2026 EcoFaith Summit of the Upper Midwest
From Fear to Fire:
Igniting Community for a Planet in Peril
April 18, 2026
At First Lutheran Church,
Duluth, MN and Livestreamed via Zoom
This year's Summit is Co-Presented by:
“Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road…?” - Luke 24:32
​​Igniting courageous community across the Upper Midwest with:
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An unquenchable fire of love for Creator and Creation.
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A controlled burn of holy fear, wonder, and joy - across generations and divides.
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A germinating fire seed of collaborating and creative networks.
We encourage you to attend as a group from your congregation, campus, camp, or community!
Register for the 2026 EcoFaith Summit Now!
From Ash to Action: a Lenten Series
The EcoFaith Summit Organizing Team has collaborated with The Ministry Lab, ISAIAH, Working Preacher, and numerous individuals to create From Ash to Action: Even the Stones Cry Out, a multifaceted Toolkit designed to encourage congregations into the work of community organizing and community building.
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This Lenten Toolkit provides formation resources for Shrove Tuesday through Palm Sunday, unique worship outlines for each week of Lent, take-home spiritual practices and Community Action prompts geared to prepare congregations for ISAIAH's Palm Sunday Path and/or 2026 EcoFaith Summit of the Upper Midwest. These are two separate events, both highlighting the church's call to organize and engage in shaping the future God desires for our communities and planet.
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A weekly support cohort will begin on Ash Wednesday with Dr. Dn. Diane Jacobson facilitating and EcoFaith Summit Organizing Team members joining in weekly. Find zoom link at this link.
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We hope you'll encourage congregations and leaders to utilize the Toolkit as we all get ready for this year's Summit. Congregations new to organizing will find solid introductory materials. Congregations already actively engaged will find supplmental and at-home resources to encourage their good work.
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What to Expect
SCHEDULE FOR THE DAY:
8:30 - Doors open, coffee & table exhibits
9:30 - Welcome & Introductions
9:50 - Opening Worship
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Morning Plenary with Summit Speakers, One-on-one conversations
11:40 - Break
11:55 - Community Action Stations
12:20 - Meal
1:15 - Summit Worship
2:00 - Fireseed Session #1
2:50 - Break
3:00 - Fireseed Session #2
3:50 - Break
4:00 - Sending Worship
4:15 - Reception
Improved Livestream Experience
This year's livestream Summit experience will be streamed via Zoom with a Summit Host. The Summit music, worship, and speakers will be livestreamed from the First Lutheran sanctuary, the afternoon Fireseed enrichment sessions will be an online-only experience for a more engaging online Summit community building experience.
Livestream Group Experience Guide
Participate in the Summit Community from your own place! Use our guide to plan to gather your own community in your place to both participate with in-person community and the EcoFaith Summit of the Upper Midwest. Read about how Bethel Lutheran near St. Louis MO created their own Summit Experience last year.
Morning Gathering and Action Stations
We gather to listen, share with one another, be challenged, and ignited for community with our constellation of speakers to who are engaged in community organizing for neighbors and Creation: Rev. Kristen Glass-Perez, Campus Ministry Pastor and author, Hungry for Hope; Brooke Elness, High School EcoFaith Leader; Eóin Small, director, Rise & Repair; Lacy Tooker-Kirkevold, Young Adult Organizer ; Minister JaNaé Bates, Co-Executive Director, ISAIAH MN.
Live Artist Rev. Paul Oman will enhance the Summit worship through painting the Easter story of the Road to Emmaus. Spoken Word Artist Joe Davis will share his spoken word of gospel, inspiring fire-y hope and action.
Our morning will culminate in a call to action, inviting us into action stations for collective action on behalf of our planet in peril.
Afternoon Engagement Sessions
The afternoon will include a variety of breakout enrichment sessions to give your community practical tools for kindling action. This year we are naming these sessions Fireseed after the seeds that require fire in order to germinate and grow.
The afternoon will conclude with sending worship and a reception.
