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The 2026 midterm elections are just weeks away, with every seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, roughly one-third of the U.S. Senate, key gubernatorial offices, state legislatures, and local ballot initiatives on the ballot. These decisions directly shape the health and well-being of our neighbors, our communities, and God’s creation. With so much at stake, we are called as people of faith to ensure that every voice is heard and every vote counts in determining our shared future.
As Christians, we believe in promoting justice for God’s people and God’s planet. The Trump Administration has systemically dismantled essential environmental protections and funding that help us live our values to care for God’s Creation. By overturning the Endangerment Finding, the legal basis for regulating climate pollution; dismantling climate research; relentlessly pushing for environmental deregulation of polluting industries; opening our treasured public lands and oceans to fossil fuel extraction; and eliminating programs to address environmental injustice, the current Administration is subjecting current and future generations to preventable suffering, and Congress is refusing to act. These midterms present a critical opportunity to elect leaders in Congress who will hold the administration accountable, defend our democratic institutions, and lead with values rooted in justice, compassion, and faithful stewardship of creation. A healthy, inclusive democracy is essential to fulfilling our sacred calling to protect, restore, and rightly share God’s creation. The right to vote is a sacred foundation of our democracy and an affirmation of the inherent dignity and divine worth of every person. Voting is not only a civic right—it is a moral responsibility to practice faith-filled stewardship and advance the common good. Yet, our nation continues to grapple with a legacy of systemic voter suppression. Recent judicial decisions, including the Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, have further undermined the protections of the Voting Rights Act, making it harder for communities of color to challenge discriminatory voting maps and diluting the voices of marginalized neighbors. Voting rights and environmental justice are intertwined. Many of the same communities subjected to voter discrimination are those often on the frontlines of climate change. Research by The Union of Concerned Scientists has demonstrated that states with more restrictive policies tend to have worse health outcomes, and are likely to experience severe environmental burdens like air and water pollution. This reality is compounded with the recent federal rollbacks that stripped away essential protections designed to safeguard public health and the environment. As people of faith, we are called to care for our neighbors. Many of us may not be directly impacted by these attacks on voting rights, but can make a difference for those who are. From whatever seat of privilege we occupy, how can we ensure we are looking out for the voting rights of our neighbors? We’ve compiled a series of resources from partners and friends in this work – double check your voter registration, make a plan and know your voting rights, and help others along the way. Join us in voting for Creation this midterm election. See you at the polls!
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“Gone is the joy of our hearts; our dancing is turned into mourning.”
Lamentations 5:15 As faith-based organizations heeding our religious calling to revere the sacred gift of the living world–a gift meant for all, not just for some–we write today with a heavy heart, especially in the midst of the growing crisis of global climate change. Our sacred texts and the moral teachings of our religious traditions call on us to love the Divine, to love each other and to love and protect the Earth. Yet, we are recklessly consuming at a pace that threatens the vitality of the very planet on which every living thing depends. We have failed to attend to the intertwined relationships with the Divine, each other and the natural world. As Pope Francis said in his encyclical letter (quoting his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI), “The external deserts of the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast.” We know that climate impacts are being felt around the world and around our country. We also know that those living in poverty feel these impacts first and have the fewest resources to recover. In the U.S., these are disproportionately black and brown communities. Our communities and the communities we serve are feeling the strain of higher utility bills and increasing grocery and transportation costs. Extreme heat, wildfires, and floods only exacerbate community economic and health burdens. At a time when climate scientists agree that we have already overshot the 1.5 degree C target for taming climate chaos, the current U.S. Administration is pulling back from both national responsibilities and international commitments to address this grave and impending crisis. Instead of taking these threats and impacts seriously, the current Administration is systematically dismantling essential environmental protections and funding. By overturning the Endangerment Finding, the legal basis for regulating climate pollution; dismantling climate research; relentlessly pushing for environmental deregulation of polluting industries; opening our treasured public lands and