Creationcare.htm

NATURE THEOLOGY

Creation Care Internship 2005

In preparation for beginning the Creation Care Internship this summer, some friends and I attended a free afternoon workshop at the First Universalist Church in Minneapolis on Sunday, April 3, 2005, called: Greening Your Congregation. This workshop was organized by the Lutheran Coalition for Public Policy in Minnesota and Congregations Caring for Creation, a network promoting the active care of creation as integral to spiritual life and social justice in Minnesota communities of faith. The keynote speaker was Dr. Calvin B. DeWitt, president of Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies (Mancelona, Michigan); professor at Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin Madison; author of Caring for Creation: Responsible Stewardship of God’s Creation and Earth-Wise: A Biblical Response to Environmental Issues; winner of the Environmental Achiever Award, Friends of the United Nations Environmental Programme; Organizer/Co-Chair of the 2002 Climate Forum (Oxford, England), which brought scientists, religious leaders, and politicians together to declare & promote responsible action on climate change.

In addition to Dr. DeWitt's lecture, we heard success stories describing what some congregations have already accomplished, from Bill Bradlee of Interfaith Power and Light.

We then broke up into groups, focusing on the following Congregation Creation Care topics:

Buildings & Grounds: In this session, Mike Minzel, Energy Auditor at Xcel Energy, and Erik J. Ennen, of the CEE One Stop Efficiency Shop, focused on how congregations can save money and conserve energy in lighting, heating, and cooling.

Educating for Creation Care: In this session, Terry Gips, president of the Center for Judaism and Sustainability of the Alliance for Sustainability and Board, Jewish Community Relations Council MN & Dakotas, and Alycia Ashburn, Creation Care Coordinator, Lutheran Coalition for Public Policy in MN, focused on barriers that congregations may face in greening their congregation, as well as resources for adult & youth education.

Social Action: In this session, J. Drake Hamilton, Science Policy Advisor, Minnesotans for an Energy Efficient Economy, and Lisa Herschberger, Minnesota Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, focused on policy advocacy, and ways congregations can buy renewable energy.

Worship & Ritual: (I attended this one!) In this session, Pastor Dennis Ormseth, of the New Earth Partnership, and Dr. Joe Bush, United Theological Seminary, focused on integrating creation care year-round in congregations, as well as good earth-focused worship resources.

These workshops were for anyone wanting to learn how to form an effective Creation Care Team in their congregation, church, or synagogue, which is the crux of the Creation Care Internship I will be doing this summer. Some goals of this internship will be to help local congregations address questions, such as:

*Have we made the connection between faith and our current ecological crises?

*Have we considered how we can move from being a group concerned with human justice to a group concerned with justice for the whole of creation, including its human inhabitants?

*Does our congregation want to save money by increasing the energy efficiency of our place of worship and exhibiting responsible, caring stewardship of God’s Creation at the same time?

My specialized focus within the Creation Care Internship will be to implement more earth-focused prayers, liturgy, songs, and blessings into the worship of the congregation with which I will be working.

Click here to find out how one church recently adopted a clean air and water landscaping plan. Find out more at: North American Coalition on Christianity & Ecology