After Keystone’s Lenten study on Naomi Klein’s book On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal, the members of the study (who are also part of the Keystone Green Team), pinpointed some specific actions we wanted to take on to live out our commitment to climate justice. One of those actions was to apply to become on of the United Church of Christ’s Creation Justice Churches, joining may other churches in the UCC who are committed to creation care and climate justice in the world. The Green Team spent a few months working on that application, which you can read here, and Pastor Yuki sent it to the UCC’s national offices on July 22.
In July, Pastor Yuki received an email from the UCC’s Environmental Justice Minister Rev. Brooks Berndt welcoming Keystone as one of the UCC’s Creation Justice Churches. Rev. Berndt wrote: “I was able to read Keystone’s Creation Justice Church application just now, and I am happy to share that you are now officially a Creation Justice Church! I was glad to learn about your ministries, and I am happy to connect with you.”
Rev. Berndt said in the email that usually Creation Justice Churches receive a vinyl banner that they can display outside the church to show the world that they are committed to climate justice, but because the Covid-19 pandemic has kept the UCC’s office staff working from home, the UCC won’t be able to send that banner anytime soon. Rev. Berndt also encourages members from our Green Team to write articles about our experiences for the UCC Environmental Justice Ministries blog, The Pollinator.
Thank you, Green Team, for your work on the application and your commitment to this important ministry!