2022 Draft ELCA Social Statement on Climate

For the blog this week, you are invited to read a draft version of the ELCA's statement on "Earth's Climate Crisis" that was released for discussion and feedback for a period of 2022. Please be aware that this is a draft and does not express the ELCA's explicit social teaching on this topic. It is, however, valuable to engage the discussion as we celebrate Care for Creation Sunday. A edited version of the statement will be voted on in 2023.

You can access the draft here:
https://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/DRAFT-Social_Message_on_Climate_Care.pdf

Excerpt:
God gives a sacred responsibility to human beings in Genesis: to care for and “keep” God’s creation for future generations. God made humans to be “keepers” of the garden, God’s earth (Genesis 2:15).

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) first addressed this calling three decades ago by pairing environmental and social justice in its social statement Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope, and Justice. That statement emphasizes the goodness of all creation, humanity’s kinship with other creatures, and God’s promise for the fulfillment of all creation (Ephesians 1:10). It also names climate change as a central environmental issue, one the ELCA has addressed to varying degrees since 1993.

Thirty years later, climate change poses grave dangers to present and future generations. With this social message the ELCA provides facts, raises questions, draws on its own social teaching, and identifies convictions that expansively address caretaking for climate. At the heart of this social message lies the claim that climate change presents our generation with a kairos moment; that is, a critical moment in time when decisive action is required.
[. . .]
Our planet has a fever. God yearns for earth’s ecological well-being. “God’s faithfulness alone sustains the Church and renews our faith, hope, and love.” As God’s people we address the climate crisis with active hope rather than paralyzing despair. “Captured by hope, we proclaim that God has made peace with all things through the blood of the cross (Colossians 1:15-20), and that the Spirit of God, ‘the giver of life,’ renews the face of the earth.”

Additionally, the public responses to the draft have been compiled into a separate report. If you have interest in digging deeper to how some members of the ELCA responded to this draft, you can access that document here:
https://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/Public_Feedback_Report_of_Draft_Social_Message_on_Earths_Climate_Crisis.pdf?_ga=2.80841552.614156301.1682178712-1039074577.1682178712