Six New Things – Week of April 7, 2025

Every good is necessary. Take a deep breath. Focus on what’s most important in your context. Let us support you through Holy Week, Easter, Earth Day, and Arab American Heritage Month. We do so recognizing all the good in you and coming through you into the world.

ONE

For the good of God’s good creation, Blue Boat Home (Skinner) – a ‘stunning illustration of the beloved song by Peter Mayer’ – inspires a deep love for our beloved planet. Read it. Share it. Sing it.

Pair it with Climate Injustice: Why We Need to Fight Global Inequality to Combat Climate Change (Greystone),  which, ‘shows how racism, colonialism, sexism, and climate change are interconnected, and how positive changes on one level can lead to positive effects on another’ .

These are themes found in Building a Moral Economy (for adults) and The Hunger Games (for tweens & teens) in our Easter Season Toolkit: Chrysalis: Courageous Imagination, Sacred Transformation (the link will be ‘live’ Saturday, 04.12.25), which includes text reflections, children’s book, and hymn suggestions for worship and intergenerational faith formation contemplative practices, guided discussions guides, additional children’s book, and eco-justice engagement activities.

TWO

Foster a love of God’s beloved planet by developing a love for your particular place. Good Soil: The Education of an Accidental Farmer (Convergent) ‘helps readers connect to the land and to one another’.

Deepen connection through practices rooted in place: Here: A Spirituality of Staying in a Culture of Leaving (Penguin) offers, ‘a contemplative guide to finding satisfaction right where you are… – inspired by the ancient Christian tradition of Benedictine stability’.

Beloved Place often connects us to beloved people. Our Lake (Kokila) invites us into the grief of two young boys whose time at their beloved Lake provides a bittersweet moment of ‘vulnerability, longing, and connection’.

Find more in our Agriculture & Food, Simplicity/Minimalism, and Grief, Death, & Dying lib guides.

THREE

Strengthened relationships with loved ones and neighbors is an essential ministry in days when division is part of a colossal reign of pain and terror.

A More Perfect Union: A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community (Broadleaf; now in paperback), ‘reimagines a contemporary version of the Beloved Community that will inspire and unite Americans across generations, geographic and class divides, racial and gender differences, faith traditions, and ideological leanings’.

Prisons Must Fall (Haymarket), shares a similar vision through lyrical verse that offers ‘solutions that do not involve incarceration, such as meeting people’s basic needs, restorative justice, and community support–seeds for a safe world‘.

Find more in our Policing, Public Safety, & Prisons lib guide.

FOUR

Critiquing histories, changing opinions, and strengthening relationships feels essential – and daunting. Start young – and let young ones lead.

Ground in what is good within communities and histories. Stitched Together (Herald), invites readers into ‘the power of shared stories… tradition, friendship, and the joy of making something meaningful together’.

Let breezy whimsy and, ‘always-changing wonder’ open hearts and minds to new thoughts, ideas, and opinions with Wind Watchers (Nancy Paulsen), in which a family of children delight in not knowing how the wind will blow on any given day.

And if folx get grumpy, let Beatrix Butterfly Wings It for Once (Chronicle Chroma), remind everyone how ‘trusted friends’ can help us ‘evolve and grow by sharing our feelings, keeping promises, helping others, and winging it’!

Find more in our Truth-Telling & Storytelling, Worship: Pentecost, and Cultivating Gratitude & Joy lib guides.

FIVE

Lent is a perfect time for storytelling and spiritual practices that ground us in our bodies and God’s good creation.

Spoken word artist Joe Davis offers a FREE download of Movement for Lent, Holy Week, and Easter, with practices and meditations for Stress, Nervousness, Energy, and Waiting featuring his original poetry.  These are recommended for youth in the final stretch of their school year, too!

Building Faith has a list of Stations of the Cross and Seven Last Words Resources for All Ages and an Easter 2025 Toolkit.

Find more for Lent & Easter in our Tweens & Teens/Intergenerational and Stations of the Cross & Easter Pageants lib guides.

SIX

It’s Arab American Heritage Month. Take advantage of this opportunity to grow in understanding and ability to offer welcome and hospitality to Arab American neighbors. Celebrate Arab American Heritage Month (Penguin) offers children’s book suggestions; Arab American Heritage Month Lists offers suggestions for Adults & Teens (New York Public Library).

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In the wake of the EcoFaith Summit of the Upper Midwest and the protests of the same date, caring for our planet and our neighbors has never been more clearly the calling of the church. I hope these resources inspire and empower you for this good work. It is meant to feel overwhelming; let God ground you.

Take a deep breath. We are in this together.