In April, 2021, First Congregational Church received recent news from Rev. Dr. Brooks Berndt, Minister of Environmental Justice of the United Church of Christ (UCC) in Cleveland, Ohio, that their application to become a UCC-designated Creation Justice Church was approved. This designation is focused on recognizing religious institutions committed to environmental activism and causes.

Nancy Leckerling, Co-Chair, of the Environmental Ministry Team at First Congregational said the designation is an important recognition of the larger community working on climate issues.

“We were the first UCC church in Connecticut to be granted this designation, but we joined many UCC congregations across the country that were already Creation Justice churches. Creation Justice churches go through a series of steps from forming a Green Team, in our church called the Environmental Ministry Team (EMT, formed 5 years ago), to implementing plans for reducing our carbon footprint,” Leckerling said.

According to Leckerling, the church installed a solar array on their education building, reduced the use of paper, plastic and Styrofoam, and reduced some of the church lawn by creating a composter and organic garden, which produces 200 pounds of produce each summer.

Leckerling said the effort goes beyond just what the Church does among its parishioners and for its own grounds.

“We needed to engage in critical thinking about the socio-economic dimensions of environmental degradation, such as race, class, and global inequality,” said Leckerling. “…climate change exacerbates all sorts of injustice which results in racism, poverty, inequality, deadly viruses, refugees, and war. So, our defense of Creation is actually a campaign for justice. Creation justice indicates our commitment to not only heal, tend and restore God’s Creation, but to ensure the protection of people from exploitation as well as ensure provisions for the remediation of the damage that has been done to them.”

According to Leckerling, a new project raising awareness about their mission, is to ring the church’s bells on the 11th day of every month, as do many UCC churches throughout New England, to sound the alarm about the 11th hour of climate change’s threat.

“We began on May 11 with a short service which included the land acknowledgment of Native people on whose historic land our church stands…Then we rang the bells 11 times at 11:11 AM. It is our hope that other houses of worship around our Guilford Green will join us in the coming months to ring their bells on the 11th day of July at 11:11AM, and each month thereafter, because we believe all religious people need to bring their faith to the public square to raise awareness about climate change and the disproportionate effects it has on low-income people and people of color,” said Leckerling.