Weekly Insights
What church leaders need to know about young people, sustainability, and holiday celebrations.
Stat of the day:
More than 67% of young people research the sustainability information behind a product before purchasing it (YPulse March 2023 Sustainability Behavior Report)
What it means:
As we lurch from Halloween costumes to turkey dinners, the commercial world has its eyes focused on the upcoming season of gift-giving. Americans are returning to pre-Covid norms of celebrating with friends and family this holiday season, and many are on the hunt for the best gifts to get for their loved ones.
Young people, however, are especially aware of the negative, consumerist trends around the holidays and are looking for more sustainable ways to celebrate. Many of them use the sustainability information about products—both how and where they were made and what they will do to the environment when their use is complete—to guide their decisions. Church leaders have an opportunity to connect with these younger members by encouraging their congregants to celebrate in a way that minimizes harmful environmental impacts. We can also guide our congregations (through sermons, teaching series, prayers and more) to reflect more deeply on sustainability concerns, especially amidst an upcoming season of notorious waste.
Why it matters:
Climate anxiety is becoming a more recognized and psychologically-treated phenomenon, and having ever greater impacts on the mental health of young people. With wildfires run amok, atmospheric rivers inundating parched western lands, and the bleaching of coral reefs essential for maritime biodiversity, young people are feeling an ever greater sense of urgency around the climate emergency. As such, they are more likely to be appreciative of the intentional ways that our institutions, especially the church, seeks to address climate change, to reduce our carbon footprint, and to make climate change action a central aspect of our communal life (since climate change is, after all, a result of destructive communal habits accumulating over the last 200 or so years).
This provides an opportunity for church leaders in this upcoming holiday season—opportunities to promote celebrations that are climate-mindful and actually incorporate such practices into communal, church-based celebrations. Moveforhunger.com provides a brief list with some ideas on how churches and households can be more mindful about their holiday celebrations and seek ways to ensure that they reduce carbon output and excess waste.
Questions for Reflection:
What are some of the local traditions in your church around Christmastime? How might your community make these traditions more environmentally-friendly and sustainable? Are there ways your church could initiate recycle/reuse programs for Christmas trees?
Most importantly, what does the way in which we celebrate teach our congregants (young and old alike) about our deepest values as a community, especially our connection to material objects and “this fragile earth, our small island home” (Book of Common Prayer, 370)? Though many church leaders have spent a great deal of time studying this kind of question from a liturgical angle, very few of us have spent as much time considering it from an environmental perspective. This upcoming season of gift-giving and consumerism, let us take the time to consider such things.