Episcopal Church Foundation Vital Practices

March 2022

Caretakers of God's Creation

Cambio climático, biodiversidad y pueblos indígenas
By Francisco José Duque Gómez
El Reverendísimo Francisco José Duque Gómez, el Obispo de Colombia, escribe sobre el calentamiento mundial, extinción de especies y el abuso de los derechos de la gente indígena.
Climate Change, Biodiversity and Indigenous Peoples
By Francisco José Duque Gómez
In Climate Change, Biodiversity and Indigenous Peoples, the Rt. Rev. Francisco Duque Gomez, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese in Colombia, shares the science that describes the profound threat these interrelated issues bring to God’s creation. Raising public awareness of the effects of global warming, the loss of biodiversity and the failure to recognize the rights of indigenous peoples over their environment are critical to influencing governmental policies that can sustain our life on this planet. This article is available in English and Spanish.
Creation Care and Community Engagement
By Audra Abt
The Rev. Audra Abt, vicar of Church of the Holy Spirit in Greensboro, North Carolina, views caring for God’s creation as a ministry, not a program or activity. In Creation Care and Community Engagement, she shares ways her parishioners nurtured their relationships with their land and their neighbors. They started by asking the community how their church might be a place where creation care is experienced and taught, and from that beginning, innovative, community-based partnerships were formed.
Eco-Justice Lives in the Heart
By Marc Andrus
What is our call as Episcopalians to eco-justice and stewarding the gift of our planet? In Eco-Justice Lives in the Heart, Bishop Marc Andrus shares the experience of two communities – one in California and the other in Alaska – that have been ravaged by environmental degradation and human-induced climate change, addressing how we can respect the dignity of all life and embrace care of the earth as Christians. This article is available in English and Spanish.
Editor's Letter April 2022
By Charis Bhagianathan
The evidence is all around us – rising global temperatures, shrinking ice sheets, rising sea levels, more extreme and highly destructive weather events. Climate change is already a very real threat to us and future generations, and the devastation will be much greater unless massive changes are implemented on large and small scales, as scientists have been warning us for years. What can we do to find hope and create lasting change as stewards and not consumers of this world that we have been given? In this issue we hear stories of hopefulness and a gentle embrace of our hurting planet, where our faith drives us to care and take action for our beloved temporary home.
Editor's Letter March 2022
By Kate Adams
As we start the season of Lent, we enter a period of reflection about our relationship with God and his creation. As so much of Jesus’ ministry focused on healing, we shift our focus to Creation Care for this issue of Vestry Papers. In ECF’s newly adopted Innovation 2022: A Road Map for ECF, we see our responsibility as caretakers of God’s creation. During this Lenten season, how are you called to care for creation individually and in community? We welcome your stories and offer the following innovative ideas to make a difference.
Holy Hikes and Thin Spaces
By Haley Bankey
There are many places and ways of meeting God on our Christian journey other than our church buildings. In Holy Hikes and Thin Spaces, Haley Bankey shares how she encountered God in a lush evergreen forest – a thin space, where heaven and earth converged. She inspires us to get out into the world and experience God through Holy Hikes and the Wild Church Network.
La ecojusticia vive en el corazón
By Marc Andrus
Este ensayo utiliza los relatos de dos comunidades, una cerca del Mar Salton en el sur de California y una segunda comunidad, el pueblo de Kavalina en Alaska, para explorar nuestro llamado como episcopales a la ecojusticia y las formas en que nuestra rama episcopal del movimiento de Jesús puede ayudar a cuidar la creación.
Let Earth be Heaven
By Rachel Taber-Hamilton
Indigenous cultures teach that caring for world we inhabit is critical for our survival and that every living being has value. Christian Western European culture introduced a more hierarchical social structure, where value was assigned. In Let Earth Be Heaven, Rachel Taber-Hamilton implores us to really consider what the commandment about loving our neighbors actually means – are we willing to love enough to save the earth?
Make a Start on Creation Care
By ECFVP Editorial Team
To help you get started on reducing the impact of climate change, the ECFVP Team offers five practical tools and resources from around the church in Make a Start on Creation Care. They offer a variety of ways that individuals, households, congregations, institutions and dioceses can take active first steps toward living more gently on the earth.
Seeking Refugia: Hope for a World in Climate Crisis
By Josh Anderson
In Seeking Refugia: Hope for a World in Climate Crisis, Josh Anderson describes his experience of reading Refugia Faith a book by Debra Rienstra, that brings joy, hope and the call to act to mend our relationship with our earth in small, continuous and impactful ways.
Stewards of the Earth
By John Leech
For years, human activity has altered the world we inhabit, largely in devastating and destructive ways. In Stewards of the Earth, John Leech invites us to reimagine our relationship with our temporary home and assume our role as caretakers and custodians of this beautiful planet.