What if every day was an Earth Day?
Earth Day 2023 is coming up soon, falling on Saturday April 23 this year. The theme is ‘Invest in our Planet’. This means to invest time, resources and energy into activities such as planting trees, reducing plastics and cleaning up the environment.
Here, we share some examples of how Faith Plans partners and participants are working hard year-round to protect people and planet. It could be said that for these groups and thousands of others, that every day is an Earth Day.
We have also included some of the beautiful and inspiring quotes prepared by the Earth Day organisation here on this page. You can identify them by the Earth Day 'Invest In Our Future' logo.
1. UNEP Faith for Earth & the WWF Beliefs and Values Programme
Starting with our partners UNEP and WWF, we would like to recommend their recently-published, fantastic resource on tree-growing, biodiversity and environmental restoration: Tree growing for conservation and ecosystem restoration: A guide for faith-based actors If you haven't seen it already, it's perfect reading for Earth Day 2023.
It outlines a straightforward step-by-step approach to assist faith groups in planning and implementing tree-growing initiatives and engaging in restoring their local environment to benefit people, nature, and the climate.
You can download it by clicking on the link above, or by clicking on the image of the cover. It's available in ten languages.
2. Interfaith Power and Light (IPL)
Faith Plans partners IPL recently launched a call to prayer for their Climate Action Week, asking faiths to use the power of prayer to support the Earth. They have collated prayers from leaders of many faiths, from Abrahamic and Dharmic traditions, to Navajo and Native American traditions.
They are also asking groups to pray at 12 noon local time on Earth Day itself, to harness the power of prayer around the globe. Find out more at bit.ly/praywithIPL.
3. Eco-Congregation Scotland
Dr Lorna Gold, Director of Movement Building at FaithInvest—the founders of Faith Plans—will deliver the keynote talk for the annual gathering of the Eco-Congregation Scotland, a Christian environmental charity addressing climate change and conservation. The keynote will be live-streamed from Livingston United Parish Church, Scotland. You can watch the live-stream HERE.
4. Stop Ecocide Foundation
Our partners Stop Ecocide Foundation are calling on youth to learn more about ecocide law on Earth Day.
To raise awareness about the issue of ecocide, Stop Ecocide Foundation is helping youth organisations by organising a series of Youth Regional Dialogues on Ecocide Law on Earth Day this year.
These Dialogues will take place at many different locations around the world. Young people will have the opportunity to come together from different regions to learn about ecocide law, including how it applies to their specific regional contexts. You can take part by visiting their Youth Earth Day web resource, to register an event or to find one near you.
5. A Rocha, Uganda
A Rocha is a Christian organisation working to promote water & sanitation, sustainable land management and energy conservation in Uganda.
They have been been busy teaching vegetable gardening to students from the Heritage International School, Kampala.
As part of the programme, the students learn skills like how to handle gardening implements like hoes, how to prepare the soil for planting and how to sow seeds. The young people also learned about container gardening for small spaces, using sacks.
Stay up to date with the Faith Plans newsletter
As you can see, there are a huge number of initiatives taking place all over the world, for people and planet. These are just a taste of what is happening. Why not sign up to our newsletter today to make sure you're always up to date?
Join us on Twitter for Earth Day
Faith Plans will be participating in Earth Day through our Twitter account, @FaithPlans, from 21-23 April, using the official hashtag of #InvestInOurPlanet.
Please join in the conversation with us on Twitter and share what you are doing to mark Earth Day!
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