Friday, October 9, 2026

Mission Yearbook: Faith communities join Indigenous partners in resisting harmful extraction

Faith and partnerships are playing an increasingly important role in standing up for the rights of Indigenous people impacted by mining, especially of critical minerals.

The bi-monthly “Centering Partners’ Voices” recently webinar featured Daniela Andrade of the Latin American Churches and Mining Network. Andrade was interviewed by the Rev. Jed Koball, a Lima, Peru-based Global Ecumenical Liaison for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The Global Solidarity Collective, an initiative of the Presbyterian Hunger Program, sponsored the webinar, the first offered in 2026.

“It is beautiful to be here sharing this morning,” Andrade said. “It gives us a lot of hope to talk with brothers and sisters who are united in this mission.” She said she spoke at the webinar “as a woman, a mother and a person of faith.”

During the pandemic, Andrade gave birth to her first child on Indigenous land that has been impacted by oil production. “I felt what it means to be abandoned by the state,” she said. “You can feel their idea of a model of development. It’s not for the people.”

“Oil and minerals are being extracted, but we don’t have the equipment to take care of women and children,” she said. “Their lives are at risk because of the water they drink.”

Peru is a top producer of copper, silver and zinc, and has significant deposits of lithium. American and Chinese companies have large mining interests there. Critical minerals are important for developing clean energy technologies, but environmental challenges related to their extraction remain problematic.

“This is not the first wave of extraction we’ve had,” Andrade said. “For the past hundred years, entire populations have disappeared due to extractivism. First it was wood, then oil, and now they are trying to bully the [Indigenous] territories. The value [of resources being mined] is very high, and that’s why it keeps being extracted, over and over. But people are rebelling and saying no to this.”

“Extraction hurts our bodies,” she said, “and its wounds run deep in our souls.”

The Rev. Jed Koball (photo by Rich Copley)

Koball called the extraction of critical minerals “a clash between two worlds. It’s not just taking resources — it’s hurting a relationship with the Earth that’s so valuable.”

Andrade said the more she works with Indigenous people, the more she learns from them. “I don’t defend the [Amazon] river just because it’s a space where we don’t want to see trash,” she said. “Obviously that’s part of the reason, but for the original people, it’s the strength of the river, the place where they go to heal diseases. It’s where the spirits gather, and it encompasses other types of life.”

“Imagine if my brother and sister live in the water — how damaged their lives are. Incarnating this truth is the main reason to defend life. It’s what unites people,” Andrade said. Indigenous people “gather around this topic no matter how strong the division is. For them, that’s the power of spirituality.”

For people in the resistance movement, it’s more than just fighting against companies and the state, she said. “It’s also joy and celebrating life, saying hi to your neighbor and celebrating different types of spirituality,” she said. She thanked the PC(USA) and other faith communities “for your commitment, including the empowerment of women so they can become activists.”

“I see spaces full of love and support by the church, which says, ‘We believe in what you can do and we’re going to support you,’” she said. “People are organized around their spirituality.”

For Koball, “imagining our future sharing a common home is a spiritual transformation.” He asked Andrade to outline some of the networks being built around Latin America.

“One of the actions that brings the most hope is connection — creating networks and believing in the power of the networks when it comes to resistance,” Andrade said. It requires cooperating for “a common fight that is organized, finding motivation in the stories of others and promoting their resistance.”

The Latin American Churches and Mining Network has hosted healing and listening spaces for Indigenous women in Argentina and other countries. “It’s essential to gather and find similarities in the midst of our differences,” she said, calling spirituality “our common denominator. It’s where we find resistance and hope.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Laurie Newman, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Peter Okyere, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

Loving God, bless all the ways in which we live and move and have our being. Breathe in us new life and transform us in hope. We pray for the openness of your Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

What’s New for the Christmas Joy Offering in 2026

Three kings walking toward a star. The words, "What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8."

Christmas Joy Expands Its Support for Leaders

The Christmas Joy Offering is expanding the network of leaders it supports. The Offering has always supported past, present and future leaders and now, as mandated by the 226th General Assembly (2024), the opportunity for impact has expanded.

New Causes Under the Christmas Joy Offering

The new causes supported by the Offering are children-at-risk and youth & young adults, which were previously supported by the former Pentecost Offering.

The offering will still support:

Leadership development for people of color.
47% Presbyterian-related schools and colleges equipping communities of color*.
47% servants of the church in need (through the Assistance Program of the Board of Pensions)*.
- _{*Set percentages will decrease 3% per year until 2030 and will stay at 35%.}

Learn more about the Christmas Joy Offering by visiting our website or downloading the Leader’s Guide.

Download the Leader’s Guide

Thank you for generously supporting the Christmas Joy Offering. If you have any questions, reply to this email or call us at (800) 728-7228, Ext. 5047. Update your preferences for the latest information on the Christmas Joy Offering.

