Ask The UMC Our Living World series

Ask The UMC: Our Living World series

The Our Living World series focuses on ways United Methodists seek to re-link themselves with the living world that sustains them. Images by Laurens Glass, Paul Gomez and Mike DuBose, United Methodist Communications.

The meaning of the word "religion" is "relinking." Religion describes the ways human cultures have sought to create, sustain, and renew links with one another, the world around them, and the powers or reality that lies behind it all. In this six part series, we explore how United Methodists seek to sustain and renew our links to our living world.

Elephants, impala, rhinos, and wildebeest at Kruger National Park, South Africa, show the diversity of animals on the continent. Photo by Chris Eason, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Our Living World: Animals

The commandment from Genesis 1:28 mentions fish first, then birds, then living things on the earth. United Methodists take seriously the charge to be good stewards of all animal life.

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Bees are essential in growing flowers and plants. The process of pollination plays a critical role in maintaining natural plant communities and ensuring production of seeds in most flowering plants. Photo by Laurens Glass, United Methodist Communications.

Our Living World: Plants

Plant life provides both the food and the oxygen upon which all other life depends. United Methodists are called to protect the habitats and diversity of plants around our living world.

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Victoria Lilies on a tributary of the Amazon River in the Jacaré indigenous community near Autazes, Brazil. Water covers 71% of the earth's surface with 96.5% being salt water and only 3.5% being fresh water we can drink. Facts courtesy of NASA; photo by Mike DuBose, United Methodist Communications.

Our Living World: Water

All ecosystems in our living world depend on water and life itself is mostly composed of water. United Methodists are called to ensure access to water and protect supplies of safe water for all life in our living world.

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A field in rural Putnam County, Ohio, under cultivation. "You prepare their grain, for thus You prepare the earth," Psalm 65:9. Photo by Mike DuBose, United Methodist Communications.

Our Living World: Land

The first calling of human beings is to co-inhabit the land with all other creatures. The call to subdue the land and take dominion over the animals is in service to the well-being of the land itself and all creatures in our living world.

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Our Living World: Air

The creation accounts in Genesis do not mention the creation of air. We often take it for granted until something about it discomforts us. This invisible gift supports nearly all creatures in our living world.

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A flock of egrets flies over the Amazon River near Manaus, Brazil. The air in the Earth's atmosphere is made up of 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. Facts courtesy of NASA; photo by Mike DuBose, United Methodist Communications.

Our Living World: Energy

God provided energy for life on our planet through sun, wind, and water. Human-generated energy from fossil fuels and the patterns of human activity that depend on those fuels now imperil all life in our living world.

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Ask The UMC is the information service of United Methodist Communications.