Current activities
Some of the specific activities we have provided for the congregation include:
- Replacing fluorescent lamps in the meeting house with LED lamps
- Installed an EV charging station using electricity generated from the church’s solar array
- Organized tours of the Recycling Works facility in Elkhart
- Established a composting system for food waste from church meals. This is also available for Faith Mennonite Church fellowship suppers
- Organized a yard tour of examples of backyard “rewilding.”
- Joined “Faith in Place” a regional gathering of congregations interested in promoting sustainability. Jalisa Mauldin, the Indiana Outreach Coordinator visited our congregation and attended one of our meetings.
Some of the environmental topics that we have introduced to the congregation include:
- Organizing and facilitating a second hour series on rewilding our yards
- Organized a presentation regarding green burials
- Leading a second hour book study on Sarah Augustine and Cheryl Hostetler’s book “So We and Our Children May Live”
- Held a church-wide forum to hear from a member of the congregation who attended the UN Climate Summit in Dubai.
Spring 2011-Spring 2014
Congregational Goal
We will seek to better understand our impact on God’s creation, and act, corporately and
individually, to reduce the adverse effects of that impact.
- Since adoption of this goal, we have done the following in that time period:
- Formation of a Creation Care Ministry Team (Fall 2011)
- Surveyed congregation about Creation Care ideas (2012)
- Participated in Hoosier Interfaith Power & Light initiatives & workshops
- Participated in Voluntary Gas Tax club
- Promoted carbon-reducing Task-of-the Month (1 year focus beginning Oct 2012)
- Organized sermon series (January 2012)
- Focused Fall Retreat on Creation Care
- Promoted Lenten Carbon Diet (2011)
- Organized Lenten Less-Meat Group (2012)
- Organized recycling at MCC Relief Sale (2011)
- Held a Creation Care elective (Spring 2012)
- Held a Creation Care and the Apocalypse elective (Fall 2012)
- Led an annual Blessing of the Bicycles (beginning Spring 2012)
- Held a bicycle safety class (Spring 2012)
- Created an Assembly Share list
- Provided additional bicycle parking at Assembly (Spring 2012)
- Organized meeting of area churches working on Creation Care (Spring 2012)
- Held one summer worship at Merry Lea (2012, 2013)
- Organized Eco-Justice Notes discussion group (Winter 2013)
- Organized 50-mile pot-luck (focus on local food)
- Organized Environmental Events-of-the-month (see handout)
- Participated in People’s Climate March in NYC (Sept 2014) and WDC (April 2017)
- Install solar panels on meetinghouse (2017)