Save Energy – Save Money!!!

Just received this great news from Beatrice at Environment Hamilton:

Faith buildings are considered commerical buildings by Union Gas so if you are a costumer of Union Gas and decide to have an energy audit done on your faith building,they will pay up to 30% of the cost. This is huge.
Green Venture is at the ready to do the audit.

Having an energy audit done provides you with some basic information about current energy use in your building and the potential for more efficient usage. Its the best way to know where your building stands and how to save money in the long run.
Once you have the audit done you can quailify for retrofit grants from the government. This is a win-win situation.

Lastly, Union Gas has a program in place where faith groups can receive free energy saving devices such as the kitchen and bathroom aerators to save water, the free programable thermostats etc.

Please look at these documents: ESP 2009

Commercial Prescriptive Program Application Form 2009 – October 2009

The website www.uniongas.com also has excellent information

Please direct any questions to Beatrice – she can provide you with further contacts.

Beatrice Ekwa Ekoko
Project Facilitator
Greening Sacred Spaces
Environment Hamilton
1130 Barton St E
Hamilton, On
L8H 7P9

bekoko@faith-commongood.net
905 549 0900

Eco Congregations

This just in from A Rocha:

I just wanted to let you all know that Eco-congregation Canada is now online. An overview for the program can be found at www.arocha.org/ca-en and follow the link for Eco-congregations at the bottom. If you are interested in getting any of the modules I would be happy to send you a PDF version or you can watch the website for a downloadable copy within the next 6 months. I hope this resource is valuable to you as you work to make your church a creation stewardship centre.

 

Shalom

Cindy Verbeek

*****************************************************************************
Cindy Verbeek
Church & Community Group Liaison
A Rocha Canada – Christians in Conservation
www.arocha.org

 

Home Office: Box 186, Houston, B.C., V0J 1Z0
(250) 845-2222  cindy.verbeek@arocha.org
www.renewalljunktion.spaces.live.com

 

A Rocha Canada Head Office
512 172 Street, Surrey, B.C. 
(604) 542-9022, canada@arocha.org

 

Want to do something practical to care for God’s good earth?
- Start or join an A Rocha Church or Community Group www.arocha.org/canada
- Offset your carbon emmissions by planting trees with A Rocha Ghana and A Rocha South Africa www.climatestewards.ca
- Take the A Rocha Living Lightly 24:1 challenge www.LivingLightly24-1.org.uk
- Help your church become an Eco-congregation www.ecocongregation.org

Creation Care as Christian Witness

Environmental concern is viewed by many Christians as peripheral, at best, to what the Church is all about. But environmentalism is a profoundly spiritual and moral matter. At the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, it was declared that “the ecological crisis is a symptom of the spiritual crisis of the human being, resulting from ignorance.” And Maurice Strong, (the secretary general of the summit), stated that “any workable decisions made … will have to have deep moral, spiritual and ethical roots if they are to be successfully implemented.” Way back in 1967, Lynne White Jr wrote  “What we do about ecology depends on our ideas of the man-nature relationship. More science and more technology are not going to get us out of the present ecologic crisis until we find a new religion, or rethink our old one.”

So how important is environmental concern to the vocation and witness of the Church? A couple of years ago I wrestled with this in a paper I wrote for a course at seminary. I offer it here not as a last word, but as a further contribution in our efforts to understand more clearly what it means for us to represent the character and intentions of God in this world. Just click on the following link …

Creation Care as Christian Witness: A Biblical Basis

“No Breathing Room; National Illness Costs of Air Pollution”

To read the read the summary report from the Canadian Medical Association, click on Summary Report

Letter to Leaders of Faith Groups

On June 19, 30 members of Waterloo Region faith communities got together for a Strawberry Summit to eat strawberries and plan for an environmentally-friendly future.

During the gathering, a ‘Letter to our Leaders’ (see the letter, below) was drafted.

You are welcome to:

* use the letter, below to your faith leaders (adjust the letter to suit your faith community’s needs)

* send the letter to your fellow faith community members

* send the letter to a faith-based newspaper

Please email Jane Snyder if you use the letter and/or choose to advocate for positive environmental behaviours in your faith community!

