|
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. |

Fermi Project, Suwanee, GA Adapted from an article, “From Nightmare to Dream Come True” by Jeff Shinaberger, in the Summer 2007 issue of Creation Care magazine. Like many Biblical inspirations, this story begins with a dream, or moreover, a nightmare. Jeff Shinaberger dreamt of a boy, about eight years old, four feet tall, no shirt, wearing only ripped up mud-stained pants, with an extended belly. He watched the boy dip a glass into a filthy puddle...
Read more
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...
Read moreBrackenhurst Environmental Program Kenya Baptist Kenya is an African nation where indigenous trees and whole forests are rapidly disappearing. The ...
Read moreEarth Ministry, Seattle, WA A unique partnership in Seattle, WA, is uniting people of faith with community environmental leaders to decide advocacy priorities and win legislative battles. Earth Ministry, an ecumenical environmental justice group works with advocacy organization, Priorities for a Healthy Washington, to select four environmental priorities each year. Earth Ministry then mobilizes the faith community to legislative advocacy based on those priorities.
Read more
Reformed Church of New Paltz New Paltz, New York Sometimes, just one day isn't enough. In April 2004, the Reformed Church of New Paltz, spearheaded by their Caring for Creation Committee, spent a week celebrating Earth Day. The week's events began Wednesday and Thursday with...
Read moreAu Sable Institute for Environmental Studies, MI A version of this article by Peter Illyn originally appeared in the Fall 2007 issue of Creation Care magazine.
Read more
The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life in Southern California In January 2002,...
Read moreOrthodox Fellowship of the Transfiguration Santa Rosa, California Mention of God's gift of creation has long been a part of Orthodox liturgies, and the primary spiritual leader for the Orthodox Church worldwide, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, is often referred to as the "Green Patriarch." Thus, Orthodox members of the Eco-Justice Working Group of the National Council of Churches and others felt it was high time to have a national organization for Orthodox scholarship,...
Read more
Adat Shalom Synagogue Farmington Hills, Michigan Adat Shalom, a Conservative shul (synagogue) in Farmington Hills,...
Read more
Mary Help of Christians Church Parkland, FL When the Mary Help of Christians Church in Parkland, Florida constructed its church, they also established ...
Read more
Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore Jewish, Non-denominational The Owings Mills campus of the Jewish Community Center has within its ...
Read more
This is a support document for the Jewish Stewardship Story, "Over a Decade of Jewish Environmental Activism at Temple Emanuel: a Model for Greening Your Synagogue," and is an example of a congregation's environmental policy statement: Adopted by the Board of Trustees, December 19, 2003 Introduction In 1992, the Temple Emanuel Board of Trustees ...
Read moreMinter Lane Church of Christ Abilene, TX It was a difficult time at Minter Lane Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas. Marge Wood describes ...
Read moreRestoring Eden/Christian Colleges, West Virginia A version of this article By Peter Illyn originally appeared in the Summer 2008 issue of Creation Care magazine. New Generation Bears Witness to Appalachian Destruction Not many students go on spring Break hoping to get their hearts broken. But when ten students representing seven states and three Christian colleges stood on an Appalachian ridge and stared at the barren remains of a mountaintop dynamited out of existence, their hearts...
Read more