United Methodists Join Creation Care Challenge
United Methodists are joining the call for environmental stewardship with a series of training events, workshops, and retreats that are set to launch in April.
"In a time when many are complacent about the environment, a new emphasis can assist the church in taking leadership," said Jimmy L. Carr, executive director for the United Methodist Church's Southeastern Jurisdiction. "Local church members will learn effective ways of being stewards of creation, allowing them to be the best disciples possible."
“Caring for God’s Creation,” the first in a series of events centered on creation care, is slated for Apr. 20-22 at the Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center in North Carolina. Although the event is sponsored by the United Methodist Women of the Southeastern Jurisdiction, “anybody who’s interested in caring for the earth” is invited to take part, according to the event’s coordinator, Loy Lilley.
"The earth is our home," Lilley said, "and we need to learn how to take better care of that home given us by God."
The United Methodist event comes at a time of heightened awareness among a spectrum of Christian groups over the environmental issue.
Just this month, a group of 86 influential evangelical leaders launched an “Evangelical call to action” that urges churches and individual Christians to make “energy efficient” lifestyle changes, and challenges the U.S. government to make laws that would protect God’s creation. Supporters of this call to action also contended that climate change is “human induced” and can be “human solved.”
Also this month, the top official of the World Council of Churches compared climate change to “atomic weapons” and urged denominations around the world to tackle this issue.
"Just as atomic weapons changed the very way we thought about life, so too the potential of major climatic changes puts life as we know it in danger," the Rev. Samuel Kobia, the WCC's general secretary, said during the Council’s 9th Assembly.
The “Caring for God’s Creation” retreat will feature 11 workshops that cover subjects such as sustainable agriculture, earth care and Christian spirituality, simpler living, earth care and Bible basics, political advocacy, practical ideas for saving energy, and saving water, according to the United Methodist News Service. Climate change, such as rising water levels and glacial melting, will also be addressed by keynote speakers.
