Eco-Justice ... Churches address environmental issues

A growing number of Johnson County congregations are going green.

With concern about environmental issues on the rise, church leaders and members are feeling a moral obligation to preserve natural resources, and more and more of them are doing something about it.

Two relatively new groups have become active in bringing environmental messages and programs to area churches. Recently, those organizations – the Sustainable Sanctuary Coalition and Kansas Interfaith Power and Light – combined forces to present a two-day event aimed at helping congregations learn about environmental issues and how they can organize to “go green.”

The Rev. Peter Sawtell, executive director of Eco-Justice Ministries of Denver, Colo., served as the featured speaker. The group provides guidance to congregations nationally on how they can be more ecologically effective.

In addition to those presentations, which drew participants from about a dozen churches, Sustainable Sanctuary provides other environment-related education events. About 30 congregations are members of the group.

For the Rev. Gary Armour of Countryside Christian Church in Mission, getting involved in such efforts seems like a natural and logical fit for faith communities.

“My motivation is from the perspective of caring for God’s good Earth and all the gifts we have been blessed with,” Armour said.
The church’s interest in green initiatives grew out of a recent mission trip to build houses in Greensburg, Kan., in the wake of the devastating tornado that leveled most of the small community last year. As it rebuilds, Greensburg is striving to do so with energy-efficient designs and materials.

 “It was so inspiring to see the effort and energy and thoughtfulness going into the rebuilding of their community,” Armour said. “We came back from that saying we need to be LEED certified on some level.”

LEED is the acronym for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a rating and certification system for buildings based on features that help achieve greater sustainability and energy conservation.

Sustainable Sanctuary Coalition encourages congregations to strive for meeting LEED standards when constructing new buildings or improving existing ones.

Armour’s church has taken several green steps such as installing energy-saving light bulbs and better insulation. It has conducted an energy audit to examine how to cut utility costs “and how not to leave as big a carbon footprint,” Armour said.

The initial steps have not been complex or costly, but expanding efforts into LEED-level building upgrades would be financially difficult, he said.

Eileen Horn, community outreach coordinator for the Climate and Energy Project of the Land Institute in Salina, has worked with churches around the state on green programs and projects, and she is well aware of the monetary challenges.

“Congregations are in between. They’re not a big company and they don’t qualify for low-income home programs. They’re caught in the middle and most are cash-strapped. We’re trying to connect them to resources so they can put their faith into action,” Horn said.

Interfaith Power and Light is a national organization with a mission of “mobilizing a national religious response to global warming while promoting renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation.” The Kansas chapter is affiliated with the Climate and Energy Project.  

In addition to Countryside Christian, Horn said she knows of three other area churches that have conducted energy audits of their buildings and “about 20 more are moving in that direction.”

Margaret Thomas, who has worked as an environmental advocate in several community roles, helped establish the Sustainable Sanctuary Coalition.
Thomas, a Unitarian Universalist Church member, began working toward organizing some kind of green initiative with members of the Village Presbyterian Church, which already had an environment group. Village and All Soul’s Unitarian Church combined efforts, creating the seed for the coalition, she said.

“We felt we were missing a message and that the time was right to craft that message as part of a moral effort to help the Earth,” Thomas said.

So far, the response from congregation members has been positive.

“It’s been a very good reception. Everybody knows the time is here and now for these things and it seems there’s been a quantum shift in people’s thinking that we have to change our consumption and development patterns. What we have been doing is not sustainable,” Thomas said.

Armour said his church members also have embraced the efforts.

“It’s good to see. The young families especially have such a high commitment to energy conservation and recycling. Families under (age) 35 are adamant about making sure we care for the Earth in a mindful way,” he said.

Members of Interfaith Power and Light and Sustainable Sanctuary Coalition are given a list of suggested actions, but each congregation can choose just how active and aggressive it wants to be.

Armour hopes his church can adopt many of the goals, but he is not interested in a suggestion that congregations consider actively supporting adoption of environmental laws or public policies. That, he believes, could take the church into political territory that he would prefer it not enter.

Trackback(0)

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Write comment