oceans to fossil fuel extraction; and eliminating programs to address environmental injustice, the current Administration is subjecting current and future generations to preventable suffering. At a time when our global situation calls for greater solidarity, cooperation, and unity, this Administration is fostering policies that deepen division and undermine global solidarity. The United States, once regarded as a reliable global citizen, is now seen as unable to keep promises and preferring isolation from the community of nations. Most troubling, the United States has abandoned the primary role of any government: to promote the common good. We seek a world that recognizes the sacredness of the earth and prioritizes human health, demands responsible stewardship and strives toward the common good. Our values proclaim the need for solidarity, accountability, justice, compassion and hope. Solidarity requires a climate response that brings business, faith communities, governments and civil society together for the good of all humanity. Accountability demands that each sector play its part to keep our world from unraveling. Justice calls us to repair past and present harms to ensure a sustainable future. Compassion commands that we recognize that too many are suffering from our environmental neglect and engage our hearts to lead us to intentionally invest in climate adaptation. Hope proclaims the moral courage required and insists we use all tools necessary to protect those who are most vulnerable. Recognizing the severity of the moment of increased climate threats, the United States must work globally and collectively as a nation. It is imperative that government – federal, state and local – support policies and economic structures that are long term and benefit the common good, protect human health and steward the gift of water, air and land. A whole-of-government approach must reject political greed, corruption and incumbency, and instead prioritize constituent well-being over personal power, economic greed or corporate demands. To ground ourselves in justice, we, as a nation, must equitably mitigate past environmental harms and restore right relationships with communities historically and presently facing the greatest threats from climate change. Across our traditions, faith communities are not waiting for others to act. We are already leading. Our sacred spaces are becoming models of what is possible. Many of our denominations publicly support a full and fair transition away from fossil fuels. Some congregations are converting to solar power and preparing to serve as resiliency hubs when climate disaster strikes. Others are helping communities with energy audits, net-zero planning and clean energy procurement. We are planting trees. We are growing “Good News Gardens” that feed our neighbors. We are building decarbonization hubs and testing indoor air quality to show the real health costs of burning gas at home. We are supporting EV charging infrastructure and standing behind legal efforts to fight unlawful environmental rollbacks. At every level, from local congregations to denominational assemblies, we have made this a priority through resolutions and real commitments. Caring for the Earth and working alongside partners to help our communities recover from climate disasters is not optional in our faith traditions. It is core to who we are. This work does not stop at our doors. We are investing in young people through advisory boards and organizing efforts, because they are already leading this movement. We are building coalitions across faith traditions and organizations. We are doing together what none of us could do alone, from organizing pilgrimages of hope to utilizing sway at tables of power. We are bringing the moral consequences of climate science into our seminaries, so the next generation of faith leaders has both the knowledge and the spiritual grounding for this moment. Our faith teaches us that hope is possible even in crisis. We are responding, rebuilding and leading, but we require the U.S. government to match our resolve. In this unprecedented ecological crisis, the time for bold and courageous climate action and environmental justice is now. The UN Environment Programme’s 2026 report warns us that the only way to ward off the worst harms of the climate crisis is for humanity to end its dependence on fossil fuels. As faith communities commit to meet this moment, we urge our governments to join us by creating pathways to decarbonization, rejecting technological solutions that come with their own harms, and implementing justice-focused adaptation policies. We must recognize that time is not an infinite resource and our ability to act has been continuously undermined by industries, entities and individuals bankrolling campaigns and lobbying against clean energy policies. While individual actions are important, meeting this moment demands systems-level action, faithful democratic engagement and policy reform that address systemic inequity and injustice. Our legacy and morality will be measured by how we meet this moment to protect and honor the sacred Earth, all communities, and the Divine. As I write this, my oldest daughter is wrapping up her first week of college and the other three are concluding their first week of a new year of high school. The weather shifted, as if to coincide with the new school year beginning. The crickets are chirping, the first few leaves are falling, and football season is upon us. Just like that, it feels like fall!
