|
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. |

School Sisters of Notre Dame Mankato, MN The Center for Earth Spirituality and Rural Ministry ...
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 moreEpiscopal Diocese of Ohio, OH The Episcopal Diocese of Ohio is changing attitudes about global warming by helping churches change light bulbs. Bishop Mark Hollingsworth and intern Andy Barnett are leading a campaign titled “How Many Light Bulbs Does it Take to Change an Episcopalian?” The program provides up to $250 per church to all 95 churches throughout the diocese to replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). “Almost any bulb under 250...
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 more
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...
Read more
Article By Mandi Stirone taken from Catholic News Service Catholic colleges and universities are joining their public counterparts in pursuing green initiatives for their campuses using a variety of resources, offices and organizations. Students and school officials are tapping into Internet-based initiatives such as the Campus Greening Initiative at http://www.netimpact.org and Campus Climate Challenge, and they're also entering competitions such as RecycleMania, which promotes friendly competition among campuses to promote recycling efforts. About 24 Catholic colleges and universities have also joined the...
Read more
Adamah Fellowship Program at Isabella Freedman Jewish Retreat CenterFalls Village, CT In 2005, Adina Allen was an undergraduate environmental studies student at a university in Boston, MA taking an intensive course on the geopolitical issues connected with oil and water. She was looking for information and tools to engage with the paradigm shift of humans and their relationship to the world. She wasn’t satisfied that her academic learning was translating into practical experience. Adina...
Read moreThis is a support document for the Catholic Stewardship Story, "Parish Renovation," at the Church of St. Joan of Arc in Minnesota, and is an example of the various sustainable features they included when renovating their parish buildings: Church of St. Joan of Arc Parish Center The “Natural Step,”...
Read moreA TAPESTRY OF ENGAGEMENT Across the nation, wherever they live, work, and worship, people of faith have established diverse initiatives to care for God’s creation.
Read moreDunkirk, NY Though few people may now be familiar with the concept of “gleaning” — the ...
Read more
Temple Isaiah, Los Angeles, CA Jewish, Reform Movement Temple Isaiah has been a part of COEJL ...
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
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...
Read moreLutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC) Chicago, Illinois Seminarian Steve Jerbi says, “I chose LSTC ...
Read more