Caring for Creation
Learn about ways to be more environmentally friendly
On this page, you will find a wide variety of resources and links to help
individuals,
congregations,
synods and other groups in their efforts to care for God's creation. Learn more about your personal responsibility to the earth, what your congregation can do to be more green, how other groups are responding to environmental challenges and what the churchwide organization is doing about its energy conservation.
“The earth is a planet of beauty and abundance; the earth system is wonderfully intricate and incredibly complex. But today living creatures, and the air, soil, and water that support them, face unprecedented threats. Many threats are global; most stem directly from human activity. Our current practices may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner we know.” (ELCA, “
Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope, and Justice,” 1993)
Click here to read more about the environment and energy issue.
| Living Earth Series |
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Reflection Series
Click here to view back issues of the monthly Living Earth reflection series and 2009 Lenten e-mail series, Joining the Hymn of All Creation, as well as the current monthly environmental reflections. |
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Worship Resources for Congregations
| Gulf Coast Anniversary |
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Prayers and Stories from the Gulf
April 20 marks the one year anniversary of the oil explosion that erupted into one of the worst man-made disasters our nation has ever faced. The National Council of Churches has prayers and stories from the Gulf to help remember the people affected. To download the PDF, click here. |
| Living Earth Series |
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Worship Resource
Click here to view back issues of the monthly Living Earth reflection series and 2009 Lenten e-mail series, Joining the Hymn of All Creation, as well as the current monthly environmental reflections. |
Greening Your Congregation
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Lutherans Restoring Creation
Lutherans Restoring Creation (“LRC”) is a grassroots program designed to encourage the ELCA to incorporate care for creation into its full life and mission at all expressions -- congregationally, synodically and nationally.
The goal is to incorporate care for creation into the organizational patterns, worship life, educational programs, responsibility for buildings and grounds, lifestyle of members at home and work, and public ministry of all of these institutions, so that earthkeeping and justice for all earth community becomes integral to the identity and purpose of our church. [Learn more] |
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Web of Creation
The Web of Creation Web site includes a number of earthkeeping resources developed by professors and students at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. Check out the "How to Proceed" frequently asked questions on the Web site. |
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Earth Ministry
Earth Ministry is an ecumenical earthkeeping group that provides numerous resources, including a "Greening Congregations Handbook." |
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Interfaith Power & Light
Interfaith Power & Light is mobilizing a religious response to global warming in congregations through the promotion of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and conservation. [Learn more] |
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Mission Investment Fund
The Mission Investment Fund (MIF) is a financial ministry of the ELCA. Through the fund, individual members, congregations and ministries of the ELCA can purchase investments, earning interest at competitive rates.
MIF building consultants are accredited under LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and work with congregations on how to incorporate sustainable designs that reduce environmental impact and lower energy costs. [Click here to read how a resourceful Colorado congregation went "green" with geothermal heating and cooling.] |
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ENERGY STAR® Guide for Congregations
ENERGY STAR®, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program helps people save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices. [Download the resource.] |
Additional Resources for Congregations to Learn More
ELCA Social Statement on Environment
Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope, and Justice
This social statement was adopted by a more than two-thirds majority vote as a social statement of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America by the third Churchwide Assembly on August 28, 1993, at Kansas City, Missouri. This statement summons us, in particular, to a faithful return to the biblical vision. [Click here to read the statement.] |
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Hunger Education Toolkit
The Hunger and Climate Change Connections Tookit will help introduce your audience to the intersections between climate change and hunger. Through activities and conversation, explore these intersections and our appropriate responses. |
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Awakening to God's Call to Earthkeeping" Study Guide 
This 50-page resource (pdf) includes both a Leader Guide and participant materials for use in faith-based small group context: adult or older youth Sunday school, Christian Education classes, women’s circles, men’s groups, congregational “Green Team,” or in a retreat setting. Members of any Christian denomination would be able to use it, with only slight modification (if desired) to incorporate materials from their own faith tradition. A print copy on recycled paper is available through ELCA Resource Catalog for $5 plus shipping. |
National Council of Churches of Christ Eco-Justice Programs
The Eco-Justice Program office of the National Council of Churches works in cooperation with the NCC Eco-Justice Working Group to provide an opportunity for the national bodies of member Protestant and Orthodox denominations to work together to protect and restore God's Creation. The ELCA is a participant in the Eco-Justice Working Group. |
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Lutherans Restoring Creation
In addition to the resources on greening your congregation, you can also find support and resources on this Web site for synods, colleges and universities, seminaries and outdoor ministries. [Learn more] |
Synod Resolutions
Ten ELCA synods approved a common "Energy Stewardship" resolution in their assemblies this spring. They are worth reading through, to see the thoughtful, and moving, ways that the problem, and need to respond, was described in the various "Whereas" statements of these resolutions. In addition, several of the synods formed a synod-level creation care team of some kind, to assist in implementing the resolution. |
Lutheran Climate Change Coalition
A newly formed Lutheran Climate Change Coalition [LC3] was created to lower our collective "carbon footprint" throughout all the "expressions" and institutions of the ELCA, and to encourage similar steps by members in their homes. |
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