministry, a nonprofit based in Seattle that works in the area of faith and the environment. We're in Israel/Palestine for the usual reasons -- a pilgrimage to holy sites -- but also to learn more about the water situation.

So I float in a shrinking Dead Sea. I put my hands into a polluted Jordan River.

Symbols are alive in the Holy Land, even if their source is dying.

For millions of people, the power of this river and land is evoked in the lyrical language of the Bible, which has made the Jordan River one of the world's great symbols. In these texts, just as the land is more than just another piece of property, water is never simply water. Here the waters sing in poetry.

It's not that the biblical images are simply poetry: All of us are on this trip because there is a genuine water crisis in this region. Too often we hear that the next war here will be over water. But this crisis, which includes not just how well humans are living with each other, but how well they are living on the land, is connected to the loss of a sense of water's "mystique," as Thomas Berry calls it. The mystique of the water here comes partly from the poetry -- and it's something that we lose the moment we think we control it.

The irony is that there's a dream in these scriptures of coming home to this place, but the attempt to literalize that dream has taken a gift and locked it up behind a wall.

One morning early in the trip, I awake at 4:30 in Nazareth and lie in bed as the birds begin to sing, as a chant rises from a nearby mosque. I turn on the light and begin to read from Psalm 46:

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved.

When I am at the Jordan, it is a holy day for Syrian Christians; both banks are lined with celebrants and priests, some in Israel, some in Jordan. They can see one another, even shout to one another across the 10-foot-wide stretch of the river. What they can't do is cross it. I walk down to the bank past a soldier and cup my hands in the still water. I say a prayer for my brother, dying from a stroke in a hospital in Chicago, and another for this place and these people. I let the water run through my fingers. I do not drink.

We travel about the countryside and through the villages. We listen to stories from Christian Palestinians, including Samuel Barhoum, an Anglican priest near Nazareth, and Sami Awad of the Holy Land Trust, a nonprofit based in Bethlehem that uses nonviolence tactics in support of Palestinian farmers. Both speak at length of going for days without water -- no water for bathing or for cooking, little for drinking -- while they can see Israeli settlements in the West Bank with swimming pools. We travel down to the Dead Sea, where we meet with Gundi Sachal, Middle East regional director for Friends of the Earth. We hear of (and see in front of us) the shrinking of the Dead Sea. Gundi confirms what we saw days before, and what I’ve also heard from Susan Koppelman, a young Jewish-American woman who works with the nonprofit initiative LifeSource in the West Bank: The Jordan River is now mostly untreated sewage, with 5 percent of its historical flow reaching the sea here. Lebanon, Syria, and Israel all cut into it. The Dead Sea drops a meter every year.

We float in the warm water. We sink our feet into the famous mud.

In both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, we hear the beautiful phrase "living water." But it's important to know that, when the scriptures use this phrase, it means fresh water that hasn’t been controlled by human action: Living water is a direct gift from God.

We may wish to dismiss this distinction; after all, the water that most of us in this country get from our taps is pure in some literal sense (as is the "pure spring water" that we drink from plastic bottles). But anyone who has drunk from a mountain stream on a hot day knows the difference, as does anyone who has done any research at all on the bottled water industry: Such water's claim of purity leaves out the "living" quality -- that mystique -- as well as the human and environmental cost. And these omissions are of course connected. We substitute the poetry of marketing for the poetry of water.

Read the original story from Soujourners Magazine, April 2011.

Children’s Choir and Friends visit Olympia for Interfaith Advocacy Day

On Thursday, March 17, Earth Ministry's Jessie Dye and Dana Swanson, many Earth Ministry members, and several hundred others gathered in Olympia for Interfaith Advocacy Day. Representing a wide range of faith communities, participants lobbied legislators for a unified social justice agenda.

Present for the day was the Children's Choir from Plymouth Congregational Church, one of Earth Ministry's Greening Congregation partners. Plymouth member Robin Appleford gives more detail of the day in her posting below.

