Caring for Creation

We at Holy Trinity are deeply concerned for the enormous spiritual challenge facing the planet—loss of biodiversity and increasing harm to God’s beautiful creation.

Our church and individual members have done much to address this challenge, including worship themes, physical plant upgrades and efficiencies, wind-sourced energy subscriptions, efficient car/bicycle use, and legislative advocacy. We continue to commit to these important actions.

However, these steps are not sufficient to match the looming crisis. Our youth particularly recognize individual actions alone are not enough and systemic changes are urgently needed.

In response to these concerns, Holy Trinity’s Caring for Creation group drafted a Statement of Urgent Concern for the Care of Creation, which the congregation approved in January, 2020.

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church Statement of Urgent Concern for the Care of Creation

God has blessed humankind with an abundant planet as our home, a habitat teeming with life, clean air, fresh water, awe-inspiring in fruitfulness, complexity, and beauty. We share this vast Earth community of life with all creatures, both human kind and other kind. As people of faith, we acknowledge that the human vocation is to “till and keep” Earth as a garden, even as we draw from it all that we need to live. (Genesis 2:15). The Christian peoples of modern Western Europe and the United States of America and the economic systems we have developed are failing disastrously in this calling. Driven by a will to dominate both nature and neighbor with a culture of aggressive industrialization and economic imperialism, we have badly abused this home. Furthermore, we have unjustly burdened colonized and Indigenous Peoples with a deteriorating environment, loss of life, removal from homelands, worsening impacts of climate change, and the loss of species and habitat. Yet despite the dire state of the living world, we believe that we can still curb our destructive ways – and must do so urgently – if only we hear God’s call, open our eyes, and lend our hands to the restoration of creation.

Therefore, as members of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, we resolve:

• To feature the principles of Creation Care prominently in church communications, services, and programming, and to use these channels to call our congregants to urgent action in defense of God’s living world.
• To participate actively and effectively in broader actions that promote environmental concern and justice within our local, national, global, and faith-based communities, recognizing that fundamental system changes are needed. In particular, we pledge to support the leadership of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and Youth communities in efforts to gain environmental justice and a sustainable future for all.
• To conduct all church business — including its investments, facility improvements, maintenance, purchasing, and waste management — in a manner that minimizes our carbon footprint and promotes clean air, clean water, and biodiversity.