news article
Be a Global Ministries EarthKeeper
January 22, 2026 / By Betsy Croft, member of Saint Paul’s UMC Castleton/Schodack and member of the Creation Justice Team
Creation is calling and the Church is responding.
The application period for the next Global Ministries EarthKeepers online training is now open. This free training is planned from May 1-16, 2026 and will connect you with resources and new friends across the country. Speaking from personal experience, when you attend, your time will be repaid with a multiplicity of blessings!
As a graduate of last spring’s online training and as a newly commissioned EarthKeeper, I urge you to consider this opportunity. It’s been a truly life enhancing experience, witnessing God’s Spirit active and alive in this connection! The training empowers commissioned EarthKeepers to start up and lead environmental projects that bring together United Methodist (UM) congregations with their local communities. Your new connections with other EarthKeepers and a rich library of resources will smooth the way towards your success.
EarthKeepers training also provides a greater understanding of our UM Social Principles, Book of Resolutions, and bishops’ prayers and letters, which call all United Methodists to engage in the work of creation care. This includes striving towards net zero carbon emissions in all our ministries and buildings by 2050. In November 2021, the Council of Bishops issued a statement saying, “we affirm Paragraph 160.D Global Climate Stewardship as our ongoing commitment to join the movement to address creation care and climate change as an existential crisis the Church cannot ignore”.
The time is now.
For more information and how to register, visit Global Ministries EarthKeepers here.