By: Robin Appleford

Eleven children, in addition to parents and friends, journeyed to Olympia for the third year in a row. Our goal has always been to inspire hard-working public servants through song and the lively presence of our intergenerational group. We have no political agenda and were there to inspire and support our elected officials.

We sang to the Interfaith gathering which included people from across the state. Linda Strandberg and the children had everyone in the room singing along to “We Shall Overcome” and “Eyes on the Prize”. The children taught them the “Crossing Bridges” song, along with the hand movements. It was amazing to see the whole room join in song and hand movements!

We were invited to the Senate Rostrum by Lieutenant Governor Brad Owen where we sang to members of legislative leadership and their staffs. We continued our inspirational journey by “caroling” through the Senate Republican and Democratic office buildings where staff and legislators came out to hear the angelic voices of the children. They joined in from time to time because our songs are known to those of many denominations. We brought tears to Sen. Haugen’s eyes for the second year in a row. Her quote:

“You are beacons of Christ’s light and we are grateful for your gifts.”

Check out the short video above, shared by Plymouth's Children, Youth, and Family Blog, to learn more about the choir's adventures in Olympia.

The Triune God Revealed in Nature

by Clare Brauer-Rieke

Happy St. Patrick's Day! In the United States, St. Patrick's Day has come to be mostly a day on which you must wear green or be pinched; it is also a day of great libations. Understandably - as St. Patrick's Day is first and foremost an Irish holiday - there is little reflection about the holiday's roots and original expression. Happily, a little research proves worthwhile.

St. Patrick is best known in Ireland as the perhaps most significant Christian evangelist to the Celtic Irish. Ireland was one of the very few places in which conversion to Christianity was a peaceful one, thanks largely to the ways in which Christian evangelists and Celts folded their spiritual wisdom and beliefs together as complementary rather than opposing traditions. Legend informs us that St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish people, to whom nature was deeply central.

In God in Creation: an ecological doctrine of creation, theologian Jurgen Moltmann writes of the importance of our understanding of the Trinity in a creation-honoring Christian perspective:

We should see [the Trinity] as at once the most intense excitement and the absolute rest of the love which is the wellspring of everything that lives, the keynote of all resonances, and the source of the rhythmically dancing and vibrating worlds. . . . All relationships which are analogous to God reveal the primal, reciprocal indwelling and mutual interpenetration of the trinitarian perichoresis: God in the world and the world in God; heaven and earth in the kingdom of God, pervaded by [God's] glory; soul and body uniting in the life-giving Spirit to a human whole; woman and man in the kingdom of unconditional and unconditioned love, freed to be true and complete human beings. There is no such thing as solitary life.

We are as creation what has come to be coined "interbeing," in the same way that the triune God is a relational mutuality. We necessarily affect each other and all things living in creation. May we learn from the example of St. Patrick the value of listening to the other and sharing meaningfully our own story; may we find the triune God present in the world around us; and may we celebrate the richness of our lived-together life on this beautiful planet.

This Lent, Give Up Carbon and Keep the Chocolate!

By: LeeAnne Beres
Earth Ministry Executive Director


Forty days of Lent. Nine hundred and sixty hours. Fifty-seven thousand, six hundred minutes. This time before Easter is one for reflecting on and fasting from the actions, objects, or attitudes in our life that separate us from God. For many, it is also a time of renewal and reconnection, to our Creator and the great gift of creation.

Marjorie Thompson writes in her book Soul Feast, “For the early church, Lent was just the opposite of a dreary season of restriction.…It was understood as an opportunity to return to…the life of natural communion with God that was lost to us in the Fall.”

In this view, Lent is a time to restore our life of natural communion with God, which includes understanding both our limits and the limits of God’s creation. One way to celebrate Lent, therefore, is to practice practical ways of honoring those limits.

