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Detailed Description of the Partner Church Relationship
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What We Offer to
Partner Churches
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What We Ask from
Partner Churches
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Support for your church's eco-justice leadership team
- Eco-Justice Ministries will help your team define its task and explore its role for your unique setting
- We will encourage you to meet regularly, and give guidance in setting your agenda
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Create an eco-justice leadership team
- The team should include at least the senior pastor and two laypeople, but may be larger
- The team should meet on a regular basis (at least quarterly) for planning, evaluation and support
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Resources and guidance in study and conversations about eco-justice
- We will provide regular e-mail updates and messages to members of your team
- We will contact you periodically by mail or phone to find out how things are going in your church
- We will provide options for your (or your team's) study
- We will inform you of seminars, workshops and continuing education options that support an eco-justice perspective
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Join in study and conversation
- At least one member of your leadership team will receive e-mail updates from Eco-Justice Ministries
- Agree to return occasional phone calls and/or letters from our staff – we won't overload you!
- We urge you to commit to reading (a book, monthly magazine, regular news source, etc.) that will inform your thinking about eco-justice. This probably is most effective if your team works together around shared reading
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Resources for worship
- We will help you discern the many layers of addressing eco-justice in worship, and how worship can touch on both pastoral and prophetic aspects of eco-justice
- We will help you identify occasions and themes for dealing explicitly with eco-justice
- We will help you with resources for liturgy and prayer
- We will help you with music and other arts to enhance an eco-justice perspective in worship
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Include eco-justice in your church's worship
- Touch gently on some facet of eco-justice in many worship services (phrasing in some part of the liturgy, touch on an issue in prayer, etc.)
- Deal more substantially with eco-justice as an explicit theme in a few worship services
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Resources for other church programming
- We will work with you to explore where in your church program an eco-justice perspective can be included
- We will share resources and programs that other congregations have found helpful
- We will develop educational and programming resources that you can use
- We will provide supplemental materials that can be used to inform and support your church programming (newsletter articles, bulletin inserts, posters, designs for banners, etc.)
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Include eco-justice in other parts of your congregation's life
- Select one aspect of your church life where you will work intentionally on some aspect of eco-justice (an adult education series, improving building efficiency, political engagement, a youth project, etc.)
- Use materials from Eco-Justice Ministries in newsletters, bulletins, etc.
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Connections for eco-justice beyond your church
- We will help you identify specific issues related to eco-justice that are interesting and engaging for you, and help you connect to reliable sources of information about the issues that you select
- We will help you find secular and religious agencies that are doing advocacy, action and service either on specific issues, or on more general themes
- We will work with a few agencies to develop programs for involvement that are specifically tailored for use by churches
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Connect with eco-justice beyond your church
- Select one key issue (local, national or global) to track for a 6 month period
- Begin to establish a relationship with one advocacy/action agency, perhaps related to your selected issue
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This one is up to you!
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Provide financial support
- No congregation will be excluded for lack of financial support, but …
Suggested minimum contribution from partner churches is $100 per year (try to include this in your church budget after the first year)
- Help us locate denominational funds, foundations, and individual donors
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Networking with congregations working for eco-justice
- We will help you connect with other churches working for eco-justice in your denomination, your region, and/or with shared interests and needs
- We will provide you with resources and tools to help you explain and advocate for eco-justice in your denomination and with other churches in your community
- We will provide a link from our website to your church's website
- We will keep you informed of campaigns and projects where your church can be involved
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Help to expand the network of congregations working for eco-justice
- Participate in local and denominational projects (Earth Day events, National Council of Churches of Christ Climate Change campaign, etc)
- Work within your denominational and community circles to advocate for eco-justice
- If your church has a web page, provide a link to the website for Eco-Justice Ministries
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