Greening the Bread of Life

As Earth Day approaches, it’s time to take a look at how green our practices are.  Every Sunday we offer people the bread of life, yet our fellowship hour boasts some of the unhealthiest practices of the church. Taking a close look at how and what we eat at church is an important part of going green, as is maintaining and sustaining good health. Dealing with unhealthful food, toxic cleaning supplies, and wasteful practices are simple ways of deepening our commitment to greening the church.
Village Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village, Kansas, has greened its kitchen––no small feat for a 5,000-member church that prides itself on environmental stewardship. Dwight Tawney, administrative pastor,reports, “We serve 300 people every Wednesday night for dinner. Three years ago we were using paper, plastic, and Styrofoam. We disposed of 300 sets of that every single week. Now that’s completely gone. We don’t use it at all.”
Gold and green melamine dishes grace the tables of their dining areas. Reusable silverware rounds out the table setting. The Styrofoam is long gone, as is the sizeable amount of trash generated each week. “There’s a little tradeoff,” Tawney notes. “We have to wash the dishes.” Even so, the amount of water used to wash the dishes is insignificant compared with the manufacturing, transportation, and disposal process that used to be involved. Unlike smaller churches, a full kitchen staff takes care of cleanup here.
Not just the dishes have changed at Village Presbyterian; what is served on them has also changed. “In season we serve local produce,” says Tawney. “And we have virtually eliminated fried food from our menu.” A dietician attends the monthly meetings of the Environmental Action Committee. Not only does she bring great ideas to the table, she brings purchasing power.
Even so, purchasing decisions are carefully weighed for economic feasibility and environmental sustainability, which means the church uses paper napkins, albeit with a higher recycled content. After careful consideration, staff realized that the cost of laundering cloth napkins would be prohibitive.
Traditional cleaning supplies have been replaced with a greener alternative. “We now use low volatile organic compound (VOC) cleaning agents,” Tawney says. “Our building superintendent is part of the Environmental Action Committee. It is important to have him in on the decision-making process.” The superintendent helps them make and meet policy guidelines that keep this facility on the growing edge of green.
Even the coffee has gone green at Village Presbyterian. “We drink a lot of coffee here,” Tawney says while giving a virtual tour of the facility. “We had coffee pots going all the time, but we were consuming a lot of energy and wasting a lot of product. Now we have on-demand coffee.” Using a rental system that includes frozen coffee concentrate means no waste and a guaranteed fresh cup of coffee every time. “It actually ends up being cheaper,” he says.
It is easy to reference intangibles such as carbon foot- prints when talking about the need for environmental stewardship, but all Tawney has to do is point to one steaming cup of coffee in a real mug. Through his eyes, it is easy to see that going green makes sense for the climate and the pocketbook.
Ready to try some of these things yourself?  Check out the following options:
The Basics

  • Encourage the use of mugs instead of paper or Styrofoam cups at coffee hour. Create a wall of mugs that can be used and reused. Be sure to include mugs for guests.
  • Use the “good” dishes and flatware at church dinners instead of throwaways such as Styrofoam, plastic or foam plates, and plastic utensils. Alternatively, ask people to bring their own table service for meals.
  • Use dishtowels instead of paper towels and maybe even cloth napkins instead of paper napkins. When using paper, make it recycled.
  • Wherever possible, buy organic foods. Pesticides harm the health of growers and consumers; and they taint soil, water, and air.
  • When eating fish, choose species that are not being overfished. For more information, go to montereybayaquarium.org.
  • Purchase and serve fair-trade coffee, tea, and chocolate. Fair-trade items emphasize responsible steward- ship of the land and provide a good living for the growers. Shade-grown coffees, planted and harvested under the forest canopy, are particularly bird-friendly. For more information, go to coffeereview.com.
  • Compost leftover food.
  • Reuse plastic bags as garbage can liners. When purchasing new plastic bags, look for ones made of recycled plastic. Choose those with a high post- consumer waste (PCW) content.
  • Look carefully at the cleaning agents you are using. Many contain harmful or toxic ingredients. Purchase and use environmentally-friendly cleaning agents.
  • Refrain from buying antibacterial soaps. Generally, plain soap and water are as effective. Antibacterials seem to cause more problems than they solve.
  • Try toilet paper and paper towels made of recycled paper.
  • Just say no to commercial air fresheners; many contain phthalates which are linked to human health problems. Fresh air, sunshine, fans, and baking soda in the bottom of a garbage can provide natural air freshening.

Get Creative

  • Make your own green cleaning supplies.
  • Experiment with natural sachets for bathrooms that make use of essential oils or natural herbs and spices.
  • Establish a scent-free zone in the sanctuary to accommodate those with asthma and allergies.
  • Try holding meat-free potlucks. Bovines such as beef, buffalo, lamb, and goat produce methane, a greenhouse gas that is twenty-three times more potent than CO2.Choose poultry, grain, beans, and eggs to achieve a lower carbon footprint.
  • Make your own communion bread out of organic, whole-grain flour.

Go All Out

  • Ask church members to observe one meat-free day per week and to limit seafood consumption to species that are not being overfished.
  • Hold cooking classes to help people rediscover the art of cooking using natural ingredients. Invite children to help. Use a cookbook such as Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon.

