Lutherans Restoring Creation (LRC) is an exciting new initiative designed to encourage the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to incorporate care for creation into its full life and mission at all levels. LRC is inviting ELCA members to become partners in these efforts at the congregational, synodical, seminary, and national church levels.
Our goal is to incorporate a caring for creation ethic more fully into ELCA worship, educational programs, responsibility for buildings and grounds, lifestyle of members at home and work, and our public ministry, such that “earthkeeping” and justice for the whole Earth community becomes integral to the identity and purpose of our church. We believe that God calls us to this work, in this kairos moment of both crisis and opportunity. At this time, Lutherans Restoring Creation is guided by a Steering Committee comprised of Alycia Ashburn, George Davis, Mary Minette, Keith Mundy, Mark Peters, David Rhoads, Russ Senti, and Kim Winchell, with other committed persons serving as consultants. Lutherans Restoring Creation is supported by a grant from the Lutheran Community Foundation, a faith-based community foundation working nationally to help people give where they find their strongest connections. To learn more about the Foundation, please visit www.TheLCF.org. Your contributions to our work are welcome! LRC Profiles Autobiographical sketches and personal testimonies of some of the people who are part of Lutherans Restoring Creation. Find them here. OUR HISTORY Roots Lutherans Restoring Creation has arisen out of a long Lutheran tradition of reflection and action on addressing environmental concerns from the perspective of our faith and theology.
Most recently, this new initiative grows out of the important foundational work of the Lutheran Earthkeeping Network of the Synods or “LENS,” a small, dedicated network that has existed in one form or another, since 1997.
Through the years, LENS has held retreats and workshops, prepared resource materials for congregations, provided information about earth-friendly laws and policies, and maintained a web presence through the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago via the “Web of Creation,” an ecumenical organization providing environmental resources for faith communities. See www.webofcreation.org/LENS/synods.html.
Lutherans Restoring Creation is proud and eager to take up the mantle for this work, with gratitude for the many hearts, minds, and hands that have laid such a good and faithful foundation for our current efforts.
Thanks be to God, for all who have heard God’s call – and prophetically challenged the rest of us – to be about the mission and ministry of caring for our Lord’s good creation! The History of LENS LENS has functioned since 1997 as a network of people affiliated with congregational, synod-level, regional, and churchwide units within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America devoted to the task of caring for God's creation. Its mission has been to foster the development of an earthkeeping network of synods across the ELCA and to share information and resources—events, ideas, activities, and programs—in support of earthkeeping efforts. From May 15-18, 1997, more than 250 delegates from a variety of Orthodox and Protestant traditions, as well as some other visitors, attended the Eco-Justice Working Group Summit in Estes Park, Colorado. Meeting at the scenic, rustic YMCA of the Rockies, they exchanged ideas, shared experiences, and worshiped together in their common mission of honoring God's creation. Among those delegates were two dozen members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. As the conference allowed one hour each day for denominational gatherings, some people discussed in advance the need to use the ELCA's denominational gatherings to build a network among synodical environmental committees. Such a grassroots network had never before existed, but Region 5, which consists of Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, had had experience with organizing a regional training retreat and maintaining some communication among synodical efforts concerning environmental stewardship. Jim Schwab, the chair of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod's Environmental Concerns Working Group, conferred with various people, including Dr. Job Ebenezer, who was the ELCA's Director of Environmental Stewardship at this time, about the possibilities inherent in planning such a nationwide network. When the delegates met, everyone was almost immediately in agreement on the necessity of charting such an effort before they left Estes Park. In four hours of meetings over four days, they developed a mission statement and mapped out ideas for future action. To see delegates who attended the founding LENS meetings are listed here. At the NCC Eco-Justice conference in Washington DC in 2001, a group of earthkeepers from the ELCA again met in caucus to plan and vision their work. They met about filling the position left by Job Ebenezer at churchwide, in addition to naming four primary goals for LENS:
