In Full Communion

Anglicans and Lutherans working together in Canada

Take action now, Anglican, Lutheran leaders call ahead of Earth Day 2024

Every April, the global community recognizes Earth Day as an occasion to call ourselves back to our relationships and responsibilities to this world that we are blessed to live on, and our responsibilities to one another to work toward an equitable sharing of the fruit and resources of God’s creation. A recentering of these relationships is increasingly important as we continue to experience the effects of a worsening climate emergency around the world, and so we join with faith communities, civil society organizations, community leaders and concerned individuals in lifting up our commitment to work for a truly sustainable world for all.

Our scriptures remind us, from their very first pages, that God looks upon creation and sees that it is very good (Genesis 1: 31), and throughout the history of our Christian faith we are called again and again to care for God’s gift and to remember that we are, in fact, part of this creation. In recent years these calls have increased from communities most impacted by the realities of human-caused climate change, including Indigenous communities around the world, global church partners experiencing unprecedented ecological changes, and from young people concerned for the future that awaits them and those who will come after them. We must take decisive action now in order to answer these calls in a just way.

In 2023, both of our churches passed resolutions calling on members to continue to take action on the climate crisis, at all levels of our denominations and with ecumenical, interfaith and secular partners. This year for Earth Day, and throughout the rest of the year, we invite you to consider how you, your congregation, your synod or diocese, and your national church structures can take concrete steps to live into these commitments made last year. If you are looking for a starting point, you might consider:

Planning or joining a community event for Earth Week. For the Love of Creation (which includes both of our churches) provides a growing list of events taking place in communities across the country – add yours, or find out what is already planned for your area.
Advocating for effective climate policy at all levels of government. For the Love of Creation has some advocacy resources available.
Discerning how your congregation can continue to respond by engaging with our Parish Engagement Resource for Social and Ecological Justice. Learn more about the resource in our webinar on May 7.
Learning about the carbon impact of your church building and how you can make changes to reduce this.
The ELCIC has developed a Green House Gas (GHG) Inventory Calculator for Congregations, and Faith and the Common Good has excellent tools and resources to help get you started.
Praying for healing, solidarity and action for the sake of the earth and for all who live upon it.

We firmly believe that it is not too late for us to halt the most destructive impacts of climate change, but it requires commitment and determination from us now. We cannot afford to wait any longer. This Earth Day, may our faith in the promise of the resurrection move us forward in hope to take action together.

The Most Rev. Chris Harper
National Indigenous Anglican Archbishop,
Anglican Church of Canada

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

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

Photo credit: The Rev. Dr. Eileen Scully

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.”