Creation Care Alliance of Western North Carolina
Earth Day Vigil 2018
Sunday, April 22, 5:30-7:30 pm at First Baptist Church, 5 Oak Street, Asheville, NC 28801
The Creation Care Alliance of Western North Carolina invites you to join us for a vigil celebrating God’s creation and calling on people of faith to care for it. We will gather outside of First Baptist Church for an afternoon of song, reflection, and to hear messages of inspiration and action from local faith and community leaders. All are welcome!
About Three Great Loves. The Three Loves of Love of Creation, Neighbor, and Child are found in many faith traditions and histories. The United Church of Christ denomination is focusing on The Three Great Loves as they work to care for the world in the next few years. Our Creation Care Alliance team found the intersectionality of this movement a compelling theme for Earth Day 2018.
What Lent Can Teach Us About Uncertainty and Action
As spring emerges around us, some Christians are observing the season of Lent, a 40-day period of sacrifice and preparation prior to Easter Sunday. While Easter is a celebration of new life, forgiveness, and wholeness, Lent takes on a more introspective and somber tone, reflecting the defining moments in the wilderness in the early stories of Jesus. The beginning of this period is marked by Ash Wednesday, when ashes are placed on the foreheads of the gathered to indicate grief, humility and repentance. Ash Wednesday blessings often use the words: “Remember, you are from dust and to dust you return.” Men, women, children, babies, students, executives, coal miners, bartenders, everybody who chooses to receive ashes on their foreheads at this time are reminded of the fragility, gifts and natural cycles of life. Read More
Education
The Creation Care Alliance of Western North Carolina aims to bring together morally-driven citizens and organizations, whether they are clergy, congregations, people of faith, or other community members, to support and expand our creation care efforts through inspiration, education, service and advocacy.
We work with many partner organizations, faith leaders and topic area experts to host educational events and share information and resources with our supporters. Examples of nationally renowned leaders in the movement for climate justice who we have invited to Asheville for events include Katharine Hayhoe, Tim DeChristopher, and John Frey. In partnership with The Wake Forest School of Divinity, we are hosting a Clergy Retreat with Dr. Norman Wirzba. We have hosted panel discussions as a part of the Wild Goose Festival in Hot Springs, NC where we bring an inter-faith perspective to discussions on current climate change issues. We also offer two experiences with a youth focus with Mission: Earth and the SOIL Conference. Check out our events calendar to see upcoming opportunities to learn with us or visit our resource page to access the valuable information you can use in working within your own community to advance creation care.
Take Action!
Join us for an educational program to learn about ways you can care for creation.
Advocacy
The Creation Care Alliance of Western North Carolina aims to bring together morally-driven citizens and organizations, whether they are clergy, congregations, people of faith, or other community members, to support and expand our creation care efforts through inspiration, education, service, and advocacy.
We compassionately advocate at all levels of government for better policies that will protect creation for future generations and protect vulnerable populations from the disastrous impacts of climate change. Ways we advocate range from traveling to Raleigh, NC to meet face to face with our elected representatives to talk about our policy priorities, tracking proposed legislation and alerting our members about opportunities for public comment on both policy threats and policy opportunities, and also explaining our policy positions to our members and the general public through letters to the editor, blog posts, and events so that our supporters can be prepared to voice their own concerns to their elected officials. We hope you will join with us in making sure our elected leaders have the information they need to take care of the earth in the same way we ask that they take care of the people they represent.
Service
The Creation Care Alliance of Western North Carolina (CCA) aims to bring together morally-driven citizens and organizations, whether they are clergy, congregations, people of faith, or other community members, to support and expand our creation care efforts through inspiration, education, service, and advocacy.
We seek to live out a life of service where we find joy in caring for our neighbors and creation. CCA supports the service activities already being expressed in local congregations and communities. We also offer and coordinate service opportunities such as the Youth Service Learning day called Mission: Earth as well as non-native invasive plant removals, community garden improvements, planting live stakes along rivers to prevent sediment erosion, and more. We advertise our upcoming service workdays on our event calendar and we hope you’ll take a look and see if you are available to join us soon to live out our faith by giving back to our community and helping steward creation.
Inspiration
The Creation Care Alliance of Western North Carolina aims to bring together morally-driven citizens and organizations, whether they are clergy, congregations, people of faith, or other community members, to support and expand our creation care efforts through inspiration, education, service, and advocacy.
By coming together to experience gratitude, hope, and awe at the wonders of God’s creation we aim to inspire our supporters to take action to fight the injustices done to it. We have helped lead our annual Earth Day Vigil, a Paris Climate Talks prayer walk along the French Broad River, spiritually centered hikes, and book studies that have grown the heart and mind. We find that our spiritual lives and the people and creatures are connected in deep ways and are able to find resilience in the joy and gratitude of encountering the Sacred in nature and within one another.
Moving beyond coal – and the rhetoric around it. Guest Columnist Sarah Ogletree and Abbey Ende
Posted on by Scott Hardin-Nieri
Sarah Ogletree
CCA Intern, Sarah Ogletree and Asheville High School Student, Abbey Ende wrote a column for the Asheville Citizen-Times regarding coal and hopes for the future. They wrote:
“To address the complicated social, environmental, and economic issues of coal in America, we must hear from multiple sides of the story. We must listen to the Read More
Category: CCA in the News, Latest News, Public Comments & Testimony, Reflections, Uncategorized