The Nagaland Baptist Church Council led a state-wide Environment Sunday initiative, promoting creation care through clean-up drives, tree planting and awareness programmes.
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DIMAPUR — From church compounds and village streets to marketplaces and “waterways”, congregations across Nagaland came together this weekend to reaffirm an often-overlooked biblical instruction—caring for God's creation.
At the initiative of Nagaland Baptist Church Council (NBCC), churches observed Environment Sunday on June 7, following clean-up drives, tree-planting campaigns, prayers and awareness programmes conducted the previous day.
“We are overwhelmed by the response from the churches, schools, villages and other civil societies who took part in this initiative,” the NBCC stated in a press release issued on Sunday.
To transform local churches from places of worship into centres of environmental restoration, the NBCC rolled out “a simple, unified framework that each church can adapt to its context.”
Per this two-day blueprint, June 6 was designated as the ‘day for work’. In the morning, congregations launched community clean-ups targeting streets, local markets, and waterways.
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In the afternoon, they planted trees and conducted waste-management awareness campaigns, and with evening came solemn prayers for the land, local farmers, and those directly affected by environmental harm.
On the second day, June 7, pulpits across the state echoed with NBCC’s chosen theme: “Creation care and Christian responsibility.” The council provided the churches with the necessary resource outlines and Bible study guides.
As follow-up measures, the NBCC encouraged churches to adopt environmental initiatives for the next three months, including waste reduction within church facilities, community gardens, promotion of organic farming practices and environmental education programmes for youth.
At the NBCC headquarters in Bayavü, Kohima, the council, in collaboration with Nagaland Pollution Control Board (NPCB) and the Students' Christian Fellowship, organised a special programme attended by church leaders and pastors from Kohima.
In its statement, the NBCC described the environmental crisis as one of humanity's greatest challenges, with changing weather patterns and ecological degradation increasingly affecting daily life.
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“John Stott was right in saying that in this post-Cold War age, it is environmental rather than nuclear destruction which has become for many the greatest threat to the human race.
“Human beings are stewards of God’s creation, and that mandate weights more upon Christians, because we believe it is God who gave us the directive to care for the Earth’s resources,” it read.
Caring for creation, it asserted, is not a political agenda but an expression of faith and love for one's neighbour, particularly vulnerable communities that bear the brunt of pollution and climate-related disasters.
According to the NBCC, observing Environment Sunday provides churches with an opportunity to worship God as Creator, teach biblical principles of creation care, engage in community service, and demonstrate the Gospel through practical actions that restore rather than destroy the environment.
“We look forward to next year’s programme, and hopefully we will engage in wider ways,” it added.