The 43rd Annual Rural Ministry Conference
March 3-5, 2024
Best Western Hotel and Conference Center, Dubuque, Iowa
The Creation Groans, the Creation Waits,
the Creation Hopes, the Creation Sings:
Congregations Responding to Climate Change
An Invitation from the Director of the Center for Theology and Land, Rev. Dr. Mark Yackel-Juleen:
You might remember in 2023 wildfires ravaged Maui, Hawaii. The impact is still being felt. On a human level, it is tragic, but I was particularly aware of the well-being of the 150-year-old Banyan Tree at courthouse square, a non-human part of God’s creation. My family sat on its branches and rested under its canopy and felt its role in the history and life and community of Lahaina Town and Maui. We hear from a tree specialist that it is still producing sap and still absorbing moisture through its roots—that it may still live. But the expert said, “It is traumatized.” At the same time, wildfires burned in Canada and my eyes were sore in NE Iowa from the haze crossing international boarders, fires burned in Greece, Australia, and in Spain. Epic floods and heat waves were recorded in the US and around the globe. For the first time in recorded history a hurricane hit Southern California. The creation is groaning, waiting, and hoping.
As part, the human part, of God’s creation, God’s word reminds us that we are intimately related to, and co-dependent with all of creation. And we as humans are uniquely oriented as co-stewards with God of God’s creation. Small town and rural congregations have an intimate relationship to land and food production and natural resources, which give them important insight into the issues of climate change. But all congregations—rural or urban, small or large—are impacted by the challenges of climate change and are equally called by God’s word to respond. Let us gather and learn—what we are called to do, what we can do, and what others are doing. And let us stimulate dialogue across congregational contexts and denominations, rural and urban, small and large, and explore how we are already and how yet we need to tip the groaning, waiting, hoping, of creation into singing.
Our Keynote Speakers and our Bible Study Leader will engage us in theological reflection, and our breakout sessions and workshops will inspire us with examples of how to faithfully engage this calling on behalf of creation and provide opportunity to dialogue, dream, and network in practical ways toward that goal.
