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

Image

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.

Image

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)

Let us join in prayer for:

Alicia Anderson, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Keith Thompson, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

Lord, help us to care for those in need. May we offer hope in the face of chaos, confidence in the face of uncertainty and joy in service to you May all who endure loss be filled with your presence and confidence in your love, In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Miami organizer builds community and fights for housing justice

Adrian Alberto Madriz will never forget the smell of burning mattresses.

After Hurricane Andrew — a violent, 1992 Category 5 storm that left close to 100 people dead and several hundred thousand more homeless — destroyed his family’s suburban Miami apartment building, 4-year-old Madriz and his parents were forced to evacuate to Orlando. 

They later returned to a horrific scene — and a smell — forever seared into the young Madriz’s memory.

“When we came back to Miami, all of the windows in our apartment house had been completely destroyed,” he recalled. “The furniture that was inside had been sucked out because of the enormous amount of pressure from the wind, and the entire parking lot was littered with mattresses and insulation. I’ll never forget the smell of rotting insulation after the storm. Every single time I smell it now, it brings me back to that day and the very painful memories of that moment. That was my first very severe experience of housing insecurity.”

Another pivotal episode took place during his first job after college as a housing organizer with the Miami Workers Center, whose mission is “to build the power and self-determination of south Florida’s most oppressed communities.” His first job for the nonprofit was “to go knocking on doors in a poor, historically Black neighborhood called Liberty City.”

Approaching the assignment with what he later realized was an unfounded fear of violence based on the area’s high crime rate, he experienced the people as “incredibly open and hospitable.” 

“When I would ask them what kind of housing issues they were dealing with, they would invite me to come inside and take a tour,” Madriz recalled. “The things that they showed me were shocking. I saw black mold growing on the ceiling, the floor and the walls. I saw sewage that had backed up into the bathtub, creating a terrible smell throughout the house. There were rats, roaches and every single kind of plague you could think of.”

Why, he wondered, were his neighbors in Miami living in unsafe housing in one of the richest cities in the richest country in the world?

Because the whole situation struck Madriz as immoral — with “forgotten neighborhoods” being allowed to fall into neglect while landlords avoided prosecution— he decided then and there to take action.

Image

SMASH, a community land trust supported by gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing, pursues safe and just housing for marginalized communities in Miami (photo by Ryan Parker via Unsplash).

And that’s when SMASH, for which Madriz serves as co-executive director, was born. 

SMASH (Struggle for Miami’s Affordable and Sustainable Housing), the first community land trust and affordable housing co-operative in Liberty City, began in 2015. Madriz and Berlinda Dixon got together with other residents of Liberty City to do something about slumlords who were taking advantage of the neighborhoods. 

Using a community land trust model, SMASH provides sustainable and preserved land that the community controls and is building power to make housing a human right in Miami. 

Since its founding, SMASH has been successful in acquiring three properties, with its first housing project becoming operational in 2022. 

But the founders’ collective dreams might not have become a reality without assistance from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Madriz said that a PC(USA) grant in community development was “one of the principal reasons we could open our first housing cooperative.”

SMASH’s role in addressing the unjust systems that perpetuate poverty doesn’t end with the provision of housing.

“The way we structure our housing is that when you live with us, you don’t just get affordable housing, but you also get trained to be a housing justice organizer,” Madriz said. “In exchange for affordable housing, you also volunteer some of your time to do outreach, to put together events and to manage campaigns.”

As Madriz boldly envisions a future when good-quality, climate-resilient housing will be understood as a human right, he and his colleagues aim to have 1.5 million Miamians sign on to SMASH’s Miami Housing Justice Agenda by the year 2030. 

Yet although he knows it’s a challenge, Madriz sees it as achievable, thanks, in part, to support from One Great Hour of Sharing.

“In an environment, especially nowadays, in which there is a lot of risk-averse type of philanthropy, the PC(USA) really took a leap of faith in what we were doing,” said Madriz. 

Emily Enders Odom, Former Associate Director of Communications, Presbyterian Life & Witness (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Tihitina Dora, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Laura Buchleiter, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, you said, “Let the little children come to me.” May we, in all that we do, open ourselves to children of all ages, respecting their human dignity and helping them to grow into your love. Amen.

What’s New for the Christmas Joy Offering in 2026

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.

