The Canterbury
Earth Justice Lectionary
Robert E. Shore-Goss & Sarah J. Melcher
CARRIED BY COKESBURY AND AMAZON
A year-long Sunday lectionary and commentary that brings worship, preaching, and Christian action into deeper relationship with the rhythms, wounds, and flourishing of Earth.
For clergy • preachers • congregations • seminarians • educators • creation justice leaders
PRAISE FOR THE LECTIONARY
“This monumental undertaking will pay off for decades to come – maybe centuries, since these concerns aren’t going away. The Bible is so woven through with concern for the natural world and the vulnerable who depend on it, and it’s high time we recognized that!”
Bill McKibben, author of Here Comes the Sun
“Worship is the heart of Christian communities, with the lectionary mapping the worship experience. The Canterbury Earth Justice Lectionary brings worship to the ground and tunes the worship experience to the groans and energies of Earth. This is a critical resource for preachers, worshippers, and scholars.”
Jione Havea, Adjunct Professor, Biblical and Cultural Studies, Charles Sturt University
This prophetic, pastoral, and intellectually rigorous resource challenges the church to recover the deep interconnectedness of worship, justice, and Earth – making creation care central to faithful discipleship.
“In this timely and profoundly important volume, The Canterbury Earth Justice Lectionary offers the church a compelling theological and liturgical response to the intertwined crises of ecological devastation, climate injustice, and spiritual fragmentation. Drawing from biblical scholarship, ecological hermeneutics, liturgical theology, and the wisdom of marginalized and indigenous voices, Shore-Goss and Melcher reimagine the Christian lectionary as a formative practice for cultivating ecological consciousness, moral courage, and compassionate solidarity with all creation.”
Kah-Jin Jeffrey Kuan, President Emeritus, Claremont School of Theology
Canterbury Press • ISBN 9781786226952 • Available through major booksellers
A PROPHETIC RESOURCE FOR THE CHURCH
Preach Earth justice. Form ecological consciousness. Move worship toward action.
AN EXTRAORDINARY RESOURCE
“This is an extraordinary resource and an exhilarating read. Shore-Goss and Melcher deftly harvest several decades of biblical ecotheology and ecocriticism; add a profusion of wisdom from ecotheology and environmental studies; stir in their own intersectional ecojustice insights; and serve it up not only to preachers and congregations hungry for ecologically relevant sermons, but also to seminary professors and other educators who, together with their students, are hearing the cry of the Earth and its other-than-human inhabitants steadily rise to an ever more painful pitch.”
Stephen D. Moore, Edmund S. Janes Professor of New Testament Studies
WHY IT MATTERS
As the United Church of Christ continues its long-standing commitment to environmental justice and creation care, The Canterbury Earth Justice Lectionary provides a practical and theological framework for worship that responds to today’s ecological realities.
It calls congregations not only to pray for Earth, but to preach, organize, and advocate for systemic change.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Rev. Dr. Sarah J. Melcher
is Professor Emerita of Hebrew Scriptures and former chair of Religious Studies at Xavier University. She holds a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from Emory University and an M.Div. from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Her books include Prophetic Disability: Divine Sovereignty and Human Bodies in the Hebrew Bible (2022) and World Religions and the Environment (2018), and she co-edited The Bible and Disability: A Commentary. An ordained UCC minister, she has served on environmental and Creation Justice teams in Florida.
Rev. Dr. Robert E. Shore-Goss
holds a Th.D. in Comparative Religion and Theology from Harvard University. A long-time UCC pastor, he led a congregation that became a Creation Justice Church, made Earth a member, reduced its carbon footprint, installed 90 solar panels, and received a Green Oscar from California Interfaith Power & Light. He served ten years on the UCC Environmental Justice Council and is author of God is Green (2015) and The Insurgency of the Spirit (2020), and co-editor of both editions of The Queer Bible Commentary.
Shore-Goss introduced the landmark 2021 UCC General Synod Resolution affirming the Rights of Nature and led the 2023 UCC Plastic-Free Resolution. He has served on environmental justice teams in New Hampshire and Florida and is a member of Fort Lauderdale UCC.
Bring Earth justice into the heart of worship.
A practical resource for preaching, liturgy, teaching, and congregational action in an age of climate emergency. AVAILABLE NOW
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