|
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 distinctive 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. |

Quaker Center, Philadelphia, PA It’s a building renovation project grounded in the Quaker values of peace, simplicity and equality. Leaders of the Quaker Center in Philadelphia, PA are pursuing LEED Platinum certification for the renovation of the center’s 34-year-old office building, and are using LEED Platinum standards as they renovate its 1856 Meeting House. According to Director of Development Pat McBee, the Quaker tradition of testimony motivated the decision to build green: “The wars...
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
Grace Episcopal Church, Bainbridge Island, WA A one-time Carless Sunday event at Grace Episcopal Church in Bainbridge Island, WA, has grown into a long-term program that is raising awareness about global warming. Inspired by Earth Ministry’s “On the Road” program, the church sponsored its first Carless Sunday April 2007. Organizers created a large map of the island, divided it into zones, and created lists of parishioners in each zone. They hung it in the...
Read more
Temple Beth HatfilohOlympia, Washington Mission Statement for Youth Education: “Our mission is to instill in our children and parents a positive Jewish identity, an appreciation of Jewish beliefs and practices, and a desire to make the world a better place through tzedakah (righteous giving) and Tikkun Olam (fixing the world)." Temple Beth Hatfiloh is a 160 member-household congregation dedicated to fulfilling the spiritual, educational, social and cultural needs of Jews in the South Puget Sound region. Their membership is made up people who...
Read moreA few small steps can lead to great progress. In 2008, the the Parish of St. Monica-St. George performed an energy assessment with Sr. Paula Gonzalez on their 98 year old school building. The parish, located in Cincinnati, Ohio, near the University of Cincinnati, learned ways to improve their building in a manner that made it more efficient and environmentally friendly. The parish embraced the recommended changes, adding more energy efficient double paned windows in order to save money and...
Read more
Temple Emanuel, Kensington, Maryland Jewish, Reform Movement Temple Emanuel’s bimah, with its wooden sculpture...
Read more
Temple Beth Israel, Eugene, OregonJewish, Reconstructionist Movement What does composting kitchen scraps have to do with reciting the Shema, the prayer most central to the Jewish affirmation of the oneness of G-d? Students in the Talmud Torah classes at Temple Beth Israel were guided to stretch their minds around the notion that composting is very much akin to the oneness of G-d and the unity of all creation. In the act of bringing an apple core full circle -- from soil to...
Read more
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,”...
Read more
Interfaith San Ramon Valley San Ramon, CA In May 2003, the suffering of an indigenous people half a world away led a group of Californian pastors ...
Read moreMaine Interfaith Power & Light, Inc. Brunswick, ME In 2003, laypeople and clergy from the Saco-Biddeford area of southern Maine came together as a coalition formed between the First Parish Congregational Church, Unitarian-Universalist Church of Saco-Biddeford, and the Sisters of the Good Shepard, to accept the challenge posed by the Maine Council of Churches’ Environmental Justice Program, a state partner in NRPE’s Interfaith Climate and Energy Campaign and Maine Interfaith Power and Light....
Read more
National Catholic Rural Life Conference Des Moines, IA Educating farm workers in Yakima Valley, Washington ...
Read more
SEEDS is a green initiative started in 2007 by Trinity Lutheran seminary students, staff, and faculty. The purpose of the group is to get those associated with the seminary to think and act more environmentally. The group is split into various subdivisions that deal with specific environmental projects, such as energy efficient lighting, paper use within the seminary, recycling, and various garden projects. In the beginning SEEDS only met once a month; currently the group meets weekly due to increasing...
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
Hazon, New York, NY and National Hazon is a non-profit Jewish organization based in New York City, but with members across the US and beyond the nation’s borders. Their primary mission is to create healthier and more sustainable Jewish communities by connecting people to the land through local agriculture and outdoor adventures. Hazon has encouraged Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) through their program Tuv Ha’Aretz, which means both "Good for the land” and "Good from the land",...
Read more