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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. |

Towson Presbyterian Church Towson, MD When people use the words "creation care," they might not often be thinking of visits to Capitol Hill. Yet, that is exactly what members of the Towson Presbyterian Church Earth Corps do, on a regular basis, as a way to care for God's creation. Starting in 1991, individual members of Towson made trips to their representatives in Congress with the Presbytery of Baltimore's public policy advocacy...
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...
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Bishops of the Pacific Northwest Visit the project site... The Columbia River rolls on for 1,200 miles from southeastern British Columbia, along the border ...
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.
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United Methodist General Conference, National At its worldwide conference in Fort Worth, TX, the 2008 General Conference directed the General Board of Church and Society, the General Board of Discipleship, the General Council on Finance and Administration, the Connectional Table and the General Conference to work with annual conferences and camp and retreat centers to develop recommendations and resources to guide The United Methodist Church in reducing its ecological footprint and finding renewable...
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Allen Avenue Unitarian Universalist Church Portland, ME Unitarian Universalists, as a whole, hold to the ...
Read moreMaryland Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD Sometimes a church can’t see an outreach opportunity for the trees. That was the case for Maryland Presbyterian Church in the northern suburbs of Baltimore, MD. The church is surrounded by four acres of sloping woodland, populated by oaks and tulip poplars. Members once viewed the property’s wooded lot as a hindrance to ministry because it limited the church’s visibility in the neighborhood, but now the church is attracting...
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Catholic Committee of Appalachia, WV The Catholic Committee of Appalachia produced "Climate Change: Our Faith Response,” a 10 minute DVD and accompanying study guide. This religious education program teaches the church’s social teaching principle of care for creation. The project was funded in part by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change. CCA offers spiritual and educational opportunities such as the “Pilgrimage to the Holy Land of Appalachia,” religious ...
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St. Bridget Human Concerns Ministry, Richmond, VA Light Up the Night, a campaign of the St. Bridget Human Concerns Ministry in Richmond, VA, gave parishioners the opportunity to purchase energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) to replace inefficient existing incandescent light bulbs. Members at St. Bridget got a head start on complying with the new energy law passed by Congress on December 19, 2007, which requires the incandescent light bulb to be phased out...
Read moreMission 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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Noah Alliance, National A version of this article by Dorothy Boorse originally appeared in the Summer 2007 issue of Creation Care magazine. “Speaking Truth to Power” Noah Alliance helps keep endangered species afloat “Well,” said an insistent congressman. “Well, which is it, artificially help prairie chickens breed in my state or lose jobs” He didn’t wait for a response. “Chickens or jobs? Which? Which?” Gathering her thoughts as quickly as she could, Dorothy Boorse answered, “Well, congressman, I’ve...
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Imago Dei Community, Portland, OR Adapted from an article, “Restoring the Scandal of Christmas” by Rick McKinley, in the Fall 2007 issue of Creation Care magazine. Imago Dei Community began meeting weekly in 2000 for worship, teaching and gathering in community to develop their core group. As of 2008, an average of 1400 people attend Imago Dei every Sunday. Many of those people are active in serving the city of Portland, OR in one of their...
Read moreBethel Christian Church Sideling Hill Creek Watershed, PA For people concerned about protecting the environment, the old adage, “All rivers lead to the sea,” ...
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Adamah Fellowship Program at Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat Center, Falls Village, CT Beginning in the 1990’s, Zelig Golden became interested in community agriculture and dreamed about farming through experiences he’d had on farms in Idaho and South America. In 1998 he became the first program director of the Northwest Jewish Environment Project in Seattle, Washington (a COEJL affiliate), which drew connections between Judaism and environmental protection. Some of his training to undertake this task came from Adam Berman, Executive Director of...
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