Celebrate Earth Day at your faith community!

Greening Sacred Spaces Waterloo/Wellington/Dufferin Regions that gives ideas what churches can do on Earth Day.

"April 22 is Earth Day around the world. Consider ways that you can incorporate concern for the environment into your service and educational or study circles on one of your holy days around Earth Day. Continue your new habits throughout the year!
Topics:

a) Reflection: Incorporate concerns for creation in faith practices and worship
b) Education
c) Action
d) Green your Sacred Space
e) Design an inter-generational educational hour or event

a) Reflection: Incorporate concerns for creation in faith practices and worship

• prayers for restoring the earth and preventing degradation (ie Climate Change)
• music to celebrate the earth and inspire individuals to action
• meditation, sermon, or discussion during worship to reflect on the earth

b) Education
• Invite your members to walk, bike, use public transportation (contact Grand River Transit www.grt.ca for routes and schedules), or carpool to your faith community
• Place announcements for environmentally-related events in your bulletin or newsletter and invite others to join you
• Encourage the use of reusable cups/plates/etc. at social gatherings
• Organize environmentally-themed movies or other discussion topics
• Invite speakers to speak on environmentally-related topics (water conservation, alternative transportation, recycling, composting, eating locally-grown food)
• Information table/display/bulletin board or web-page at your faith community

c) Action

• Deliver educational workshops, events, liturgies to introduce eco-spiritual issues
o Greening Sacred Spaces workshop or Energy Action Planner available through Faith & the Common Good website www.greeningsacredspaces.net
• Join or work with other environmental organizations (see ‘Resources’, below)
• Serve locally-grown foods if you have fellowship meals (see ‘Resources’, below)
• Sell compact florescent lights or other green products
• Get government and corporations to become more green through:
o letter writing or petitions
o submit news articles, opinion pieces or write to the editor
• Start a composting and/or recycling program
• Designate your parking lot and drop-off/pick-up area a ‘No Idling’ zone (see ‘Resources’, below)
• Book the Yellow Fish Road Program (see ‘Resources’, below)
• Develop long-term strategies such as environmental/energy audits, retrofits, renovations, adopting green policies, and green investment

d) Greening your Sacred Space (GSS)
Please see the www.greeningsacredspaces.net website for inspiring projects!

• Have an energy audit of your faith building(s). (see REEP, ‘Resouces’, below)
• Establish and prioritize your building’s needs - determine weaknesses & opportunities
• Develop a budget, understand payback of green investments
• Research and secure funding sources
• Establish providers for technical equipment and services
• Set timelines and goals and develop a system for tracking your savings
• Announce and celebrate each success

e) Design an inter-generational educational/study hour or environmental event

Seniors, toddlers and everyone in between can participate in any one (or a few!) centres designed to engage, teach and inspire people about environmental issues. Centre leaders can be members of your congregation, or invited speakers/facilitators from local environmental groups (see ‘Resources’, below). Some of the ideas mentioned in sections a), b), c) and d) can be incorporated into your centres.

Some centre ideas could be:

Outdoor ideas:

• A nature walk in the neighbourhood surrounding your faith community (this could also be done in a park or natural area close to your building)
• Book the Yellow Fish program (see ‘Resources’, below)
• Organize a litter pick-up on your property, or in the vicinity around your faith community’s property
• Start or continue a gardening project at your faith community, or in your neighbourhood

Indoor ideas:

• Story hour: featuring books from your faith community’s library, or your local library (book suggestions: The Lorax (Dr. Seuss), Dear children of the earth: a letter from home (Schim Schimmel); search your library collection for ‘environment’, ‘environmental protection’, ‘ecology’
• Music – choose music that celebrates the earth
• Eco-craft – choose crafts that have a seasonal theme (such as planting beans), use natural materials (eg. pinecones, branches, rocks), or recycled materials; design signs for your faith community’s building, such as ‘please turn off the lights when you leave this room’ (to be placed by each light switch), posters instructing what to/what not to compost (to be placed on the wall in the kitchen, and on the compost collection container)
• Environmental games – ask the camp counsellors in your youth group (or former camp counsellors!) to lead community-building, cooperative or nature-themed games
• If people in your faith community are part of a green bin/organic collection program, teach them how to fold green bin liners out of newspapers (see www.region.waterloo.on.ca/waste and click on ‘green bin’)
• A snack (featuring locally-made or seasonal foods...)

