United Nations Environmental Program

United Nations Environmental Program Archive of E-Articles 2008

January 2, 2008

THE RECORD (New Jersey)

Saving souls and the planet Wednesday, January 2, 2008

By BARBARA WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER

A growing number of North Jersey's religious leaders are shading their sermons in green.

Taking care to keep politics out of their save-the-earth messages, they're preaching practical everyday changes in lifestyle. The basic tenet remains that God gave man dominion over the Earth, as the Bible says. But now clergy members are likening that dominion to a farmer's stewardship of the land -- controlling, but also nurturing it and giving it time to replenish.

The Rev. Kevin Downey, pastor of St. Mary's Church in Pompton Lakes, proposes that taking care of the environment and following God's word aren't two mutually exclusive subjects.

"This life here on Earth is a gift," Downey said. "But with that gift comes a huge responsibility to take care of the Earth. I've talked about that and will continue to strive to put it in more homilies."

FAST FACTS "Green" activities by churches:

? Conducting energy audits.

? Stepping up recycling efforts.

? Using compact fluorescent bulbs.

? Letter-writing campaign to advocate for lower diesel emissions.

? "Toxic-tours" for youth to witness effects of environmental racism.

? Installing solar panels.

St. Mary's is working with GreenFaith, a New Brunswick-based interfaith group that teams with religious organizations in getting them to use energy from renewable sources. The Catholic

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church hopes to create a Sustainable Sanctuary program -- a center of religious-environmental activism.

Church organizers are already stepping up recycling, investigating "green" cleaning supplies, scheduling an energy audit, and using compact fluorescent light bulbs. They also are lining up "toxic tours" to let parish youth see firsthand how industrial dumping hurts the environment and those who live near dump sites.

St. Mary's may also follow in the footsteps of other houses of worship such as Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church in Paramus and Christ Episcopal Church in Teaneck, which installed solar panels on church buildings more than a year ago. The Teaneck church receives a rebate on the energy it conserves, said church senior warden Aubrey Thompson.

"I don't know exactly how much we're saving, but it is just a part of what we're doing -- we're also thinking about upgrading our electrical system," Thompson said. "We are stewards of the Earth, and it is our duty to take care of it."

This same message is coming from North Jersey rabbis and priests, ministers and imams. They are not basing entire sermons on "going green," but rather weaving it into standard subjects such as gratitude. And some clergy are not just talking about it -- they are getting creative in their presentations.

At B'nai Keeshet, a reconstructionist synagogue in Montclair, recycling bins are in every room in the building. Next to them, Rabbi Elliott Tepperman put up cards with quotes from the Bible about being stewards of the Earth.

Synagogue leaders there have started buying supplies in bulk, instead of items like individual wrapped juice boxes. They use ceramic mugs for coffee instead of Styrofoam cups and use only organic lawn-care measures -- no chemical pesticides.

"The momentum is definitely picking up, but we did have some resistance to the recycling efforts," said Kevin Fried, a spokesman for Tepperman. "But we feel very strongly about protecting God's creation and we're having speakers come to talk to the congregation about it."

More than 150 churches are involved with GreenFaith, including 25 that have installed solar panels. After the Christ Evangelical Lutheran church in Paramus installed panels about 18 months ago, it received about 25 calls from neighbors and institutions asking about them, said Pastor Kent Klophaus.

"We didn't do this for financial reasons but rather as part of our proclamation to the world around us," Klophaus said. "We take care of the Earth as part of the relationship we have with God -our gratitude for all he has given us."

But not every religious institution is laying down the "green" carpet. The Rev. Fletcher Harper, the Episcopalian priest who runs GreenFaith, said a number of churches are shying away from getting involved with the environmental movement.

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"Some church leaders feel environmentalism is a politically divisive issue and they don't want to alienate any parishioners," Harper said.

Even more polarizing is the fight to stop environmental racism, one of the organization's more ambitious goals. Harper said there is "environmental degradation in neighborhoods of people of color," and religious leaders and congregants need to be made aware of the damage that does to the health of people living near the sites. He wants them to become advocates for strong cleanup measures.

"These are social, moral and cultural issues. The natural world is the biggest revelation we have of God's creative power and it's our responsibility to take care of it," Harper said.

Not everyone believes the two ideologies mesh, however. Downey said one parishioner chided him for believing all that "liberal made-up stuff about global warming." But the Franciscan priest said he responded by pointing out that "even if you don't believe in global warming, there's nothing wrong with reducing costs."

"This isn't about politics, it's about a lifestyle," Downey said. "We take so much for granted -yet we live in this incredible world that needs our care."

Dagi Murphy, a warden at St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Oakland, said religious leaders are putting the "emphasis on energy and conserving it, not necessarily global warming." His church is trying to educate parishioners on how to save money at home while making small changes in the buildings such as always turning off lights when rooms aren't in use, and converting to an instantaneous water heater, which doesn't keep constant hot water.

