EARTHKEEPING NEWS A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY Volume Fourteen, Number Two March/April 2005 Interfaith Gathering On Greening Congregations by Elizabeth Dyson from The Upper Mississippi Bioregion On April 3rd, 141 members of 41 Twin Cities congregations of ten faith communities gathered in the spacious rooms of the First Universalist Church in Minneapolis to learn what it means to green their congregations. In his keynote address on the "Moral Imperative for Faith Communities to Protect the Integrity of Creation," Dr. Calvin DeWitt, Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, remarked that the true Conservative is one "serves the creation," taking from it only what one can give back. (Dr. DeWitt was a founding member of NACCE and of the Evangelical Environmental Network.) Bill Bradlee, project manager of the National Interfaith Power and Light, told success stories from different congregations and the national campaign to mobilize a religious response to global warming. In the final plenary, participants sat with their colleagues to discuss strategies to integrate active care for creation in the life of their congregations – in their mission, preaching and communications, study, rituals, investments, buildings and grounds, food, and in their relations with other faith communities. The conference was sponsored by a new network, Congregations Caring for Creation ("C3") formed by 40 Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish clergy, lay persons, and environmental leaders. The mission of Congregations Caring for Creation is to promote the active care of creation as integral to spiritual life and social justice in Minnesota communities of faith. Its five year goals include helping faith communities to: redefine and reclaim the meaning of the word "stewardship" learn to love creation and celebrate ecocommunity foster transformative action at community, network, congregational, and personal levels transform public policy sustain a vibrant, effective, stable network organization. For more information please contact one of the coordinators listed below: Alliance for Sustainability, Sean Gosiewski, 612-331-1099x1 sean@allianceforsustainability.net Lutheran Coalition for Public Policy in Minnesota, Alycia Ashburn , 651-224-5499 ashburn@lcppm.org New Earth Partnership, Rev. Dennis Ormseth, 651- 646-4096 dormseth@mninter.net Home     Table of Contents