A Creation Justice Story: Lake Oswego United Church of Christ

Lake Oswego United Church of Christ (Lake Oswego, Oregon) is proud to add Creation Justice to our list of descriptors and to join with all the other UCC congregations with similar commitments. We have long been involved with environmental issues, some of which are described briefly below. With each of these projects we have gained a deeper understanding of creation and our role in supporting justice for all of God’s creation. Some of these will be later expanded as fuller stories in hopes that they may be helpful to others considering options for creation justice.

Our county offers a program encouraging sustainable practices. We applied for and received a Sustainability Leadership Award at the Gold (highest) level, acknowledging dozens of small and large practices that we engage in to make a difference in careful use of our natural resources. The list they provide is an excellent checklist to monitor progress and recognize new ways to act sustainably. Similar programs are likely available in many areas.

As part of a statewide project called Reckoning with Racism, we researched our land story.  How did our church come to be on this particular plot of land?  What is the history of this land we now call our property?  The results were informative but distressing on many levels.  We are drafting an appropriate land acknowledgement to reflect what we learned and exploring how to engage authentically in repentance and repair.

We have looked after the health of our land in several ways.  As part of the Community Carbon Project, we sought to use our soil as a resource to sequester carbon.  We were dismayed to discover that much of our land was covered in black plastic and the soil was effectively dead.  Removal of black plastic was a major undertaking, accomplished with help from our local high school green teams.  We have planted native plants and are monitoring the recovery of the soil carbon content.

Our land includes significant forested area behind the church buildings, including a small creek.  We have collaborated with various groups to remove invasive plants and replace them with natives.  We noted that the creek did not have a name, and we recently completed a two-year push through the bureaucracy of both the state and federal governments to make it officially Spirit Creek.

We would be happy to provide further information about any of these projects. Email the Lake Oswego UCC Earth Justice Team.