Each month, Unitarian Universalist Ministry for Earth shares free worship and small group ministry resources that are Earth-centered and focused on climate justice. You can find them here on our website or sign up to receive them by email.
We publish them two months before the month they are designed to be used. If you are using a different theme-based ministry program, you can combine these materials with that content. We hope you use these resources for worship, small group ministry, and religious exploration at your congregation. As you do, please send us your feedback.
Donations or share the plate offerings support this work and much appreciated!
During the 2023-24 church year, starting in September 2023, we draw on a few specific sources:
- Justice On Earth: People of Faith Working at the Intersections of Race, Class and the Environment by various UU authors. (We recommend congregations buy this book for reference throughout the year.)
- Ecowomanism, which Melanie L. Harris defines, is an approach to environmental justice that centers the perspectives of women of African descent and reflects upon these women’s activist methods, religious practices, and theories on how to engage earth justice. As a part of the womanist tradition, methodologically, ecowomanism features race, class, gender intersectional analysis to examine environmental injustice around the planet. Thus, it builds upon an environmental justice paradigm that also links social justice to environmental justice. Look for the issues on: community, ancestors, descendants, return home. Sources from which we draw include:
- A Religious Naturalist orientation, which is a form of spirituality and philosophy that combines the ideas of naturalism (the natural world is all there is, and everything can be explained through natural causes and laws) with a spiritual outlook that emphasizes people’s relationship to nature and the importance of ethical behavior. In our Musings, we cover the eco-virtues of humility, compassion, courage, and justice. Sources include:
- Sacred Depths of Nature by Ursula Goodenough. A nice summary is here.
- Reason and Reverence: Religious Humanism for the 21st Century by William R. Murry
- Black Lives and Sacred Humanity: Toward an African American Religious Naturalism by Carol Wayne White. Article here.
We’ve had requests to make these materials available in Google Doc format. You’ll find PDFs and Google docs in this Google Folder. Make copies and use them to fit your needs!