December 2023 Blog
Attendees to ACC’s Pastoral Care for Climate retreat gathered around a fire for worship at Camp Friedenswald in Michigan on December 5th, 2023.
During this Christmas season we pray for peace on earth, and peace with earth.
Who cares about climate change?
Director’s Note, Rev. Douglas Day Kaufman
Why don't people care more about climate change? This question has animated my time with the Anabaptist Climate Collaborative. The science of climate change is frightening in its implications, that we are moving towards destroying the livability of our planet.
Yet most people live their lives as if it’s not very important. Why is that?
Well, who wants to spend all their time thinking about the dire consequences of a changing climate? So many of us practice what sociologist Kari Norgaard calls implicatory denial, where people who don’t deny the facts of climate still deny the moral, social, and political implications.
Norgaard spent a year in Norway during one of the warmest winters on record. With their love of winter and the wilderness, this was difficult for them. But they hardly mentioned climate change, not because they deny the facts. In Norway there is very little of this hard denial. She discovered a soft denial that helps us avoid the terrifying implications of the changing climate. We do this to avoid uncomfortable feelings of helplessness, guilt, and fear.
At its best, the church can be a place where people bring their difficult emotions and find a way to practice hope and love. My faith has helped me through challenging times in my personal and social life. Pastors and congregations walk with people in the midst of sickness and death; we struggle for and with people who experience injustice and violence. Pastors need to learn to listen and speak into difficult situations. We have ethics and rituals that remind us that God brings new life in the midst of death, and hope in the midst of despair.
So I started pastoral retreats on climate change to help pastors guide congregations in confronting climate change. This fall I came full circle. I led the first retreat called “Who cares about climate change? Pastoral responses to denial and despair” at Camp Friedenswald in September 2018. And now I offered a pastoral retreat again at Friedenswald. This time it was a new approach where 15 pastors met with many leaders throughout the year.
In between these Friedenwald bookends I have led 15 retreats across North America, engaging with almost 400 pastors and leaders through these years. In 2022 I began a partnership with Creation Justice Ministries to offer the retreats to interdenominational groups, offering an Anabaptist perspective more broadly. If you include other engagements, such as sermons, Sunday School classes, college and seminary classes, academic conferences, it is more like 3000 people.
I encourage people to care about the climate and to care for the climate. I offer social and spiritual resources for doing so. And after all, I am encouraging people to care in the way God cares.
Pastoral Care for Climate
Emerging Leaders
Earlier this month, we enjoyed the final retreat of our Pastoral Care for Climate cohort, a partnership with Eastern Mennonite Seminary. 22 pastors and leaders gathered for three days at Camp Friedenswald in Michigan. In a new configuration of our retreats, this group met over the course of a year, beginning in February at Highland Retreat Center in Virginia.
In between these two retreats, the group met on Zoom to hear from climate leaders. Topics related to climate included science, pastoral care, natural disasters, racial justice, indigenous justice, peace, global discipleship, Anabaptist ecological theology, and more.
Friedenswald was itself a learning experience as they told us about their sustainability plan. They have installed solar panels, planted trees, reduced food waste, moved towards more just relations with their indigenous neighbors, the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, and much more. A critical learning experience was a day in Washington DC to advocate about mining critical minerals for the green economy. Silver Run Forest Farm in the Shenandoah Valley was a hopeful place practicing agroforestry, watershed health, and restorative justice.
The pastors gathered represented churches from across North America: Pennsylvania, Manitoba, Montana, Indiana, Texas, Virginia, Ontario, and North Carolina. While most of these congregations worship primarily in English, with some Spanish mixed in, one worships in Laotian and another in Eritrean.
Participants had this to say:
Miriam Mauritzen, Mountain View Mennonite Church, Kalispell, MT
“The diversity, depth and openness of the group provided the introductions, space, and conversations needed to germinate and try new expressions of peacemaking through climate care. Friedenswald and Amy Huser were a perfect accompaniment to cap off the year.”
John Stoltzfus, Park View Mennonite Church, Harrisonburg, VA
“This experience has helped ground me in my identity as a colaborer with God and others in bringing shalom to all of God’s creation. I’ve been challenged to look beyond my own circle of interest to truly consider how we are interdependent and responsible for the wellbeing of all God’s creatures.”