Thank you for Supporting the World Communion Offering

Thank You

Thank you for supporting the World Communion Offering. Your generosity allows the Church to do the work of reconciling all people around Christ’s table of Grace.

How to Remit

Remit through your normal receiving agency (for most congregations this is your presbytery). You can download this helpful remittance form to send in with your gift. If you are sending it directly to the national offices, you can mail your form and check to Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), P.O. Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700.

Make the check payable to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) with the offering name on the memo line.

Download Remittance Form

Mid Councils, please remit through Payer Express or mail to Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), P.O. Box 643751, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3751.

You make a difference

Because of you, the Church is able to follow the prophet Micah’s call “to love kindness,” expressed in action, often involving mercy, faithfulness and steadfast commitment.

We are the Church. Together.

Thank you for generously supporting the World Communion Offering.
If you have any questions, reply to this email or call us at (800) 728-7228, Ext. 5047.

Thursday, October 8, 2026

Mission Yearbook: Churches are encouraged to put down roots in Creation justice

Siesta Key Chapel Sarasota, Florida — Siesta Key Chapel in Sarasota, Fla., known as God’s Treehouse, lost more than a dozen trees from hurricanes in 2024. (Photo by Rich Copley)

The Rev. Derrick Weston recently offered a webinar through Presbyterians for Earth Care that made the case for giving trees even more love and care than we do. Watch Weston's presentation here.

Weston, director of theological education and formation at Creation Justice Ministries, spoke for an hour on “The Canopy of Creation: Trees, Faith and the Work of Justice,” an online resource he helped develop for Creation Justice Ministries. Access it here. PEC’s the Rev. Dr. Shannan Vance-Ocampo, general presbyter of the Presbytery of Southern New England, moderated the session.

According to Weston, Creation Justice Ministries works with 39 denominations, including the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). “Our mission is to help churches think about better ways they can live with God’s Creation and how we bring that into outreach and activism,” he said.

In addition to a theology of trees, Weston touched on how they’re also part of American history — even the shady parts. “There’s a correlation between redlining maps and tree canopy,” he said. Lower-income neighborhoods have 26% less tree cover, and those areas on average are 6 degrees warmer than neighborhoods with more established canopies. In communities of color, the thermometer is on average 13 degrees higher during the summer months. “It’s a public health and a public safety issue,” he said.

Trees have numerous benefits, including some that aren’t as obvious as others, such as reducing stormwater runoff, improving air quality, buffering noise and reducing erosion. Creation Justice Ministries’ executive director, Avery Davis Lamb, “talks about trees as the best climate change-fighting infrastructure that we have,” Weston said.

Rev. Derrick Weston Creation Justice Ministries — The Rev. Derrick Weston (photo courtesy of Creation Justice Ministries)

Citing Genesis 2:9 and other passages, Weston said that outside of human beings, trees are the part of Creation mentioned most often. “Trees are engaged in God’s first provision. Trees are also involved in our first sin — not knowing our limitations,” he said. In Genesis 2:9, trees’ aesthetic quality is “the first thing Scripture mentions as a benefit for humanity.”

In both Acts 5 and Acts 10, Luke employs the language of the authorities hanging Jesus on a tree. In “The Cross and the Lynching Tree,” James Cone says that “trees were unwilling participants in one of the worst parts of American history,” Weston said. “Trees are witness and judge for the behavior of humanity.”

Then there’s Revelation 22:1–2, where the leaves on the tree are for the healing of the nations. Weston called that role “less a future eschatological reality and more of a present reality. They can be for our healing, right here and right now.”

The resource includes some program profiles, such as the Trevecca Urban Farm’s Treecycle Program in Nashville, Tennessee, and the goal of Mennonite Men to plant a million trees over the decade.

This online tool by American Forests can help people better understand the tree canopy in their own neighborhood or community. “Encourage your municipality to map the community’s tree coverage and heat risk,” Weston suggested. “Every summer, heat is a killer,” and because of global warming, “it’s going to continue to be a killer.”

He recommended churches identify potential community partners to work with. “In the environmental space, it’s good for churches to show up and walk alongside community partners already doing the work,” he said. “People are often surprised to see the faith community show up, and they’re really glad when it does.”

“The Canopy of Creation” has sermon starters and the scriptural basis preachers can use in their sermons, including Ezekiel 47:1–12 and Acts 10:34–43. “We are trying to get preachers to preach more on Creation justice,” Weston said. “Those churches that are doing this work are the ones who are hearing it from the pulpit.”

During a question-and-answer session following his talk, Weston encouraged participants to serve on local or regional boards “where you can have an impact. You can find people who will talk with you and are invested in listening to you.” Many people are surprised to learn their community has an urban forester. “Find your local forester and maybe befriend them,” he said. “They could use a friend right now.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)