Climate: Where are Chicago's Churches?

The church I attend - St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Logan Square - has for several years now focused on environmental issues during September.

There is a movement in many congregations to recognize September as the Season of Creation, and to use it as a time to delve deeply into environmental issues.

Sadao Watanabe, Noah's Ark

I picked up a resource guide from Sojourners -- Holy Ground: A Resource on Faith and the Environment -- during a recent visit to 8th Day Center for Justice. It encouraged me to hope that more and more congregations will take this up.

In this day in which congregations are looking for more and more lay leadership, perhaps this is an opportunity for lay leaders at congregations throughout Chicago to encourage a focus on Creation in September, and to move their congregations toward greater activism on the environment?

Coincidentally, September is a time when a major climate mobilization is planned by secular organizations like 350.org. Maybe it's time for us to all get on the same page?

One of the fundamental ideas of this blog is that climate action goes beyond technology and politics -- it requires us to look deeply into what we value, what our community is, and how we are called to live.

More resources for Season of Creation are at Let All Creation Praise

Related posts

During the Season of Creation 2014 we looked at the witness of a modern-day prophet: the scientist and best-selling author Rachel Carson. Rachel Carson shook the world with the publication of her 1962 book, Silent Spring. In language that rivals that of any Old Testament prophet, Carson issued an eerie wake-up call . . . .

(See Rachel Carson: A Gentle, Strong, Prophetic Voice for the Environment on The Messenger, the blog of St. Luke's Lutheran Church Logan Square)

In September, 2012, we had a very rich observance of the "Season of Creation,” leading up to a screening and discussion of the film “Gasland,” about fracking. Around the same time, several of us started work on a Climate Crisis Conference, which culminated in an event in which about 100 people from Chicago and the surrounding area participated.

(See The Environment: a Big Topic of Conversation at St. Luke’s on The Messenger, the blog of St. Luke's Lutheran Church Logan Square)


Other related links

April 8-12, 2015 in Chicago: "Fragile World: Ecology & the Church -- Free & open to the public as well as all DePaul faculty, staff, and students, the 7th annual World Catholicism Week will be held April 8-12, 2015, in Chicago at DePaul University's Lincoln Park Campus. The theme is "Fragile World: Ecology & the Church," in anticipation of Pope Francis's forthcoming encyclical on the environment."