Our faith-inspired work is organized around the four areas of connection, education, advocacy and action.
Here we are thinking about action to care for the earth through changed individual habits and church green teams.
Ideas include recycling, growing vegetables, planting native plants, using no pesticides dietary changes, careful purchasing & investing, reducing plastic use, public transport, electric cars, solar panels , building resilience, etc.
In each monthly issue of our newsletter, we list some opportunities for action. We also have a page listing some of the latest ideas for action opportunities.
Simple Actions
The UM Creation Justice Movement site has a set of monthly tips. These offer simple ways to get your congregation actively involved as individuals and groups in creation justice and environmental ministry. Take a look at the latest month and read through their archives.
Creation Justice Ministries has a list of 52 ways to care for creation. Each week highlights a creation justice idea for action or reflection that corresponds with the liturgical/seasonal calendar. You can also download it to use as a monthly bulletin.
Actions of Mitigation, Adaptation and Resilience
Some of the actions that we need to be taking individually and as churches are those of mitigation, adaptation and resilience.
- Mitigation of climate change means reducing the impact of climate change on our planet.
- Adaptation to climate change means adjusting to the effects of change on our planet.
- Resilience to climate change means preparing for the impacts of climate change and building capacity to recover quickly from those impacts.
Some of these can be done by individuals and congregations, others will require advocacy to ask for local, state or federal help. Click on the button to learn more about mitigation adaptation and resilience. Then learn about the new ministry of creating resilience hubs. And lastly, listen to some stories of Congregations and Annual Conferences working to build Resilience Hubs for their communities, by watching the recording of the UM Creation Justice Movement Café (webinar) on Resilience.
Action Ideas from General Conference
General Conference made a number of changes to the Book of Discipline and Book of Resolutions in 2024, especially around Green Teams, Church Land Use, Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Use of Plastic. Read the changes and then check our pages on green teams, church land use, reducing emissions and use of plastic for some action ideas.
Action ideas from Local Churches
We have local churches across the conference who are active in creation care and climate justice through large and small actions, and some specifically with green teams. Watch this video below from 2023 to see some of the work happening around the conference such as church buildings with newly installed solar panels, heat pumps, dual-pane windows, LED lighting, recycling facilities, water-filling stations, drought-resistant landscaping, plants to attract bees, rain collection, community organic gardens, Earth Day events and electric vehicle fairs.