Sandy Plett, Stanley, MB, climate action coordinator for Mennonite Church Canada
“I loved getting connected to this amazing group of passionate folks attending to climate wounds.”
David Moser, Southside Fellowship, Elkhart, IN
“The resource people who were all brought in were excellent. It was really inspiring to connect with others who care about climate change and to learn from them. I am grateful. It was good to learn that doing something even if we can not do it all, does something, can be a source of hope. Being a part of this group helped me move from despair to a grounded sense of hope. Doug Kaufman did an excellent job of facilitating us.”
Advancement Director Transition
This fall we experienced a change in the Advancement Director, moving from Mark Lancaster to Anna Ruth Hershberger as interim. In 2020 - 2021 she served as the first Advancement Director with the Center for Sustainable Climate Solutions (CSCS), the precursor of Anabaptist Climate Collaborative.
She initiated the Climate Ride, when a group biked across the United States to raise awareness and funds for CSCS. During this time she saw CSCS experiencing growing pains and as time passed she experienced some of her own. Months following the news of her pregnancy, she turned her attention towards the new life growing in her.
Now, in a new season of her life, Anna Ruth is excited to see what unfolds for the organization and anticipates strong connections working with the many people who care about the state of our world and the reality of life as we know it.
Mark Lancaster served as Advancement Director from April 2021 to October 2023. He was part of the transition from CSCS to being a partnership of Eastern Mennonite University, Goshen College and Mennonite Central Committee, to becoming an independent nonprofit organization, the Anabaptist Climate Collaborative.
Mark believes this change in just a year has been spectacular. He appreciates how the new board has willingly taken on a great deal of work to help to move the organization toward both sustainability and relevance to the wider Anabaptist and faith communities. He rejoices at the deep commitment he senses from the board and the new director, Rev. Douglas Day Kaufman.
Mark will be working for Faith In Action, a leading grassroots organizing network, with whom he had worked earlier in life. They will be engaged in supporting disenfranchised people in the upcoming presidential election.
Upcoming Events
MWC Climate Pollinator Webinars
The webinars with our partner Mennonite World Conference Creation Care Task Force continue for two more months. The next one on January 16 at 14:00 UTC is focused on Latin America with Juliana Morillo moderating. This will be in Spanish with translation into English. This is an excellent opportunity to hear from Anabaptists globally on how they are addressing the climate crisis.
Register for the webinars here.
Global Voices
This speaking tour is a partnership with our major sponsor Mennonite Central Committee. MCC partners in Zimbabwe and Cambodia will speak about how they are responding to climate change. They will travel through all four MCC regions in the US from February 16 to March 1. Let us know if you would like to host them at your church, college, or organization by contacting Galen Fitzkee at galenfitzkee@mcc.org. ACC is also hiring a global voices coordinator to accompany the speakers and coordinate their travel, room, and board.
Learn more about the Global Voices tour from this flyer.
DC Advocacy Day on January 11, 2024
Want to make your voice heard on the climate crisis? Join ACC and the Mennonite Central Committee Washington Office for a climate advocacy day on January 11, 2024. Participants will meet congressional staff to advocate for maintaining funding for the clean energy provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act. ACC and MCC will coordinate transportation and host attendees in Washington, both to prepare in advance and on Capitol Hill. While the focus is on people in the Harrisonburg, VA, area, we are happy to see if we can make other connections as well. Please register in advance.
Resources
Mennonite blog at COP28
Want a global Anabaptist perspective on COP28, the recent global gathering on climate change? Our partners at the Mennonite World Conference Creation Care Task Force hosted a series of blogs by Marijke van Duin. A member of the Mennonite Church in the Netherlands, she has observer status at these “Conferences of the Parties” through being part of the Working Group on Climate Change for the World Council of Churches.
This year was particularly interesting in light of the host nation being Dubai and the president being an oil executive. Marijke also offers perspective from outside North America, critiquing the US position in the final negotiations.
Thank you for your contributions!
On January 1 we are transitioning to receiving donations on our own. Eastern Mennonite University has generously been processing our donations as we get started, but beginning January 1 you can send donations directly to us at:
Anabaptist Climate Collaborative PO Box 1787 Harrisonburg, VA 22803On January 2 we will update our Donate button on the website to come directly to us.
