Steve Hill, Pastor Priscilla Dreyman, Linda Webster, Bob Webster

Congratulations CEUMC Earthkeepers!

On December 8, four members of our church were among 24 United Methodists from across the country to be commissioned as Earthkeepers as part of an online service conducted by the UMC Global Ministries.

Pastor Priscilla Dreyman, Steve Hill and Bob and Linda Webster joined 20 others from Florida, Minnesota, Alabama, Arkansas, Maryland, Illinois, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and the Pacific Northwest to be inducted into the 2020 Class of Earthkeepers.

Earthkeepers is a training program of Global Ministries and the United Methodist Committee on Relief. It is designed to equip United Methodist clergy and laity to lead their communities in environmental stewardship. All Global Ministries’ Earthkeepers are expected to launch an environmental project in their communities as part of their work.

“What I took away from it” said Pastor Priscilla, “was the intersectionality between climate injustice, racial injustice, economic inequity . . . and I think that helps us be more intentional about that as we’re teaching within our church and beyond.”

The four Earthkeepers from our church will be working together to use Robinson Woods behind the church to create a place for connection with God’s creation, providing space for meditation, healing and retreats.

Our Earthkeepers plan to present programs, nature walks, and activities for the congregation and community, naming the initiative “Extending the Table of God’s Love into the Woods and Beyond . . .”

“I think we have an opportunity,” said Linda Webster, “to help the Cape Elizabeth community wake up to their white privilege and how they have some power that they can use to help with the racial injustice, economic injustice, and climate injustice going on.”

The CEUMC Earthkeepers will be working with the church’s newly formed Eco Team to offer the congregation and community at least eight nature walks, projects, and activities centered around Robinson Woods and the church’s Chapel in the Woods through the spring, summer, and fall of 2021. Exact dates for these nature walks has been delayed because of the COVID pandemic, but active planning by the Eco Team has been on-going over the past few months.

Keep checking this web site for updates.

For more information about the Eco Team’s plans and other environmental issues, click here for the CEUMC Earthkeepers’ Facebook page: http://facebook.com/groups/415386483178804