From Creation Justice Ministries (http://www.creationjustice.org/):
Throughout the Season of Creation, our team will present a weekly theme honoring one aspect of God’s amazing creation. This week’s theme is water.
The Creation Justice community educates, prays, and acts to uphold our sacred relationship with water.
We offer curricula about water stewardship. We support religious authors publishing letters to the editor and opinion editorials about safe water. We have also supported dozens of faith community leaders in a prayer campaign for better water stewardship.
We host convenings. In 2018, we held a “Healing Waters Retreat” in Michigan, and we will host another retreat in West Virginia this October. These retreats gather people who have lost access to safe water with faith-rooted water justice advocates. We have also cosponsored the State of Appalachia conference, which always includes a water justice component.
We stood with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe as Water Protector allies, and we have advocated to protect the Bristol Bay, the Great Lakes, the Chesapeake, and the Boundary Waters. We have championed public policies such as the Environmental Protection Agency’s Stream Protection Rule as well as the Waters of the US Rule. We also call on policy makers to uphold and strengthen the Clean Water Act.
Action: Nominate a faith leader who is doing extraordinary work to protect water. This could include advocating for safe and affordable drinking water, watershed stewardship, care for rivers and lakes, or care for the ocean. A small committee of the Creation Justice Ministries board will review nominations and choose honorees. We will feature honorees on the Creation Justice Ministries website, and they will win a trip to the Blue Theology Mission Station in Monterrey Bay, California where they can pray together, learn from each other, and enjoy God’s marine creation. NOMINATE TODAY.
Featured Education Resource: Water, Holy Water has Christian education material about water use, pollution, and the challenges facing watersheds. It also includes sermon starters and a liturgy. Download it today.
Water Partner to Watch: Ecumenical Water Network
The Ecumenical Water Network (EWN) is an ecumenical initiative of the World Council of Churches, based in Geneva. This network of churches and church-related organizations promotes the preservation, responsible management and equitable distribution of water for all, based on the understanding that water is a gift of God and a fundamental human right. We highly recommend their Lenten resources.
Through the waters of our baptism, we are reminded of how God’s redeeming grace cleanses and renews us. God provides all of creation with clean water for good reason. Clean water is essential to health and habitat. It keeps us hydrated, healthy, and turns our homes, our recreation sites, and work spaces into safe places.
During this Season of Creation, we hope you will continue to seek out new ways to treasure God’s creation, and perhaps consider becoming more active in the Creation Justice community. If you read about any initiatives that interest you, please write to us and let us know how you’d like to get involved.
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