In Full Communion

Anglicans and Lutherans working together in Canada

A message from Anglican, Lutheran leaders for Earth Day 2022

This past year has provided many examples of the urgent need to take bold action to protect God’s Creation. From floods and wildfires to record-breaking heatwaves, we have seen climate-impacted weather events across North America and around the world. We have heard the warnings from the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the concerns coming out of the most recent UN Climate Change Conference, that the global community is not doing enough to mitigate further impacts. With so many overwhelming challenges, it can be tempting to despair. Our Christian faith, however, offers hope for new possibilities and resurrection.

God’s Creation is a sacred gift that we are invited to share in, and to care for. Indigenous communities around the world are at the forefront of efforts to protect the lands they hold sacred. As followers of Jesus, we are called to do our part in sustaining the life of the Earth we all share, to be active in caring for our shared home. We are also called to stand with those who have been made particularly vulnerable to the impact of this ecological crisis because of colonialism, institutionalized poverty, and systemic racism. Partners in low-lying coastal areas, island nations, and arctic regions have been sounding the alarm about the drastic impacts of climate change in their communities. We recognize this leadership and commit ourselves to working in solidarity toward our shared goal of renewing and sustaining the life of the Earth.

As we recognize Earth Day this year (Friday, April 22), let us be hopeful in the face of grief and despair. Let us be committed in our actions in the face of extreme weather events and climate anxiety. Let us demand accountability from our elected leaders in the face of unprecedented challenges. Our faith recognizes the importance and the power of community, of people working together toward a shared vision. We can each take individual steps towards addressing our ecological impact, however we can only fully address the need to mitigate the current crisis we find ourselves in together.
We commend these resources to encourage you on your journey:

Faithful Climate Conversations prepared by For the Love of Creation
Season of Creation worship resources
ELCIC Greening Faith Communities
Anglican Church of Canada Reconciliation Toolkit

Please join us in reflecting on the ways we can take action together to tackle the challenges we face. As you reflect, please pray with us:

God of Creation, give us hope for the new life we know is possible. Renew our commitments to one another, and to the Earth we share. Help to shoulder our burdens so that we may continue to walk in the ways that you have called us, together; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

The Most Rev. Linda Nicholls
Archbishop and Primate, Anglican Church of Canada

The Rev. Susan Johnson
National Bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada

The Most Rev. Mark MacDonald
National Indigenous Anglican Archbishop, Anglican Church of Canada

Matthew 10:40-42

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Rewards

40 “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. ⁴¹Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous person will receive the reward of the righteous, ⁴²and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward.”

John 15:12-17

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. ¹⁶You did not choose me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. ¹⁷I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.

John 21:15-19

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Jesus and Peter

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” ¹⁶A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” ¹⁷He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. ¹⁸Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” ¹⁹(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

Luke 11:33-36

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The Light of the Body

33 “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a bushel basket; rather, one puts it on the lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. ³⁴Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but if it is unhealthy, your body is full of darkness. ³⁵Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. ³⁶But if your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays.”

Matthew 8:1-4

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Jesus Cleanses a Man

8 When Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him, ²and there was a man with a skin disease who came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” ³He stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be made clean!” Immediately his skin disease was cleansed. ⁴Then Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”