Creation Care

Commission on Creation Care

Created October 2021

The purpose of the Commission on Creation Care is to engage Episcopal parishes in the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee to live sustainably as God commissioned us. All faith communities are welcome and encouraged to participate.

Statement of Beliefs: Earth and all life are God’s great gift. We have not been good stewards. Time is short. We must do our part in restoring God’s gift in a way that does not result in injustice to the vulnerable. We believe in the interdependent web of God’s creation.

Diocesan Creation Care Grants

Each year, the Commission on Creation Care offers ten grants for up to $1,000 per congregation. The grant proposals must support our mission to engage parishes in the Episcopal Diocese of Milwaukee to live sustainably as God commissioned us.

There are still grants available for 2024. This year's priority is energy audits/surveys through Focus on Energy and following the recommendations to reduce your carbon footprint. 

Creation Care Grant Application

Creation Care News

To read news updates from our Commission on Creation Care, including reports from parishes on how they are implementing their grants from the commission, please read our Creation Care News blog.

Our work is divided into three different categories following The Episcopal Church's format:

  • Loving Formation,
  • Liberating Advocacy, and
  • Life-giving Conservation

Below you will find resources and links organized using this format. For more information or to join us email .  

For God’s sake, we will grow our love for the Earth and all of life through preaching, teaching, storytelling, and prayer.

Worship

Book of Occasional Services 2018

Litany for Healing the Earth
Creation-Focused Worship Resources, Diocese of Massachusetts
Season of Creation: A Celebration Guide for Episcopal Parishes 2023

Prayer

Prayers of the People 1, Deacon Gregg Schneider
Prayers of the People 2, Deacon Gregg Schneider
Creation Sunday Prayers
Environmentally Responsive Lord’s Prayer, Church of England

Theology

Creation Theology, Matthew Fox
Real Presence, Richard Rohr

Study: For Adults

Wisconsin Initiative on Climate Change Impacts
Caring for Creation from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Faithful Resilience
Multi-Faith Environmental Curriculum from Faith in Place
Faith & Science Curriculum from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Educational Resources for All Ages from Creation Justice Ministries
Our Grandchildren’s Water curriculum developed by Faith in Place
Faith in Place Resources and Curriculum (Just Eating Curriculum, Multifaith Water Curriculum, Migration and Me Toolkit, Waste Toolkit, CSA Toolkit, Composting 101 Guide, Pollinator Garden Guide, Vegetable Garden Guide and more)
The "Ethics of Belonging" of Indigenous Traditions with Yuria Celidwen
The N.R.S.V. Coffee Hour Cookbook

Study: For Youth 

Climate Justice Curriculum for Youth and Young Adults These lesson plans are written by experienced church teachers using practical approaches to respond to the needs of volunteer teachers. They are designed to follow the Revised Common Lectionary and published by The Episcopal Church.

Season of Creation and Earth Day Resources

Weathering the Storm
Season of Creation

Resources 

  • Seven Simple Steps to Green Your Church by Rebekah Simon-Peter
  • Sustainable World Sourcebook: Critical Issues, Viable Solutions, Resources for Action
  • The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet by Leah Thomas
  • Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet by Hannah Ritchie

For God’s sake, standing alongside marginalized, vulnerable peoples, we will advocate through environmental justice, repairing creation, and seeking the liberation and flourishing of all people.

Becoming An Advocate

Advocacy Tools for Loving Your Neighbor: From the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America: "To advocate is to do the work of the spirit of God, which is nothing less than the work of love.  Advocacy is the practical work of love, seeking justice, working compassion, living humbly, advocating for equality, and human dignity for all, who have been created in the image and likeness of God."

How It Works: Becoming a Creation Justice Church in Five Steps The United Church of Christ’s Creation Justice Church program assists congregations in making the ministry of environmental justice an integral strand in the DNA of their faith community. A congregation can be designated as a Creation Justice Church by taking these five steps.

