A Brief Conversation with Grace Hubbard about Green Teams and Sustainable Church Practices

The Northern Illinois Conference Creation Care Summit 2026 will be held May 2 at First UMC Arlington Heights.  Grace Hubbard will be the keynote speaker for the event and will lead a workshop on building a green team.  Grace helps organize state and district-level groups to educate churches on the many options for practicing faithful Christian stewardship and to work for climate justice.  Hubbard has worked with United Women of Faith and the Church Center for the United Nations in New York as well as with NGOs locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. 

We sat down with Grace to learn more about her job in New England. Here are her responses.

1. What do you like about your job?

I like working to find hope as a person of faith in this dire time. It’s great to work with individuals and churches sharing information and resources and connection. As United Methodists we have the unique opportunity to network across districts, regions, states, conferences and the world.

2. Can you talk about the green teams in your Conference and how you build relationships with and between local churches.

One tool that is very useful is our monthly virtual creation care café. We have 80 people registered and good monthly attendance. Sometimes we have an open forum with a designated topic, such as ideas for celebrating Earth Day. Sometimes we have guest speakers with a Q & A afterwards. This forum is very beneficial for sharing ideas and resources across the Conference.

3. Your job puts you on the extended Cabinet for the New England Conference.  How green is your Cabinet?  Are you the only person advocating for creation justice at that table?

Creation Justice intersects with every other form of social justice. Part of my job at the Conference level is helping other conference leaders see that and remember it. I sit on the Trustees Home and Health Safety Committee also. There I make sure that everyone is on board with energy efficiency and testing for health concerns. Sometimes I find grants or resources for improvements to Conference buildings and local churches and share the information broadly. For example, an opportunity for free EV chargers for church parking lots came from UMass Amhurst and now I am coordinating implementation the program in our local churches.

5.  How can we measure if we are being effective in our creation justice ministries?

We are in the process of measuring benchmarks for energy use so that we can move toward net zero. We will be using the North Carolina model for collecting data. It will be presented at Annual Conference this year.

6. How can the local church respond to the dismantling of the EPA and federal grants?

I’m a coordinator, not a professional in climate science. Advice I’ve heard is that we need to go local, work on community and state levels. In New England Conference we are organizing state advocacy groups to stay on top of it.  The state level is where we can make a difference.

Please join us for the Creation Care Summit on May 2.

• Fellowship time opens our day at 8:30 am.

• Worship and Plenary begins at 9 am with reports from around the conference and a key note address by New England’s Creation Care Coordinator Grace Pugh Hubbard. 

• Other workshop leaders will address reducing energy bills, engaging with solar, and planting native species.

Click Here to Register for Summit on May 2