Rev. Dr. Alesana Pala’amo of the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa offers a compelling call to action in this short video.

The video highlights the protection of the Manumea, or Tooth-billed Pigeon (Didunculus strigirostris)—the national bird of Samoa, a unique large pigeon, the only member of its genus, and globally endangered with only c.200 surviving in the wild!

The video thus challenges Samoans, who are overwhelmingly Christian, with the biblical call to care for creation: “We are caretakers of creation … We have been entrusted with this task of saving his [God’s] environment.” 

Watch the video here: youtube.com/watch?v=cl8G_JQdAzE&t=3s.

Thumbnail image credit: CloudSurfer (CC BY-SA)

Environment Day is June 5, but Kuki Rokhum and our friends at EFICOR in India are suggesting you choose any Sunday in June to be your church’s Eco-Sunday. We know many churches are only able to meet online; even so, this is an opportunity to remind ourselves of the beautiful world God has given to us.

Here’s their announcement:

 It is that time of year when we observe one Sunday in the month of June as Eco-Sunday. The theme for this year is “Forest – A storehouse of biodiversity”. When God created the world he placed human beings in a garden – which had all that was needed for sustainable living – a storehouse of all the needs, a beautiful place where all creation lived in harmony. Forests or ‘gardens’ have shrunk in size as the human population and ‘needs’ have grown. We invite you to join us this year to focus on Forests – how can we as Christians take care of the forests, should we be even concerned about the forests? Is that something that should be talked about in church? We hope the package we have prepared will open our eyes and help us to think deeper on this.

Available resources (all in Hindi and English for those who have not yet learned that beautiful language) include an Order of Service, Sermon, and a printable poster. Download here.