epiScope

'Be Green'

On Earth Day, Presiding Bishop challenges all to 'be green'
Episcopal Life Online
By Neva Rae Fox
April 22, 2008

[Episcopal News Service] Challenging everyone to "Be green," Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori led the Earth Day 2008 observance at the Episcopal Church Center in New York City.

Joining the nation in observing Earth Day, the congregation at the Church Center began the daily Eucharist with drums and the chanting of a Dakota Indian song that honors the Creator:

"Many and great O God are thy works
Maker of earth and sky." (Hymnal #385)

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A beacon for Earth Day

A beacon of energy conservation
150-year-old clock at St. Anne's gets fluorescent bulbs as part of Earth Day
Baltimore Sun
By Susan Gvozdas
April 23, 2008

The Rev. Bob Wickizer climbed the stairs and wooden ladders yesterday inside the steeple of historic St. Anne's Episcopal Church to reach Annapolis' town clock.

Eighty feet above the center of downtown, he and Kirsten Chapman, head of the church's environmental ministry, gingerly stepped over loose wooden planks coated with dust and ducked under the four metal arms of the clock mechanism to get to the 16 incandescent bulbs that illuminate the clock. Chapman slipped in front of one of the four faces and carefully replaced the bulbs with compact fluorescent ones.

This is what it took, on Earth Day, to turn a 150-year-old landmark into a beacon for thinking green.

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Faith in going green

Local religious groups focus on relationship between beliefs and the environment
Ashley Luthern
Athens (OH) Post
April 22, 2008

…
“People who cared about the environment were labeled as tree-huggers 30 years ago, but now it’s an issue for anyone who’s alive. We don’t want to poison the place where we live to the point that we can no longer live there,” said the Rev. Bill Carol, rector at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd.

In 2004, 55 percent of faith traditions supported strict environmental regulations, up 3 percent from 2000, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

In addition to talking about environmental concerns, congregations are working to make their places of worship more sustainable. Both the Episcopal and Unitarian congregations are taking steps to be more energy efficient by weatherizing their buildings — adding insulation to decrease energy use — and investigating solar power.

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Reality-based faith

U.S. Episcopal Church urges action on climate change
Posted by: Ed Stoddard
April 1st, 2008

The Episcopal Church has been riven by the issue of ordaining gay clergy and the broader issue of gay rights. Now Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori has taken a stand on an issue which is probably not as divisive, at least in Episcopal and Anglican circles: climate change.

In a letter to the U.S. Senate on Monday, Schori urged the body to “take up climate change legislation at the earliest possible moment.”

“Climate change is a threat not only to God’s creation but to all of humanity,” Schori said, noting that her concerns were formed by both her faith and her training as a scientist. She has a background in oceanography, making her perhaps better qualified than most spiritual leaders to comment on the issue.

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For Christians observing Lent, sacrifices to protect God's creation are Crystal Clear

Growing number go on 'carbon diet'
By BETH DALEY
THE BOSTON GLOBE
March 15, 2008

Many Christians sacrifice a personal pleasure such as chocolate, liquor or cigarettes to mark Lent, the period of penance and prayer before Easter.

This year, Nina Scott is giving up carbon.

The retired University of Massachusetts at Amherst professor is hanging wet laundry on a clothesline in her basement to prevent emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the dryer. She is car-pooling as much as she can and turning off lights more often.

These actions will do little to slow global warming -- at most, Scott will probably reduce her "carbon footprint" by 1 or 2 percent during Lent -- but she says it's important to do nonetheless.

"For me, it's that connection between protecting nature and faith," said Scott, one of about a dozen parishioners at Amherst's Grace Episcopal Church who are following a Lenten "carbon diet" until Easter and, hopefully, beyond.

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Religious environmentalism

Yale's schools of divinity, forestry joining forces to tackle global issues
BY TRACY SIMMONS
New Haven (CT) Republican-American
March 7, 2008

Evelyn Tucker, co-founder of the Forum on Religion and Ecology (FORE), won't hesitate to say that climate change is the largest crisis humans have ever had to face. She calls it a moral calamity and is calling for people of faith to step up.

A recent conference titled "Renewing Hope: Pathways of Religious Environmentalism" at Yale Divinity School addressed the issue, beginning with a lecture that highlighted a frightening representation of humanity and the wounds it is inflicting upon the planet. The conference was organized by the school and the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and Tucker said about 300 people from across the country attended.

"This whole conference is part of a much larger movement. This whole study was developed over a period of 12 years," she said referring to FORE, a discussion hosted by Harvard that brings together religious studies with academic dialogue on the environment.

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New hue

Faith: Congregations are showing green spirit
By Molly Rossiter
Cedar Rapids (IA) Gazette
2/17/2008

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- Within most faiths is a call to members to be good stewards of the Earth. So calling on congregations to "go green" makes sense, say area coordinators of a movement encouraging faith groups to become more environmentally aware.

"Every faith tradition has an ethic that calls us to care for creation," said Sarah Webb, who, with two other "church moms" two years ago, started Cool Congregations, a project aimed at teaching church communities how to be better caretakers of the Earth.

"It's something we've neglected over the last millennium, so we're looking to our own Scripture for inspiration," Webb said.

