The 2025 Annual UCC Earth Summit held in April featured keynote speaker Katharine Hayhoe, one of the world’s leading climate scientists and an evangelical Christian. Katharine spoke to members of our church in early 2020 during a New Light service at the invitation of the Green Team, and we continue to find hope and inspiration in her work. She is particularly well known for her ability to bridge divides on climate issues, often engaging with people who hold different political or religious beliefs. She emphasizes the importance of finding common ground and having productive conversations about climate change.
Of the greatest takeaways that our Team took away from her most recent keynote was that CONVERSATIONS about why climate change matters and what people can do about it is one of the most important contributions that we can make. She encouraged us to “make our actions contagious by talking about them.” The Green Team finds hope and inspiration from one another in our monthly meetings and we wanted to invite the entire congregation into a conversation over the next few weeks. We would love to collect answers from all of you to this question: What are you doing to care for God’s creation? You will find 3x5 index cards in the Sanctuary to share your thoughts or you can add your comments to this google form. Feel free to respond multiple times! We will share what we hear from all of you on the bulletin board in Fellowship Hall and in future newsletters.
Katharine shared the words of Greta Thunberg in her presentation: “The one thing we need more than hope is action. Once we start to act, hope is everywhere.” As faithful members of Midd UCC, we know that we can find hope in the actions of this beloved community. We look forward to this conversation with you!
Thank you to everyone who participated in the Green Team’s 5th Annual Seedling Giveaway! We were able to provide 220 plants to CVOEO this year in addition to sending many home with our congregants. Our next Green Team meeting will be on Monday, June 16 at 7:00 PM via Zoom. We will not be meeting over the summer months, but plan to brainstorm activities for the fall at this next meeting. If you are interested in being a part of fulfilling our mission as a Creation Justice Church we would love to have you join us! Contact any of our members (Eliana Cañas Parra, Diana Davidson, Hal Colston, Judy Jessup, Leanna Maglienti, Su Reid-St. John, and Paige Russell) or office@midducc if you would like to be involved or learn more about our work.