One of the six ministry grant programs Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries is supporting this year is EcoFaith Recovery.  EcoFaith Recovery nurtures faith-based recovery groups and relational leadership networks to help individuals, communities and institutions emerge from our intoxication with consumerism to recover our relatedness to God, ourselves, one another, and the entire Earth community.

What is EcoFaith Recovery up to these days?

– Lenten devotions:

EcoFaith Recovery leaders are writing Lenten devotions on diverse areas related to faith-based recovery to a more sustainable way of life on their blog.  Pastors, community organizers, rank and file lay members, and interns will be offering their perspectives.  You can directly subscribe to the blog here.

A sample of Rev. Robyn Hartwig’s devotion-

As I shared in my sermon at St. Andrew Lutheran (Beaverton, OR) this morning, this Sunday’s Gospel reading reminded me of an experience I had on a week-long retreat of all of the fifth graders at my elementary school. Students were divided into groups that were each assigned to a different teacher for an exercise in orienteering. We were given compasses and told to use a map to find various checkpoints attached to trees or rocks in an unfamiliar landscape on the edge of the camp. Full story here.

– Hosting a workshop and lecture:

On Friday April 12 EcoFaith Recovery is hosting a full day workshop with Ched Myers and Matt Guynn, at St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Beaverton, OR.

The workshop is called:  Is Jesus for the Birds? A Workshop on Economics, Ecology and Discipleship.  Ched will activate imaginations with his biblical and theological work on economics and ecology, while Matt will activate  imaginations about what discipleship might look like in light of Ched’s insights and our local context.

– Internship Projects:

EcoFaith Recovery has a team of interns working on a number of special projects ranging from leading a youth camp to developing a community cafe.  The five interns are pictured to the right sharing a meal.

Turtle Farahat’s project had her spending the summer interviewing healthcare practitioners who are using alternative economic models in their practices.  Turtle recently wrote about her project here.

For more on ELM’s Ministry Grant program go to: https://www.elm.org/elm-grants/