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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. |
St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church Yarmouth, ME “Becoming a beacon of environmental stewardship has truly been the sum of many small, enduring, ...
Read moreTangier Watermen's Stewardship for the Chesapeake Tangier Island, Chesapeake Bay, VA The 650 watermen (an old English term referring to one who fishes, crabs and oysters) of Tangier Island, Virginia, in Chesapeake Bay, trace their ancestry back to Cornwall England and, because of their remote location, still speak with an Elizabethan accent. The church is the center of community life, and 80 percent of the people consider themselves conservative evangelical Christians.
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Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House Oklahoma City, OKVisit site... Daily contact with small, struggling farmers, combined with commitment to the social justice teachings of the Catholic Church, led members of the Oscar Romero Catholic Worker House in Oklahoma City to begin thinking of ways to re-create the local food system. Local residents desired fresh, healthy foods and farmers needed a way to sell their goods directly to the public. Connecting local producers and consumers...
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Calvary United Methodist Church Annapolis, MD The mission of Calvary United Methodist Church in...
Read moreMount St. John Dayton, OHVisit site... In 1985 the state of Ohio dug a 14-acre, 40-foot deep gravel borrow pit on the Mt. St. John property, ...
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St. Thomas More Campus Ministry Syracuse, NY In October 2003, St. Thomas More Campus Ministry ...
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Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Munroe, MI Nationally recognized as models of sustainable living, the IHM Sisters of Monroe now are coming full circle. They are pioneering the emerging trend of "sustainable dying." In August 2009 the sisters carried out their first green burial. IHM Sister Antoinette Ruedisueli, who died on Aug. 16, was the first IHM sister to have opted for a green burial. Green burial reduces a person's environmental impact...
Read moreBrackenhurst Environmental Program Kenya Baptist Kenya is an African nation where indigenous trees and whole forests are rapidly disappearing. The ...
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New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey Increasingly secular and religious groups alike are using shareholder resolutions as a tactic ...
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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 moreSt. Andrew Christian Church Kansas City, KS Disciples of Christ Having church walls made of straw, concrete, ...
Read moreFirst Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, Brooklyn, NY It’s a green oasis in the gritty city—a restful “Peace Garden” on the grounds of The First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, NY. The building of this garden along with other efforts of the congregations active “Green Team” have helped the congregation expand its understanding of the “priesthood of all believers” to include the “priesthood of all living things” according to associate pastor Rev. Beth Waltemath.
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Diocese of Joliet, IL The University of St. Francis is one of the Catholic Universities leading the way when it comes to environmental stewardship. According to the university’s Greening of Campus mission statement: Greening, a philosophy rooted in Catholic Franciscanism, is a philosophy for life. The ultimate goal of Greening of the Campus is to cultivate among students, faculty, and staff a humble recognition that God made humanity the steward of creation, with personal responsibility...
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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