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Shannon Preto and Salying Wong: manufactured passions win out
Louise Rafkin
San Francisco Chronicle
February 17, 2008

There's no couch in the small El Cerrito cottage that Shannon Preto, 34, and his wife, Salying Wong, 35, call home, but that doesn't present a problem. These two are so giddy-happy that their one armchair seems bountiful. Shannon, a dancer, also teaches at the San Francisco School of the Arts; Salying is a priest at Berkeley's St. Clements Episcopal Church.

Married for six years, their chance meeting was less lofty than their current professions might suggest. In 2000, both were living in Denver, where they met at a garbage bin behind their apartments. Salying was committed to recycling but had no way to drive to the recycling center. She was guiltily cramming cardboard boxes into a regular trash bin when Shannon approached. "Come here often?" he asked, characteristically funny and trying to sound cool.

Salying launched into a monologue involving new roommates and a small apartment in an effort to explain throwing away perfectly recyclable goods. Shannon nodded and smiled and hoped that he, at least, if not his trash, was making an impression. After several interactions around the complex, Shannon asked Sayling for a date. "I've got a truck," he suggested, "and you've got recycling."

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Coming clean about coal

250 rally against a coal-fired plant
By Nancy Perkins
Deseret (UT) Morning News
Feb. 6, 2008

ST. GEORGE — Slogans, T-shirts, campaign buttons, snacks, pleas for donations and speeches galore dominated a rally in St. George on Super Tuesday — but the topic had nothing to do with political candidates.

"The topics we address tonight are very urgent," the Rt. Rev. Carolyn Tanner Irish, Episcopal bishop of Utah, said during remarks she made at the "Love Your Air — Stop Toquop" rally held at the St. George Episcopal Church.

"The Episcopal Church has taken a forward effort on sustainability. It is time for us to take a great deal more wisdom and thought into what we do," she said. "We are the only creatures on Earth that can contemplate the ramifications of our actions."

The rally, which attracted more than 250 residents, was billed as a way for individuals to voice their opposition to the Toquop Energy Project, a $1.2 billion coal-fired power plant to be constructed on 650 acres about 12 miles northwest of Mesquite. The plant would generate 750-megawatts of electricity for Nevada and Arizona customers, according to Toquop officials.

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Harvests of hope

Winter farmers markets grow in Wis., Ill., Iowa, providing fresh food while helping the needy
By JOHN HARTZELL
Associated Press
January 26, 2008

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Ken Ruegsegger struggled after he sold his dairy herd a few years ago and concentrated on raising animals for their meat.

A coalition of religious groups stepped in and paid an electric bill for his farm near Blanchardville in southwestern Wisconsin. Now he's paying them back and earning a profit as he sells his wares at indoor markets that have become popular in Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa in winter months.

"It's a real good feeling," Ruegsegger said.

The markets in church halls, which began in December 2003, are being coordinated by the Churches' Center for Land and People, a coalition headquartered at Trinity Episcopal Church in Janesville. It is composed mostly of religious denominations and orders in the three states.

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Going Green in Detroit

Green efforts inspire local churches to conserve
BY TINA LAM
Detroit Free Press
January 23, 2008

While politicians argue in Lansing and Washington over how and when to reduce America's global-warming gases, some Michigan churches are already doing it.

Michigan Interfaith Power and Light, whose mission is to save money, energy and carbon dioxide emissions, started in 2003. It now has 230 member congregations of all faiths across the state.

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A green repentance

Ecumenical group shares ideas for taking care of earth
BY EMILY DONOHUE
The Rhode Island Catholic
January 19, 2008

WARWICK?–?Nearly 150 people gathered at Bishop Hendricken High School last week to learn what they could do to help their congregation become more environmentally conscious.

The seminar, "Greening Your Congregation," was presented by Rhode Island Interfaith Power and Light, a statewide group representing a variety of religious communities interested in combating global warming.

RIIPL was formed last year as a state chapter of the national Interfaith Power and Light organization and brings together members of many different congregations to network, discuss ways to lower their community's carbon footprint and global impact, and try to raise awareness about the issue of global warming. Last week's conference was the group's first public offering, and was well attended. People from across the state gathered to learn what they could do in their congregation, and why they should do it.

Keynote speaker Margaret Bullitt-Jonas is an Episcopal priest at Grace Church in Amherst, Mass. In recent years she has become an advocate of a faith-based approach to dealing with global warming. Her presentation asked the audience to look to their faith as an impetus to make changes in their personal life and in their congregation. She calls the transformation she underwent, from a lifelong city-dweller with little interest in the environment to an activist who participated in non-violent civil disobedience at a Washington D.C. rally on eco-conversion.

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Raising a hot topic

Scarfe: Let's convene yearlong dialogue about energy, climate change
Alan Scarfe
Opinion
Des Moines (IA) Register
January 9, 2008

As people of faith we are called to care for God's sacred creation and everything therein, which the Lord has described as "good." We are charged with caring for the poor and vulnerable around the world through alleviation of global poverty. We are faced with a formidable challenge on both fronts - the effects of global warming.

As the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, noted in a recent statement, "The biggest challenge that faces us in terms of global policy at the moment is how we are to find ways of reducing and controlling climate change without eating into the economic aspirations, the proper aspirations of our poorest societies towards prosperity, respect and dignity."

In my own church we have heard from Anglican faithful in Swaziland about how climate-related drought has made it all but impossible to grow food. Our fellow churchgoers in Bangladesh have warned us that rising waters threaten to engulf the homes, places of worship and communities of millions. We must act to protect our brothers and sisters and reduce pollution here at home.

