Earth Day 2025: Practicing Jubilee for Our Planet, Our People, Our Future

Earth Day is an invitation to deepen our commitment to healing the harm done to God’s creation—especially the harm inflicted on Black, Indigenous, and oppressed communities around the globe through systems of extraction, exploitation, and environmental racism.

This year, Earth Day (April 22) falls within the Easter season. However, for us as people of faith, to celebrate Easter, we must tarry through the wilderness season of lent. During the Lenten journey, I typically choose to fast from things in my life that have distracted me from growing deeper in my faith, but this year, my Pastor, Rev. Alexis Brown of McKendree Simms Brookland United Methodist Church in NE Washington, DC, introduced me to a new spiritual practice called Jubilee. Jubilee is a radical, restorative practice with deep Biblical roots.

In the Hebrew scriptures, Jubilee is marked every 50 years by the release of the enslaved, the forgiveness of debts, and the return of land to its original stewards (Leviticus 25). In the Catholic tradition, Jubilee is recognized every 25 years as a time of renewal, reconciliation, and repair. It is a time to return to the right relationship—with God, with neighbor, and with the earth.

In March of this year, I was blessed to participate in the 2025 Jubilee Convening in Rome, Italy, led by Taproot Earth, a Black and Indigenous-led organization advancing the call for Global Climate Reparations. Alongside over 100 grassroots and faith leaders from 17 nations—speaking five different languages—we gathered as a global community to practice Jubilee.

But what does Jubilee look like in the face of ecological collapse, extractive economies, and climate apartheid?

It looks like truth-telling.

It looks like organizing.

It looks like reparations.

Global Climate Reparations—defined by the Movement Governance Assembly convened by Taproot Earth in Nairobi, Kenya, in August 2024—"is the restoration of healthy and balanced relationships with all that comprise a shared global ecosystem.“ This healing work begins with those who have been historically and currently harmed. It demands the abolition of debt, restitution for injustice, and the creation of systems rooted in Black and Indigenous liberation for all people and generations to come.

Together in Rome, we organized ourselves to co-create a vision for what it means for the Church to repair harm—especially the harm it has caused through colonizing theologies like the Doctrine of Discovery. These harmful teachings justified the stealing of land, the enslaving of human beings, and the destruction of ecosystems—all in the name of God. Jubilee calls us to confess these sins and actively engage in the work of reconciliation and repair.

As the United Methodist Social Principles affirm:

"Sustainability is crucial to the development of ecologically sound policies and practices that seek to restore balance to the natural world and end the disruptive relationships between humanity and the rest of God’s creation.” (¶ 160, Stewardship of Creation, B)

On this Earth Day, I continue to reflect on ¶160 of the Social Principles as it reminds us of the radical act of jubilee.

Let us stand in solidarity with environmental justice movements led by Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities. Let us advocate for legislation that addresses historic environmental harms and ensures abundant life for our children and generations to come. Let us confess our complicity and chart a new path— one rooted in spiritual courage and ecological justice.

And let us organize.

As the Director of Grassroots Organizing for the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, I have the gift and honor of journeying alongside United Methodists from across the connection, seeking to build powerful relationships in their community to transform systemic conditions of injustice. This is the work of organizing.

Organizing at its core is a gospel practice, a discipleship practice.

Jesus didn’t just teach; Jesus trained and sent people out in the community to organize for the reign of God on earth. As United Methodists, we are called to make disciples for the transformation of the world. That transformation must include climate and environmental justice.

In Rome, we witnessed a glimpse of God’s reign. In the four days we convened in Rome as a group, we moved through four major themes: acknowledgement, connect, atone, and repair. Through these themes, grassroots leaders, civil society organizations, and representatives from the Vatican, acknowledged and waded through the harm done by the Doctrine of Discovery.

We connected with front-line leaders on debt, land, and climate migration issues to identify common solutions. We atoned for where the Church has been complicit and cultivated visions of repair led by Black and Indigenous leadership. We prayed, wept, strategized and came away with a renewed commitment to organizing our communities and the Church for Global Climate Reparations.

So, this Earth Day, I invite you to embrace Jubilee—as a practice.

Forgive debts. Return land—repair harm. Speak truth. Organize boldly.

Earth Day is not just about the planet. It’s about the people—especially those sacrificed at the altar of greed, colonization, and capitalism. This year, let’s root our Earth Day practices in the radical tradition of Jubilee, a tradition where healing and repair are possible, and justice is non-negotiable.

Rev. Laura Kigweba is the director of Grassroots Organizing at the General Board of Church and Society. In her position, she builds, strengthens, and equips United Methodists to transform the systemic conditions of injustice in both the church, community and world through faith-based community organizing.