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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. |
The West Michigan Environmental Action Council Grand Rapids, MI Western Michigan is a region of strong religious heritage, rich with faith communities whose sacred texts and religious traditions urge care and respect for the environment. Recognizing this fertile ground for environmental advocacy, in 1997 the West Michigan Environmental Action Council (WMEAC) hosted a series of discussions on the relationship between religion and ecology, inviting the participation of the Grand Rapids Area Center for Ecumenism, the...
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Catholic Diocese of RichmondEcological Working Group St. Paul, VA Educating congregants about the...
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Michigan Catholic Rural Life Coalition (MCRLC) Alma, MI The MCRLC is a grassroots group consisting of ...
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Congregation Ahavath Beth Israel Boise, Idaho In 2003, Congregation Ahavath Beth Israel moved their...
Read moreSanta Rosa, CA The Religious Campaign for Forest Conservation, based in Santa Rosa, California, is surrounded ...
Read moreEnglewood Presbyterian Church, Homewood, AL Presbyterians promoting curbside recycling in Homewood, AL are working with the city to increase awareness. Englewood Presbyterian Church members felt that they city needed to do more to promote recycling. They set up a meeting with Homewood Mayor Barry McCulley and managers from the city’s recycling contractor, Allied Waste, to discuss its promotion of the curbside residential recycling program. Through their discussions, they learned that the city’s agreement...
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Wesley United Methodist Church, Yakima, WA Five million pounds. That’s the amount of material kept out of Washington State landfills over the last 30 years thanks to the members of Wesley United Methodist Church in Yakima, WA. The church placed a recycling center in its parking lot almost 30 years ago. A core group of volunteers—with an average age of 76—processes 60,000 pounds of recyclables every month. “This is much more complicated than simply having...
Read moreBethel Christian Church Sideling Hill Creek Watershed, PA For people concerned about protecting the environment, the old adage, “All rivers lead to the sea,” ...
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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 moreHarlem Congregations for Community Improvement, New York City, NY An interfaith coalition of more than 90 congregations is greening low-income housing in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement (HCCI) is celebrating the recent opening of David and Joyce Dinkins Gardens, a new, green affordable housing development.
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University Baptist Church Seattle, WA University Baptist Church is a small congregation in Seattle that considers creation care part of its Christian witness. On Pentecost Sunday in 2004, the congregation decided to celebrate the Holy Spirit’s blowing throughout God’s creation in a special way: Drive-Less Sunday. For a month leading up to Pentecost, bulletin announcements and verbal announcements were often heard to encourage a day to walk, bus, carpool, or bike to church on...
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St. Bridget Human Concerns Ministry, Richmond, VA Light Up the Night, a campaign of the St. Bridget Human Concerns Ministry in Richmond, VA, gave parishioners the opportunity to purchase energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) to replace inefficient existing incandescent light bulbs. Members at St. Bridget got a head start on complying with the new energy law passed by Congress on December 19, 2007, which requires the incandescent light bulb to be phased out...
Read moreMarah International Attleboro, MA Imagine growing up as a child in the environmental disaster areas of Eastern Europe or the former ...
Read moreFellowship Church Knoxville, TN Evangelical Free Church of America Lyndsay Moseley wasn’t sure what lay in ...
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