Memphis Theological Seminary has received a grant from the United Methodist EarthKeepers Program. This grant will fund ongoing work in Environmental Justice and Antiracism at MTS. This grant is an endorsement of MTS’s commitment and work to teach and model care of God’s creation. There is great urgency to engage people of faith in ministries to “tend and keep” creation and to address environmental racism and injustice in our communities.”
This grant will support the work of the Green Seminaries Initiative at MTS, as we seek to develop courses teaching the scriptural and theological bases of creation care.
Here is a short sample from the grant application:
“Poverty, food insecurity, and environmental racism are significant issues in Memphis and the surrounding Mid-South area. What might be called a “plantation mentality” still significantly informs the cultural and political atmosphere of the city. This “plantation mentality” supports a system of African American political and economic life beholden to a white economic and political power structure. There is a need for both community organizing and the development of alternative models of addressing the needs of the people for healthy food, care of the land, and creation of community. Churches and seminaries desperately need education about and examples of creation care and environmental justice ministries so that they can live into the urgent, scriptural call to be tenders and keepers of creation.”
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