It’s all here … and the Rt. Rev. ALAN SCARFE is bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa.

Greening Christmas

For some, it means less spending, more giving
By SACHI FUJIMORI
North Jersey (NJ) HERALD NEWS
December 20, 2007
…
This eco-conscious movement has not hit some corners of the county. The Rev. David Wolf of Paterson's St. Paul's Episcopal Church said promoting a buy-nothing, save-the-earth campaign at Christmas is a nice idea, but some of his families, who struggle to put food on the table and can't afford gifts, look forward to the holiday all year. "It's a luxury to boycott it," he said. Every year on Jan. 6, his congregation holds a celebration for the feast of the Epiphany, where every child in the parish receives a present, donated by wealthier congregations in the suburbs.

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More Churches Going Green
By Cassandra Carmichael
AlterNet/Foreign Policy in Focus
December 17, 2007.
…
The Little Church That Did

St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania started its journey to become more environmentally friendly when it had to renovate a historic church building after acquiring a nearby property in their urban setting. Instead of using traditional construction methods, St. Stephen's, with its blossoming core of environmentally minded congregants, chose to follow theological principles of construction. It decided to build in ways that protect God's creation and are less polluting, that provide healthy worship and sacred spaces for congregants, and that, most importantly, don't harm vulnerable communities.

By utilizing energy efficient lighting and cooling, designing for multiple use, and using less toxic materials such as environmentally friendly flooring, St. Stephen's was able to decrease their carbon pollution and become the first LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) church. Today, the church stands as a testament to the congregation's commitment to protecting God's creation by using less energy, cutting their carbon emissions, and relying on less toxic building materials.

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Impose a carbon tax, churches urge minister
Saving planet a sacred duty, Anglican and United officials say
Doug Ward
Vancouver (BC) Sun
December 20, 2007

A number of B.C. churches are urging Finance Minister Carole Taylor to include a carbon tax in the next budget, saying such a measure would help save God's creation -- the planet Earth.

"Climate change is a moral issue because the way we care for creation ties into how we respond to God's creativeness," Rev. Kenneth Gray, chair of the environment committee of the Anglican Diocese of B.C., said Wednesday.

"We support a transitional and progressive tax strategy, which forces heavy polluters and heavy consumers of fossil fuels to change their way of operating."

Anglican David Dranchuk also wrote to Taylor in support of a carbon tax, on behalf of the Diocese of New Westminster.

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Tutu: "Adaptation apartheid"

Global warming will have 'most severe' effect on world's poor: UN report
November 27, 2007
CBC News

Wealthy countries must provide at least $86 billion US to the world's poor by 2015 to help them cope with the floods, droughts, disease and other negative effects from global warming, a new UN report says.

"Ultimately, climate change is a threat to humanity as a whole, but it is the poor … who face the immediate and most severe human costs," Kemal Dervis of the UN Development Programme said in a press release.

The annual Human Development Report issued Tuesday was compiled by a team of independent development experts. The 399-page report is intended to be a source of information when countries gather in Bali, Indonesia, on Monday to discuss a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, an international climate treaty that expires in 2012.
…
"Leaving the world's poor to sink or swim with their own meagre resources in the face of the threat posed by climate change is morally wrong," Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu, a retired South African Anglican archbishop, writes in the report.

"This is precisely what's happening. We are drifting into a world of 'adaptation apartheid.'"

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Reaching out

'Faith on Tap' brings Episcopal clerics to Walnut Creek brewery
Goal is to bring together young adults hungry for community, rousing discussion, meaningful life
By Rebecca Rosen Lum
San Mateo County (CA) Times
11/23/2007

WALNUT CREEK — The ale flowed as Episcopal clerics, including the bishop, went to a downtown pub recently to talk faith with 20- and 30-somethings.

Churchgoers on a mission to sober up sinners? Not at all. "Faith on Tap" is about bringing together young adults hungry for community, rousing discussion and a meaningful life. It's spreading across the country faster than a moonshine delivery.

In the Pyramid Brewery's Diablo Room, Bishop Marc Andrus, the Rev. Phil Brochard, and parishioners from St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Walnut Creek, and more than 20 others gathered around tables laden with glasses and pitchers.

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Churches uniting to fight global warming
By Natalie Garcia
Providence (RI) Journal
November 23, 2007

In the past, churches and scientists rarely propagated the same message, but at least in one area, that has changed. Religious organizations across Rhode Island see damage to the planet as an offense to God’s creation.

Throughout the year, congregation after congregation joined the newly established state chapter of Interfaith Power and Light, part of a national campaign to mobilize worshippers to help fight global warming.

Maybe it’s the unique nature of this crisis — one that threatens economic security and the quality of life for the next generation — that brought Rhode Island’s faithful into the fold, with more than 20 houses of faith statewide signing up to intensify their role as environmental stewards.

“I never thought it was a faith issue, but it fits in quite naturally,” said Eric Roberts, who attends St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church in Kingston.

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Conservative

Teen takes up polar bears' cause
BY HOWARD BUCK
Clark County (WA) Columbian    
October 25, 2007

Those animated polar bears are pretty cute in that clever soda ad campaign.

Kaitlyn Casimo worries more about where those and other beverage bottles come from, and end up.
…
"Polar bears are incredibly hardy. But they can't change fast enough," said Casimo, a junior at Oregon Episcopal School on Portland's west side. Arctic ice sheets are receding, and critical permafrost regions are melting, too.

