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Lenten Reflection: Lent & Policy

2/23/2026

Lent is a season for reflection, an invitation to examine the brokenness around us while also encouraging us to expand our imagination of what’s possible. Right now, many of us are grieving the broken state of politics in the United States and how the decisions of a few are causing immense harm to many.

This Lenten season, we lament the layers of harm being inflicted upon our neighbors and Creation. We bear witness to the ways in which public health is now endangered due to rollbacks of regulations that hold polluters accountable. We bear witness and we lament the attacks to sacred grounds like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, home to the Gwich'in people, and Oak Flat, sacred grounds for the Western Apache peoples. We bear witness and lament the harms towards precious species, who are at risk of becoming endangered and the loss of those who have crossed the threshold of non-recovery.

This Lenten season, may we also recognize the moral urgency of confronting the escalating terror inflicted upon immigrant communities and people across the country. Our ability to build a future in which Creation can flourish depends on a strong and healthy democracy, one that upholds the rule of law, protects our First Amendment rights, and ensures free and fair elections. These systems are not merely political structures; they are instruments through which we are called to pursue the common good and safeguard the dignity of all.

Beyond the invitation to grieve and lament, lent is also an invitation to expand our imaginations. Faith communities play a critical role in not only resisting these harms, but calling for and building a new world together. Many faith communities are already leading the way, whether by holding their lawmakers accountable through advocacy, standing alongside their neighbors being attacked in the streets, establishing mutual aid or supporting existing structures, and installing clean infrastructure.

For people of faith, social justice and creation care are inseparable. When human lives are devalued, Creation itself is wounded. When fear and violence are normalized, our shared home suffers. The Lenten journey is an annual reminder of death, resurrection, and the hope of renewal, mirroring the rhythms of the natural world. In the face of overwhelming harm to Creation, the message of Easter offers hope that transformation and rebirth are within reach.This Lenten season, may we be reminded of the power of community and the hope that can be found in building a transformative way forward—one that honors Creation, protects the vulnerable, and sets a course toward renewed life.

Madison Mayhew
Policy & Advocacy Manager
Creation Justice Ministries

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Beneath the Canopy: Finding Life in Death This Lenten Season

2/18/2026

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The temptation when one is walking through a forest is to look up. The beauty of the canopy, the song of birds, and the sunlight peeking through the overstory draw our attention. Recent science has brought our attention to the networks being formed under the surface. Roots and mycelia interplay in this wonderful system of connection that allows trees to communicate and even care for each other. These discoveries have left us as enamored with what we don’t as we are by sights that tower above us. And yet, when we look down, we see death and decay. Broken limbs, dead leaves, and layers of rot aided by fungi and insects. The grandeur of the forest is firmly planted in a sea of decomposition. In fact, the forest only exists because this layer of dead stuff supports it.

The Lenten journey draws us into a portion of the story that we would rather forget: death is an essential part of life. If there is ever to be growth it is the dead things that support the roots and provide the needed nourishment that allows for the future beauty. Death is a part of life, whether we want to see it or not. When we speak of protecting Creation, it is from those forms of death that invade the more than human world because of our own arrogance and greed, not the natural cycles of life of death that move Creation forward. Creation understands death as an inevitability, but not an ending.

Lent begins with a reminder of our own inevitable endings. In that reminder is a charge to live with purpose, conviction, and courage, to not waste the beautiful fragile lives we’ve been given. Also embedded in that reminder is an insistence that we in fact let go of those things in our lives that need to die; attitudes, habits, prejudices, and wrongly placed values that impede our experience of the abundant life Christ desires for us.

We see so much needless death in our world that we often forget that death is a part of God’s plan for us and the other members of Creation. Lent draws us back into the beautiful reminder that death creates the conditions for new life. As we spread the ashes reminding us of our mortality, let us do so with an eye toward letting go of those things that need to be released in hopes that they may the fertile soil of the new world to come.

Derrick Weston
Director of Theological Education & Formation
Creation Justice Ministries

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Acts of Faith: Tree Planting in Uncertain Times

2/5/2026

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“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now." – Chinese Proverb

Caring for a climate-changed world requires that we strike a delicate balance. On one hand, we are called to name and address the injustices against God’s people and planet that we see happening in the present moment. At the same time we are asked to paint a picture of the just, whole, and loving world that we believe God desires and work toward making that world more of a reality everyday.

There are times when it feels like the first task is taking up the majority of our focus. In times when environmental protections are being stripped, major cities are being occupied by violent forces, and extreme winter storms are paralyzing much of the country, it’s easy to get caught up in what feels urgent and immediate. And yet while we need to tend to the necessities of the moment, it’s imperative that we keep an eye toward the world that we are trying to build. As our new vision statement says, we imagine “a world where all of God’s Creation thrives”. Over the years, there has been one member of Creation that has stood as a barometer for the whole community’s thriving: trees.

The only part of the created order that is mentioned more in scripture than trees is humans.

The only part of the created order that is mentioned more in scripture than trees is humans. The story of our faith is in some ways the story of humans and trees co-existing from the Garden of Eden in Genesis to the New Jerusalem in Revelation. Trees provide food, shelter, beauty and inspiration. Yet they also fall victim to being used as instruments of war and violence in human hands.

From Noah’s ark to the cross of Christ, trees have been witnesses to the narratives of fall and redemption on which our faith is built. Closer to home, trees have been an almost universally recognized symbol of conservation and ecological stewardship yet as we’re reminded in the pages of James Cone’s classic work The Cross and the Lynching Tree, they have also been reminders of some of the more tragic parts of this country’s history. It often goes unrecognized that access to tree covered areas has been denied to certain communities of people in this country based on race and income, with damaging consequences to both physical and emotional health.

The term “tree equity” is used in spaces that are aware of this harmful legacy and that are actively working to reverse it. Access to trees, healthy native trees that support the local ecosystem, is a justice issue. Over the next year, Creation Justice Ministries will be working with partners to facilitate tree planting events across the country in areas where tree canopy is low or nonexistent. We’ll be sharing more about those events in the coming months so stay tuned.

In the meantime, we want to invite you to download our 2026 annual resource, The Canopy of Creation: Trees, Faith, and the Work of Justice.
The resource includes:

an introductory framing of trees as a social justice issue
A theological framing of how trees show up in the biblical narrative
Stories of congregations and denominations doing important canopy work in their communities
Worship resources including sermon starters, prayers, and music suggestions
A resource to engage children around trees

We also have a robust and growing online supplemental resource that includes a comprehensive guide to tree planting.

DOWNLOAD NOW

In past years, we created an “Earth Day resource”, using the day as an occasion to bring specific issues into focus. And while we still hope that you’ll highlight the importance of Creation Justice on Earth day, we also hope that you won’t stop there. We want this to be an evergreen resource (see what I did there?) that can be used year round and in future years.

There is a lot in this world that is uncertain right now. One thing we can say for certain is that if we want to live in a world where everyone has access to all of the benefits that trees provide then we have to begin that work right now, even as we balance the competing needs of the day. Planting trees with an uncertain future is an act of faith. Planting trees in a time of despair is an act of hope. Planting trees that all can enjoy is an act of love. We hope you’ll join us both in resisting the injustices of the present and planting the just world we dream to build.

Derrick Weston
Director of Theological Education & Formation
Creation Justice Ministries

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Lenten Reflection: Lent & Policy

Beneath the Canopy: Finding Life in Death This Lenten Season

Acts of Faith: Tree Planting in Uncertain Times

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