Caring for God’s Creation: Earth Day/Earth Month 2020

The St. Martin’s Caring for God’s Creation team, in conjunction with our Worship and Christian Formation Commissions, had all been engaged in some creative and exciting planning for celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Earth Day on April 22, 2020.

Obviously April has not turned out to be what any of us expected when we were making plans back at the beginning of the year. But the need to care for Creation is a perennial concern that grows more urgent all the time. So we are not giving up on marking this important moment in the environmental movement.

Interfaith Power and Light, an organization supported by our congregation for many years, is offering a couple of ways to come together on Earth Day. This year’s theme, “Love Made Visible: protecting the people we love who are impacted by climate change,” should especially resonate with our congregation’s long history of caring for the most vulnerable.

Washington National Cathedral and Interfaith Power & Light are co-hosting an online interfaith worship service focused on our shared call to climate action. Join us as we share religious teachings in honor of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day on Sunday, April 19, at 11 am Pacific time. There is more information about the service here on the Cathedral’s website.  

On Earth Day itself (Wednesday, April 22), there will also be a fantastic panel discussion hosted by the National Cathedral at 5 pm our time. Again, the information is on their website. That same day, I will be reading children’s stories about Creation on the Facebook page Tucked In: Bedtime Stories and Prayers with Episcopalians and Others. All are welcome to check this out–recordings stay up for a few weeks, so you can return to it later, as well.

Last but not least, a collective opportunity. Several of us are planning to take advantage of a generous offer from James Balog and the Earth Vision Institute. We will be watching the new movie The Human Element, which is available to stream at no cost for the week of April 17-26, which has been designated as Faith Climate Action Week. To sign up to get a link to the free livestream, go to this link.

We’ll announce a date soon when we’ll be doing a Zoom call within our community to discuss the film!