written by Rev. Karen MacDonald

While Rincon UCC – Tucson is in an interim pastor season, things are growing. Our Creation Care Ministry, begun about a year and a half ago, received a generous grant this year from the UCC’s Neighbors in Need offering to nurture the expansion of our ministry.

The heart of our work this year and next is to re-wild significantly neglected portions of our campus as native habitat. This picture shows how it looks now. We’re imagining a vibrant desert landscape to come!

This project will be enlivening on so many levels. Here are just a few examples:

We are situated on what was Tohono O’odham land. Reclaiming the land will be a way to honor the original stewards of this land and to be better stewards ourselves.
Re-vegetating the area with desert landscaping will contribute to sequestering carbon dioxide from and replenishing oxygen in the atmosphere, helping to address the climate emergency.
The resulting green spaces will be a boon to our neighborhood as well as to our campus.
Creating, maintaining, and enjoying the green spaces will feed our souls with peace and the living reminder of our connection with Earth.

We plan to begin work at the beginning of April. Sunday, April 19, will be a special day in the project. That day is during Faith Climate Action Week, a mobilization of Interfaith Power and Light; it’s the Sunday before Earth Day, and it’s the second Sunday of Easter. Creation Care Ministry will create and lead both worship services that Sunday and the congregation will bless the land being rejuvenated.

In addition, following our Creation Care Ministry mission statement, we’ll bring activities to help us all grow in

grounding ourselves in the presence of God,
learning about our Earth home and ways to protect it,
integrating sustainable practices throughout our congregational life, and
advocating for social practices and political policies that enhance the health of Earth.

Our motivation comes down to this: do we love God? Then how are we loving the creation (Earth, humans, other-than-humans) that God created, lives in, and loves?

Rev. Karen MacDonald

Creation Care Ministry Coordinator

Rincon Congregational UCC - Tucson