Together for the Love of Creation: Earth Week 2024

Walking in Creation, I am filled with a love for all that surrounds me.... This abundant life is hurt and threatened by our greenhouse gas emissions and consequent warming of the planet. Livelihoods around the world are being disrupted. We need to summon a fierce love and act together. During Earth Week, April 21‒28, let’s show up For the Love of Creation. 
—Moderator the Right Rev. Dr. Carmen Lansdowne

During Earth Week 2024, The United Church of Canada is joining with numerous denominations and faith-based organizations under one banner, Together for the Love of Creation.

Communities of faith, networks, and regions are invited to initiate and participate in climate justice events during the week of April 21‒28 to pray, learn, and act for the love of Creation.

This is a tremendous opportunity for the church to lift up and strengthen the ways that we are putting our house in order by reducing our carbon footprint; raising our spirited voices through advocacy efforts; connecting with the earth; responding to climate impacts; and challenging ourselves to be deep, bold, and daring.

Hold an event to share these initiatives with others. Learn from and collaborate with our friends in faith. Attend an event already being organized. Be a catalyst for climate justice. Last year, more than 80 communities of faith participated. Together, we can make this year even bigger with a wider impact.

Mark Earth Week in a way that reflects and challenges your community.

Some ideas to get you started

• Pray: Include special prayers in your service. Hold a prayer service in Creation. Try Forest Bathing, Wild Church, or Hiking Church. An Earth Sunday Service (April 21) is posted on our EarthSunday worship page.
• Learn: Hold or attend an open house to share the greening efforts on your property through Faithful Footprints Retrofit Tours. Host a Faithful Climate Conversation. Invite a speaker (UN Climate Change Conference [COP] delegate, Climate Motivator, etc.)—e-mail for suggestions. Hold a “resurrect your bike” event.
• Act: Meet with elected officials about climate policy. Sign the Give it up for the Earth/For the Love of Creation open letter to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Organize a collective carbon footprint audit. Participate in an Indigenous-led land-based activity. Hold or attend a community Parade for Life on Earth or an Earthfest.

Additional resources to inspire your planning and to register your event are on the For the Love of Creation website.

All events will be posted on an interactive map.

The first four events posted provide a taste of the creativity and variety ahead: a presentation on Microplastics in Lake Winnipeg at Westworth United, a city-wide Earthfest in London, For the Beauty of the Earth Nature Retreat at Five Oaks Retreat Centre, and an Earth Sunday Service in Parksville, BC.

All are invited to attend an online EarthDay Prayer Circle on Monday, April 22, 2024, at 5 pm MT/7 pm ET hosted by Urban Indigenous Circle and For the Love of Creation.
 

Register and view events: Together for the Love of Creation Earth Week registration and map.

We encourage you to share your event on social media using hashtags #FLCPrayLearnAct #UCCan. E-mail if you have questions.

Background

On Earth Day in 2020, faith groups and faith-based organizations in Canada came together to launch For the Love of Creation. This national initiative, of which The United Church of Canada is an active member, is a unified banner to mobilize education, reflection, action, and advocacy for climate justice. It is faith-based and theologically grounded, and centres Indigenous self-determination and youth empowerment.

Working together through the For the Love of Creation enables effective ecumenical collaboration at the local and national levels for The United Church of Canada.

The United Church of Canada’s climate effort has local, regional, national, and global expressions in the areas of Putting Our House in Order, Raising Our Spirited Voices, Connecting with the Earth, and Responding to Climate Impacts.

Read more on our Climate Change page.

For the Love of Creation is co-endorsed by The Anglican Church of Canada, Primate and National Indigenous Anglican Archbishop, Canadian Religious Conference, Canadian Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Citizens for Public Justice, Congrégation de Notre-Dame, Congrégation de Notre-Dame, Visitation Province, Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy of Newfoundland, Development and Peace-Caritas Canada, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, Faith & the Common Good, Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Canada, Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, Green Churches Network, Grey Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, Jesuit Forum for Social Faith and Justice, KAIROS Canada, Martha Justice Ministry, Sisters of St. Martha, Mennonite Central Committee, Mennonite Church Canada, Mercy Centre for Ecology and Justice, Mouvement Laudato Si’ Movement – Canada, The Office of Religious Congregations for Integral Ecology (ORCIE), OMI Lacombe Province, OMI Notre Dame du Cap, Our Lady’s Missionaries, Presbyterian Church in Canada, The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund (PWRDF), Religions pour la Paix Québec Interfaith Climate Action Committee, Scarboro Missions, Sisters of Charity of the Immaculate Conception, Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions, Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul, Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada, Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto, The Sisters of St. Joseph of Sault Ste. Marie, Sorrento Centre, The United Church of Canada, and World Renew.