Each season carries its own personality, its own frustrations and joys. Fall brings with it cooler weather and comfort foods. It also brings busier schedules and shorter days (and completely different seasonal allergies!). Our lives shift in fundamental ways as the air around us shifts. We become the people that the new season requires and becoming those new people requires a spiritual reset. Whether we think of it this way or not, our inner lives are recalibrated when we step into Advent and Lent. We encounter different texts, different language, and different music. We reorient ourselves to the change the season will bring that mirrors the changes in Creation. The Season of Creation has the ability to give us the same kind of reorientation as summer fades and autumn emerges. Every year, I witness more and more congregations embracing the Season of Creation not just as a programmatic opportunity but as an occasion for deep theological and liturgical reflection on relationship to Creation and, by extension, our relationship to the Creator. Worship becomes filled with prayers for our more than human kin, hymns that praise the beauty of water, earth, and sky, and sermons that highlight the way that God has always been present to us in that which has been created. And while there will undoubtedly be new hymns and prayers written as the occasion continues to gain in popularity, what the celebration does best is refocus our attention on the fact that Creation has always been central to our worship and spiritual lives. This year’s theme, for example, highlights the prominent role that rivers, lakes, streams, and seas play in the biblical narrative. Ezekiel 47 paints a vivid picture of living waters pouring from the temple of God in a land that has been restored after devastation. It’s not just that the water is living as it flows from the temple, it gives life to everything that it touches. Where the river goes, life flourishes. As we contemplate what “immersion in living waters” means for our communities, our attention shifts to the rivers and streams that bring vitality to our bioregions. What does it look like to protect and share the living waters that enliven our communities? What might it mean to restore the dead and dying waterways impacted by our activities? “Immersion” is not passive. It is an invitation to deep intimacy with the streams and estuaries as well as all of the creatures that rely on them to eat, drink, play, and swim. To center us in the theme, we will be launching our first Creation Justice course on the theme “Is a River Sacred?”. Creation Justice Courses are a way for us to make eco-theological education more accessible to our network. The title is borrowed from Robert Macfarlane’s excellent book “Is a River Alive?” in which he highlights efforts around the globe to secure legal rights and protections for waterways. We’ll be considering the spiritual importance of rivers both Christian and indigenous traditions and considering what practical applications might emerge for those of us who consider rivers both living and sacred. Registration for this course will be open very soon. As the days get shorter and the air eventually gets cooler, Creation gives witness to the cycles and patterns that hold the world together. This gives us an opportunity to give thanks for the way that the world God has made takes care of us and gives us the spiritual encouragement to reciprocate that care. May this Season of Creation be a time of renewed dedication to loving and serving the whole community of Creation and listening to its testimony of God’s goodness.  This summer is drawing to a close. It’s time to start thinking about the fall. For a lot of us, that means ramping our programming up and returning to a more hectic pace of life. It may mean added responsibilities and pressures and maybe new commitments. You may be dreading adding one more thing to your already busy life. I am mindful that you have a lot of things competing for your time and attention and that if you are going to take on anything else, it needs to genuinely add value to your life and ministry. That’s why I am using this space to invite you to be a part of our next EcoPreacher cohort. I genuinely believe that we have something to offer that is unique, life-giving, and transformative for you personally and as someone who might dare to preach into the realities of our climate changed world. When I began at Creation Justice Ministries, EcoPreacher was in the middle of its pilot year. I mostly hung out as a listener and observer. What I saw and heard was a space being formed where people could be really honest about what it feels like to serve a Church that has often not had much to say about the many ecological crises that we face. It was a space where people were holding hope and despair in a delicate tension. It was a space where church leaders were trying to be both prophetic and pastoral in equal measure with the understanding that sometimes it is important to lean into one of those modalities more than the other. In short, what I was seeing was the groundwork for real community. Creation Justice Ministries, in partnership with our friends at The BTS Center in Portland, Maine and Lexington Theological Seminary through the excellent leadership of Leah Schade, were awarded a grant from the Lilly Foundation to build on that pilot program. I shifted into the role of the cohort’s co-facilitator along with The BTS Center’s Associate Director Nicole Diroff. In the planning for that first fully funded year, we made a couple of significant shifts from the pilot program. First, we shifted our kinship circles (small groups) from being watershed specific to being contextual. While we certainly recognize the value of local organizing, we’re also aware that a rural church may be having very different Creation justice conversations than an urban church just ten miles away and that having conversations with others who are facing similar challenges might be more beneficial. The other significant shift we made was investing in kinship circle facilitators. This team of folks, most of whom had been through the pilot program, would provide a stable presence for the small groups and communicate their observations to the program staff. We kept the general format of the pilot: a presentation given by some expert in the field followed by small group discussion before regrouping to debrief. What we discovered though was that investing more in the small group experience, there were more opportunities for genuine camaraderie and connection to form. One of the common refrains we heard from that year was participants saying that they “found their people”. We’re moving into our third year of the fully funded program and I am excited for what is to come. We continue to improve based on what we’ve heard from our former program participants and offer presentations on things like climate grief, preaching in politically divided times, and the intersections between environmental justice, racial justice, and economic justice. We continue to listen closely to western science while also recognizing the wisdom of indigenous ways of knowing. We continue to walk the tightrope between diving more deeply into the day’s topic and leaving space for people to discuss whatever they may be carrying into the space. It is a unique, life-giving space that is helping to form the leaders the church needs in these challenging times. So yes, I know that you have a lot of things vying for your time this fall and finding even 90 minutes once a month may feel like a huge commitment. Yet I think one of the biggest mistakes that we make in trying to be faithful leaders in a climate-changed world is trying to go it alone. Ministry is a lonely business. Add trying to minister in a world that often feels indifferent to fires and storms raging around us both literally and figuratively, and it gets even lonelier. If you’re feeling that isolation right now, this is an invitation to come and find your people.
