Creation Care: Clergy Engagement With Environmental Justice and Climate Change

Collaboration and education are core components of thriving in an already climate-changed world. Although much of the work on climate-related issues happens in silos, religious congregations are among those interested in collaborating to address issues related to climate change. An example of this interest lies in the EcoPreacher project, which is a cohort of over 100 clergy who meet monthly to learn about specific topics related to climate change and ecological concerns that may impact their communities. The learning from the EcoPreacher project leads to these clergy finding ways to preach about and share these learnings within their congregations and wider communities. Using secondary data from intake assessments ( N = 87) from the EcoPreacher cohort, this article assesses the thought processes and approaches of clergy and congregational leaders before they received climate-centered interventions. The results indicate that congregations see environmental justice and climate-based work as a part of creation care—peaceful and just interaction with the environment. EcoPreacher participants highlighted five topics when discussing creation care and their work: (a) ethical consumption and resource management, (b) planning for the next generation, (c) justice-related action, (d) community education, and (e) connectedness.