Hope Community Presbyterian Church

Who is Congregations Caring for the Earth?

An Ecumenical, Multi-Faith Association to Stimulate Awareness and Support Positive Action among Communities of Faith and Conscience.

About eleven years ago, a group of congregations, including yours, decided to form an ecumenical, interfaith association on the Iron Range to support each other in caring for the earth and to offer some joint outreach, worship, and education to the community.  

Eight congregations entered into a covenant of participation

• Faith United Lutheran, Iron
• Gethsemane Lutheran, Virginia
• Hope Community Presbyterian, Virginia
• Hope Evangelical Lutheran, Embarrass
• Mesabi Unitarian-Universalist, Virginia
• Messiah Lutheran, Mt. Iron
• Our Savior’s Lutheran, Hibbing
• Our Savior’s Lutheran, Virginia. 

Each congregation appointed a liaison to serve on the CCE steering committee.  We have also had participation from Anishinaabe, B’hai, Buddhist, Episcopal, Jewish, Roman Catholic, and Latter Day Saints affiliated people.

Over the past 11 years, we have hosted

• interfaith worship services for the care of the earth
• forums
• harvest meals
• field trips
• Earth Fest workshops
• book studies.  

Who might Congregations Caring for the Earth be becoming?

Things have changed.  Is Congregations Caring for the Earth still a group of congregations supporting each other in caring for the earth?  Is the original covenant of participation meaningful to the congregations who signed it? Is this a time to bring our ecumenical and interfaith efforts for earth stewardship as a vital aspect of living our faith to a close?  Or is there something new in store? A new direction, a new vision, even, perhaps, a new name?

Conversations continue to taking place to discern the future. 

How might our association as CCE (or a different name) be a way of nurturing people of faith and conscience from different faith and spiritual traditions?  

We invite you to join in the conversation during upcoming events this Fall, including the Harvest Potluck on Sept. 19 at Olcott Park and discernment discussion at Hope Community Presbyterian Church in the fellowship hall. 

For more information, visit our Facebook page or contact us at rangecce@gmail.com.

Upcoming Events:

Braiding Sweetgrass book discussions

Beginning on Tuesday, October 12, at 1:00 p.m., CCE will host a book discussion of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s acclaimed book,  Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.  The book group will meet at 1:00 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month, downstairs at Hope Community Presbyterian Church.
The book is divided into five sections.  We will discuss one section each session. We will have a rotation of discussion facilitators.    

• October 12 – Planting Sweetgrass  (read this first section in advance)
• October 26 – Tending Sweetgrass
• November 9 – Picking Sweetgrass
• November 23 – Braiding Sweetgrass
• December 14 – Burning Sweetgrass

CDC and St. Louis County Health Department guidelines for masking will be respected.