current sermon series

climate justice

the season of lent

Our Lenten focus for worship and study this year is Climate Justice. Using resources such as Climate Justice: A Call to Hope and Action, edited by Rev. Pat Watkins, we will contemplate our theological and spiritual responsibility to ourselves, each other, and all of creation. As we continue the study this week, spend some time reflecting on these questions:
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+ How should the mission of the church change in order to permanently alleviate human suffering
+ Wealth building: who were the winners and losers?
+ Who were considered undeserving of human rights protections?
+ What human rights were denied in the process? (were vs are?)
+ What structural and systemic changes must be attended to in order to bring transformation and justice to those marginalized?
+ How does this connect with environmental and climate injustice?

This first week of Lent, please read Chapters 1 and 2 from Climate Justice: A Call to Hope and Action, the Bishops' Pastoral Letter God's Renewed Creation, and their November 2021 statement which are available to download here:

Questions for discussion (Sunday School classes, small groups):
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   Chapters 1 and 2:
   + How are the relationships with God and Earth connected in your own life?
   + How does God's command to farm and care for the garden translate into your life as a Christian?
   + How are relationships with God and Earth interconnected? If you lost one, how might that effect the other?
   + How should we and the Church reflect the covenant between God and Earth (the story of Noah)?

   Bishops' Pastoral Letter:
   + Why do the bishops connect poverty, disease, environmental degradation and proliferation of violence?
   + How do you see them interconnected?
   + What would the mission of the Church look like if we were to embrace these connections?
   + How does this understanding of interconnections affect how we understand climate change and our role in providing solutions?
   + What would a renewed creation look like?