Faith Leaders Held Kickoff Public Witness Event in Washington D.C. for the Season of Creation’s World Day of Prayer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 2, 2025

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, national faith leaders gathered at Upper Senate Park in Washington, D.C., to mark the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and officially launch the Season of Creation campaign. Organized by Creation Justice Ministries and co-sponsored by Interfaith Power & Light DMV and fourteen national faith-based organizations, the event was a powerful public witness calling for urgent moral action in response to worsening climate impacts, rising heat, and rollbacks of environmental protections.

Statement from Avery Davis Lamb, Executive Director of Creation Justice Ministries:

“From the Sermon on the Mount to his entry into Jerusalem, Jesus’ ministry reveals that public witness lies at the heart of our faith. Today, as we launch the Season of Creation and our Witness for Creation Justice campaign, we stand together in that same spirit of witness—naming the harms inflicted on God’s world, and proclaiming that another way is possible. Joined by the whole community of creation, we declare that caring for our common home is not optional; it is central to who we are as followers of Christ.”

Statement from Rev. Adam Russell Taylor, President of Sojourners:

“As Christians, we must now reckon with the reality of the climate crisis not as a future hypothetical but as a present reality. When I think about the state of the climate today, I feel both righteous anger and lament for what human beings, each of us created in God’s image, have wrought upon God’s creation. Yet at the same time, I have long believed that we have a responsibility as believers to be prisoners of hope. Despite how we’ve so often ignored the cries of the Earth, God continues to love us unconditionally, extending the promise of doing a new thing on our ravaged planet in and through us. And that has the potential to change everything. Rather than despair, we must press forward, redoubling our commitment individually and collectively to push relentlessly for a sea change in policy and political priorities.”

Statement from Bishop Julius C. Trimble, General Secretary of the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church,:

“As people of faith, we believe that God created the earth and all its inhabitants, and declared it good,” said Bishop Julius C. Trimble, General Secretary, The General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church. “Ecological degradation and destruction, over-reliance on fossil fuels, and other extractive practices violate the dignity of creation and disproportionately produce unprecedented harm for vulnerable and marginalized communities.”

Statement from Rev. Dr. Kip Bernard Banks, Sr., Senior Pastor of East Washington Heights Baptist Church of Washington, D.C.:
“The climate crisis is not a distant storm—it is upon us, demanding that we turn today. As Dr. King said: we are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In baptism, we are called to repent, to leave behind the old life, and to walk in a new way with Christ. That same call resounds now: for each of us to turn from habits that desecrate creation, and for our leaders to turn from policies that destroy our common home.”
Statement from Rev. Ginger E. Gaines-Cirelli, Lead Pastor Foundry United Methodist Church:
“The same federal government that weakens national climate protections has tied the hands of our D.C. local leaders. We feel the effects in our bodies, in our neighborhoods, in our most vulnerable communities. Residents of D.C. are denied voting representation in Congress and the dignity of self-determination. That is not just a political inconvenience. It is a justice issue, a racial justice issue, and a creation justice issue. Because creation cannot flourish when the people who live here are denied the power to protect the land, the air, the water, and one another."
Statement from Adam Greene, Emissary of the Great Tayac of the Piscataway Indian Nation to the Indigenous European People in the Western Hemisphere:

“These original instructions were given to all Indigenous People throughout the entire Earth: That human beings were put here to be stewards of Creation. Not outside of Nature but within it.  Globally, the Indigenous Peoples of Mother Earth still follow the original teachings as mentioned in the Book of Genesis and other religious books found throughout the world. The 29th Generation Hereditary Chief of the Piscataway Indian Nation Mark Tayac invites you into a relationship of friendship and mutual learning so that we can together as human beings actualize our Creator’s original instructions.”