In addition, the group began to organize the website and listserv, organized ways to connect with other Lutheran justice organizations and began working to change ecological practices in the ELCA. For more information, full notes from the 2001 Washington, DC meeting are listed here. The Caring for Creation Now Consultation was held in Mundelein, Illinois on November 5-7, 2003. Sixty persons representing various synods, congregations and interests within the ELCA attended the consultation. Eleven Churchwide staff members also were present. The consultation began by affirming the Social Statement, yet seeking ways to make it more effective in creating change. During the consultation, passion quickly turned to participatory action. Citing the need for more resources, a Caring for Creation liturgy was developed and work begun on a sample synod resolution making environmental concerns a priority issue of the ELCA. Workgroups were formed. Information sharing among a growing network will be accomplished through the Lutheran Earthkeeping Network of the Synods (LENS) listserv and web page hosted on the Web of Creation website as well as through ELCA Division for Church in Society and Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs web and print communications. Notes the Consultation on the Tenth Anniversary of the Caring for Creation Statement held November 5-7, 2003 in Mundelein, Illinois are here: Statement of the Consultation "Caring for Creation...for the Healing of the World."Report from the Consultation and Agenda for Caring for Creation Churchwide Consultation In January 2005, a small of group of LENS members gathered together for a organizational meeting in Mundelein, Illinois. At this conference, much strategizing as well as planning for the Fall gathering took place. In October of 2005, a group of earthkeepers from throughout the ELCA gathered together in Minneapolis, Minnesota, hoping to and achieving five primary goals. In our time together we:
Further groundwork – January 2008 More recently, an earthkeeping “visioning” consultation was held at the ELCA Churchwide Offices in January of 2008. Several long-time LENS participants, plus representatives of several churchwide units and one bishop, attended this meeting to discuss ways to bring a higher awareness and active involvement in caring for creation to all expressions of the ELCA.
The following informational report was shared with the Council of Bishops in March 2008:
Churchwide “Earthkeeping Consultation” Jan 16-17, 2008 ~ Summary Report ~
WHAT the event was about: Bringing together 14 participants, representing different units of the ELCA as well as long-standing interested parties [theologians, laity, and rostered leaders] to the ELCA’s “story” and efforts to lift up the care of creation as an important part of this church’s ministry in being “sent for the sake of the world.”
WHO participated? Participation was by invitation (though not all who were invited were able to attend). The impetus for convening this “visioning” meeting came from a mutual interest and shared funding by the EOCM Unit (Keith Mundy, Stewardship) and CS (office of Mary Minette, ELCA Director for Environmental Education & Advocacy). Kim Winchell, a diaconal minister in the N/W Lower MI Synod, served in the role of meeting planner, convener, and discussion facilitator.
Participants Keith Mundy, Stewardship, EOCM Mary Minette, Director, Environmental Ed. & Adv., ELCA Washington Office Tammy Devine, Diaconal Minister, and ELCA Wellness Coordinator, BOP Russ Senti, Director, Lutheran Outdoor Ministries Center, Oregon, IL John D. Schleicher, Bishop, N/W Lower MI Synod and Bishops Environmental “Ready Bench” Dr. David Rhoads, LSTC, Web of Creation, Green Congregations Program Dr. H. Paul Santmire, theologian, author, ELCA pastor, and co-author of the ELCA 1993 social statement on creation Lynette Stott, Director, ELCA State Public Policy Offices Heidi Hagstrom, Director for ELCA Youth Gathering 2009 Bob Sitze, Director, ELCA Hunger Education Program Mark Peters, Director, Lutheran Coalition for Public Policy in Minnesota Rev. Dennis Ormseth, Green Congregation program, Minnesota Rev. Nelson Bock, Faculty, Religion Dept. of Wartburg College, and Colorado Interfaith Power & Light Kim Winchell, Diaconal Minister, Earthkeeping Ministries, N/W Lower MI Synod
PURPOSES of the Consultation:
OUTCOMES
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