WASHINGTON - On July 13th, 2026, President Trump signed two proclamations attempting to reduce the boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument by a total of nearly 3 million acres.
These drastic measures follow unlawful actions taken during the first Trump Administration, when protections for both national monuments were significantly reduced in 2017. President Biden restored protections for both monuments in 2021. As Christians, we believe caring for Creation is a moral responsibility. We are committed to taking an active role in the work of remembering, repenting, healing from, and never repeating historic racial injustices. National Monuments like Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante are not just economic assets – they are home to our Indigenous neighbors, hold significant cultural significance, and are among some of the most pristine places on earth. Protecting this sacred land has profound ecological, social and moral implications. Hopi, Navajo, Ute Mountain Ute, and Zuni tribes share ancestral heritage in both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments. Bears Ears National Monument is the first and only national monument with official tribal appointees serving as the primary advisory body for managing their spiritual, cultural, and natural heritage. Over 30 tribes from throughout the nation have ancestral, historical and contemporary ties to Bears Ears and have expressed support for the monument. Dishonoring the sovereignty of Native Nations and the federal government’s duty of Tribal consultation, these proclamations revoked a landmark Tribal co-stewardship framework for Grand Staircase-Escalante and historic federal and intertribal collaborative management authority for Bears Ears. “Christians across this country should be deeply grieved by and alarmed about the continuing attacks on our National Monuments” said Derrick Weston, Acting Executive Director for Creation Justice Ministries. “For too long this nation has undervalued and ignored the Indigenous wisdom that has made caring for these ancestral lands a sacred obligation. The God-given responsibility to protect these sacred spaces belongs to all of us and it is past time for us to listen to the wisdom that our brothers and sisters have used to steward this land for centuries.” Creation Justice Ministries calls on the Administration to rectify racial injustice by protecting these sacred lands of God’s Creation. About Creation Justice Ministries: Creation Justice Ministries represents the creation care policies of 38 Christian communions, including Baptists, Mainline Protestants, Orthodox, and Peace churches. We educate, equip, and mobilize Christian communities to protect, restore, and rightly share God's creation. For questions: Contact Madison Mayhew, Policy and Advocacy Manager: [email protected] WASHINGTON – On July 10th, 2026, the Trump Administration weakened the Endangered Species Act (ESA) with a final rulemaking that rescinded the definition of “harm” under the ESA. By defying a decision by the Supreme Court, this final rule opens new pathways for widespread destruction of sacred habitat for endangered wildlife of God’s Creation. The ESA has been our most effective law to protect biodiversity and prevent the extinction of our most vulnerable animals, fish, and plants. Nearly all species listed under the ESA have been saved from extinction and hundreds are on the path to recovery today. The new rule is the first in a series of rollbacks aimed at dismantling this invaluable policy.
For more than 40 years, the harm definition has protected endangered species, including bald eagles, grey wolves, manatees and humpback whales, by recognizing the common-sense concept that destroying a forest, beach, river, or wetland that a species relies on for survival constitutes harm to that species. Many of our precious wild neighbors, animals and plants, in the U.S. are already running out of places to live due to habitat destruction. When species disappear, ecosystems become at risk of wide-range collapse. Humans need intact ecosystems for everything from agriculture to clean water, from medicine to disease prevention. As people of God we have the responsibility to protect and restore creation. God created the Heavens, Earth, and all creatures who live there. Genesis 1:30 says, “ And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.” The creation story clearly illustrates the way God carefully crafted each animal, insect, plant and mineral. So full of God is every creature that is threatened, endangered, or faces extinction that to lose one is to lose a piece of God As Creation faces a biodiversity crisis, the Administration should be strengthening protections for endangered species, not dismantling habitats they need to survive. We urge the Administration to stand alongside Creation and revoke this harmful decision. About Creation Justice Ministries: Creation Justice Ministries represents the creation care policies of 38 Christian communions, including Baptists, Mainline Protestants, Orthodox, and Peace churches. We educate, equip, and mobilize Christian communities to protect, restore, and rightly share God's creation. For questions: Contact Madison Mayhew, Policy and Advocacy Manager: [email protected]  I’ll be going on sabbatical for three months, starting July 10. On one level, I’m taking sabbatical leave because it’s our policy at Creation Justice Ministries: every staff member gets three months of sabbatical after five years of full-time employment. But I’m also taking sabbatical leave because this kind of rest is also the work of creation justice. To slow down, step away from the work, and delight in God’s creation is important. Both ecology and scripture show us that rhythms of sabbath are good for