Ways Churches are Caring for Creation
Green Teams
Get your church in on the EcoFaith work and form a Creation Care "Green" Team at your church!
Photo by Will Stenberg
Looking for more? The EcoFaith Accompaniment Outreach Team would love to hear from you and join in your imagination of what a Green Team could look like in your congregation. Contact us at ecofaith@nemnsynod.org
How NE MN synod congregations are caring for Creation!
Worship
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Celebrate Synod Pollinator Sunday
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Incorporate an annual Season of Creation
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Hold at least one outdoor worship service each year
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Use Green Blades Preaching Roundtable reflections for sermon preparation
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Pray weekly for the whole creation
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Sing creation-inclusive hymns in all church seasons
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Use eco-palms OR local tree branches
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Eliminate plastic from the celebration of Holy Communion
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Use real bread for Communion
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Have a Blessing of the Seeds, Soil, and Water
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St. Francis Day Blessing of the Animals (domestic and wild)
Congregational Life
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Eliminate Styrofoam
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Have a garden share table on Sundays
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Use washable cups and plates instead of disposables
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Use compostable dinnerware IF there your community has commercial compost
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Use cloth napkins
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Use fair trade coffee, tea, and chocolate
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Adopt a Creation Care Covenant (see examples on website)
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Provide cloth shopping bags with information
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Invite congregation to “give up plastic” for Lent
Education
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Feature books for reading or discussion groups
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Have an outdoor VBS
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Hold adult forums with guest speakers on environmental topics
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Bible studies on creation in the Bible
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Intergenerational pollinator project
Stewardship of Building and Grounds
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Start a pollinator garden
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Create a community garden
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Energy audit and LED lighting
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Turn lawn into native species
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Include earth friendly practices in building use policy
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Create an outdoor prayer labyrinth
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Install solar panels
Community Outreach and Advocacy
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Host an Earth Care Fair
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Create a nature walk or pollinator meadow
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Hold a One Hundred Mile Community Harvest Meal
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Have a tree planting day
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Explore the intersections between social, racial, and environmental justice
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Have forums on current issues
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Community clean-up: Adopt-a-highway, county road, or waterfront clean-up