Actions and Campaigns

Living for the Earth: Choosing Creation over Empire

At the 2006 General Council the report Living Faithfully in the Midst of Empire, created as one of the United Church's responses to globalization and increasing levels of global militarization, was accepted.

Diverse resources are available to provide a variety of opportunities to learn more about the concept of empire, see how it impacts our lives, explore our complicity, and develop ways to both challenge it and create more just and joyful alternatives. Visit the Globalization page for in-depth information and further reading on empire.

Every two years, the United Church begins a new mission theme as a focus for study, prayer, and action, using diverse resources including the May editions of Mandate magazine. The United Church's mission theme from September 2009 to 2011 is "Living for the Earth: Choosing Creation over Empire.”

The logo designed for "Challenging Empire" by Joyce Cosby represents this using the image of people working together to pull at a net that represents unjust systems that oppress people and hold the Earth captive. These include globalization, militarization, consumerism, ecological destruction, racism, and sexism. With this work, all of creation begins to burst free.

What Can I Do?

Focus on Empire in Worship

• Plan your Advent and Christmas services with Worshipping Faithfully in the Midst of Empire, available from UCRD.
• Use the intergenerational outline in the May 2009 mission theme Mandate for an intergenerational ecotheological worship service.
• Use worship services from the Challenging Empire mission theme Mandates that introduce empire (May 2007)  [PDF: 3 pp/107 KB] or focus on empire and racial power (May 2008).

Learn Together

• Book the "empire animator" for a workshop tailored to fit your group and interests. Read the attached flyer [PDF: 2 pp/141 KB] and contact us for more information.
• Use the "What's on the Menu?" Bible study to reflect on food, faith, and justice.
• Try the intergenerational "Reconnecting with Creation" workshop with a small group or learn more about the 100-mile Diet, both in the 2009 mission theme Mandate.
• Order the study kit Challenging Empire: Justice Seeking in Your Faith Community, available from UCRDstore. Two supplementary study sessions are available online that give additional options for adult groups using Challenging Empire: Stories and Activities to Transform Your Community.
• Use the Covenanting for Justice Online Curriculum's five downloadable study group outlines with Bible passages, questions, prayers, background information, and a facilitator's guide. Each session also has an engaging online video. Look at climate change, farming, mining, sweatshop industries, and the church's response to empire through the Accra Confession. This resource is produced by the Caribbean and North American Area Council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, of which the United Church is a member.
• Use diverse worship and study materials in the Challenging Empire mission theme Mandates that introduce empire (May 2007) or focus on empire and racial power (May 2008).
• Use this brief guide to using the empire materials [PDF: 2 pp/81 KB] to find out which resources work best with different types of groups.

For Children

• Use "Nokomis and I: A Story about the Web of Life" or watch the video to learn about respect for all life from an Aboriginal perspective with children or in an intergenerational group. Find specific activity ideas to accompany the story in the 2010 mission theme Mandate.
• Check out the "Journey from Empire" board game for children ages 8–12.
• Order the Children Challenging Empire five-session program on its own or as part of the larger Challenging Empire: Justice Seeking in Your Faith Community study kit. 

Take Action

Check out our Take Action page, and look at how you can speak out against globalization, ecological destruction, militarization, racism, and other kinds of oppression.

Policy

The report Living Faithfully in the Midst of Empire, presented to the United Church's 39th General Council in 2006; the Accra Confession, a powerful statement of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches; and To Seek Justice and Resist Evil, a United Church report focusing on global economic injustice based on stories from global partners; all give a more in-depth perspective on empire. More information about these documents can be found on the Globalization page.