Sample Responses for Creation Justice Church Application
1)	Theology and Worship
Questions: How has your congregation intentionally reflected upon God in relationship to caring for creation? How has it brought theological understandings of creation care and justice into its services of worship?

From St. Paul United Church of Christ in St. Paul, Minnesota:

Creation care has been woven into our worship in several ways for many years. Each April, typically the Sunday before or after Earth Day, we celebrate Integrity of Creation Sunday. These services are crafted by the Earthwise Committee in collaboration with the ministers and feature creative liturgies and sermon reflections crafted by lay members. We also offer an annual Blessing of the Animals service on our church lawn. In addition to these special events, we regularly lift up creation care/justice concerns in our prayers throughout the year.

In September 2019, initially inspired by the Global Youth Climate Strike, we created a Sacred Circle for our Climate liturgy that holds creation/climate justice at the heart of reverent worship. The liturgy takes its structure from Joanna Macy’s Active Hope spiral (gratitude, pain, perspective, action) as a frame for spiritual energy. We intentionally crafted the liturgy to be “softly” Christian and open to people of other faith traditions in order to welcome the broader community. We have offered three Sacred Circles so far, each gently tailored to a specific context and focus. We plan to continue using this liturgy—outdoors as often as possible—as a worship opportunity that links creation and justice that’s visible and inviting to our neighbors.

We have also explored the theology and spiritual aspects of creation care through faith formation opportunities for both adults and youth. This past Lent we created a Lenten Daily “Actional” (a series of daily devotional creation-centered actions) to link creation care and justice to our spiritual journey through Lent. Other recent, current, and planned programs include: 

-A presentation by Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light
-A talk by a pastor who founded a new church in Minneapolis grounded in green theology from day one 
-A current series on Cathedral on Fire, through which we are generating many ideas for on-going creation justice work
-An upcoming two-part webinar on green death and burial, co-hosted with a local Transition Initiative. This webinar will invite us to imagine greener funeral liturgies and rituals.

Our Family Ministry Committee is also bringing creation care into their programming. One of their offerings is a “milestone” series of age-appropriate workshops exploring various aspects of faith. They are currently planning a new milestone for 5th/6th graders focusing on creation justice. This milestone will include reference to our Creation Justice Covenant and also serve to reinforce the covenant for adult faith companions so these persons feel empowered as they mentor the youth in this “capstone” milestone.

Learn more about our Sacred Circles, Integrity of Creation Sundays, and other creation justice worship resources on the Theology and Worship portion of our website (http://bit.ly/Theology-Worship).

Future Directions

We envision many ways in which we can extend our existing activities to further incorporate creation justice into our rhythms of worship. Our Spiritual Life Committee has voiced support for several initiatives highlighting creation justice throughout the year, including regularly lifting up creation justice in prayer petitions and adaptations to our Communion and/or Baptismal language, so that it highlights the connection between these earthly elements and the wider creation. The Spiritual Life Committee also intends to explore a 4-week liturgical “Season of Creation.” The Earthwise Committee is planning for the next iteration of our Sacred Circle to illuminate Environmental-Racial justice concerns as they intersect with climate. 

We also have several ideas to continue digging into the theology of our relationship to creation through faith formation opportunities. In the coming year, we will host a public theology lecture weaving together climate, pandemic, and race as intersecting concerns calling for public faith and public witness by the church. We would also like to offer an adult session or series that looks more closely at the UCC’s long history of pioneering theological reflection—and action—around environmental racism. Finally, we typically hold an annual congregational retreat around a chosen theme at a retreat center. We intend to make creation justice our theme one of the next two summers.

2)	Institutional Life and Practice
Questions: How has your congregation integrated care for creation into the life 
and work of its ministry teams, committees, and governing council? How has your congregation embodied care for creation through its building and land use policies and practices?

From First Congregational United Church of Christ in Sarasota, Florida:

As part of our Creation Justice discernment process, Green Team members met with all church Teams, our Church Council and ministerial staff, to develop discussions about sustainable methods and actions, creation justice, and care for creation within their sometimes overlapping zones of responsibility. The Green Team also met with other established church groups (UCC Women, the Choirs, Collage members, Men’s Breakfast participants, etc.) for similar discussions, and held an all church informational and discussion opportunity.

After all of these meetings, each entity and person was invited to respond to a short series of open-ended questions to identify their priorities for and concerns about Creation Justice, care for creation, and sustainability vis-a-vis our church and our community. All of these responses formed the basis for the items selected for our action checklist, which our church has committed to review annually, and to update as a living document. Each Team identified ways in which their members would incorporate this thinking and these actions into their ongoing work.

Church Office

When we must print, as for our Sunday bulletin, we primarily use white paper that can be easily recycled, although our city has a generous recycling program. However, over the past five years, we have moved the majority of our communications to the digital world.

Our office equipment consists of laptop computers which are powered off when not in use, and a copier/printer with a power saver feature that activates when not in use.

All church office lighting is now LED. Curtains and blinds are used to help regulate temperatures, while also allowing for natural light.

Sanctuary, Narthex, Sanctuary Kitchen

Recycling receptacles are provided in our community hall and choir room to allow for recycling of used bulletins. 

Our sanctuary is blessed with excellent natural lighting, and all electric lighting, including exit lighting, is LED. Lights are turned low during the sermon, and turned off when the sanctuary is not in use. The sound board and organ are powered off when not in use.

Heating and cooling is regulated by programmable thermostats, adjusted for weekly services and episodic events usage. Our Facilities and Grounds Team has maintained a diligent schedule of capital maintenance and replacement, with the installation of new, energy efficient HVAC units as equipment ages out. The church budget includes reserves for major expenditures on both a planned and emergency basis.

New hurricane windows installed in 2016 provide increased safety for both members and property. They also help to control heat gain and cooling loss. In 2017, this portion of our campus was re-roofed with products that embrace energy savings. 

Fellowship Hall and Kitchen

Our large Fellowship Hall benefits greatly from natural lighting, and building lighting was largely replaced with zoned and dimmable LED lighting, including bathroom lighting, in 2019. The few remaining fluorescent fixtures (five in the kitchen, and several in each of the two Hall storage rooms) are being upgraded to LED as they age out. 

We are moving toward eliminating the use of Styrofoam and plastic cups, plates, and utensils at food-related events. For larger events, we avoid paper plates and wash plates and flatware by hand.

Our kitchen has an older model washer and sanitizer (because our hot water heater is set at 110 degrees), which is not ideal for use except for the largest events. A longer-term goal is to determine the best dishwasher option for our church for use in smaller and large church functions, coffee hours, etc. Currently, our large commercial gas oven and stove are only used for major events.

Outdoor Areas and Grounds

Reclaimed water is used on lawns and shrubs. Lawn clippings and other landscaping debris are composted within an enclosed area on the south side of the campus. Our labyrinth was completed in 2019, and is made with recycled rubber materials.

Facilities and Grounds is working on a long-term comprehensive landscaping plan for our campus that can be phased in over time. This plan is intended to expand our use of native plants and xeriscaping. A butterfly garden is sited near our labyrinth. We have recently moved to more environmentally sensitive mulching practices.

In 2020, we explored moving from conventional pest control and fertilizer application programs to an organic application. This is being further explored, because the cost with our existing provider was prohibitive.

A bicycle rack was installed on our campus a number of years ago.

Solar Power

The Green Team has launched a preliminary exploration for the installation of solar panels on our principal buildings.

3)	Circles of Awareness and Advocacy
Questions: With particular attention to socioeconomic factors such as race, class, and global inequality, how has your congregation researched and informed itself about environmental justice issues at the local, state, national, and/or global levels? How has this awareness corresponded to congregational advocacy and action? 

From University Congregational United Church of Christ in Seattle, Washington:
UCUCC’s love and justice work springs from our calling as Christians to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our broken and hurting world.  We have come to realize that by serving, we are served; by seeking to help others, we ourselves are transformed.  The mission of the Love and Justice Ministry is to fulfill the Church’s mission to imagine and act on our vision of love and justice by empowering the congregation and its individual members to 1) offer compassionate service, 2) build relationships of solidarity and reconciliation, 3) work toward systemic change, and 4) share our resources. The following are examples of how we are acting to address these issues:

● In an effort to bring greater visibility and understanding to UCUCC’s efforts around both anti-racism work and climate justice, the church’s website includes a Sacred Earth Matters page and an Antiracism page.
● UCUCC’s annual All-Church Camp (Seabeck, a multi-day summer camp program) has featured speakers who have encouraged members of the congregation, inspired by their faith to link theological themes with environmental concerns. In 2021 it was a virtual forum with Dina Gilio-Whitaker (indigenous researcher, activist and journalist) on the topic of Indigenous and Settler Relationship to Land and Place. In 2020, the leader was David Roon, Clinical Assistant Professor of Ecology and Conservation Biology, speaking on Creation Care.
● Sacred Earth Matters has a very aggressive Advocacy Program which encourages members of the congregation to learn about bills in the current session of the legislature which are related to the environment and environmental justice. The advocacy committee chairs identify relevant bills and compares these with the legislative priorities of Washington State’s Environmental Priorities Coalition. People who sign-up on the e-mail list receive weekly advocacy alerts during the legislative session and are encouraged to contact their state legislators about the bill being emphasized that week. SEM’s advocacy committee keeps a record of how state legislators vote on the bills on SEM’s priority bills and compiles an annual scorecard which is made readily available to the congregation. It also compiles and distributes a list of climate crisis and other environmental topics to discuss with legislative candidates prior to primary and general elections.  
● The e-mail list is also used to encourage members to advocate for environmental issues, such as removal of dams, salmon habitat, and fossil fuel facilities, on the local and the national levels throughout the year.  
● SEM also has a monthly column in the UCUCC newsletter which is devoted to a current environmental issue.

4)	Connections to a Broader Movement
Questions: Within the UCC, what are the ways in which your church has connected with others whether it is through a conference task force, a UCC campground, the UCC’s environmental justice newsletter, or other points of contact? Outside of the UCC, what are the ways in which your church has connected with interfaith, ecumenical, or secular partners engaged in environmental justice work?

From Mayflower Congregational United Church of Christ in Billings, Montana:

Through the following ways, we maintain a connection to the broader movement for Creation Justice:
● We created a Creation Justice Task Force in 2019, in response to this being the top priority identified by church members in our strategic planning process.

● We are a member of the Montana Interfaith Network and Montana Interfaith Power & Light.

● We have promoted readership of the UCC’s environmental justice newsletter, The Pollinator, in church services and in our online newsletter.

● Through our membership in the Montana Interfaith Network, we collaborate with the local Native community to support creation of the Elk River Intertribal Center in Billings.

● We co-sponsored an online conference on Science, Faith, and Climate Action.

● We inform ourselves about environmental issues with the help of Montana Audubon, the Northern Plains Resource Council, and its local affiliate Yellowstone Valley Citizens Council.

● We are committed to remaining informed and active with legislation surrounding environmental issues.