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Climate changes

Anglican leader and Pell in bitter row over climate
By Barney Zwartz
The Age
October 25, 2007

A BITTER rift over climate change has developed between a senior member of the Anglican Church and Sydney Catholic Archbishop George Pell.

Canberra Bishop George Browning, the Anglican Church's global environmental chief said Cardinal Pell was out of step with his own church and made no sense on global warming.

Bishop Browning also criticised the Federal Government for its "utter obsession" with growth and warned that climate change refugees would be a bigger problem than terrorists in a century of desperate struggle.

At the national Anglican synod in Canberra yesterday, Bishop Browning attacked the cardinal for saying Jesus said nothing about climate change. "It's almost unbelievable," said Bishop Browning, who is the chairman of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network.

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A church on mission

U2charist: Service based on rock group's songs benefits fight against diseases
By Patrick Wilson
Winston-Salem (NC) JOURNAL
October 21, 2007

Bishop Michael B. Curry of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina finally learned how to pronounce the name of Bono, the lead singer of rock band U2.

Curry led a communion service yesterday based on U2’s music.

“I finally learned how to pronounce Bono’s name. I was saying ‘Bo-No,’” Curry said.

A congregation at St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church on Parkway Drive in Ardmore danced and sang along to such U2 songs as “Mysterious Ways,” “Window in the Skies” and “One.”

The “U2charist,” as the service was called, had a theme of raising support for the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The service was sponsored by the Episcopal churches of Winston-Salem. The Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina is the largest of three in the state, and stretches from Charlotte to Rocky Mount.

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Australian on a mission to stay in U.S. for God's work
By Mark Houser
Pittsburgh (PA) Tribune-Review
October 22, 2007

John Stanley has been trying for years to save people's souls over cups of coffee, but he can't drink it.

"I did, until all this immigration stuff started," Stanley said. "Now I'm too nervous as it is."

A tall, lean Australian who favors paisley shirts, keeps his long hair tied in a bandanna and rides a donated Harley, Stanley is an unlikely looking Episcopal missionary.

His mission is odder still. A bright, airy coffeehouse, seemingly plucked from the suburbs and dropped among the abandoned storefronts of Aliquippa, Uncommon Grounds is Stanley's base for starting a spiritual and civic revival of the decaying former mill town.

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It is our obligation to care for the Earth
Carolyn Tanner Irish
Salt Lake Tribune
10/20/2007

The decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change vindicates both a courageous political leader and the multitude of scientists who have been warning us about climate change for decades.
    The fact that we haven't wanted to face "inconvenient truths" doesn't alter the realities they point to, nor does it mitigate the devastating consequences of our continuing denial.
    It is interesting to reflect on what has fed our illusion that climate change is just a "maybe." For a time scientists published studies, and other scientists (as well as politicians and political appointees) challenged them. Many communities began recycling waste rather than reducing it, thinking that might fix the problem.
    But probably the biggest factor in our denial is simply fear; we like our way of life, sustainable or not. Given our dependence on so many things we do not control, as well as the global scale of the problem, we naturally feel powerless to deal with what threatens it.
    Nevertheless, the case has been made. It is now time for us to look honestly at the kinds of choices we will have to consider.

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Walk for Peace unites faiths
By Joe Killian
Greensboro (NC) News-Record
Oct. 22, 2007

GREENSBORO — Signs, angry chanting, arrests — these have become the hallmarks of downtown anti-war protests. But Sunday afternoon's interfaith walk from Guilford College to Center City Park put the peace back in peace protest.

"I stopped attending the regular protests downtown because they got so aggressive and ugly," said Jane Carter , 52. "But the peace walk today was calm, and everyone came together in a real sense of community to oppose the war in Iraq and promote peace."

More than 300 people participated in the walk, called "Peace With Every Step." Christians, Jews and Muslims from the Triad and beyond came out for the event, including representatives from N ew Garden Friends Meeting, Persimmon Grove AME and the Islamic Center of the Triad.

"Most churches have been opposed to this war, not just in Greensboro but the denominations themselves," said Charlie Hawes , a retired Episcopal minister from Greensboro. "Our House of Bishops has spoken very strongly against this war, as has the Pope. Other people may be surprised to see us coming together on this, but we're not surprised to see each other here."

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Conserving lives

Gay youth gather at church for support and understanding
The Jersey (NJ) Journal
October 18, 2007

Today, society appears more open and tolerant of alternative lifestyles. But when a young person struggles with his or her sexual identity, it is a personal path that is still difficult to navigate.

Evidence of this struggle was gathering young people from a Kearny support group for gay and lesbian youth to photograph for this column. All the members were invited but only one showed up and he would not show his face for the photos. Members were also notified in advance that I would be present for this past Monday's meeting; the same person showed up. And he would only allow me to use his first name and no other identifying information.

It could be that they are not out with their parents and did not want to be identified publicly or it is an ongoing issue with their parents for many reasons, said Ricky Donato, the group's moderator and parishioner at Trinity Episcopal Church in Kearny, which has hosted the weekly meeting for the past 18 months.

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People of faith find spiritual meaning in conservation
By Mindi Westhoff
Staunton (VA) News Leader
October 19, 2007   

STAUNTON — Empty soda cans. Barely used paper. Styrofoam.

There's no telling how much damage is done by our bad habits. Whether it be waste, overuse or discarding of recyclable products, the carelessness that often comes with human consumption has become a drain on our natural resources.

