by Ariel Shuey, Bluffton public relations, 2/23/11

The Last Supper should be the focus of every meal we prepare and consume, according to the keynote speaker at a Bluffton University-hosted conference on ethical food production.

“Our meals should be framed around the supper of the lamb,” said Ragan Sutterfield, speaking Feb. 19 at the Intercollegiate Peace Fellowship conference. His session on “The Supper of the Lamb: Learning to Eat at God’s Table” was the last of three he addressed during the weekend event. (more…)

Congregations participating in the preach-in received Valentines from Interfaith Power in Light to send to their political leaders, urging love for creation.

At least two Mennonite pastors participated in Interfaith Power and Light’s National Preach-in on Global Warming, February 12. The organization challenged pastors to preach a sermon on climate change on this day.

Among the several hundred clergy who participated were Karla Stoltzfus-Detweiler, minister of church community life at First Mennonite Church in Iowa City, Ia., and Spencer Bradford, pastor of Durham Mennonite Church, Durham, North Carolina.

Bradford preached on Matthew 25:14-30, the parable of the talents. He emphasized that this story should instill gratitude for all God’s generous treasures entrusted to us, and that God’s property entrusted to us as servants of Christ certainly includes the earth. Tending it and nourishing its fruitfulness and flourishing for future generations is stewarding it to increase its treasure. Bradford saw parallels between the servant accused of laziness and today’s inability to make changes in our patterns of industry and consumption necessary to sustain and increase the vital flourishing of creation. (more…)

Thursday, October 14, 2010, 7:30 p.m. at the Bergthaler Mennonite Church, Winkler, MB reported by the Valley Leader

Former Reform Party leader Preston Manning and his wife Sandra will speak on behalf of A Rocha Prairie Canada, a faith-based conservation organization. The Mannings will address the topic, “Servants of God, Stewards of the Land.”

Since his retirement from Parliament in 2002, Preston Manning has continued to speak, write, and teach on a variety of subjects including stewardship of the land. Manning’s understanding of the Christian faith attaches great importance to the establishment of ‘right relationships’ including sustainable relationships between human beings and the land.

Having championed fiscal stewardship during his years in the Canadian political arena, he now makes the connection between conservatism and conservation and he challenges his listeners to balance the ecological budget and to live within our means of our global resources.

The author of Think Big, Manning is President and CEO of the Manning Centre for Building Democracy and also is an adviser on A Rocha Canada’s Board of Reference. Sandra Manning, an able leader in her own right, serves on A Rocha Canada’s national Board of Directors, along with John Wiens and Larry Danielson from this region.

by Laura Lehman Amstutz

Akerson educated beach clean-up crews about local wildlife, making sure that the oil clean-up did not disturb nesting birds and sea turtles.

HARRISONBURG, Va. – Eastern Mennonite Seminary student James Åkerson found
the two weeks he spent this summer helping with clean up from the oil
spill in the Gulf of Mexico a “natural extension” of his Christian faith.

Åkerson, who is about half way through his program of study at EMS, is a
forest ecologist and program director for the National Park Service.
Normally he works in insect and disease control and invasive plant
management. When he heard about the oil spill and follow-up efforts, he
made sure that his disaster response form was up to date. He was asked to
leave immediately for Pensacola Beach, Fla. (more…)

How do you get people to care about the environment? How do you get them to change their behavior? How do you change a society?

These are the kinds of questions that intrigue Joanne Moyer, who has served on the MCCN Creation Care Council since its inception. Moyer lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and is currently a Ph.D. student in Natural Resources in Environment and Environmental Management at the University of Manitoba.

“I get fired up thinking about what drives people to care and to act,” Moyer says. “This touches on philosophy and religion and culture and psychology and education and lots of other things as well.” (more…)

Hope Mennonite Church, Winnipeg, MB, made a fun video featuring 350 Bible verses that speak about the care of creation. View their creative presentation here. For an interesting youth group activity, watch this UTube video together and then look up the verses.

The number, 350, comes from the number of parts per million of CO2 considered safe for our planet. Currently the concentration is 387 ppm.

The article below is by Mark Keller, pastor of Harrisonburg Mennonite Church. It appeared in the congregation’s newsletter.

On the surface it seems as if the title to this little article is absurd.  How could a tiny group of HMC Christians imagine that they have any impact what-so-ever on the agriculture of Asia ? But, then again, that kind of skepticism has been around from the beginning of the Jesus movement.  Christians hold the Biblical concept that God is honored and calls and transforms others as we live more faithfully to His desires for the world.

What is happening to agriculture in Asia anyway?  It is changing fast.  I first went to the Asian nation of Nepal in 1985.  Because of my Iowa farm background I held interest in and intentionally observed the farming practices there.  I listened to the agriculture workers and farmers.

Nepali agriculture amazed me.  Rocky, steep mountain sides were carefully terraced and coaxed into producing surprising amounts of food.  Farmers who had never been to first grade let alone a Land Grant College knew how to produce food in healthy sustainable ways.  Farmers well understood the amount of compost/manure needed to produce the best crop in a wide variety of conditions.  Nepali farmers, without engineering degrees, knew how to bring the right amount of irrigation water from far away to reach all parts of steep mountainside plots. (more…)