"You don't have to change your whole way of life," Murphy said. "There are little things you can do every day to conserve energy -- if we don't, we'll run out."

And are these clergy practicing what they preach?

Downey said he washes his dishes now every day once he learned how much energy and water goes into running a dishwasher. He said he believes in leading by example.

"It's just me and one other priest," he said. "We only have a couple of cups and plates -- it just isn't right to run the dishwasher every day for that."

E-mail: williamsb@

January 7, 2008

'Green' church moves heaven, earth closer By Craig Wilson, USA TODAY SHELBURNE, Vt. -- All Souls Interfaith Gathering has a reputation for being all-inclusive.

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The small congregation, founded in 1999, recognizes just about every faith you can think of. No one is turned away. And that includes Mother Earth.

ASIG prides itself on being one of the greenest churches in one of the greenest of states, and nothing proves that more than its spanking new sanctuary building, which opened in October.

It's a model for ecological correctness: locally harvested wood, bamboo flooring, compact fluorescent lights and a furnace that will heat the facility using grass, corn or wood pellets. The congregation expects to go through 30 to 35 tons of wood pellets this first winter in the new building.

Even the air conditioning is provided by using water from an artesian well.

"I'd like to think we're cutting-edge," says the Rev. Mary Abele, who heads the congregation that numbers 70 but is growing every week. "I suspect some come now because of our environmental practices."

ASIG also took advantage of its prime location. The new sanctuary's west-facing windows capture perhaps one of the most stunning views you'll ever see -- rolling farm land, Lake Champlain and the snow-capped Adirondack Mountains beyond.

If you weren't a tree hugger before -- or a believer -- you'd be hard pressed not to be one after taking in this view. "You sit here and the sun is setting, and oooh," sighs Laurie Caswell Burke, ASIG's environmental coordinator.

When the building opened, Abele told the Burlington Free Press that the views are "an inspiration to help us understand who we are in connection with the environment and the divine."

It's a theme that runs through everything ASIG does. Even the new parking lots, cut into the property's forest, were put where they were to preserve as many mature trees as possible.

"The building needed to blend with the surrounding site rather than stand out. (We needed to) play the building down, make it inviting, make it calm, play on the beauty of the site and surroundings, let the building be the shelter from which one can appreciate the whole," says Marty Sienkiewycz of SAS Architects in Burlington, who designed the project with congregation members.

"They came to us with a wish and more of a dream," says Sienkiewycz, who met with church members more than a dozen times. "If they had not had such a strong influence, it would have turned out very differently, but we're quite pleased with it."

It's all part of a trend in the religious world in which more worshipers are looking to save the environment as part of their spiritual journey.

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Dozens of ecumenical groups are tackling everything from global warming to "eco-palms" for Palm Sunday services. The National Religious Partnership for the Environment, for instance, says it represents 100 million Americans, an alliance of major faiths combining religion and ecology.

"I see the environment as a portal to connect with the divine," Abele says. Why now? "I think it had to get to the crisis level, and that's where we are."

Abele and her flock leave no stone unturned. Literally.

An outdoor circle of stones, built by congregation members in 2003, is "a place to connect with the Earth's energy." Members are encouraged to walk the Sacred Earth Wheel often. Nearby is a labyrinth that members also traverse.

In addition, the church has Flower Communions (congregants are encouraged to bring flowers to share at a May service) and a Gathering of Waters ceremony (water from springs, brooks and rivers are blended in a communal bowl).

Don Stevens of the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi even used feathers from a red-tail hawk to wave sage and tobacco smoke over members at the opening service in October. The "smudging" ceremony is an American Indian purification ritual to drive away evil spirits.

This winter, the church's adult and children's programs will focus on environmental messages. The "green" theme has always been taught at an early age here. ASIG's children's program this winter is titled "The Sacred Environment -- The Earth and Me."

Hoping children will "fall in love with the earth they live on, we're teaching creation stories from the ancient myths to the big-bang theory," Caswell Burke says. "I think we're ahead of our time. The earth is woven into every service. There's a connection between the environmental and the spiritual."

Each month a community member is invited by ASIG to talk about his or her passion for the planet. A beekeeper has spoken to the children, and Christopher Davis, who manages the 1,000 acres around ASIG, spoke over the weekend about the congregation's new "green building, how it works day to day."

"Once we started with the concept, (the environment) drove so many parts of the project," Davis says. "It's a philosophy. It was always, 'Let's use what we have. Let's reuse and incorporate.' "

Abele, in a homily on Veterans Day, drove the point home.

While honoring the veterans, she asked her congregation if it was too much "to honor what they're fighting to preserve. ... It means nothing if we allow our air and our environment to deteriorate."

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