Good News for St. Stephen's!

GreenFaith Certification Program

Last October, the Episcopal Church and GreenFaith announced a collaboration to enroll Episcopal parishes in the GreenFaith Certification Program. For parishes successfully completing the application process, GreenFaith provides a two-year program to help the parish become greener and become a leader for other Episcopal parishes across the country and other congregations of any faith locally, while the Episcopal Church provides half of the tuition cost for the parish.

At St. Stephen’s, we brought the proposal to the vestry, formed a Green Team, and completed the application process with a February 1 deadline. Yesterday we learned that our application was accepted! We are the first congregation of any denomination or faith tradition in Nebraska to join the Green Certification program.

We are delighted with this opportunity to learn how to be better stewards of the environment (and better stewards of our finances as utility costs go down), deepen our connection to God through remembering God’s creation in our worship and our study, and to learn how to provide religious environmental leadership in our community. The program strengthens intergenerational relationships within the parish, and this was a big part of our decision to apply for the Certification Program. It’s an opportunity to show our children that we do care about the world in which they will live as adults, to learn and work with them to do the best we can to protect their future and the future of our parish, and to say to them through our actions as a parish that God cares about them and about the world.

GreenFaith and the Episcopal Church have announced a new opportunity for other parishes to join the program with a May 1 deadline. For parishes that might be interesting in joining, there is an informational webinar available tomorrow, February 16, at 2:00. Click here to find out more about the webinar; click here to read the October Green Sprouts post New Green Opportunity for Parishes about the program. If you want to talk about how this might work for your parish or how St. Stephen’s handled the application process, please contact me. I would be delighted to have more parishes in our diocese working toward Green Certification!

Rich in Soul

Annual Council ended today, and from where I sat it looked like an energizing and renewing event for most of us in attendance. The focus on mission “From every family, language, people and nation” was centered on the establishment of a global companion relationship among our diocese and the Dioceses of the Dominican Republic and of Twic East in Southern Sudan.  The theme of mission showed up throughout our meeting, though.

At the Council Eucharist, the processional hymn was “God of grace and God of glory” (Hymn 594). The words “shame our wanton, selfish gladness, rich in things and poor in soul” summarize a large part of the importance of connecting our spiritual lives with a concern for the environment. Habits of over-consumption that harm our planet also harm our souls. “Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, lest we miss thy kingdom’s goal” is a good prayer for us as we consider the church’s role in addressing the environmental challenges of our time.

Thank you to everyone who spoke with me about environmental stewardship during Annual Council! It was exciting to hear about what is happening in some of our parishes and to find others who are enthusiastic about taking care of the Earth. Because of the timing of the environmental stewardship presentation, some folks who were interested in certain resources weren’t able to pick them up at the display before leaving for home, so here are some links:

The brochure about eco-palms is available here from the Center for Integrated Natural Resources and Agricultural Management at the University of Minnesota.

Click here for information about the GreenFaith Certification Program for congregations. Click on this link to Episcopal Life Online for more information about grants available to Episcopal parishes who want to apply for the program. New Green Opportunity for Parishes was an earlier post on this blog about the program.


Someone asked for a list of the books on display; please send me a message if you want that list! I'm also happy to send the page of suggested first steps toward a greener parish to anyone who wants a copy.


And for those who liked the story about the treasures we discovered during our October 10 clean-up, the post about that, Grace, is here. 

"Save us from weak resignation to the evils we deplore...Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, serving thee whom we adore."

New Green Opportunity for Parishes

GreenFaith and the Episcopal Church have announced a collaboration to enroll Episcopal churches in the GreenFaith Certification Program. The program provides resources and structure for parishes to become greener and to provide leadership to encourage other congregations to become better stewards of the environment. Thirty Episcopal congregations will receive subsidies covering 50% of the cost of the program.

Details about the program are available in the articles Innovative partnership aims to help Episcopal churches ‘go green’ from Episcopal News Service and GreenFaith and the Episcopal Church Announce Environmental Collaboration on the GreenFaith website. 

GreenFaith is offering free webinars so for church leaders who want to learn more about this opportunity.  The hour-long webinars will be on:

• Monday, Oct. 18, 7:00 pm and 9:00 pm ET  (6:00 and 8:00 Central time)
• Thursday, Oct. 21, 12:00 noon and 3:00 pm ET ( 11:00 am and 2:00 pm Central time)

 Recordings of the webinars will be available on-line.  To register for a webinar, contact Stacey Kennealy, Director of the Certification Program, at skennealy@greenfaith.org. 