Mission Yearbook: Louisville church dedicates ‘Healing the Earth’ anti-gun violence sculpture

Renowned Louisville blacksmith and sculptor Craig A. Kaviar created a 6-foot metal sculpture, “Healing the Earth,” for the front plaza of Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church. The art piece was created from parts of guns chopped up at safe-disposal events sponsored by Guns to Gardens Louisville and metal tools donated by members of the congregation. The sculpture symbolizes the congregation’s commitment to promoting peace, justice and sustainability.

Image

Craig A. Kaviar's "Healing the Earth" will be dedicated March 22 at Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky (photo courtesy of Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church).

“Healing the Earth” was dedicated in the spring at the church at 142 Crescent Ave. The dedication was followed by a reception in the church fellowship hall, including displays of groups and ministries with which the church collaborates. 

Guns to Gardens Louisville is a nonprofit with the mission of transforming weapons of death and violence into instruments of healing, beauty and peace. The organization hosts gun safe-disposal opportunities, offering people with unwanted guns a way to dispose of them safely and anonymously with the assurance they will not be sold or used in acts of violence. The organization grew out of a youth/adult Sunday school class at Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church. It now includes volunteers from various faith groups and community groups across the city who are concerned about gun violence.

Kaviar has been a valued partner with Guns to Gardens Louisville since the first safe-disposal event in 2022. Guns brought to safe-disposal opportunities are dismantled by chop saws. The metal parts of the weapons are given to Kaviar to transform into garden tools, art and jewelry. So far, the effort has helped make the community safer by taking 124 unwanted guns off the streets and out of homes.

Kaviar has been forging red hot metal in Louisville for 40 years. His work is in collections of Brown-Forman, Norton Hospital, the Omni Hotel, Kentucky Center for the Arts, Christ Church Cathedral, Crab Orchard Animal Sanctuary, the Temple and businesses and homes throughout the region. In recent years, he has been featured in The New York Times, in the KET series “Kentucky Life” and in an exhibit at the Lexington Public Library.

Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church has been a strong faith presence in the community since 1890. The congregation seeks to live out its commitment to peace, justice and caring for God’s Creation by supporting Guns to Gardens Louisville, Build-A-Bed and other efforts. The church works toward sustainability through partnership with the Jefferson County Master Gardener Association and other green initiatives. As a service to the community, the church has installed two charging stations for electric vehicles in its parking lot in partnership with Mid-Kentucky Presbytery.

Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church hosted a community prayer vigil following the mass shooting at Louisville’s downtown Old National Bank in April 2023.

Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church, Louisville (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Julie Gvillo, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness
Courtnye Lloyd, 1001 NWC Apprentice, 1001 New Worshiping Communities, Presbyterian Life & Witness

Let us pray:

God of grace and justice, may we empower our families and children with the means to stand up together for economic security and physical safety as we seek to become the beloved community. Amen.

Pastor's Life - Property

Pastoring includes faithful stewardship of church property by Rev. Eileen Lindner An undervalued skill in ministry is the capacity to prioritize. Each day offers opportunities for allocating time to meetings, hospital calls, sermon preparation, counseling, civic engagement, staff meetings and the like. An on-going struggle for many pastors is in reserving time for personal prayer and Bible study to say nothing of family commitments and adequate rest. Little wonder then that issues of church property often take a backseat to dozens of other demands. Indeed, if the church roof isn’t leaking it seldom comes to mind. Yet, today the church is confronted with a large and growing challenge regarding property. Faithful stewardship of this our largest financial asset seems, by turns, to be both illusive and potentially a key component of renewed witness and mission for the church of the future.

Continue Reading...

The Reverend Eileen W. Lindner is an Honorably Retired Minister of Word and Sacrament of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) In her varied career she has served as an Overseas Associate of the PC(USA) in Egypt and Lebanon and has been an active participant in the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland, serving on the Worship Design Committee for the World Assembly in Canberra, Australia. In the United States she directed the Child Advocacy Office of the National Council of Churches USA. President Jimmy Carter appointed Dr. Lindner to the United States Commission for the International Year of the Child in 1979. She later served the NCCUSA as the Director of Research and Planning and finally as Associate General Secretary. Lindner holds a Ph.D. degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York and a M.Div. degree from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago. She is the author of several books and numerous articles within periodicals. As a pastor, Lindner has served parishes in Illinois, New York and New Jersey. For a decade she served as Senior Pastor at the Presbyterian Church at Tenafly, NJ. In retirement, Lindner has led a four- year research effort on behalf of the Presbyterian Foundation focused on congregational transitions and property sales.

