Celebrating Faith, Climate, Action Week
April 19 – 28, 2024
Faith Climate Action Week is ten days in April, during Earth Month, when Interfaith Power & Light (IPL) challenges groups and congregations to focus on how we can all take action to protect our climate. The 2024 theme is Common Ground: Cultivating Connections betw
een Food, Faith, and Climate.
Faith Climate Action Week is Interfaith Power & Light’s premier week of climate action. Many groups have taken an opportunity to provide sermons, worship services, educational events, and hands-on-action to show that people of faith are leading the way to heal our climate. It is a 10-day period of activities in celebration around Earth Day. With the help of faith centered humans, “Faith Climate Action Week has reached close to 2-million people with more than 5,000 climate and Earth stewardship sermons and talks nationwide” since it began in 2016. IPL provides resources for our use to share the message. We appreciate the ability to adapt those resources for our use and acknowledge that many of the writings shared here are adapted from those resources.
As we reflect on our roles on the earth, contemplate how we make decisions about purchasing and/or growing our food, and consider our earth and climate during this time, it is critical to acknowledge and deepen the connections between our faith, our earth, and the food we consume. We all must make an effort to ‘connect the dots’ because everything, everywhere and everyone is connected.
(Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash )
Connecting Food and Faith
April 19, 2024
Faith traditions all over the world include food and/or specific food practices. Recall a time when someone nurtured your spirit and your faith by sharing food.
Our Christian faith is closely tied to food. Jesus told us to “feed the hungry”. We know bible stories about Jesus feeding crowds of people that had come to hear him preach. Before that, God provided manna to the faithful as they wandered the dessert. Our places of worship often include nurturing of our bodies as well as our souls. This year, as we begin the recognition of Faith, Climate, Action Week, recall a time that someone has nurtured your spirit and faith by sharing food.
Garden in Zambia, Africa
Connections from the Beginning
April 22, 2024
All major faith traditions call humans to care for the earth. How do your faith beliefs connect to your decisions about purchasing or growing food?
Our Christian creation story begins with humans being created from dust and placed in a garden to care for it. Through the ages, communities of religious have had gardens to help supply food for themselves and others. It’s likely that each of us can recall a garden a friend or relative cared for. For many of us, we may only be removed a generation or two from a large garden that fed the family, and often extra to share. All major faith traditions call humans to care for the earth. Today, consider how your faith beliefs connect to your decisions on purchasing or growing food.
Presentation Land Restoration Project
Connecting to the Present
April 23, 2024
Modern industrial agriculture practices have allowed us to grow food more abundantly and cheaply than ever before, but at the cost of the health of our soil. Tilling and chemical inputs degrade the soil, inhibiting its ability to hold water and carbon.
So, what are we doing now … Our Presentation Congregation has embarked on a Prairie Restoration Project on the north side of Aberdeen. Since 2021, this project has sought to restore the land to it’s original (pre-colonization) state. Now we are beginning to share what we have learned and will be inviting more people to walk within the project or attend events on the land.
CLICK HERE for more information about the Prairie Restoration Project.
Presentation Land Restoration Project
Connecting to the Future …
April 24, 2024
Healthy soil helps solve the climate crisis. Using conservation practices to grow our food restores the carbon balance by reducing carbon loss from the soil and drawing down carbon from the atmosphere where it is a problem, putting it in the soil where it is a solution. Many exemplary farmers are already farming for Creation by caring for the soil. Our health and the health of the soil are connected. Healthy soil leads to healthy humans and animals, healthy water, and healthy climate.
Our Presentation Sisters Congregation is proud to both partner with and sponsor events run by the South Dakota Grassland Coalition, South Dakota Soil Health Coalition, South Dakota Grasslands Initiative, and Pasque Hill at Beaver Creek. Together these groups are working to promote legacy and regenerative practices on the family farm while also working to ensure our youth are learning soil health principles to steward out lands well into the future.
CLICK HERE for more information about the Prairie Restoration Project.
Connections of Influence
April 25, 2024
Each person can make a difference in someone else’s life. Actions need not be complicated … from a simple smile and a gracious Hello, to the offering of “extras” we have to someone in need, we are called to be in service to one another.
Many times, it may just take the actions of one to start something new and innovative. By inviting like-minded people to join you, ideas grow and expand with excitement and action. We invite you to learn more about programs to help others in your own local area … from donating food and/or clothing to a shelter, to supporting a local farmer’s market or learning more about volunteer opportunities, find something that you are passionate about and invite others to join you in making a difference.
Connecting of Support
April 26, 2024
“We can’t heal the world today but we can begin with a voice of compassion, a heart of love, an act of kindness.” Mary Davis
The Gospel calls us to help one another, to support one another in all we do. There are numerous ways we can support one another … one way someone could help is by volunteering at a community garden. Does this community garden need tools or seeds, do they need volunteers for weeding or watering? Offering to help is the start of building community relationships, strengthening and uplifting our neighbors and friends who may be in need.
Photo by Megan Thomas on Unsplash
Connections for Growth
April 27, 2024
When thinking of the environment, what are my actions of today leaving for the next generation? Are there small things that each of us could do better on a daily basis … using recycled grocery bags, omitting the use of excess plastic, conserving water, planting a tree? Sharing conservation tips with our friends and neighbors will not only help our Earth, but also help one another.
God is calling us to be good stewards of the land and good stewards to each other. Have you ever thought about growing a food garden, not only for yourself, but to also provide support for neighbors or local community members who may be in need? This could be a garden in your own backyard or a community garden plot. It could be something you do by yourself, with a friend, or a group. One could partner with a local church, or youth club and learn to work together, building community and sharing the harvest.
The Total Connection
April 28, 2024
Throughout this week we have highlighted ways in which healthy soil helps solve the climate crisis. Using conservation practices to grow our food restores the carbon balance by reducing carbon loss from the soil and drawing down carbon from the atmosphere where it is a problem, putting it in the soil where it is a solution.
During Faith Climate and Action week we have continually used words like “us”, “together”, “connection” or “partner”. Like the climate, our soil and our food, we are all integrally connected. We are not alone in our efforts. We invite you to join us and hope that you seek new ways to partner with others and find opportunities to make lessons from this week stronger. When we all care for one another together, we all can flourish!