Each year, Earth Day brings an opportunity for media to highlight the important efforts of IPL state affiliates and the work that congregations are doing to care for Creation. Here are a few articles from last week’s coverage after the jump:
“A Spiritual Search for Efficiency” – The Houston Chronicle
For some congregations, the challenge has been in translating the notion of environmental stewardship into concrete codes of behavior, said Bee Moorhead, executive director of Texas Impact [Texas Interfaith Power & Light], which helps several religious groups, including Evangelical Lutheran, Jewish and Presbyterian, on the issue.
For example, food pantries should provide a compact fluorescent light bulb with each bag of groceries, she said.
“The food is gone in two or three days, but that light bulb will be there a long time, save money, and it says that this isn’t a boutique product,” said Moorhead, whose group also lobbies state lawmakers on environmental concerns.
“Earth Day survey of Grand Rapids-area ministers finds they practice and preach varying shades of green” – Grand Rapids News
Unlike most West Michigan churches, VanDoren [Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ] said his members hear about environmental issues from his pulpit and read about it in their church newsletter.
Their congregation is a member of the [Michigan] Interfaith Power and Light, which allows members to get discounts on Energy Star appliances.
“Church adds solar power” – The Courier-Journal
“This is a tangible way of showing care for God’s creation,” said Tim Darst, a member of St. William and the executive director of Kentucky Interfaith Power & Light, a nonprofit organization whose mission is mobilizing a religious response to global warming.
“Creation bond” – Chattanooga Times Free Press
Sandy Kurtz, a member of Unitarian Universalist Church of Chattanooga and the local representative for Tennessee Interfaith Power & Light, said churches can be effective advocates for environmentalism.
“The spiritual community is needed to move this care of creation forward,” she said. “It’s a strong model for others to follow.”
Ms. Kurtz said she had discussed her denomination’s Green Sanctuary Program and the interfaith advocacy group’s ideas with some members of Pilgrim Congregational and that congregation may have adopted some of their ideas into its EarthChurch Covenant.
“Modeling and sharing and exchanging information has been what Interfaith Power & Light has been about,” she said.
“Caring for the earth” – The Daily Citizen
Something as simple as choosing between an incandescent light bulb and a compact fluorescent one is a moral issue.
That’s according to Sandy Kurtz, a member of the faith-based environmentalist organization Tennessee Interfaith Power and Light. The group was one of about a dozen represented at the 13th annual Ecumenical Earth Day hosted Sunday afternoon at Christ the King Lutheran Church on Thornton Avenue.
“We are trying to bring awareness to all people of faith that creation care is a moral responsibility,” Kurtz said.
Kurtz and her companion, Tami Freedman, handed out literature explaining how incandescent bulbs – among other things – contribute to global warming. They use more electricity, which requires more coal, which can involve mountain top removal and is a pollutant, the women said.
