Justice for All God’s Creation

 

by Mindy Hidenfelter

A small, historic church congregation since 1850, Pittsboro Presbyterian is located in the primarily rural (but rapidly developing) Chatham County, North Carolina. A six-member Creation Justice team at the church, facilitated by member Gary Simpson, found inspiration from the 2015 Presbyterians for Earth Care Conference in picturesque Montreat, NC. The team made the decision to pursue certification as an Earth Care Congregation. Thus began their journey into creative earth care outreach.

As shared by Gary, “Upon becoming an official Earth Care Congregation of the PC(USA) in 2019, I proposed to the group that we start a Creation Justice Blog on the congregation website to help in fulfilling our Earth Care Pledge in the areas of Education and Outreach and volunteered to write the posts. I felt this would be one way to keep Creation Justice in front of the congregation and anyone else who would visit the website.” Thus began the online journey of the Earth Justice team’s prophetic voice, through a blog that has evolved over time with posts increasingly discussing social justice issues as they relate to the environment.

A four-person task force was formed to pull the blog posts into a book format. The publication process for Justice for All Creation: Essays from an Earth Care Congregation  was an unexpectedly lengthy and complex undertaking. The result of the team’s efforts is an approachable and grounded book which, as Gary mentions on the back cover, presents a collection of essays highlighting “the voices of many modern prophets and serve to chronicle and confront issues related to the health of the planet, democracy, Christianity and social justice.”

When determining which blog posts to include in the book, the task force intentionally selected a cross-section of all forms of justice issues, undeterred by popular sentiment that favors “safer” and less controversial topics.

When asked for advice to others who feel the call to use their voice to speak for creation justice, Gary suggests trying all forms of media available. For many congregations, this may mean newsletters, blogs, and churchwide events and announcements. He also recommends pulling inspiration and ideas from others. In fact, PPC Earth Justice’s blog post from May 8, 2022 even features Presbyterians for Earth Care and its influence as an “Earth Care Champion”! The Pittsboro Presbyterian Church Earth Justice team sets a fine example of a small but mighty voice on behalf of our shared planet, inspiring us all to speak up and act out.

 

Mindy Hidenfelter serves as the Coordinator for Presbyterians for Earth Care. She lives with her family in Wake Forest, NC and facilitates the Wake Forest Presbyterian Church Earth Care Team.