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!
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
Photo by Will Stenberg
How Minnesota 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