|
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. |
Mount 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, ...
Read more
Kern Road Mennonite Church, South Bend, IN Kern Road Mennonite Church in South Bend, IN, has built a summer Sunday tradition on biking to church. A few families of cycling enthusiasts started the practice by simply picking some Sundays to bike to church and letting others know about it. Soon other families joined them, and now up to a dozen families participate.
Read moreSanta Rosa, CA The Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation, based in Santa Rosa, California, is surrounded ...
Read more
Baltimore, MD Kayam Farm organically grows healthy food for the Pearlstone Conference & Retreat Center and greater Baltimore, Maryland community, while offering both Jewish and non-sectarian hands-on agricultural and environmental education. They hope to reconnect people with their food and with the earth, inspiring social and ecological responsibility in the Jewish community, greater Baltimore, and beyond. Kayam Farm’s 5 acres cultivates organically grown vegetables, culinary & medicinal herbs, fruit orchards, vineyards, berry & asparagus ...
Read more
United Methodist Conference of North Texas, TX The North Texas Annual Conference has created a groundbreaking opportunity for its churches to go green. It negotiated for its 200 churches to buy the equivalent of 10 percent of its energy from renewable sources within Texas.Some congregations are taking greening a step further. Northaven UMC in Dallas, TX, plans to pay a premium to buy 100 percent green energy. According to Pastor Eric Folkerth, “It’s consistent...
Read more
Dioceses of Iowa and the Iowa Catholic Conference Changing methods of swine production are raising many questions and concerns about the impacts ...
Read more
Northwest Jewish Environmental ProjectPortland, OregonJewish, Non-Denominational In 2003, the Northwest Jewish Environmental Project launched a year-long energy campaign, asking the ...
Read more
Canfei Nesharim, New York, NY and National Canfei Nesharim (“the Wings of Eagles”) partnered with Orthodox synagogues across the United States to include environmental teachings in the Jewish festival holidays of Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret during the Fall of 2008. Canfei Nesharim is an organization that provides traditional Jewish resources about the importance of protecting the environment. On Sukkot, Jews celebrate water through the Simchat Beit Hashoeva (Celebration of the Water Drawing Ceremony). On Shemini Atzeret,...
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
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 moreMark Cerbone, Buffalo, NY A version of this article by Tricia O’Connor Elisara originally appeared in the Spring 2008 issue of Creation Care magazine. Toxic fumes turned Mark Cerbone into a vigilante when his eldest daughter Sage began attending public school in Buffalo, NY.
Read more
World Vision (International) Since 1975 World Vision, a Christian relief and development organization, has...
Read moreUnited Methodist Church of Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA Members of the United Methodist Church of Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz, CA wanted a church building that demonstrated their values: creating a safe environment for God’s people while having minimal impact on the earth. Now they are working to build a church following the discipline of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED for new construction certification, with the intent of achieving the highest LEED...
Read more