I posted this comment to UMNS Facebook post on UMComm (United Methodist Communicaitons) ‘s 75th anniversary observance:

UMComm has certainly been out there, utilizing media, telling the story, and telling lots of stories which have highlighted the church’s presence across a wide range of issues. This is something to be proud of. What I am wondering TODAY, however, is where Church Communications across the Christian church in today’s world will begin to bring home the gravity of the ecological crisis we face. Science has been warning us in no uncertain terms for over 30 years. The UMC has come out with statements acknowledging that the ecological situation is a moral issue. But it has been lacking , as have other churches and denominations, in truly communicating the depth of the challenge. This MUST change. I cannot repeat that and stand up and remind us of the deeply moral crisis this is, and that we MUST SPEAK UP about. UMCom , as with all other Christian churches and denominations are WELL PAST DUE on proper focus on this matter. It CANNOT continue to be ignored for weeks on end, even months. I recognized a couple of articles when the Pope released his Encyclical. GBGM has a missionary, Pat Watkins,, working with (sponsored by) the Council of Bishops, with the task of getting the church to start dialoguing about the implications of the Bishops letter, God’s Renewed Creation. It is time to start working on specific theological, liturgical, devotional, and political action to take. It’s going to require ALL of the above.

Pat Watkins told me in a conversation we had last week,  that he’d like to see “God’s Renewed Creation” become a sustained campaign on the level of a “Imagine No Malaria”  (“Imagine a Renewed Creation” isn’t bad,  as names for campaigns go).   But beyond the name,  the UMC MUST consider it a calling to advance way beyond the “every now and then” posting of an article about the Climate Crisis (and begin to communicate the very fact that it IS a CRISIS in the first place,  rather than just “an issue” (which, ironically,  doesn’t even appear on the “Topics” age on UMC.org).