Gathering under the CANOPY
Presbyterians for Earth Care webinar explores the work of young adults caring for God’s Creation
LOUISVILLE — Emma Marshall, the young adult organizer for Presbyterians for Earth Care, presented both hope and challenge last week during an hour-long PEC webinar that can be seen here.
Marshall, a candidate for ordination in National Capital Presbytery, has brought together Presbyterian young adults ages 18-35 in an organization called CANOPY, the Creation Action Network of Presbyterian Young Adults. CANOPY’s mission statement is this: “We are a community of faith-filled justice-seekers, inspired by the Holy Spirit and informed by the Presbyterian tradition. We come together to advocate and act for environmental justice and Creation care, magnifying our voices and power as a new generation of leaders.
“Heeding the call to love God and to love our neighbors, human and non-human, we seek to:
- Connect through diversity, geography and experience to build collective power
- Educate and learn through experience- and knowledge-sharing to inspire action
- Take action with energy, intelligence, imagination and love in solidarity with Creation.”
Forty-two young adults comprise CANOPY, Marshall said — 16 of them ministry professionals, 13 students and 13 young professionals in non-ministry roles. More than 10 states are represented on the membership rolls.
Online monthly meetings kicked off in September. Marshall said CANOPY members were either “very involved” at the denominational level, as Young Adult Advisory Delegates at General Assembly or as Young Adult Volunteers “who know the PC(USA) world but aren’t seeing it in their congregation,” or their local congregation “is super active on environmental justice but they don’t know what resources are available denominationally.” During last month’s meeting, CANOPY members reviewed General Assembly overtures being proposed by PEC and offered their feedback, among other actions.
The worst consequences of climate change will be felt by young adults and by their offspring, Marshall noted. About 3 in 4 express “serious and disruptive concern or worry over the climate crisis,” she said. Nearly 4 in 10 Gen Zers — young people in their teens or 20s — report delaying having children or choosing not to due to environmental anxiety.
“For a lot of young adults, the course of their life will look different because of the climate crisis,” Marshall said. “We are hearing this existential anxiety is coming home” among “people interested in joining together to do this work.”
Environmental justice connects several facets of social justice, she said, including racism, economic inequality and gender inequality.
Asked to name justice issues important to them, people on the call responded with immigration and migration, food insecurity, housing costs, microplastics and health, colonialism, and environmental racism. Marshall said two have emerged among CANOPY members: conflict and war, especially in Gaza, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ukraine; and native and indigenous rights. She said CANOPY members appreciated the Presbytery of San Gabriel’s recent action to return ancestral land to the Gabrieleno Tongva Tribal Council.
Marshall had those on the call go through a biblical exercise that CANOPY members also completed. Psalm 8:4-8 and Psalm 72:3-4 were offered as “Creation optimism” texts, while Gen. 3:17-19 and Isaiah 24:1 and 4-5 represented “Creation pessimism.” Marshall offered a grid with “Humans as stewards of Creation” and “Humans as Creation” along either end of the x axis and “Creation Pessimism” and “Creation Optimism” along the ends of the y axis. “If you had to pick one,” she asked, “where are you right now in this moment?”
Many on the call selected the Psalm 72 verses, with a few opting for the verses in Psalm 8 and Isaiah 24. No one picked the Genesis 3 option.
“We have had fun and hear a lot of theological voices coming through doing this with our young adults,” Marshall said. In that group, four opted for each of the Gen. 3 and Isaiah 24 passages. Three landed on Psalm 72, while one selected Psalm 8. “Only one person felt there was something positive or generative about the model of stewardship where humans have a special role in Creation,” Marshall said. “There is a lot of pessimism there, that humans can do very little right when it comes to Creation care.” The young adults in CANOPY are “more drawn to this idea that humans need to see themselves as part of the fabric of Creation.”
She said the young adults in CANOPY want to learn best practices, more about taking tangible actions, about leading both passive and activist congregations, and connecting worship to action.
They want to battle hopelessness and helplessness, promote an environmental justice framework (“folks have heard a lot about sustainability and are hungry to connect environmental justice to other social issues,” Marshall said), promote denominational divestment, and develop both policy and advocacy.
They want to feel connected with a faith group, supported by their peers and be inspired and confident as church leaders. They also want to be taken seriously as leaders, Marshall said.
“I believe young people have a stake in the future of the church,” Marshall said. “I want to encourage young people to claim that stake and increase their advocacy as leaders in the church.”
In the coming months, CANOPY will develop an issue agenda featuring up to three “collective advocacy issues, both denominational and national, with regional teams to address local issues,” Marshall said. The organization will also focus on group gatherings with what Marshall called “parallel groups” from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Catholic Climate Network and others. Members are also considering an in-person gathering at or around the 227th General Assembly, which is set for June 22-July 2, 2026, online and in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Presbyterians for Earth Care will hold an online Longest Night Service beginning at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Dec. 21, the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. Presenters will be PEC members the Rev. Lucy Youngblood and the Rev. Barbara Hassall. Learn more and register to attend virtually here.
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