100 Words of Hope: A Call to Climate Action

We're inviting United Church people to share "100 Words of Hope" that draw from deep spirituality to speak to these moments of high anxiety and change in the church, Canada, and the world.

We invite you to share your own 100-word reflection, poem, or prayer that conveys hope and faith in these times here.

Together, we can inspire each other to live out the call of the church to deep spirituality, bold discipleship, and daring justice. We are not alone.

A Call to Climate Action

I pray an invitation to act, to make change, to choose the hard decisions,
to be a co-creator of a healing world.
I pray that we feel the grief, the grief that will move us enough to care enough to act.
I pray for community, for the people and communities
that pull us out of hopelessness, out of despair, and in with love.
A love that pushes each of us, the love of community that keeps us going,
that gives space for our passions, that keeps us accountable, that reminds
us we are never alone.
In your embracing name we pray.
Amen.

—Thea Sheridan-Jonah, Member of the General Executive Council

Returning to the Heart of Creation

We are the descendants of a dying world. Like Icarus, we have flown too close to the sun. Our systems are dying, creation is trying to keep its momentum, yet even it is struggling with what we have caused. Like the sorcerer's apprentice, we were given a mote of power, and it has led to ruin.

Yet we need to remember, we are a part of God's creation, chosen to tend it, care for it and nurture it. Through Jesus death and resurrection, we are forgiven and given the chance to try again, and again. The religion of progress is false, it is time to return to Jesus, and ask again for forgiveness from being ensnared by false idols.

God is Here, in this time and place. Let us build together a canal to the love of God so we all can be nourished by the Living Water.

—Collin Barker, Palgrave, ON

Jesus was Woke First

When people call you “woke”—Jesus was woke. You walk in his footsteps.
When people call you a bleeding heart—Jesus has a bleeding heart. You share Jesus' heart.
When people call you weak—Jesus says just such people shall inherit the earth.
When people deride you as a “social justice warrior” —know Jesus is one, too. We have faced supervillains before, and our ancestors pass us the knowledge how to survive.
You build the kin-dom of God here. You share food. You share your tears. You share your laughter. You plant trees.

We sing. We rise.

—Whitney Bruno, Little Current United Church Pastoral Charge, Manitoulin Island, ON

The views contained within these blogs are personal and do not necessarily reflect those of The United Church of Canada.