people and for the land. A few weeks ago, I had the chance to do a weekend silent retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemani, where one of my favorite writers Thomas Merton lived the monastic life of silence and solitude. My intention was to microdose sabbatical; to see what it was like to step away from the work, and the pressures of modern life, and to simply listen. I picked up Merton’s Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander while there and came across this passage: “The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence. More than that, it is cooperation in violence. The frenzy of the activist...destroys his own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of his own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful." (Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander) In our work, there is a direct connection between the inner wisdom of our spiritual lives and the wellbeing of the planet. So many of the problems we face today—ecological and otherwise—are because our inner lives have become peaceless places. Because we move too fast, too loud. Because we don’t slow down to listen closely to the song of creation, which sings at a volume and time signature much different from our frenzied culture. In the words of Pope Francis, the “The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast.” (Laudato Si’) As Merton writes, even we activists (or , perhaps, especially activists), in our frenzy to heal the world, do violence against ourselves because we don’t create the conditions for peace to flourish in our internal gardens. This is not to say that the work is unimportant. Work and labor are sacred. But, they are sacred within their limits. When we (I) begin to exceed those limits, it twists the sacred gift of God into something that looks more like self-serving. Sabbatical is a course-correction. It is a reminder that there is a direct connection between the ecological limits that we and our friends are working to live within, and the limits of good work and labor. I love the work of Creation Justice Ministries, and I already can’t wait to return to this sacred work in October. But for now, I go to embrace the delicious gift of slowness, silence, and solitude that God (and the Creation Justice Ministries board) has given me through this sabbatical.
I negotiated the rock path in the drizzling rain, while eyeing the sheer cliff to my left. Blue water swirled with white foam far below me. On a short detour from a speaking tour about climate impacts, I stood with four colleagues—one from Bangladesh, one from Uganda, and two from the U.S.—in awe of the majestic Monterey Bay in California. Above the sound of crashing waves, Aref, my colleague from Bangladesh, spoke to my inner murmurings. His smile widened and he stretched out his arms declaring, “God is here! We can feel God right here at the sea.”  Monterey Bay in February 2026. MCC photo/Kirstin De Mell God is here! We can feel God right here at the sea. Monterey Bay is one of several marine sanctuaries protected from commercial activity. Its nutrient rich water supports marine mammals such as the humpback whale, the southern sea otter, and the elephant seal, but also hundreds of species of fish, seabirds and shorebirds.
A combination of partial fishing restrictions and natural protective features has kept special places like Monterey Bay remarkably healthy. The integrity of Creation in these places is not only important to God’s creatures, but for coastal communities that rely on healthy oceans for tourism, recreation, and other economies. Marine sanctuaries are now at risk from offshore drilling and deep-seabed mining, industrial practices that would degrade the biodiversity rich ecosystems needed for ocean health—and planet health! On April 28, I, along with other board members of CJM, met with Congressional offices in Washington, D.C., to share about the importance of protecting these sacred marine places from drilling and extraction. As I sat in a conference room in Senator Padilla’s office, I felt the vast human power that pervades the halls of the Congress. It is a power that can move in two directions. One direction thirsts after money and oil—a path more heavily trod. The other acknowledges and lifts up the intricate web of Creation we all rely on. One CJM board member prayed with Padilla’s staff when our meeting concluded. I closed my eyes and imagined the swirling water at the base of the cliff, and heard Aref’s voice proclaiming, “God is here.” Please join us in urging Congress to protect and restore God’s marine creation. Kirstin De Mello Climate Advocacy and Education Coordinator Mennonite Central Committee U.S.  Birthdays are a big deal in my house! I’d always held the belief that everyone deserves at least one day where they feel totally celebrated. I’m grateful for an employer that gives us our birthdays off from work! For me, birthdays are most certainly a time of celebration, but they’re also a time of introspection. I like to take a little bit of time each birthday to reflect back on the year that was. It’s also a time of casting vision. I like to imagine the year ahead and think forward to where I might be at the same time a year later. It helps that my birthday is so close to the beginning of the new year (January 12th, if you were interested). Reflection, imagination, and celebration strike me as good practices to pursue anytime you hit a milestone. I also find that those three practices tend to extend beyond the day itself. Sometimes, I find myself celebrating a birth month. For many liturgical traditions, Pentecost is considered the “birthday” of the church. It is when we celebrate the post-resurrection community of Jesus’ followers receiving the Holy Spirit and beginning the process of doing life together. We commemorate a gathering in which people from every corner of the ancient world came together, each hearing the good news in their own language. It’s both a celebration of both the unity and the diversity of the body of Christ. It may come as no surprise that with my love of birthdays, Pentecost is actually my favorite liturgical celebration!  