Little by little, churches in Augusta County are trying to change those habits.

Recycling paper and cans, refusing to use paper products unless necessary and conserving energy are the biggest ways churches help.

"We do make a point of recycling all the things the city takes," said Trinity Episcopal Church's parish administrator Margaret Pearson. "We also make a point of using 100 percent recycled copy paper, which is our biggest office expense in terms of supplies."

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Companions

Saints in fur coats
BY CHRISTIE STORM
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
October 6, 2007

The soft pitter-patter of little feet often follows the Rev. Lowell Grisham through the halls at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Fayetteville. Grisham’s small companion, Kitty the dog, goes with him to committee meetings, wanders out of his office to greet visitors and even attends midweek worship services. For Grisham, as for many owners, Kitty the Pekingese is more than a pet. She’s a companion, a friend and a connection to the divine. “I have certainly experienced the presence of God through my pets,” Grisham said. “Anything that helps us to love, to reach out in generosity and openness and kindness, the stewardship of taking care of a dog, all of those are good for our spirit.” It’s obvious Americans love their pets. According to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, pet ownership is at an all-time high. More than 71 million households own at least one pet. Owners spend millions on food, toys and treats, veterinary care and even visits to doggie spas.

Pets are also increasingly being recognized by houses of worship. Pet blessing ceremonies, long a tradition in Anglican and Roman Catholic churches, are now held by a variety of denominations. The ceremonies, often held in celebration of Thursday’s Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, are a way to recognize the importance of all creatures and the role pets play in the lives of their owners.

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Shortsighted

Are Some Churches Replacing Theology with Ecology?
By Michelle Vu
Christian Post Reporter
Thu, Oct. 04 2007 02:07 PM ET

Are too many churches these days more concerned about saving the earth than saving souls?

A British sociologist and a prominent American theologian are among those who might say so.

Frank Furedi, who teaches at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom, suggested that churches have replaced theology with ecology, using ecological virtues as a platform to assert their authority in society.
…
As an example, Furedi pointed to the Church of England which launched an “eco-crusade” entitled Shrinking the Footprint in 2006.

The head of the Church of England, Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams, had complained that “early modern religion contributed to the idea that the fate of nature is for it to be bossed around by a detached sovereign will, whether divine or human.”
…
The Most Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori, the head of The Episcopal Church and a former oceanographer, said she believed global warming is real and mainly caused by humans. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Rev. Jim Ball of the Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI) also sided with Schori’s positions.

It’s all here …and good on the increasing number of evangelicals who realize that anthropogenic forcing due to carbon emissions has huge implications for the worldwide mission of the Church.

Sustainable

Interfaith conference on sustainability set
Seacoast (NH) Online
September 7, 2007

PORTSMOUTH — A conference to build interfaith collaboration for sustainability will be held at St. John's Church in Portsmouth and Green Acre Baha'i School in Eliot Sept. 21-23.

The weekend begins at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 21 with a free program open to the public on The Natural Step for Communities: How Cities and Towns Can Change to Sustainable Practices at St. John's Episcopal Church.

It’s all here …

Greening ministry

Faith goes green
By Stephanie Innes
Arizona Daily Star
09.03.2007

With a belief that they must speak out for the silent, some people of faith in Tucson are giving a voice to Mother Nature.

Fueled by heightened media attention to global warming, worshippers and congregations are turning their attentions to the environment. They view protecting the Earth as a justice issue, infusing it with a passion that many historically devoted to ending racial, gender and economic inequality.
…
St. Philip's in the Hills, Tucson's largest Episcopal church, recently put together a "green team" of people aiming to infuse the congregation with more awareness of environmental stewardship. The church is performing an audit of its own energy consumption, and this month will begin a series of events focused on being green.

"We'd consider the Earth as the ground of all our being. It supports and sustains us and is one binding need we all have. It feeds us and it fuels us," said Greg Foraker, director of adult formation at St. Philip's. "The Earth is really central to Christian tradition, but the news we've been hearing lately reminds us that we can't let go of that core faith."

It’s all here …

Baber cemetery celebrated
BY LISA COONEY
Pottsville (PA) REPUBLICAN & Herald
09/03/2007

Nature walks and the dedication of a restored stained-glass window highlighted the ninth annual Charles Baber Cemetery Appreciation Day on Sunday.

"We do this each year not only to show our appreciation for our many helpers who volunteer all year long but for the joggers, the children who walk through the park on their way to school, the dog walkers, all the people who utilize this park every day, to raise awareness of the park," said Carol Field, Orwigsburg, senior warden of the Trinity Episcopal Church, Pottsville, which oversees the cemetery located in the heart of Pottsville. She also is co-chairwoman of the event that annually draws hundreds to the 25-acre site.

It’s all here …

Greening the Gospel

Flocks going green for God
By Asher Price
Austin American-Statesman (Texas)
July 22, 2007

…
For years, environmentalism has been preached from the pulpit as a form of Christian stewardship. Now, a growing number of Central Texas churches are turning those teachings into action by going green as they expand to accommodate growing congregations.

In San Marcos, St. Mark's Episcopal Church has bought land for a new church and is weighing options for green construction, including solar panels, rainwater collection systems and concrete floors that would help keep it cool.

"We're supposed to take care of the Earth, not just take what we can get from it," said Larry Hanson, chairman of the church's building committee.