Jane Snyder

Greening Sacred Spaces Waterloo Region
a project of Faith and the Common Good & Residential Energy Efficiency Project (REEP)
Helping faith communities to make their buildings more energy efficient and educate members to be more environmentally aware.
www.faith-commongood.net and/or www.reepwaterlooregion.ca Tel: 519-747-5139 Email: jsnyder@faith-commongood.net

A Letter to our Leaders

Dear ________________,

On June 19, 2008 the 2^nd Annual Strawberry Summit occurred. A number of people gathered together to fellowship around local strawberries and discuss the environmental realities facing our world. We are motivated by faith to care for creation and to live in ways that are sustainable.

We would like our faith communities to play a role in the transition to sustainable living. We want to encourage you, a leader in our faith community, to consider how we might make this happen together.

In twenty-five years, one full generation from now, we envision our faith community will embody sustainable living by:

· Faith communities are experimenting communities, willing to try new technologies and new practices and lead the way

· Congregations located close to members or vice versa

· Smaller congregations may mean meeting in houses or other smaller spaces

· Less cars in the parking lot (more biking, walking etc.)

· More shared facilities within faith groups. Buildings are used by many community groups throughout the week.

· Solar energy/alternative energy for faith buildings

· Gardens in the place of current parking lots

· Energy efficiency measures – dummy thermostat (to save raising and lowering heat)

· Questioning the “Virtual Church” – will this take the place of face-to-face meeting?

· Planning the future – how can faith communities be leading the discussion of possibilities for environmental challenges?

Currently, among the many faith groups represented at the Strawberry Summit, we are doing the following to reach that goal:

· Bike racks

· Sharing space with other faith groups

· 100 mile picnic

· Discussion groups eg. Geothermal heating, transportation, gardening, raising general awareness of environmental issues – ‘how do we get people beyond talking?’

· Energy audits of faith buildings + energy-efficiency upgrades

· Encouraging energy audits of members’ homes

· Voluntary carbon offset project

· Alternative energy sources (eg. Bullfrog Power, solar photovoltaic installation)

· Eco-congregation concept (from A Rocha), featuring modules with action plans for congregations

Clearly there is much work to be done. But with some vision and passion we believe we can get there. We want our faith communities to be a beacon of hope in a world that is in serious distress. May we walk the journey to sustainability together.

Sincerely,

_________________________

On behalf of all the Strawberry Summit participants.

A pciture’s worth how many words?

Ever find yourself standing in front of the recycle or compost bin, confronted with that long list of what can and cannot go into it, and feeling ready to give up and just toss everything into the garbage? Here’s a great idea from Emily Camire at Hughson St Baptist – why not post pictures rather than just words near the bins? Here’s an example of what she’s done at work and at church compost-poster.pdf

If you’d like a copy in Word Publisher format so that you can make adjustments better suited for your own setting, just email me at greg.reader@iteams.org and I’ll send you one.

Thanks Emily!

Principles of Justice

Thanks to Crystle Numann for an excellent breakout session on “Acting Justly in an Ecologically Connected World” at the TrueCity Conference in February.

Here are some principles which the group came up with during the breakout session. They are listed in descending order from those which resonated most widely with the whole group to those which resonated least.

• be satisfied with less
• embrace a radical “other orientation” and responsibility toward people and creation
• progress is not equated with producing or possessing ever more, but with quality relationship and walking with others
• don’t pursue anything to the detriment of anything or anyone else
• get involved in restorative actions
• it’s okay to be discontented – that’s part of actively longing for the kingdom of God
• honor, respect each other and creation

• be generous
• is it life giving or destructive?
• no one should have too much so some have not enough
• stewardship as a servant, not owner
• be mindful, aware

God’s Earthkeepers

A partnership led by the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada has published a simple, beautiful book on stewardship of creation, entitled “God’s Earthkeepes” by William Van Geest and the Social Action Commission. To download a free copy, or order a hard copy for $10, go to the EFC Resource Library.

Environment Hamilton Workshops Offered to Churches

There are still spaces open for these Workshops to be brought to your location. Please contact Beatrice about the ones that interest you and the dates you have available and she will do her best to accommodate you.
Beatrice Ekwa Ekoko
Environment Hamilton Climate Change Project Manager
905 549 0900
905 627 2696

Forming Environmental teams and doing Environmental Audits

Faith & the Common Good offers some excellent resources for forming “green teams” and doing environmental audits. Check them out!

Forming “Green Teams” http://www.faith-commongood.net/gss/greenteamguide.asp

“Practical Guide to Improving the Energy Efficiency of Your Religious Building”  http://www.faith-commongood.net/gss/gsspracticalguide.asp