Holy Spirit, you move over creation with sighs too deep for words. Open our hearts to listen to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. Speak through your church to rebuke the forces that seek to exploit your planet. Join our human prayers with the voices of al creation and move us to honor you by preserving the gifts of nature that reveal your glory.
Prayer from All Creation Sings copyright © 2020 Augsburg Fortress. Reproduced by permission. No further reproduction allowed without the written permission of Augsburg Fortress.
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Join us for
The Spring Called to Arise Series!
Tuesdays, 6:30-8pm, March 2-23, 2021
From Death to Resurrection
A collaboration between Together Here Ministries - NEMN Synod, EcoFaith Network - NEMN Synod and Care of Creation Work Group - St. Paul Area Synod
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Moments of Arising:
A Video Series for the Jubilee Year of Earth Day
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Watch the last Moments of Arising video, Resurrection
Forth He came at Easter, like the risen grain,
Jesus, who for three days in the grave had lain.
Raised from the dead, our risen Lord is seen;
Love is come again like wheat arising green.
Stanza 8, Now the Green Blade Rises*
With deep joy, the EcoFaith Network of the Northeastern Minnesota Synod offers you our newest video, Resurrection!
Watch the Resurrection video here.
You can watch all the videos here.
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Preaching for the Whole Creation:
Commentary on the Lectionary
For Sundays of Lent March 7-14
Commentary for Lent Sundays 5 & 6 will be available soon and can be requested by emailing ecofaith@nemnsynod.org
Does otherkind matter in the Lenten narrative of salvation? If humankind is obviously the reality that needs rescue and repair, the rest of creation has inestimable interest in seeing that it happens, given that we are now in the human-dominated Age of the Anthropocene. Looking out for otherkind's presence in the lectionary texts through Lent is accordingly more rewarding than one might at first expect.
Read the EcoFaith Lenten lectionary commentary here.
Written by Rev. Dennis Ormseth. Rev. Ormseth has been writing ecologically oriented commentary on the lectionary for many years. He is active in Lutherans Restoring Creation, the EcoFaith Network of the Minneapolis Area Synod, and a member of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Minneapolis.
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EcoFaith in Worship and the Word
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Creation in the Bible
Reflections on creation, earth care, ecojustice
"We are accustomed to reading the Book of Job as a book about suffering, which it certainly is. But Job also, in many profound ways, teaches us that we can best learn who we are by paying attention to the wild creatures, our brothers and sisters.1
In 12:7 Job says “Ask the beasts (behemoth), and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you. Ask the plants of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you.” In 30:29 Job says, “I am a brother of jackals, and a companion of ostriches.” Job says this as a complaint, but he is soon to discover that his observations are true in ways he had failed to grasp..."
Check out the whole reflection here.
Dr. Diane Jacobson is Professor Emerita of Old Testament, Luther
Seminary and the retired Director of the ELCA Book of Faith Initiative.
Her extensive speaking, writing, and workshop leading often
highlights the ecological dimensions of the Bible.
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Sunday Creation Connections
This section comes from Sundays & Seasons and brings creation connections for every Sunday.
March 7-April 25
"The Sundays of Lent had us wading in the waters of our baptism, discovering the significance of God’s promises for us and creation. On Maundy Thursday we come to the water in a different way. Jesus uses water to teach us how to serve. Water gives of itself, cleansing, hydrating, and refreshing. Preachers might consider a sermon from Water’s perspective. Imagine Water poured into a basin by a lowly servant, only to have the Rabbi Jesus take over the job of washing the men’s feet caked with the dirt and dung of the Jerusalem streets. Describe the intimacy of being cupped in the hands of the Divine One, cascading over the feet of the disciples, then perhaps being poured onto the plants in the garden, water and soil all mixing together."
Check out the March & April creation connections here.
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This Month's Green Tips
Feel free to use these striking Green Tips created by two Synod members for your bulletins and general knowledge! These are meant to inspire earthkeeping action!
Here are Laura Raedeke's Green Tips Lutheran Church of the Cross in Nisswa and here are Steve Spigarelli's Green Tips from First Lutheran in Aitkin.
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Book Review
Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy, by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone
"A book is intriguing when one of the authors is a “scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. The authors take a refreshingly new approach to creation care, ecological change, and climate change. They bring the reader on a journey of renewal and hope by articulating how we can change ourselves in order to address critical issues such as climate change and threats to our planet.
The authors define active hope as hopefulness, desire, and practice. Active hope is doing rather than something to have. The book has three sections: The Great Turning; Seeing with new eyes; and Going Forth.
The great turning is going from business as usual, our current culture and lifestyle, to
the unraveling of our climate and threats to the planet, to the great turning to actively engage in changing business as usual."
Read the whole book review here.
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This book review is by John Hanson, a retired pastor living on Turtle Lake, north of Grand Rapids, with his wife, Linda. He is a member of the NE MN Synod EcoFaith Leadership Team.
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by Bret Pence, MN Internfaith Power and Light
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"Delivering food and direct aid to community partners, who in turn helped those most in need during this COVID-19 pandemic, was not what MNIPL envisioned as its 2020 focus for Duluth. But it is what we felt called to do, and it embodies the values of compassion, the sacredness of life, and the collaborative efforts that are at the foundation of MNIPL’s commitment to climate action.
From April through December, 2020, we raised an astounding $12,000 from individual and congregational donations and another $2,000 through financial and in-kind food donations from the Duluth Whole Foods Coop. We partnered with volunteers from Gloria Dei Lutheran to provide bagged lunches for 100 people over 10 days. Overall in 2020, MNIPL supported more than 430 individuals, 8 restaurants, and 4 social justice organizations as they served those in need in the Duluth community..."
Read more about this initiative here.
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What We've Been Reading
Here are a few other resources the EcoFaith Team is reading!
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The EcoFaith Network of Northeastern MN is a growing network of ELCA Lutheran congregations and their members in northeastern Minnesota with a mission to live out God's call to be stewards of the earth for the sake of the whole creation. Through social media, seminars, resources on current environmental justice issues, project micro-grants and active inter-and intra- congregational conversations, the EcoFaith Network encourages grassroots creation care actions among the Synod’s 133 congregations and leadership within their communities.
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