Just Peace Sunday

About the 2025 Campaign

In 2025, Just Peace Sunday takes place at a time of unprecedented upheaval.  Our immigrant and other community neighbors are being denied civil rights, in Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan the soil itself is soaked with blood.  Policies that protect our planet are being rolled back or cut to the detriment of the Earth itself and our collective future. In our prophetic imagination, we can almost hear the Earth groaning in lament, along with our Creator God, amidst the chaos.

In 2025, we lift up the theme “The Earth Shall Mourn” based on the lectionary passage in the book of Jeremiah, chapter 4 verses 23-28.  Jeremiah warns of a world in chaos not unlike what we are seeing today resulting from climate-induced natural disasters, environmental degradation, and corporate exploitation.  Jeremiah writes:

“I looked on the earth, and it was complete chaos, and to the heavens, and they had no light. I looked on the mountains, and they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. I looked, and there was no one at all, and all the birds of the air had fled. I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the Lord, before his fierce anger. For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be a desolation, yet I will not make a full end. Because of this the earth shall mourn and the heavens above grow black, for I have spoken; I have purposed; I have not relented, nor will I turn back.” Jeremiah 4:23-28

Since January 20^th, policy changes have only exacerbated the strain on the Earth and escalated climate change. The U.S. is no longer part of the Paris Climate Agreement and “climate change” has been scrubbed from federal websites.  Fossil fuel investments have been expedited and drilling/mining projects, including in Alaska approved. Critical EPA and FEMA staff have been fired and grant funding frozen. The Administration created an energy “dominance” council and rolled back EPA consideration of environmental justice in projects.  And in the “Big Beautiful Bill”, wind & solar tax credits have been cut along with IRA clean energy investments.  The list could go on!

The Earth Shall Mourn, and we as people of faith and advocates are called to join this lament and recommit to a different future. Only through repentance in the face of our complicity in environmental degradation can we as a global population ever be catalyzed into action.

Join us as we follow the voices of environmental justice leaders, indigenous peoples, and our youth who are leading us toward a more just and peaceful connection with the Earth. As Jeremiah reminds us, God has promised “…yet I will not make a full end.”  There is hope!  Peace with the Earth is possible, and it is part of our call and mandate as people of faith. 

-Rev. Michael Neuroth, Director of the Washington D.C. Office