Resources

Episcopal Public Policy Network: As we are called by God to care for creation, The Episcopal Church supports policies that protect the natural resources that sustain all life on Earth. The Church calls for policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote sustainable energy, encourage the safe and just use of natural resources, and support communities impacted by a lack of environmental stewardship and environmental racism.  

United Church of Christ Environmental Justice Ministries

Creation Justice Ministries: Creation Justice Ministries (formerly the National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Program) represents the creation care and environmental justice policies of major Christian denominations throughout the United States. We work in cooperation with 38 national faith bodies including Protestant denominations and Orthodox communions as well as regional faith groups, and congregants to protect and restore God's Creation.

The RENEWAL Project and the Religious-Environmental Movement The RENEWAL Project has been designed to make the documentary and its inspiring stories available to people and organizations who want to be a part of this growing movement to protect life on our planet and reverse the damage that humans have done to the environment.

Faith in Place Environmental Advocacy: Communities across the world are facing the devastating impacts of climate change and environmental pollution. At Fatih in Place, we work with communities to educate and empower them to take action on environmental crises. We also recognize the disproportionate burden these crises have on historically disadvantaged communities and communities of color and work to ensure justice is centered in the solutions we support. Learn about the history of environmental racism, the policies we support, and ways to take action below.

5 Ways To Engage In Environmental Justice: Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright gives an instructive discourse on why environmental justice is so critical to progress.

Citizen's Climate Lobby: Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy climate change organization focused on national policies to address the national and global climate crisis.

For God’s sake, we will adopt practical ways of reducing our climate impact and living more humbly and gently on Earth as individuals, households, congregations, institutions, and dioceses.

Reduce Your Church’s Carbon Footprint

Click here for a step-by-step guide for reducing your church's carbon footprint.

How to Decarbonize Your Facility

Resources for Your Church

Carbon Tracker: A web-based application that helps individuals, households, congregations, and even dioceses to measure their carbon footprint and take steps to shrink it to fit a sustainable life.    

Cool Climate Calculator: A carbon footprint estimator, to figure out how much greenhouse gas you are emitting and how to cut down.

Focus on Energy 

Net Zero Toolkit (Scottish Episcopal Church)

Five Steps to Becoming a Cool Congregation

Good News Gardens

Install Renewable Energy at Your House of Worship from Faith in Place

Conservation Ideas for You and Your Home

Greening Your Personal Life and Environment
Conserve Energy Future
Refuse Single Use Plastic
Insulating and Weatherizing Your Home
Getting Away from Plastics

Renewable Energy Funding Sources

  1. Midwest Renewable Energy Association: Promoting clean energy, energy efficiency, and sustainable living through education and demonstration since 1990.
  2. RENEW Wisconsin: A broad spectrum to make sure every Wisconsinite has access to sources of clean power
  3. Couillard Solar Foundation: We have one mission: to help Wisconsin nonprofits get solar for their organizations.  
  4. Solar Power Purchase Agreement: from SEIA, the national trade association for the US solar industry
  5. Legacy Solar Co-op: Together we can build a solar legacy in Wisconsin.
  6. Interfaith Power & Light: Federal funding for energy work at houses of worship
  7. Episcopal Renewable Energy Non-profit (EREN)
  8. Green Team Coaches | Faith in Place: Start your own Green Team.  

Educational Videos

Geothermal 101: Making a Zero-Carbon Energy Future a Reality from Clean Energy for America

A Natural Solution to Climate Change What we do between now and 2030 will determine whether we can slow warming enough to avoid climate change’s worst impacts. We must drastically cut emissions and remove some carbon from the atmosphere. Fortunately, plants naturally absorb and store carbon. By protecting natural habitats and carefully managing farmland and forests, we can store billions of tons of this “living carbon.” 

The Letter: A Message to the Earth In 2015, Pope Francis wrote The Letter, an encyclical on the environmental crisis. Pope Francis and climate activists around the world share the same concern. 

Resources

Saving Us: A Climate Scientist's Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World by Katharine Hayhoe
Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming edited by Paul Hawken
The Lorax by Dr. Suess
A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet
52 Ways to Care for Creation—One step each week of the year.
10 Tips for Your Green Team from Faith in Place