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Caring for Creation

On January 13, 2008, Montevallo Presbyterian Church established its Green Team with the intent of making a formal commitment to minimizing its environmental impacts and honoring its mission to care for creation. Also on this date the session approved our affiliation with the Green Congregation Program endorsed by the Web of Creation and approved adoption of the Green Congregation Mission Statement. In March of 2008, we became a certified green congregation.

Areas addressed through our activities include:

• Energy usage and management
• Water usage and management
• Waste stream reduction and management
• Impacts of our activities to air, water, and land
• Reduction of toxic substances
• Environmental education
• Care of creation in worship, liturgy, and prayer
• Use of organic products

On March 5, 2008, Green Team members conducted an initial environmental audit of our church activities. A second audit was done in late 2009 to document improvements.

In an effort to control and minimize our environmental impacts, we established a maintenance checklist with a monthly schedule of maintenance activities performed by our church members. These activities include:

• Cleaning and changing HVAC filters
• Cleaning condensing units
• Monitoring for water leaks
• Using T8 and CFL bulbs
• Maintaining weather-stripping
• Landscaping with native plants to reduce/eliminate the need for watering
• Eliminating the use of toxic herbicides and pesticides
• Composting yard waste and leaves
• Conducting environmental audits of our facilities

Other improvements include:

• Recycling metals, plastics, paper, and glass
• Eliminating the use of paper and Styrofoam plates and cups at church functions
• Installing ceiling fans
• Installing energy efficient windows
• Placing water heater on a timer so that it comes on only when needed
• Purchasing Energy Star appliances
• Installing programmable thermostats

Our monthly church newsletter, Grace Notes, includes environmental scriptures and information. Members of our Green Team present faith-based environmental information to our community through participation in the activities of the Interfaith Environmental Initiative of Alabama. Our pastor, Rev. Wendy Hare, recently did a series of video devotionals for our presbytery website during which she emphasizes our church’s commitment to caring for creation and our participation in the Web of Creation program. Click here for video devotionals presented in October 2009 by Rev. Wendy Hare on God's Good Creation.

A Power Point presentation on greening the congregation was given by our Green Team at the November, 2009, Presbytery meeting and at the Interfaith Environmental Initiative of Alabama 2009 Energy Forum.

Links to Resources for Green Congregations

Web of Creation - The Web of Creation was established to foster the movement for personal and social transformation to a just and sustainable world from religious perspectives.

Earth Ministry, a non-profit organization founded in 1992, seeks "to inspire and mobilize the Christian community to play a leadership role in building a just and sustainable future."

Presbyterians for Restoring Creation - Presbyterians for Restoring Creation (PRC) was founded in 1995 as a national, grassroots organization to support people of faith working towards “environmental wholeness with social justice." PRC helps the church to fulfill its current environmental policies, to create new policies and practices, and to energize and educate church members about eco-justice, the well-being of all human kind on a thriving earth.

Enviromental Justice Ministries (PCUSA) - In 1990, the 202nd General Assembly of PC(USA) passed a policy called "Restoring Creation for Ecology and Justice" which stands as the foundation for the work of the Environmental Justice Ministry along with the policies "Hazardous Waste, Race and the Environment" (1995) and "Toward a Just and Sustainable Human Development" (1996).

National Council of Churches Theological Statement on the Environment - The NCC’s Eco-Justice Working Group decided to ask leading theologians to gather in the fall of 2004 at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., to work on a theological statement to counter arguments that the environment is not an issue that should concern Christians. In order to produce a theologically grounded statement, the group issued invitations to theologians who were well versed in ecumenism and the doctrine of their own church bodies.