Adapted from 7 Simple Steps to Green Your Church by Rebekah Simon-Peter. To purchase copies of Green Church:  Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rejoice!  Or 7 Simple Steps to Green Your Church, please contact us directly: office@rebekahsimonpeter.com.  Downloads also available on Kindle.

The 6 Most Familiar and Challenging Words of Jesus

“Love God, and love your neighbor.” Those six words are familiar from the parable of the Good Samaritan, and they are at the core of Judeo-Christian ethics. Any church that seeks to be faithful will want to address the complicated meaning of that short sentence.

So we ask the same question that led Jesus to tell the parable: “And who is my neighbor?” And that is where it gets hard.  Jesus didn’t answer the question. He turned it around, and asked what characterizes neighborly behavior. Jesus’ compelling story makes it clear that the call to love your neighbor will always stretch us out beyond our comfort zones.

The stretch of neighborliness is far more demanding (and exciting!) in our modern world than it used to be. These days, we live within a rapidly changing, globalized community. We’re connected through economic systems and new forms of communication. New discoveries in science reveal layers of relationship that most of us had never even imagined.

In the 21st Century, “love your neighbor” is a far-reaching aspiration, indeed. It seems to me that today’s Christians need to be very explicit as we expand the circles of neighborliness in three ways.

1. Our neighbors include the whole human family.
A walk through the grocery or the clothing store reveals how closely we’re tied to producers in far-away parts of the world. The worldwide markets for oil tie us directly to citizens of Nigeria, where unregulated oil production devastates human health and livelihood. We are neighbors of the residents of Pacific islands, whose countries are beginning to be inundated by rising seas — a rise caused in large part by the rich world’s pollution.

In our interconnected world, we’re in close connection with all of these people through our lifestyles and our purchases. Will we “walk by on the other side” when we know of their distress and their need? Or will we respond with acts of compassion, and with work toward justice?

2. Our neighbors include future generations.
If we are neighbor to all of Earth’s people today, we also are neighbor to the coming generations whose world will be transformed by today’s choices. Because of our generation’s actions, they will be forced to live in a hotter world, a world without thousands of species, a world with more people but diminished resources.

There are many ways that today’s decisions will have a direct impact on generations yet to come. Careless farming practices erode and poison precious topsoil, and reckless use of fresh water empties aquifers that will take thousands of years to recharge. Overfishing is threatening the bounty of the oceans, and the continuing use of fossil fuels drives global climate change.

Among our neighbors, those people are truly voiceless, because they don’t exist yet. They can’t stand in front of us to speak about their rights, their interests, and their needs. When we recognize our neighborly ties to the future, we will speak and act on their behalf.

3. Our neighbors include the rest of creation.
We must stretch, too, beyond our human neighbors. We are to be neighbor to all the variety of life with whom we share this planet.
Now, that’s a really hard notion for some people to grasp. Our culture, generally, thinks of the natural world only as things with monetary value, but not moral worth. We’re learning, though, how well and how lovingly those neighbors include us in their care. Bees pollinate many of the plants that supply our food. Wetlands purify our water. Trees absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. Bacteria in our own digestive systems help our bodies stay healthy. We are blessed and nurtured by the actions of other species, just as they are touched for good or ill by our lives.

We are part of an intricate web of life, and we’re bound together in relationship with a multitude of creatures. We do well — both morally and as a matter of self-interest — to be just and caring in our treatment of our other-than-human neighbors.

A part of our human nature wants to contract the boundaries of neighborliness. We’re inclined to think locally, to focus on friends and family, to value the present moment more than the future. But when our churches teach and practice expansive neighborliness, we are called into a richer faithfulness. We discover joy when we live in right relationship with folk all around the world, with attention to future generations, and with mindfulness of the whole web of life.

Thanks to my friend the Rev. Peter Sawtell for this timely piece. Peter is the Executive Director of Eco-Justice Ministries, and author of the weekly commentary, Eco-Justice Notes.

Green is the New Red

‘Tis the season of red:  red hearts, red candy, red cards, red bows, red boxes of chocolates…all for Valentine’s Day.  I love red as much as the next person, but when it comes to how followers of Jesus show love, I believe green is the new red.

In the church we know green as the color of growing in Christ, of maturing in faith.  It’s the color of Ordinary Season–the weeks between Advent and Lent, and between Easter and Advent.

Green has another meaning as well.  It’s also the color of sustainability, eco-friendly practices, and environmental awareness.  Both the ecclesiastical and the ecological meanings are deeply intertwined.

They’re so deeply intertwined that I don’t think we can grow in Christ and mature in our faith without taking an active interest in the health and vibrancy of the Creation too.  Why do I say this?  The Creation is the general revelation of God, revealing God’s own nature.  (Romans 1:20)  We have been given dominion over it and asked to be caretakers of it.  (Genesis 1-2).  So wiping it out is like erasing God’s own imprint on the planet.  Not a good idea.  Christ himself is the firstborn of all Creation, through whom all Creation has been made.  (Colossians 1:15).  We have a responsibility toward it, as much as toward one another.  That’s why I say green is the new red.