The Episcopal Diocese of West Texas, which includes parts of Central Texas, has set up a Web site explaining how churches can build in environmentally sensitive ways.

The Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit in Dripping Springs recently completed a church that has double-paned, tinted glass - "70 percent of the time, we don't even have to turn on a light," said the Rev. Nancy Coon - and a zoned heating and air-conditioning system so the church can heat or cool only the areas that are occupied.

It’s all here …

New life

Harvey church garden grows food, hope
By Jim Hook
Chicago Sun-Times/dailysouthtown.com
July 2, 2007

Tomatoes, greens, cucumbers and peppers rise from the fertile soil of a new community garden in Harvey.

The vegetables grow alongside another tender cultivation -- hope.

"This garden has become a symbol of inspiration for people," said Rev. Rod Reinhart, pastor of St. Clement's Episcopal Church, 15245 S. Loomis Ave. "This garden gives people a message of love, order and respect for the entire community.

It’s all here …

Churches see their mission to care for creation
By Angela Gregory
The New Zealand Herald
July 02, 2007

Churches are urging their congregations to take action on climate change and other green issues.

Anglican, Catholic and other denominations are trying to address concerns about environmental challenges caused by global warming.

An Anglican diocesan climate change action group in Auckland is, for instance, running educational programmes on faith responses to "global climate change and the ecological crisis".

It’s all here …

In service of a higher power
Former Hydro One CEO finds new life in God
By LINDA LEATHERDALE, TORONTO SUN
July 2, 2007

Forgive thine enemies is what Rev. Ellie believes in.

Rev. Ellie is Eleanor Clitheroe, the Hydro One CEO who five years ago was ceremoniously fired for allegedly blowing company money on an extravagant lifestyle, including eight memberships to exclusive clubs and some $330,000 in limo rides for her kids and nanny over three years, despite having a $40,000-a-year car allowance.

Clitheroe claims Hydro One's board approved the spending, and her $30-million wrongful dismissal suit is still in the courts.

In an interview, Clitheroe says it was God who helped her through this trying ordeal that left her feeling broken and marginalized.

And so, she's now reaching out to help others, who also feel broken and marginalized.

It’s all here …

Teens on right path
Church program aids troubled tribal youths
By Cristina Madrid, Correspondent
Whittier (CA) Daily News
7/2/2007

WHITTIER - The second eldest of six siblings, 16-year-old Garrick Logg enjoys playing guitar and hanging out with his friends in his hometown of Holbrook, Ariz.

Taking a break from band practice, he along with 14 other teenagers from their Navajo reservation, are looking at new ways to live life without alcohol, drugs and jail in their future, said the Rev. Earl Gibson of Whittier's St. Matthias Episcopal Church.

Once a gang leader, Logg is now leading his church's youth group, which Wednesday served soup to homeless people at St. Matthias.

It’s all here …

PB testifies at senate hearing on global warming

Climate change, global poverty linked, Presiding Bishop tells Senate committee
Jefferts Schori calls for immediate action on urgent concerns
Episcopal News Service
By Neva Rae Fox
June 07, 2007

[Episcopal News Service] Calling global warming "one of the great human and spiritual challenges of our time," Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori addressed the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee June 7 during a hearing titled "An Examination of the Views of Religious Organizations Regarding Global Warming."

Representing the National Council of Churches USA (NCC) and the Episcopal Church, Jefferts Schori said, "As one who has been formed both through a deep faith and as a scientist I believe science has revealed to us without equivocation that climate change and global warming are real, and caused in significant part by human activities."

It's all here...

Faith Leaders Debate Effects Of Limits on Emissions
Washington Post
By Alan Cooperman
Friday, June 8, 2007

As President Bush resisted mandatory limits on carbon emissions at a G-8 summit in Germany yesterday, several U.S. religious leaders urged Congress to speedily enact such limits to avoid a catastrophic rise in global temperatures that would particularly hurt the poor.

But in sharply divided testimony before the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works, some evangelical Protestant leaders took the opposite tack, also citing concern for the poor.
 
Trading the same admonitions from Jesus to protect "the least of these," the climate-change activists said the poor would suffer most from extreme weather; skeptics of climate change said the poor would be hit hardest by the cost of shifting to cleaner energy sources.

Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church and a former oceanographer, argued that "global poverty and climate change are intimately related."

It's all here...

Religious leaders testify in Senate on warming
Those called by Democrats urge action; GOP witnesses aren't so sure
MSNBC
Reuters

WASHINGTON - Several religious leaders — Episcopal, Catholic, Jewish and evangelical Christian — agreed on Thursday on the need to confront global warming, while other faith representatives questioned the climate change threat.

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church and a former oceanographer, told the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee that most religious people have reached accord on the need to act.

"While many in the faith community represented here today may disagree on a variety of issues, in the area of global warming we are increasingly of one mind," Schori said. "The crisis of climate change presents an unprecedented challenge to the goodness, interconnectedness and sanctity of the world God created and loves."

It's all here...

Christian Leaders Debate Global Warming Before Senate
Christian Post
By Michelle Vu
Fri, Jun. 08 2007

WASHINGTON – Evangelical, mainline and the Catholic traditions were all citing scriptures from the same Bible as support for their stance on global warming, yet they still remained intensely divided over the issue as they shared their views before a U.S. senate committee on Thursday.

The U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works first heard from the presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church, the Most Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori, who strongly supports the belief that global warming is real and mainly human induced.

