Illinois Pilgrimage Opens Hearts and Minds
From June 25 to 28, members from the Northern Illinois, Illinois Great Rivers, and Wisconsin Conferences embarked on a spiritual pilgrimage organized by the NIC Committee on Religion…
Posted: April 2 2026 at 11:14 AM
Author: Rev. Harriette Cross
Congregational advocates and others working on the care of creation will find valuable the Northern Illinois Conference's Creation Care Committee summit on May 2, 9 a.m. to noon, at First United Methodist Church in Arlington Heights. The event is inspired by the Council of Bishops' recent statement on creation care.
Grace Hubbard
There will be four educational workshops: engaging your community, building green teams, reducing energy bills, and planting native plants.
Grace Hubbard, Climate Care Coordinator of the New England Conference will be the keynote speaker. Hubbard works across the six states of the New England Conference in education and eco spirituality, energy efficiency, and legislative advocacy. She uses creation care circles to do this work. During the summit, Hubbard will speak about the work she does and will lead a workshop on setting up a green team.
Creation care continues to be an important part of our faith as United Methodists. In November 2025, the Council of Bishops wrote an open letter to United Methodists, reminding them of the covenant promise between God, humankind, and all of creation since the beginning.
We, as humans, are called to do no harm to creation and to work to keep God’s creation in a state of health and goodness. The Council of Bishops has made several statements over time about creation care, but they acknowledge that today this work is urgent because global conditions continue to decline. They encourage all local churches and ministries to create green teams, to organize one churchwide action around creation care once a year, study together for deeper understanding, and engage with ecumenical partners in this work.
Through this summit, the NIC Creation Care Committee fulfills these objectives. In 2024, the conference passed a resolution encouraging every local church to name at least one creatio-care advocate to strengthen churches’ green actions. This summit is an initial opportunity for these advocates to gather.
Register for the summit and find more information here. The fee is $10.