The spiritual practice of fasting, accompanied by prayer and meditation, moves us to be more open to the will of God in our lives. Fasting helps us listen to what God wants us to be and to do. During Lent this year, Earth Ministry and Washington Interfaith Power & Light invite you to try a “fast from carbon,” that is, to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide you put into the atmosphere.

Why should you consider a fast from carbon? There are at least five reasons:

1. The carbon dioxide we are putting into the environment, in the form of greenhouse gases, is changing the climate of God’s creation, our planet Earth. Scientists no longer debate the basic facts of climate change.
2. The sources of these greenhouse gases are largely produced by human beings and the society we have created.
3. The largest component of greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide, which comes from the burning of fossil fuels during the generation of electricity and from the modes of transportation that we use.
4. Unless we reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases, the impact of these increases will be devastating for our planet, for its people—especially the poor and vulnerable—and for the plants and animals that have lived here for millions of years. Time is critical.
5. God created this Earth, declared it to be good, and expects us to care for creation and to maintain its goodness for future generations.

Engaging your congregation in a carbon-free Lent is a practical and timely way to put faith into action. These free resources can help you get started.

Lenten Creation Care Resources


Earth Ministry/WAIPL’s Prayer and Action Guide for a Lenten Fast from Carbon
This Lenten prayer guide features seven prayerful reflections (for Ash Wednesday and the six Sundays of Lent), which include insights on regional impacts of climate change, Scripture readings and prayers, and actions of individuals wanting to reduce carbon their carbon footprints. An excellent resource for weekly bulletin inserts, adult forums, and even personal devotions.

Earth Ministry/WAIPL’s 2011 Carbon Fast for Lent Calendar
This 40-day calendar suggests a practical, carbon-dioxide-reducing action for each day of Lent (e.g., "find the most environmentally friendly way to get to church today" and "run your dishwasher only with a full load"). And under this program, you can have your chocolate and be observant too: the Lent calendar allows for an indulgence in a Theo Chocolate bar, which is organic and free-trade certified.

Additional inspiration for Lenten reflection can be found on Earth Ministry’s Lenten Devotions and Resources page, including an Environmental Stations of the Cross service.

If you’re going to give up something for Lent . . .

By: Rev. Tim Phillips
Guest Blogger

Giving up something is a traditional practice during Lent. Some people give up chocolate or alcohol or meat. The idea is that to abstain from something will make us more aware of the pattern of our lives and the life we owe to God. It identifies us with the forty days Jesus fasted in the wilderness before he began his ministry or the forty years the children of Israel wandered in the desert before they entered the Promised Land. Periodic fasting from meals, various foods, or particular actions is part of most religious traditions.

This year, if you are going to give up something for Lent, why not give up something that would make a positive impact on the Earth? Since Earth Day is also Good Friday this year, our Eco-Spirituality group at Seattle First Baptist invites us to experience an eco-friendly Lent, asking you to consider what you might give up as a spiritual practice to care for creation.

If you are going to give up something, why not give up driving one day each week of Lent or give up your incandescent light bulbs for more energy-efficient compact fluorescent ones? Why not give up some of those toxic cleaning products for an experiment with more eco-friendly cleaners? Why not give up bottled water (a 16 oz. plastic bottle takes as much water to manufacture as to fill) for an eco-friendly non-disposable water bottle? If you think you might want to take on something rather than giving something up, why not experiment with eating locally-grown food during Lent or commit to sign-up for a Clean Greens Farm share this spring? Why not bring home a house plant and nurture it as part of your Lenten spiritual practice?

Why do any of this? Remember that the most fundamental human responsibility in the ancient creation story is the care of the Earth. There is something deeply human and creative about owning that responsibility and something incredibly hopeful about doing it together. At then end of their book, Saving Paradise, Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker write:

We reenter this world as sacred space when we love life fiercely and, in the name of love, protect the goodness of earth’s intricate web of life in all its manifold forms. We feast in paradise when we open our hearts to lamentation, to amplitudes of grief for all that has been lost and cannot be repaired … We recommit ourselves to this world as holy ground when we remember the fullness of life that is possible through our communities, our life-affirming rituals, and our love of beauty. Thus immersed, we are more responsive to and responsible for life in this world.

