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Caring for God's Creation Love and gratitude for God's creation lie deep within religious life. From mountaintops to forests, green pastures to still waters, stars in the sky and lilies of the field, we experience the grace of our Creator and the gift of our presence here. With Earth in grave environmental peril, many religious Americans are seeking to respond through our faith. Through the many gateways and galleries of this website, we offer resources and accounts of how people of faith are acting upon God's mandate to be stewards of our precious Earth. Partners in Stewardship The National Religious Partnership for the Environment is an association of independent faith groups across a broad spectrum: the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Council of Churches U.S.A., the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, and the Evangelical Environmental Network. Each Partner — in common biblical faith but drawing upon its disctinctive traditions — is undertaking scholarship, leadership training, congregational and agency initiative, and public policy education in service to environmental sustainability and justice. Together, they seek to offer resources of religious life and moral vision to a universal effort to protect humankind's common home and well-being on Earth. |
Mission Year, Atlanta, GA A version of this article by Leroy Barber originally appeared in the Spring 2008 issue of Creation Care magazine. Leroy Barber lives in an unjust American landscape. The people in his church live in one of Atlanta’s urban sacrifice zones. If you sat down to list the social ills that are unequally visited on his neighborhood, you might be able to name a few of the most prominent. But environmental injustices likely...
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Commission on Stewardship of the Environment The Louisiana Interchurch Conference Baton Rouge, LA The Louisiana Interchurch Conference, located in the region of Baton Rouge, Larose, West Monroe, ...
Read moreBaptist General Convention of Texas The "colonia," or neighborhood, of Anapera, Mexico, lies three miles south of El Paso, Texas. This community has 20,000 residents; they are the poorest of the poor, living without water, sanitation and healthcare. Many are hungry. The desert community is blighted by unlimited trash dumping, chemical contamination and untreated sewage, which cause serious illness and reduce the quality of life for its residents.
Read moreLakeland Christian School, Lakeland, FL A version of this article originally appeared in the Spring 2008 issue of Creation Care magazine. Since 1998, “Monarch Mania” has been an annual event at Lakeland Christian School. It started with a local butterfly entrepreneur, Gil Daigneau, who stopped by the school and left elementary principal Fred Wiechmann a monarch chrysalis hot-glued to a Golden Dewdrop plant.
Read moreSisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Monroe, MI Article by Holly Knight, IHM Sisters Communications and Marketing Director, taken from The Immaculate Heart Of Mary Quarterly, Autumn 2008. In 2003, before the sisters' big move back to the Motherhouse, they decided to produce a DVD on the sustainable renovation of this grand, old convent. Toward the end of the production, several sisters were interviewed and taped about their newly "green" home. Sister Paula (Marie Paula)...
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Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center Falls Village, Connecticut Jewish, Non-Denominational Isabella Freedman rests on 450 acres of forested land and lush meadows in the foothills of the southern Berkshires. As fall home to the Teva Learning Center and year-round home for the Adamah Jewish Environmental Fellowship, the Isabella Freedman Retreat Center is a living model of what it looks like to steward the land based on Jewish environmental ethics. Guests at the retreat center's...
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Temple Beth El, Bloomfield Hills, MIJewish, Reform Movement Since 1997, the Ellin and Harold Lawson Youth ...
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Madison Christian Community, Madison, WI It’s a ministry that scatters seeds of hope for incarcerated people. Madison Christian Community, an ecumenical partnership between Advent Lutheran Church (ELCA) and Community of Hope (UCC) in Madison, WI, works with a nearby correctional facility to offer a restorative justice-based horticulture program in its 6000 square foot garden. “The garden ministry is one way to bridge the racial, economic and social barriers that exist between people today,”...
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All Peoples Church, Milwaukee, MN In a community where the average household income is $26,700, All Peoples Church (ELCA) of Milwaukee, WI is reclaiming a garden, forming partnerships with local urban farming organizations and offering education in order to provide healthy, fresh food sources to all people. The church is located in the Harambee neighborhood, where the population is 63% African-American, 11% Hispanic and 19% Caucasian. 62% of the people are renters. There are several...
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Abiding Peace Lutheran Church Kansas City, MO Eight years ago, Mary Gerken described the grounds ...
Read moreDoor Creek Church Madison, WI Evangelical Free Church in America When the leadership of Door Creek Church in Madison, Wisconsin, chose the site for their new church ...
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Catholic Coalition on Climate Change, AK, FL, OH Early in its beginning, the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change focused on providing a forum to explore the links between faith and climate change by hosting hearings around the country. In the Spring of 2007, hearings were held in three key states: Anchorage, AK, Columbus, OH, and Orlando, FL. These hearings provided an opportunity to learn about science, theology, and local actions to address the environmental and social impacts of climate change. A...
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Washington State Catholic Conference, WA In Washington, Archbishop Alexander Brunett served on the Governor’s Climate Advisory Team, which prepared recommendations to achieve emission reduction, and green jobs goals. Many of the team’s recommendations were signed into law, the Climate Action and Green Jobs legislation. Some of the goals are to reduce emissions from the vehicle miles traveled, the establishment of a regional market-based system and the participation of local governments in them, and how the...
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Second Presbyterian Church, Carlisle, PA When more than 100 physicians in Cumberland County, PA, published a warning statement about the high levels of diesel particulate matter in the air, Rev. Jennifer McKenna called to find out what they were going to do about it. Upon learning they had no plans to act, she spurred her congregation at Second Presbyterian Church in Carlisle, PA, to advocacy. Together, they formed the Clean Air Board of Central...
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