Greening Sacred Spaces Conference in Toronto

Annual Greening Sacred Spaces/Green Awakening Network Forum, March 26 & 27, 2011 at
Eglington St. George's United Church (35 Lytton Blvd, Toronto) (West of Yonge St., between Eglington and Lawrence Ave.). It includes the following:

* Practical workshops on greening our faith buildings, practices and polities
* Network with other faith communities responding to the challenge of climate change
* Share your greening stories and be inspired to promote change in your community
Saturday, March 26 (8:30-3:30)

Workshops, luncheon, and presentation of the Greening Sacred Spaces Awards
Registration fee: $40 (includes workshops and luncheon)
** Reduced fees available for students and unwaged individuals

Sunday, March 27(9:00-12:00 noon)

Complimentary interfaith breakfast and jazz worship service.

Anglican Database Gets Ball Rolling for Greening Anglican Spaces

"The Partners in Mission and Eco-justice (PIMEJ) of General Synod will launch a national database this year to provide information on eco-friendly and energy-efficient Canadian Anglican parishes, including how they became green. It is hoped that sharing their stories will help other parishes to do the same.
“We want to celebrate and reward parishes [which] have accomplished reductions in greenhouse gas emissions,” said Ken Gray, a member of PIMEJ and the Canadian church representative to the Anglican Communion Environment Network"

Prayer of Conservation

Rev'd Katherine Loynd, rector of Trinity Church St. Thomas, sent the following prayer that Bishop Terry Dance prayed when he dedicated their programmable thermostats. Digital thermostats help reduce a church's heating and air conditioning needs at times when their not necessary. On Sunday February 6th, 2011 Bishop Terry prayed:

Creator God, in the beginning you created all things; the sun and the sky, the waters and the dry lands, the plants and the animals; and you entrusted human beings with the stewardship of your creation.  In our time, we have become aware of the need to care for your creation with greater diligence; to be mindful of the needs of others with whom we share this fragile earth our island home and of the generations to come.  With the installation of new programmable thermostats, Trinity Church has taken one small step towards reducing our carbon footprint.  We ask your blessing upon these thermostats, that they may assist in the conservation of energy; keeping us ever mindful of our commitment to be good stewards of the resources you have provided; in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Such prayers of dedication are the keystones of our conservation. Thank you Rev'd Loynd and Bishop Terry.

Heritage Trust Ontario Approves St James Stratford's Roofing Project

Dave Sheldon and the property committee of St. James Anglican Church in Stratford is leading the way in terms of environmentally friendly options for heritage churches. Mr. Sheldon reports that convincing Heritage Trust Ontario of alternative greening options was challenging but worth it. Mr. Sheldon says that when they recently reroofed the parish hall they "used Enviroshake composite shakes instead of the original cedar shakes". The composite shakes are an endurable product made mostly from a combination of recycled rubber, plastic and fibrous materials and manufactured in Chatham.

Obviously, Mr. Sheldon is a great pitchman for greener ways of maintaining Anglican heritage churches.He also says that "This is now the first heritage building in Ontario to use a composite roofing material and this is something we are quite proud of". As you can see in the pictures the 'shakes' blend very well with the trees and property itself. It is this kind of environmental leadership by the Anglican church which is helping to make sure that greener alternatives will become the norm in the future. This environmental roof is aesthetically popular as well.

Mr. Sheldon says "I think that the roof looks so much like aged cedar that it's worth doing even on a heritage building". This practice was a win-win situation, not only was it ecologically safe but it kept the original integrity of the building. 

The 'shakes' blend very well with the trees and property itself