“As one who has been formed both through a deep Christian faith and as a scientist, I believe that science has revealed to us without equivocation that climate change and global warming are real and caused in significant part by human activities,” said the Episcopal Church head.

It's all here...

Religion, politics mix at warming hearing
San Jose Mercury News, Calif
By Frank Davies
June 8, 2007

WASHINGTON - Religious leaders and senators invoked the Old Testament, the teachings of Jesus, modern-day polls and hard-edged politics Thursday in a lively hearing that turned into a debate about the role of faith and doctrine in tackling global warming.

Using her prerogative as committee chair, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., scheduled the hearing to highlight the growing importance of religious groups, including evangelicals, in grass-roots campaigns to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

After weeks of hearings on climate change that brought scientists, snowmobilers, CEOs, environmental activists and retired admirals before the Environment Committee, this hearing featured the nation's presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, a leader of reform Judaism, a representative of Catholic bishops, evangelical leaders and theologians.

Several leaders said denominations that often disagree over moral issues and policies have found widespread accord on the need to protect Earth and future generations by aggressively combating global warming.

"Faith communities, in the area of global warming, are increasingly of one mind that action is needed," said Episcopal Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, who also spoke for the National Council of Churches, which represents about 45 million Americans.

It's all here...

Flowering of faith

Faith and flora come together
By Janet I. Tu
Seattle Times
June 1, 2007

From faith groups carrying signs at climate-change rallies to prominent evangelical Christians speaking out on the topic, people of faith appear to be increasingly involved in environmental issues.

Now, some local Christians, Jews and Muslims have launched what they say is the largest interfaith environmental event in the area.

About 50 congregations are taking part in the Interfaith Creation Festival, a four-day event that began Thursday, featuring speakers, panels and workshops. The event runs through Sunday.

It’s all here …

PB's Op-ed in San Francisco Chronicle

Reflections on poverty and climate change
by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori
San Francisco Chronicle
Sunday, May 20, 2007

Before I became a priest, I was a professor of oceanography. One of the things I learned was that oceanographers couldn't just study squid or fish in isolation. We had to study interconnected systems. We had to understand not only the animals' environment, such as the water, but its chemistry and circulation, the atmosphere above the ocean and the geology below it. And that, I believe, is how we must understand our world: We must see everything, and everyone, as interconnected and intended by God to live in relationship.

Two of the most significant crises facing our world -- climate change and deadly poverty -- offer an example of such interconnectedness. By understanding how the two crises, and the people they affect, are connected, we can begin to understand how humanity can triumph over both. Extreme poverty -- that is, poverty that kills -- afflicts more than a billion of God's people around the world. Nearly 30,000 of these people will die today. That's 1 every 3 seconds. The factors that propel this kind of deadly poverty include hunger, diseases like AIDS and malaria, conflict, lack of access to education and basic inequality. Climate change threatens to make the picture even more deadly. As temperature changes increase the frequency and intensity of severe-weather events around the world, poor countries -- which often lack infrastructural needs like storm walls and water-storage facilities -- will divert previous resources away from fighting poverty in order to respond to disaster. Warmer climates will also increase the spread of diseases like malaria and tax the ability of poor countries to respond adequately. Perhaps most severely, changed rain patterns will increase the prevalence of drought in places like Africa, where only 4 percent of cropped land is irrigated, leaving populations without food and hamstrung in their ability to trade internationally to generate income.

It's all here...

Signs of the times

Conservation preached, practiced
The Jersey Journal (NJ)
Monday, April 16, 2007

Let there be light, the Bible says.

And at one Hudson County church, there will be light - the kind that conserves resources - as well as enlightenment.

After recently viewing the Academy Award-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" and joining in a discussion about global warming led by the Rev. Fletcher Harper of the New Jersey faith-based environmental organization Greenfaith, the leaders of the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour in Secaucus voted to install energy saving compact fluorescent bulbs wherever possible on church property.

The plan, church leaders say, is to accomplish the changeover by Sunday - Earth Day.

It’s all here …

Faith in the planet

How local churches and scientists are teaming up to fight global warming
By ABIGAIL CROCKER
seacoastonline.com
April 12, 2007

Instead of fighting — using Bibles as weapons and data charts as ammunition — local scientists and church-goers have reached common ground. Following recent national trends, some Christian groups in the area have adopted environmentalism as a chief cause. In addition to holding Sunday services and Bible studies, local churches have responded to scientists' calls to reform their Earth-harming ways by holding environment-centered educational forums, urging congregants to "go green," and inviting energy experts to help churches cut carbon emissions.

"We're stewards of the earth. It seems to me we're not taking care of it. It should be religion 101. How are people not getting it?" said Sarah Brown, co-chairwoman of Saint John's Stewardship of the Earth Committee in Portsmouth.

It’s all here …

Greening up

Energy-savers for 40 days
Lent spurs efforts to give up wasteful habits
Charlotte (NC) News & Observer         
April 9, 2007
Yonat Shimron

For most Christians, giving up something for Lent means abstaining from temptations: chocolate, soft drinks or TV.

But this Lent, half a dozen North Carolina churches, including three in Chapel Hill, took the concept of doing without and tied it to their religious beliefs about the environment. These churches vowed to fast from carbon -- the kind that contributes to global warming.

