Creation Care

We live in the Anthropocene where humans dominate the earth.  Climate change, extinctions (beyond the background rate) and human and creature suffering are many of the issues that have resulted. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction

The IPCC reports (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) tell us about the concerns of biodiversity loss. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/downloads/outreach/IPCC_AR6_WGII_FactSheet_Biodiversity.pdf

At Grace Mennonite we have tried and sometimes failed to address climate change concerns. Projects we have worked on include:

  1. a solar panel project did not pass at our annual general meeting. Maybe it will in future. Cost and equity were concerns. 
  2. We have changed our lightbulbs to LED’s;
  3. a garage sale was held in 2024 to reuse items and meet our neighbours;
  4. In 2023, a downspout was redirected towards our lawn to use rainwater, rather than on the asphalt;
  5. For about five years we have been planting native plants in pots and reseeding native seed into our shrub beds; 
  6. We do not use chemicals on our lawn to help insects and we do not pick up grass clippings to reduce nitrogen fertilizer use. 
  7. Leaving the needles and cones under the spruce trees and shrub beds to provide habitat for insects. This in turn provides food for birds and builds soil nutrients for our trees. 
  8. Our members encourage small actions such as throwing leftover water from potlucks onto our lawn instead of down the sink.
  9. We used a red wriggler worm composter for almost 10 years, but it ran its course and is probably better in a home environment. But the worms taught us about nutrients and transformation.
  10. We plan to have a plastic free give away to teach people to use less plastic. 
  11. We plan to support MC Sask and MC Canada climate change initiatives. 
    1. https://mcsask.ca/ scroll down to InCERT’s to see what you can do. 
    2. https://www.mennonitechurch.ca/climate-action It is possible to donate to Mennonite Church Canada to fund creation care initiatives. If you are looking for a place to offset your carbon emissions, this is the place.  https://www.mennonitechurch.ca/mc-canada-emissions-reduction-grant. Stories about the upgrades are included here. https://www.mennonitechurch.ca/article/44700-emissions-reduction-grantees-shed-light-on-their-journeys
    3. Mennonite Church USA has a Creation Care Network. This is a great place to be inspired. The USA is ahead of us in this journey and have exciting stories to tell. https://climatejustice.mennoniteusa.org/about/  They have an awesome solar guide for churches in the USA. One day there may be a Canadian version. There is a creation care bible curriculum that our church undertook a few years ago called “Every Creature Singing”. And there are lots of stories of empowerment. 

https://arocha.ca/  Arocha Canada is not a Mennonite organization but has connections to Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) https://www.cmu.ca/resilience/residents They do the science that connects faith with action through ecology field stations and internships.