Transformative Leadership Workshop, March 2026 We at Creation Justice Ministries have been spending a lot of time this year thinking about the Church. To put a finer point on it, we’ve been thinking a lot about the ways that we interact with individual churches as they go on their own Creation justice journeys. So far, it’s been an exciting year of learning, sharing and discerning. In March we gathered with leaders from a small handful of congregations as well as a judicatory and a conference center to consider what transformative leadership might look like in our climate changed world. They learned about behavior change, climate communication, and how to do effective advocacy and organizing. Those who attended the gathering returned to their congregations in hopes of integrating some of what they learned into the life of the church. We’ll do an online supplement with an additional group of congregations this summer as well as a similar leadership development program with Episcopal leaders in the Northeast (reach out if you’d like more information about either cohort). We’ll also be joining our friends at the BTS Center and the Anabaptist Climate Collaborative for a second iteration of “Claiming Your Call”, a gathering for churches in the Northeast who are listening to discern their congregation’s vocation in their bioregion. Many of the congregations engaged did a similar program with us two years ago and are now taking steps to deepen their commitment to caring for Creation. The congregations that we are working with are reflecting on their congregation’s histories. They’re considering their past wins and losses and seeing what lessons those things have to teach them. Some are dealing with declining numbers and aging membership and yet they are able to imagine a future in which the church plays a leading role in guiding their community to a thriving that includes all of God’s creatures. And in the midst of uncertainty and fatigue, these congregations are finding the strength to celebrate the fact that God is not done with them or this world. What we’re finding is that in a world that feels like one crisis after another, church leaders feel overwhelmed and exhausted. Of course, that makes complete sense. And yet in the midst of that weariness, we’ve found that congregations are also seeking out that next faithful act they can do to make a small difference in their communities and watersheds. They know they can’t fix everything, but by learning more about their contexts, taking serious stock of their capacity, and listening deeply for their calling, they are able to discern what God might have in store for them and they’re able to do so with a clear-eyed vision. One of my core beliefs is that the local church can be a force for good in this world. It’s not just a place to maintain old traditions or to hide from the problems of the world. When there is intention, the church can be a source of moral leadership in a world that often feels like it is lacking that kind of strength. It can be a gathering place for like-minded individuals to address community problems and pool their collective resources. It can be a place where people are educated, equipped, and mobilized to be agents of a Gospel that means healing for all that God has made. As we celebrate Pentecost this year, we recognize that the Holy Spirit is still moving through local congregations across this country and compelling them to care for God’s planet and people. We hope, pray, and work to see more churches become places of transformative leadership that bring healing and wholeness to God’s world.
WASHINGTON – On April 16th, 2026, in a narrow 50-49 vote, the U.S. Senate moved to invoke the Congressional Review Act to overturn a 20-year ban on mining in the watershed of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. This decision threatens more than 225,000 acres of God’s creation within the Superior National Forest, placing one of the most pristine and visited wilderness areas in the United States at risk of irreversible contamination. Protecting public lands is a moral and spiritual imperative. Anyone – Christian or not – who has visited The Boundary Waters can see that these lands and waters are a sacred gift; a vast, interconnected web of lakes, rivers, and forests that provides a sanctuary for both wildlife and the human spirit. To "rightly share" this creation means ensuring its health and integrity for future generations, not sacrificing it for the short-term profit of multinational corporations.
Creation Justice Ministries stands in solidarity with the Indigenous communities, local residents, and the millions of visitors who look to the Boundary Waters for recreation, reflection, and renewal. Our faith compels us to resist policies that prioritize industrial exploitation over the health of the land and its people.
We urge the administration and our leaders in Congress to remember that ecological integrity and justice should be a top priority in making any policy decision. The journey to protecting the Boundary Waters is not over. We will continue to mobilize our communities of faith to defend this national treasure and to demand policies that reflect our deepest values of stewardship, justice, and love for all of God’s creation. For questions: Contact Madison Mayhew, Policy and Advocacy Manager: [email protected] |
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