It’s all here …

Churches put faith in action for environment
Spiritual leaders say Easter is perfect time, while reflecting on rebirth and renewal, to put focus on all of creation -- Earth
By Rebecca Rosen Lum
CONTRA COSTA (CA) TIMES
04/08/2007

The global environmental crisis has filled spiritual leaders with a bitter awe this Easter, a time for repentance and rebirth, to consider the broken body and the transcendent miracle.

As the sun rose on Good Friday, a stark study spelling out the disastrous repercussions of global warning hit the news wires.

"Certainly, we have a lot to repent for in our treatment of the Earth over the centuries," said the Rev. Larry Hunter of St. Stephen's Episopal Church in Orinda.

It’s all here …

Walking on sunshine

Group braves snow to raise awareness for environment
By ADAM GORLICK, The Associated Press
Published: Saturday, Mar. 17, 2007

As the world’s warmest winter on record drew to an end with a weekend snow storm, a group of religious leaders started walking across the state Friday to bring attention to global warming.

“People have been asking me what happens if it snows,” said the Rev. Fred Small of the First Church Unitarian in Littleton. “I tell them: ‘We walk.’ ”

The nine-day haul from downtown Northampton, Mass., to Copley Square in Boston was planned far before forecasts called for a weekend of snow and sleet just a few days before the start of spring.

“It was windy and cold. I was walking on the front of the line and I felt like I was bow of a ship with the wind just coming into my face,” said the Rev. Margaret Bullitt-Johns of the Grace Episcopal Church in Amherst, where the group warmed up on bowls of lentil and minestrone soup after walking eight miles in deep snow from Northampton to Amherst.

It’s all here … and it’s the Rev. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas, please…

Church calls for green weddings

Church calls for green weddings
Sunday, February 11, 2007

Brides should consider travelling to their wedding in a taxi, wearing a second-hand wedding dress and asking guests to bring a bottle to the reception, according to the Church of England.

A new guide being used by the Church encourages couples to reject the spend, spend, spend culture surrounding weddings and embrace a more simplistic approach.

The pocket-sized book also urges couples to prevent their weddings literally costing the earth, with tips on how to create an environmentally-friendly ceremony and reception.

It's all here ...

Support network offers energy options for churches

By Anna Kaplan
February 10, 2007
Stockton Record Staff Writer

Stockton churches wanting to play a role in a greener world now have a support network.

California Interfaith Power and Light is an organization that helps faith communities make their churches and homes more energy efficient. Once they sign a covenant pledging to reduce their contribution to global warming, churches work with CIPL to replace light bulbs with energy-efficient fluorescent lights, remove aging appliances and undergo energy audits.

It's all here ...

Greening up the Church

Faith, environment intersect
Article published Feb 5, 2007

By Nancy H. McLaughlin
Staff Writer

WANT TO GO?
What: Environmental Stewardship: Congregational and community action program. Featured speakers include John Wear, director of the Center for the Environment at Catawba College; state Rep. Pricey Harrison; Dan Besse, Conservation Council of North Carolina; and Peter Kauber, Guilford Solar Communities Program. Subjects include legislation initiatives, environmental activism and personal projects for advancing renewable energy. Free. Bring a bag lunch.
When: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 607 N. Greene St., Greensboro.
Information: Steve McCollum, smccollum@triad.rr.com or 286-8665; Amelia Deaton, ameliadea@aol.com or 275-0431.

GREENSBORO — One of the first commandments God gave man was to take care of the Earth.

The pollution, global warming and erosion now plaguing the planet indicate just how miserably man has failed to follow that instruction, concerned people of faith say.

"I consider this the gravest theological issue the church faces today," said Ellen Davis, an associate professor of Bible and practical theology at Duke University's Divinity School.

"There is a window of opportunity not to fix the problem entirely but to mitigate it," Davis said. "When humans recognize their complicity in the sin and destruction of the works of God, that is hopeful."

An upcoming conference on environmental stewardship at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church makes a serious effort to broaden the conversation between the faith-based community and the nonprofit, political and marketplace sectors. It follows recent movements on the faith and environment front to find ways to work with the scientific community.

"This is a big, complex human challenge and it won't be solved on the merits or virtues of any one sector," said Steve McCollum of Holy Trinity, one of the organizers of the free conference. The program is co-sponsored by Holy Trinity and Unitarian Universalist Church of Greensboro .

"The challenge to the Christian faith-based community is largely couched in the context of the attribution to Jesus that part of his mission was to bring us life in a more 'abundant' fashion," McCollum said. "That's the crux of the ecological crisis, don't you think? We've grabbed onto the abundance thing as though it only has to do with material stuff."

And there's this too, from New Hampshire:

Climate change forum at St. John's

PORTSMOUTH -- Kicking off a series of forums, slide shows and films on the environment titled "The Down to Earth" series, St. John's Episcopal Church is presenting a forum Friday, Feb. 16, on the local effects of global warming.

The event takes place at 6:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

"That Saturday in January when we were all out in Portsmouth in shorts and flip-flops got me to thinking ... is this global warming? What are the consequences of this bizarre winter weather and how will it affect the plants and animals in our back yards, forests, and coastline?" said Sarah Brown, who first had the idea to hold the forum. "I had all these questions and I thought, I bet others do, too."

Climate change specialist and local University of New Hampshire botanist/naturalist Dr. Barry Rock will present the findings of the recently released Northeast Climate Change Impacts Assessment. The study is the most refined and best available scientific projection of global warming's impact on the climate of New England, including New Hampshire and southern Maine.