Taftsville Chapel, a Mennonite congregation in Woodstock, Vt., has over a decade of experience in creation care. They meet in a renovated historic schoolhouse. They have solar panels. Member Heather Wolfe is co-author of Sustainable Kitchen (Herald Press) and leads wild church (outdoor) worship.

But they want to do more. So, at an interdenominational gathering of congregations active in creation care, they resolved to extend their legacy of peacemaking by serving as a schoolhouse for simple living.

The gathering took place June 20-22 at Acadia National Park in Maine. Anabaptist Climate Collaborative was one of the organizers, along with ecumenical partners BTS Center (former Bangor Theological Seminary) and Creation Justice Ministries.

(This was one of 18 creation-care leadership trainings, engaging over 800 people, that I have partnered in leading. I also partnered with the Mennonite Church USA and Mennonite Creation Care Network in planning the MC USA Youth and Young Adult Climate Summit last summer.)

In June, along with Taftsville Chapel and the Mennonite Congregation of Boston, 10 other New England congregations gathered, from the United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, Episcopal Church and others.

These gatherings offer an opportunity for Anabaptists to offer gifts in engaging the climate crisis while learning from other people of faith.

I see three gifts from the Anabaptist tradition and one learning from others.

— First is our peacemaking tradition. The Anabaptist Climate Collaborative’s informal motto is “Climate Action = Peacemaking.” Climate change fuels conflict throughout the world. Drought and heat fuel farming disasters and other catastrophes that displace people, causing social unrest.

The opposite is also true: Peacebuilding is a form of climate action. Militaries emit greenhouse gases and destroy ecosystems as well as human lives. An active peacemaking ethic can help us address peace with the Earth.

— Second is our commitment to simple living. Reusing rather than purchasing new, gardening, canning and not making a high income our highest goal are Anabaptist characteristics compatible with reducing climate emissions.

MC USA Climate Justice Ministry gives awards for environmental care

Mennonite Church USA’s Climate Justice Ministry has selected two recipients and one honoree for its Generation Z Energy and Spirit Challenge. The winners are Taftsville Chapel Mennonite Fellowship in Vermont and The Freeman Project in South Dakota. Hillcrest Academy, Kalona, Iowa, received honorable mention.

The challenge was designed to inspire young people to respond to environmental needs through one of two categories: energy and spirit. Participants could include youth groups, mentor-mentee pairs and other intergenerational combinations with at least one Gen Z member.

Taftsville Chapel Mennonite Fel­lowship conducted a project to assess how much of its property can be transformed to be better shared with other species.

The Freeman Project included printing and selling cloth shopping bags containing information on how shopping locally reduces carbon emissions. Proceeds were shared with Bethany Food Pantry at Bethany Mennonite Church. Freeman Academy junior Madelyn Anderson and her mentor Dennis Lehmann collaborated on the project.

A Hillcrest Academy class and biology teacher Mike Severino-Patterson planted trees to grow food for their school in an orchard and a greenhouse. They partnered with the Iowa Department of Nature Resources and received a Trees for Schools grant, which enabled them to plant trees on the school grounds.

Winners will receive prizes from $500 to $1,000, depending on group size, toward an outdoor experience that nourishes relationships with creation. Participants accepted at an MC USA-affiliated college or university will receive a $1,000 Energy and Spirit Grant. — Mennonite Church USA

— Third is our down-to-earth theology and practice. While most Anabaptists today are not farmers, many still have an agricultural ethos. Amish farmer David Kline talks about recognizing the Earth as a friend rather than adversary. Early Anabaptists worshiped in caves and forests to prevent detection by the authorities. Kline notes that some earthy practices remain among the Amish, such as brauching, a kind of traditional medicine.

I find this earthy theology in an early Anabaptist teaching called the gospel of all creatures, first articulated by German Anabaptist Hans Hut. He wrote that Christ suffers with all ­creatures in an ongoing way. All creatures are “members of Christ.” The way that creatures suffer to become food for others is an expression of the good news of God in Christ that all suffering can be transformed.

The gospel of all creatures, found in Colossians 1:23 and Mark 16:15, is how God in Christ turns our suffering into resurrection joy. This pattern of creation can be seen in the way the soil community of roots, bacteria, worms, insects and other creepy crawlies turns death into new life. This is an earthy reminder that the Spirit of Life is active in all creation, bringing renewal.

Anabaptists can also learn from other traditions. The United Church of Christ has been a leading voice in the climate crisis. It has done well in political advocacy. Mennonites are more hesitant about activism, preferring to get our own house in order first. With the climate crisis, both need to happen at the same time.

The advocacy group Mennonite Action models an active stance, taking our peacebuilding tradition and sharing it broadly, speaking to government and the wider community about the need to build peace rather than wage war. We need to apply the same energy and passion to the climate crisis.

In June, we asked congregations to design a small experiment with radical intent. People from Taftsville Chapel thought their first step toward becoming a schoolhouse for simple living would be a tomato canning workshop.

“We are inviting people to preserve locally grown produce from our watershed in ways that reduce mass consumption and reacquaint ourselves and others with a skill that has a history within members of Anabaptist backgrounds,” Taftsville Pastor Steve McCloskey wrote.

It is a step toward engagement with their community, impacting their region by offering a new way of inhabiting our world — a way that is good news for all creatures.

Douglas Day Kaufman is executive director of the Anabaptist Climate Collaborative.