What's New in 2026
Ishkode at Wisconsin Point:
Rekindling Indigenous Fire Relationship
Explore fire’s path to igniting community in a special Summit Fireseed Session
Friday, April 17, 2025
12:30-4:45p.m.
Lake Superior Estuarium and Wisconsin Point
City of Superior, Wisconsin​
Ishkode is an onsite opportunity to spark imagination into the transformational power of God's refining fire in community building through the story of intercultural collaborative action on Wisconsin Point. Participants are encouraged to rideshare as parking is limited. Please be prepared to be on your feet (walking and standing) for approximately 90 minutes with no breaks.
Purpose: Participants will be challenged to confront past understandings and imagine new possibilities in the areas of community engagement, team building, and ecological practices that shape our relationships and our world.
Registration is free to everyone who registers for the Summit. Participation is limited to 30 people.
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Led by: Callie Grones and Deacon Colleen Bernu
Callie Grones is a Marshfield Clinic Health Systems AmeriCorps member serving with the Friends of the Lake Superior Reserve (FOLSR). She has organized several volunteer events at Wisconsin Point, including multiple beach cleanups and a spotted knapweed (non-local plant) pull. She is also a part of the working group to restore ishkode (Ojibwe for fire) to Wisconsin Point.
Deacon Colleen Bernu (Fond Du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa) is a Minister of Word and Service through the ELCA, formerly serving as mission developer for Together Here Ministries and later DEM and Minister for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the Northeastern Minnesota Synod. Colleen is dedicated to using her training and professional experiences combined with the traditional ecological knowledge of her ancestors as a teacher to bridge diverse communities through increased understanding, shared language, and mutual dialog.
Creation-Centered Children's Programming
New this year we are offering an EcoFaith Summit Experience for children age 2 through upper elementary age to participate in the Summit in age appropriate Bible Study, activities, music, and program; planned and run by a licensed teacher and former camp counselor. The children will spend some time with their own programming and also join the adults at times throughout the Summit.
Engaging Youth & Young Adults
High school youth who attended last year's Summit along with two young adult youth directors are working to plan youth and young adult engagement to the EcoFaith Summit.
Overnight Experience
Youth Groups will have the opportunity to come for a Friday night lock-in. Email ecofaith@nemnsynod.org for more details. Young Adults (18-35 years old) are invited to spend Friday night in community with a sleep-over at Gloria Dei Lutheran, Duluth.
Theme & Goals Statement
“[Our hearts] will sing of the day you bring, let the fires of your justice burn,
Wipe away all tears for the dawn draws near, and the world is about to turn.”
- Canticle of the Turning - ELW #723
Summit Goals
Ignite courageous community across the Upper Midwest to spark:
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An unquenchable fire of love for Creator and Creation.
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A controlled burn of holy fear, wonder, and joy - across generations and divides.
-
A germinating fire seed of collaborating and creative networks.
Peril:
Our planet is in peril: from rampant forest fires to flagrant abuses of power, from raging economic and racial injustices to the burning anxieties of children, youth, and adults.
Smoldering in our spirits are embers of paralyzing fear: fear that Earth’s ability to support life is damaged beyond repair; fear that we are powerless; fear that our efforts are too little and too late because the harm that has been done is irreversible; fear that what power we wield will be answered with callous disregard and violent retaliation and any good we do will be overturned; fear that we are alone.
Promise:
The Spirit’s baptismal spark blazes away this dross, making space for a different fear that ignites our hearts: the fear of the Holy One, Creator of the Cosmos, Healer of All, Sustainer of Life. Living in wonder, awe, and sacred trembling, we fall in love with Creator’s self-revelation, Healer’s presence, Sustainer’s gifts: the beauty and bounty of this planet, all our kin, our beloved and only home.
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We gather to be refined through crossgenerational repentance and lament.
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We gather to be refueled in creation, community, worship, and art.
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We gather to be reignited by a constellation of speakers and organizers - youth, young adults, and elders.
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We gather to be a renewed community, ablaze with New Life for God’s beloved Creation.
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We gather for our fear to become our fuel…
“Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road…?”
- Luke 24:32
