Reviving Creation
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Rev. Margaret created a short video for the Episcopal Church in Colorado,“Climate Crisis & Reorienting Ourselves to Hope.” It’s the final video in a five-week Lenten series for the diocese, entitled Journey through Lament: Leaning into the Brokenness of Our Communities and World.
You can view the video here.
Questions for reflection and discussion:
1. What happens in your body when you don’t feel hope?
2. Have you ever thought of hope as having power?
3. The Rev. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas says that hope is forward facing. What do you think she means by this?
4. Hope moves us out of withdrawal and into engagement. What is something you can do personally when it comes to the changing climate and ecological devastation? What is something we can do together?
5. What is the difference between hope and Christian hope?
6. The Rev. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas says that Christian hope holds hands with faith and love. How do you nourish your hope with faith and love, so it doesn’t fade away?
7. What does it look like to take hold of faith when we’re in a hopeless place?
8. What do you love so much that you would give everything, perhaps your very life, to protect it?
9. How do we share our deep Christian hope with people outside our congregations?
10. The video mentions Rebecca Solnit’s quote that “Action is impossible without hope,” and “Hope should shove you out the door.” How can you commit to the future so that the present is inhabitable?
11. The Rev. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas says that her ultimate hope is to be “the possibility of the presence and love of God being fully expressed in the world.” She invites us to name our ultimate hope and to live inside it. What is your ultimate hope?
The Episcopal Church and a new Season of Creation liturgy
Anglican Communion Environmental Network (ACEN) is creating a series of success stories about environmental justice at the parish and diocesan levels, “Action for Change: Mobilizing the Church for Environmental Justice.” ACEN released a webinar in which Rev. Margaret tells the story of how she and Rev. John Eliott Lein created a Season of Creation liturgy in 2023 that was authorized by 27 dioceses in the Episcopal Church. The video was just released and is about 7.5 minutes long.
I particularly commend two other short videos in this series: a video by the Rev. Laurel Dykstra about Salal + Cedar, the extraordinary eco-justice ministry that she founded in the Anglican Diocese of New Westminster, centered in Vancouver, British Columbia, and a video by the Rev. Rachel Mash (Environmental Coordinator for the Anglican Church of Southern Africa) on “Greening Your Canons,” a brilliant way, as she puts it, to “change the DNA of the Church.”
An Episcopal Path to Creation Justice launches pilot program!
In this brief video, Rev. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas and Rev. Rachel Field introduce An Episcopal Path to Creation Justice and explain how this exciting new program will support congregations to pray, learn, act, and advocate at deepening levels of commitment. The Path launched in October 2023 as a pilot program in eleven parishes in Province One, and we hope to make it available across the Episcopal Church in the summer of 2024. For more information about the Path, please visit the website now under development.
Why do we need to preach on Creation care?
In April 2023, Rev. Margaret gave the opening presentation for a webinar hosted by Church of England Environment Programme. The webinar, “Preaching for God’s World,” featured an international panel of speakers. Her presentation, “Why do we need to preach on Creation care?” is posted on the Church of England’s YouTube channel and at the top of this webpage: Environment in prayer, worship and teaching | The Church of England. The entire webinar is here: Preaching for God’s World Including the environment in your preaching – YouTube.
New! In 2023 the Anglican Communion released “Renewing the Life of the Earth: An Eco-Theology Resource.” Rev. Margaret contributed a 6-minute video about how the Church’s mission must change in a time of climate/ecological emergency. The new resource includes brief video presentations on ecological theology and practice from a range of voices across the Anglican Communion. It is designed for anyone who wants to start to engage with issues relating to ecological theology and practice. You can download the complete eco-theology resource here. It includes links to all the videos and a study guide that makes it easy for individuals and groups to explore and discuss the material. You can view Rev. Margaret’s video here
Spiritual resilience in a climate emergency
Rev. Margaret gave a 45-minute presentation in September 2022 at a Faith Forum for St. Paul’s Cathedral in the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego, followed by Q&A. She told the personal story behind her ministry, shared a brief PowerPoint on the ways that Christian faith informs our work to safeguard the web of life, and provided new opportunities to pray, learn, act, and advocate for God’s Creation.
ecoAmerica, Let’s Talk Climate: Season of Creation
Rev. Margaret was interviewed by Rev. Carol Devine, Director of Blessed Tomorrow, in a conversation about Season of Creation. In 2000, St. Stephen Lutheran Church in Adelaide, South Australia, celebrated the first Season of Creation. Since then, churches around the world have joined in celebrating Creation and deepening their commitment to climate solutions in the fall of each year. Rev. Margaret discussed the history and significance of this time-period, the many resources available, and how clergy and lay leaders can get involved.
The joy in climate justice: How we pray, learn, act and advocate for God’s Creation
Rev. Margaret gave a 45-minute keynote presentation in June for the 2022 annual meeting of Province One Episcopal Church Women, followed by Q&A. She told the personal story behind her ministry, shared a brief PowerPoint on the ways that Christian faith informs our work to safeguard the web of life, and explained how we can pray, learn, act, and advocate for God’s Creation – with joy.
Earth Sunday Sermon
“Earth Sunday and resurrection hope” was recorded for the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts, Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, and Southern New England Conference, United Church of Christ, to celebrate Earth Sunday and the Second Sunday of Easter (April 24, 2022).
“I wonder if we could learn to see the wounded Earth as revealing not only the harsh reality of sin, suffering, and death, but also as lit up with God’s undying love. I wonder what it would be like if, in tending to the wounded body of creation, we knew that we were also ministering to the wounds of Christ…”
A Body Prayer for Peace
Rev. Margaret offered a brief embodied prayer at the opening session of National Faith and Climate Forum, American Climate Leadership Summit 2022 (March 31, 2022). Please join her in praying for peace among nations and with Earth. A YouTube video of the prayer is here. The text of the prayer is here.