That is why. And that is why, this Lent, we invite you to make a spiritual practice of the care of this Earth. If you are thinking of giving up something, why not make it something that will reconnect you with one of the most fundamental human responsibilities – and opportunities – of all. After all, we were made to feast together in paradise and to walk on holy ground.


Earth Ministry offers several resources to help you along your Lenten journey, including a Carbon-free Lent Calendar with carbon reducing practices for each day of Lent, and a weekly prayer and reflection guide, both available on the Carbon-Free Lent Resources webpage.

Love the Earth - Support Senate Bill 5769!

By: Dana Swanson

On Sunday February 13, I attended St. John United Lutheran Church's Love the Earth Sunday, as part of Interfaith Power & Light's National Climate Preach-In.

Interfaith Power & Light invited faith leaders from across the country to give sermons and reflections on global warming the weekend of February 11-13. Over 20 churches across Washington State joined Washington Interfaith Power & Light (WAIPL) and Earth Ministry to make climate change the focus of their worship service last weekend.

As part of Love the Earth Sunday, members at St. John United signed postcards to their elected officials, encouraging them to love the Earth and their neighbors this Valentine's Day by phasing out coal in Washington. Youth in Sunday School decorated Valentines for their representatives, asking them to "Have a Heart" and support legislation for a Coal Free Future for Washington. On Tuesday, February 15, at Environmental Lobby Day, Earth Ministry delivered the postcards to State Representatives in Olympia.

The advocacy efforts of those at St. John United and of the greater Washington faith community are making a difference in the state legislature. Just this morning, the coal bill passed through the Senate committee. Now is the time to act - tell your Senator to support a Coal Free Future for Washington!

Call the Legislative Hotline at 1-800-562-6000 today!

I must confess, I was a little nervous when I called the hotline this afternoon. However, it was not as intimidating as I anticipated. When the operator answered the phone, I told her I was in favor of a Coal Free Future for Washington, Senate Bill 5769 (SB 5769).

She then asked for my name, address, and phone number - just like if I were ordering a pizza. They will ask if you have any additional comments, to which you can choose not to say anything, or you can identify yourself as a member of Earth Ministry and/or as a member of your church.

Call today to tell your Senator to support SB 5769! Consider our children's future - the futures of Emily and Madeline who made Valentines with me - and encourage your elected officials to transition Washington off coal power.

Morning Has Broken

By: Dana Swanson

As I rise from bed, the sun sluggishly does the same. Flannel sheets replaced by a winter chill, I find myself humming Morning has Broken to soften the transition.

Morning has broken Like the first morning, Black bird has spoken Like the first bird. Praise the singing! Praise for the morning! Praise for them springing Fresh from the Word!

As my gloved hand pulls the door closed behind me, I am greeted by blades of grass, each zipped up in a frosty coat. With each inhale, crisp air fills my lungs. As I jog west, the silhouette of Mount Rainier smiles at the skyline, his inverted grin looming in the distance.

Sweet the rain's new fall Sunlit from heaven, Like the first dewfall On the first grass. Praise for the sweetness Of the wet garden, Sprung in completeness Where His feet pass.

Shy orange light coyly brushes above the Cascades, drawing jagged lines across the still and reflective waters of Green Lake. As an egg shell cracks and its yellow yolk spills into a skillet, the horizon cracks and light spills over the Earth. Yes, I have breakfast on the mind.

Mine is the sunlight! Mine is the morning. Born of the one light Eden saw play! Praise with elation, Praise ev'ry morning, God's recreation Of the newday!

The mountain ridges, accented by the day’s first light, form a furrowed brow across the horizon. While climbing Phinney Ridge, I glance over my shoulder at the Olympics completing their morning routine. My rosy cheeks beam at the ridges, and the mountains blush back. I’ll take this over sleeping in any day. Praise every morning.