Featured Resources

Project Regeneration Is your church considering what God might be calling you to do next? Are you wondering if closing your doors or merging with another church is right for you? Reach out to your Ministry Relations Officer to talk about Project Regeneration. The Foundation would be glad to walk beside you during your time of discernment. More Information

Church Financial Leadership Coaching Program Strengthen your church financial leadership with our no cost, 12-month coaching program that pairs pastors with an experienced, trained personal coach. A coach could assist you with finance and generosity challenges and thinking through a plan to create a culture of generosity within your congregation. More Information

Stewardship Navigator New resources have been added to the Stewardship Navigator, the Presbyterian Foundation's free online stewardship planning tool. Explore newly added stewardship sermons and templates for letters, commitment cards, newsletters, and campaign communications. Explore Now

WCC News: Chiang Mai conference opens to explore “Being Church in the World Today”

A gathering of World Council of Churches (WCC) commissions and reference groups on Life, Justice and Peace opened in Chiang Mai, where ecumenical leaders will explore what “Being Church in the World Today” means.  Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, general secretary of the World Council of Churches adressed the Joint Conference of WCC Commissions and Reference Groups on Life, Justice and Peace on the openning day of the conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand, 5 October 2026. Photo: Sean Hawkey/WCC 05 October 2026 WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, in his opening address, offered a WCC perspective on ecclesiology, mission, witness, and hope. “Humanity faces wars and armed conflicts, growing inequalities, displacement and migration, ecological destruction, technological disruption, artificial intelligence, religious and political polarization, declining confidence in institutions, and profound questions concerning human dignity and the future of life itself,” he said. “At the same time, Christianity itself is experiencing major transformations.” The church is God's before it is ours, reflected Pillay. “Here unity is not an ecclesial luxury,” he said. “It is related directly to Christian witness.” He further noted that a divided church struggles to proclaim a reconciled Christ. “This is particularly important for the ecumenical movement,” he said. “The WCC’s understanding of unity cannot be reduced to organizational uniformity.” Dr Prawate Khid-arn, assistant general secretary for ecumenical relations of the Church of Christ in Thailand, prayed that the meeting will renew people’s hearts, deepen their commitment, and give them fresh energy and courage for the journey ahead. “May our discussions lead not only to words and recommendations, but also to meaningful actions that bring hope to those who suffer, restore human dignity, strengthen justice, care for God's creation, and contribute to genuine and lasting peace,” said Khid-arn. “May the Holy Spirit guide your conversations, inspire your discernment, and strengthen our common witness.” Rev. Grace Moon, general secretary of Christian Conference of Asia, noted the context of the meeting in Asia—a region full of spiritual richness, cultural diversity, and resilience, yet also a place where many still face challenges like inequality, displacement, violence, discrimination, and climate change. “Our Christian faith means we cannot ignore suffering or injustice—we are called to stand with those who are hurting, excluded, or silenced,” said Moon. “We cannot solve these problems alone.” Moon further noted that climate injustice, conflict, and discrimination are all connected. “Our calling goes beyond charity—it is about working together for justice, healing, and the well-being of all people and creation,” said Moon.  The conference marks the second time that WCC commissions related to the Life, Justice, and Peace programme are meeting - the first such gathering was held in Geneva in 2024. The first day of the conference currently underway began with pilgrimage encounters, giving participants an opportunity to meet local communities and organizations in and around Chiang Mai working on issues including clean air, migration, HIV and health justice, and interfaith dialogue. Address by the WCC general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay: Being Church in the World Today: A WCC Perspective on Ecclesiology, Mission, Witness and Hope PHOTO GALLERY: Conference of the WCC Commissions and Reference Groups on Life, Justice and Peace in Chiang Mai, Thailand Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay, general secretary of the World Council of Churches adressed the Joint Conference of WCC Commissions and Reference Groups on Life, Justice and Peace on the openning day of the conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand, 5 October 2026. Photo: Sean Hawkey/WCC See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland