Who says that we live in a secular age? I’ll have you know that a recent U.N. climate change conference began with a prayer that the delegates would receive divine inspiration as they went about saving the planet.

Of course, the deity being prayed to was not the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ but, rather, a goddess who demanded regular sacrifices, including the occasional human one. Given what is going on at Cancun, this invocation seems oddly fitting.

The “invocation” was given by Christiana Figueres at the start of the conference in Cancun, Mexico. Perhaps inspired by the setting, Figueres invoked the Mayan goddess Ixchel. more >>

At George Fox Evangelical Seminary, this semester marks the first for the Christian Earthkeeping concentration and growth in the way evangelicals are viewing environmentalism through the lenses of stewardship and poverty.

Since an announcement in May, the evangelical seminary located in Portland, Ore., has welcomed its first 15 students into the program and started them on their first course in Christian Earthkeeping. The course is part of a concentration in sustainability.

Admissions officer Sheila Bartlett says the concentration is about more than the three R’s (recycle, reuse and reduce). more >>

Nearly 9 in 10 American “Millennials” – those born between 1980 and 1991 – say it’s up to their generation to clean up the environment, but a majority also believes that many Millennials go overboard when it comes to environmental issues.

These are the findings from a LifeWay Research study for an upcoming book by Thom Rainer and his son Jess Rainer titled “The Millennials: Connecting to America’s Largest Generation.” The research is based on a wide-ranging August 2009 survey of 1,200 Millennials in the United States.

Eighty-seven percent of Millennials agree, 41 percent strongly, with the statement, “It is up to my generation to clean up the environment.” Asians, Hispanics and people living in the West have particularly strong convictions about their environmental responsibility. more >>

In marking World Environment Day on Saturday, the National Council of Churches in India urged churches, related-organizations and agencies to celebrate and respond to environmental concerns that are due to human activities.

"We as Christian faith-based communities must thank God for the multi-species and bio-diversified environment as gift to the cosmic world," said the Rev. Christopher Rajkumar, secretary of Commission on Justice, Peace and Creation of NCCI.

He, however, reminded Christians that impending environmental challenges must not be forgotten amid celebration. more >>

WASHINGTON – Evangelical leaders from several prominent organizations gathered on Capitol Hill Tuesday to pray, repent and sing about creation care.

The afternoon rally at the Upper Senate Park was among several events that took place for the first-ever National Day of Prayer for Creation Care.

“We pray today especially for those who suffer because of our mistreatment of your world,” prayed Galen Carey, director of government affairs at the National Association of Evangelicals, on Tuesday. more >>

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, dubbed the “green patriarch” because of his environmental activism, called the recent oil spill in the Gulf Coast a sin against nature and God.

Bartholomew, who is the spiritual leader of the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians, said the situation calls for urgent prayers for an effective response to the crisis.

“[W]e also have a responsibility not only to pray, but also to declare that to mistreat the natural environment is to sin against humanity, against all living things, and against our creator God,” he wrote in a column posted on The Huffington Post. more >>