Celebrate Earth Day with your Congregation!

Our tradition offers many glimpses of hope triumphant over despair… When Martin Luther was asked what he would do if the world were to end tomorrow, he reportedly answered, “I would plant an apple tree today.” When we face today’s crisis, we do not despair. We act.

- ELCA Social Statement: Caring for Creation: Vision. Hope. and Justice

April 24^th is Earth Day Sunday – a day that many ELCA congregations and communities throughout the U.S. celebrate the gift of God’s Creation. This month, learn how you can make action and advocacy a part of your congregation’s Earth Day celebration by reading our suggested activities below.

Join our ELCA Advocacy network in advocating for our leaders to address climate change:

• Support communities that are facing the greatest threats due to climate change! Write a message to your members of Congress to encourage them to support the Green Climate Fund! Download and print our Earth Day letter to Congress by clicking here!

Make prayer and service part of your celebrations with Lutherans Restoring Creation’s Earth Day activities:

• Host a tree planting!  Across the country, Lutherans are working together to plant 500 trees in their synods as part of the 500^th Anniversary of the Reformation. Join this effort and get started NOW in your synod this upcoming Earth Week! See Eco-Reformation for materials for worship, lectionary resources and adult forum ideas. 

• Start a compost pile with all those coffee grounds! Consider those little neighbors we cannot see who are essential to our food production and the air we breathe. Share the concept of creation as neighbor at your next coffee hour to see if there is interest in nurturing this mini-community. 

• Offer a “Care for Creation Sunday Service”: Check one out here at Luther Seminary or imagine what activities could get all hands connected to the earth this month. 

Learn about how we can care for all of God’s creation with resources from Creation Justice Ministries:

• Download the Christian Education Resource from Creation Justice Ministries.

• Pray for God's creatures with a Blessing of the Animals ceremony.

• Create habitat by building a bat house or planting a pollinator garden.

• Sign and share a petition to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, home to an abundance of creatures, including the porcupine caribou on which the Native Alaskan Gwich'in people rely

• Contact Congress to defend the Endangered Species Act.

Whether through prayer, advocacy, crafts, worship, or gardening please share your stories with ELCA Advocacy so we can inspire one another. Tell us how you get involved at washingtonoffice@elca.org!

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