Sustainable Faith Forum in Omaha

Sustainable Faith, an interfaith forum on climate change and clean energy, is next Saturday, February 27, at the College of Saint Mary in Omaha. The forum is presented by the College of Saint Mary and Repower America. Nathan Empsall from this year's Resurrection House group is the Nebraska Faith Outreach Coordinator for Repower America and one the organizers of the event. I'll be giving a presentation on greening congregations; other presentations will be on topics such as environmental stewardship and eco-spirituality. The program looks like it has enough breadth to be a good introduction to religious environmentalism for folks who are just starting to think about this, but also some depth for people who are already involved. 

Send questions about the event to sustainablefaith@yahoo.com; if you know you are going, it would help with planning for the day if you send a message to the same e-mail address or RSVP on the Facebook page for the event. Here is the information from the Sustainable Faith flyer:

Sustainable Faith

Interfaith Forum on Climate Change and Clean Energy

Religions around the world are united in their beliefs that humans must be good stewards of God’s creation. Join Repower America and College of Saint Mary for an interfaith forum on the environment. Learn what different denominations preach on environmental stewardship, what you can do to make your congregation more energy efficient, and where the conversation is heading - both nationally and locally.

The participating religious leaders and teachers plan to counteract the culture of fear, ignorance or denial with a culture of hope - facing the scientifically-recognized climate challenge together - and with defiant optimism.

EVENT: Sustainable Faith
An Interfaith Forum on Climate Change and Clean Energy

DATE: Saturday, February 27, 2010

TIME: 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. (*Documentary showing begins at 5 p.m.)

LOCATION: College of Saint Mary
Gross Auditorium (Math & Science Building)
7000 Mercy Road
Omaha, NE

ADMISSION: Free

Light refreshments will be provided.

*Following the forum will be a showing of the documentary, “Coal Country.”

Litany of Penitence

For our waste and pollution of your creation, and our lack of concern for those who come after us,
Accept our repentance, Lord.

(From the Ash Wednesday Litany of Penitence, The Book of Common Prayer, p. 268)

Episcopalians began Lent yesterday with our liturgy for Ash Wednesday. This liturgy calls us to a holy Lent; we begin that holy Lent by receiving ashes that remind us that God created us out of the dust of the Earth, that we are mortals, and that it is through Christ that we have the gift of everlasting life. The reminder that we are of the Earth -- that we are human, created from humus – brings us to humility, opening our hearts for the Litany of Penitence, an extended form of confession that names particular areas of our lives in which we have sinned by what we have done and by what we have left undone.

This group confession, acknowledging our sins personally and corporately, is very moving. As we prayed through this liturgy at St. Stephen’s yesterday evening, I was especially struck by our acknowledgment of our waste and pollution of creation. This part of the litany includes an acknowledgement of our lack of concern for future generations; we often say we care about those who will come after us, but if we do little to care for our planet, our words are hollow and meaningless.

Besides this section of the litany itself, though, I was also struck by the interconnection among all of the sections of the litany. Jesus taught that all the commandments can be summarized by the commandments to love God and love our neighbors, and all of the particular parts of the litany of penitence are connected to our confession of our failure to love God with our whole heart, and mind, and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves.

Our disregard for creation is a disregard for God’s work, God’s holy creation, and a disregard for other people. It’s directly connected to other sins that we confess in the litany: our “self-indulgent appetites and ways” and the accompanying “exploitation of other people”; our “intemperate love of worldly goods and comforts”, our “blindness to human need and suffering”.

In preparation for the Sustainable Faith forum  planned for February 27 at the College of Saint Mary in Omaha, I’ve been thinking about “greening” congregations. This is a catchall phrase for any sort of efforts at being better stewards of the environment. It can range through several levels of commitment. A downward nudge of the thermostat or a decision to get the mugs out of the kitchen cupboard and quit using Styrofoam cups at coffee hour is a beginning. There are several levels of commitment to looking at and addressing energy usage, paper usage, cleaning supplies, lawn care and water usage, and all the other things we are learning to consider in our homes, schools, and businesses in an effort to take better care of the Earth. At the deepest level, we realize that being truly “green”, being deeply committed to caring for creation, is connected to all the other areas of our lives that are addressed in the litany of penitence.

What will be the fruits of our penitent and renewed spirits at the end of this Lenten season? The depth of our intention to be more constant in our love of God and of our neighbors will be reflected by the depth of our commitment to care for God’s creation, and by our efforts to leave a sustainable environment for those who come after us.