I want to share with you five things to start doing to green your love of God and one important thing to stop doing immediately.

Start Doing:  Incorporate awareness of the Creation in Worship 

When we gather to worship God we are joining our voices with the majestic choir of creation.  Just as we humans gather to praise God through song, liturgy, sermon and communion, so the creation offers its praise to God, too.  The psalmists write that the earth rejoices, the coastlands are glad, the trees clap their hands, and the heavens and earth praise God.
Sing:  So many of the traditional songs of the church lift up creation.  Sing them!
Pray: Ask for God’s wisdom in how to fulfill our role as stewards of the Creation.  Focus on different aspects of the earth weekly such as different animals, rivers, forests, oceans, beaches, soil, and sky.  Use your prayers to affirm positive advances being made.
Children’s sermon: Teach children about our interconnectedness with nature. Jesus told stories incorporating sky, sheep, goats, birds, flowers, mountains, and fields. So can we!
Sermon: Develop a yearly series on our deep relationship to the Creation. Incorporate the new four-week Season of Creation into your liturgical calendar. It highlights the work of God the Creator and the wonders of creation.
Observe Earth Sabbath or Environmental Sabbath, a worldwide ecumenical day of reverence for the earth around June 5, World Environment Day. Gather with other congregations in your area to hold an interfaith service. Consider patterning your service after the United Nation’s Environmental Sabbath Programme.
Holy Communion: Recognize Christ as the firstborn of all creation, our oneness with him, and by extension, our unity with creation.

Stop Doing:  Thinking It’s Too Hard  

All of us live on one planet.  We all share the same water, air, earth, and sky.  God would not give us something to do that we are not capable of.  Read the Green Bible (NRSV) to get grounded in the Word in a new way.  Start a Green Team.  Read Green Church with your friends.  Or simply begin with a prayer for courage.  Just don’t say it’s too hard!  Love always wins.  Especially if it’s green.

Adapted in part from 7 Simple Steps to Green Your Church, by Rebekah Simon-Peter, (c) copyright 2010.

Neighboring, First Holy Communion and Democracy

I missed church on Sunday.  At least, I didn’t make it to my own church.  Instead, Sunday found me sitting in a pew in a Roman Catholic Church prepared to celebrate the First Holy Communion of Rachel and Lauren, the twin 8 year olds who live across the street.
Our families are engaged in “neighboring”and it’s deeply related to a healthy democracy.
Here’s how it goes.  The girls and their mom often watch Amigo, our little dog, when we are gone.  We help them out with projects from time to time too.  We often meet in the middle of the street just to say hi and to check out what’s happening.  We are frequently in each others home and have figured out we all like riding bikes!  And we are worried about environmental issues.
We have a lot in common and that helps.
Now, I have other neighbors down the street I haven’t yet approached.  They have signs hanging outside on their fence that I’m not quite sure what to make of.  One says “God bless Arizona.”  The other says  “God bless Israel.”
I’m all for blessing states and countries and I’m very pro-Israel.  But I can’t help but wonder if that isn’t really code language for something else, like: “We don’t like Mexicans and we don’t like Palestinians.”  Or even:  “God damn Mexicans and Palestinians.”
I’m not sure.  But this I know:  My husband and his family are of Mexican, Spanish and Indian descent.  And I believe in the human dignity and rights of Palestinians as well as of Israelis.  In fact, I believe in a world that works for everyone.  All families, all ethnicities, all religions, all species.
So, where does that put us as neighbors?
I confess I’m not really sure.
I’m reading Parker Palmer’s newest book, “Healing The Heart of Democracy:  The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit.”  It’s very challenging.  And very timely.  Not just because of the world we live in, but because of the neighborhood I live in.
He notes that regularly, “we withdraw into the silence of private life or express ourselves with cynicism and anger that make the public realm toxic, producing more psychodrama than social change.”
You’d have to live in a cave to not experience that…no matter what neighborhood, state or country you live in!
Palmer suggests an antidote.
It begins with seeing democracy as a way of being.  It takes shape in neighboring and other local associations.  It’s open to “The Other”and practices holding tension creatively.  It’s a way of being that moves us beyond our own little privatized worlds.  And requires both chutzpah and humility to engage the process well.
All of this is needed, he suggests, to counteract the “culture of cruelty” that overtakes when fear-mongering outweighs facts or real conversation.
So, as part of creating a politics worthy of the human spirit, I’m practicing democracy in my little neighborhood.  I know I’ll connect with the girls and their mom in the middle of the street soon.  Probably this afternoon.
But what about my other neighbors?  That’s going to take an intentional action from me.  To get over my fear, my judgmentalism and my “privatized world” that could easily keep them out.
It’s the kind of intentional act Jesus told stories about.  He too highlighted neighboring as the foundation of a healthy kind of living:  the Kingdom of God.  Reaching out beyond the norms to embrace “The Other.”  Of course, his wisdom was grounded in the Torah, too.  All of this makes a very strong case for me.
So what’s a democratically-inclined person who longs for a world that works for everyone to do?
It might just be time to bake some banana bread and head on down the block to meet all of my neighbors!