We bring you a longer piece than usual: news of a blessing and celebration event of LWCCN’s LWCCN’s Korean Invitation: Good News for All the Earth, written by Laura Meitzner Yoder. Laura is the John Stott Chair and Director for the Program in Human Needs and Global Resources at Wheaton College. The article ends with a prayer by Nina Mantalaba, a Wheaton College graduate.
On 16 December, 75 faculty, staff, and students gathered at Wheaton College, Illinois, USA to celebrate and to bless the launch of the Korean Invitation: Good News for All the Earth. Twenty readers each read aloud one paragraph of the newly published document, and we had a time of reflection and prayer over the invitation as it goes out.
For some of the attending students, the most impactful part was who did the readings. Students in Sociology, English, Art, etc. were happy to see their professors or known staff members there, reading or just attending. What a great demonstration that creation care is not limited to the natural sciences.
I (Laura) shared about the drafting process. After initially considering some possible additions to the 2012 Jamaica Call to Action, it became clear that we needed to begin the invitation with a fuller biblical and theological framework for creation care within the scope of the biblical narrative than had been written before in Lausanne documents. Participants in the October 2024 Global Creation Care Forum each brought unique insights about the priorities, neglected areas, and the phasing that would resonate with our communities and the constituencies we know well. Contributors came from a wide array of backgrounds, ranging from urban professionals to farmers, spanning many decades in age, having distinct vocations and livelihoods, representing different kinds of institutions and churches, and from different socioeconomic backgrounds and political circumstances. The biblical call on our lives we have in common, and the outworking of that takes unique shape in each of our contexts.
May God help us come to see our right place in creation and to live accordingly, for the glory of God and for the good of all that God has made, and redeemed, and sustains. We share our closing blessing with you and also ask you: With whom will you share the Korean Invitation in your own context? – your church, colleagues, neighbors, pastoral leadership team, community sustainability group? May it spark new conversations and ignite prayerful action!
(Prayer by Nina Mantlaba)
Heavenly Creator, we thank you for convening sisters and brothers from around the world in fellowship to collaborate and create this document. We pray that its prophetic voice will reach far and wide, and that your church will incorporate creation care into their everyday mission and lifestyle, to proclaim and demonstrate your Lordship over the world.
In this season of Advent, God, thank you for the reminder that your good news is for all the earth. You sent your one and only child not only for the salvation of our souls, but also for the liberation and renewal of the physical world we live in.
We repent of our inaction – of our unwillingness to let go of power and harmful patterns of individualism, consumerism, and greed. Lord, we pray that amidst these groans and lament, you fill us with your radical hope. Fill us with a prophetic and creative imagination. Of visions of how this world, your world, can be different, and transformative solutions that lead us into action on every level – big and small, corporate and individual. And equip us with ears to hear, and eyes to see how to accompany and center those most vulnerable, most impacted by our sinful misuse and abuse of your creation. Renew us in the new year to continue your work in the world.
In your name we pray, Amen.
Readers stood in a circle as attendees arrived
