Some Suggestions for Implementing Your Adamah Covenant
WORSHIP
1. Use worship materials which point to the reality that God created
and redeems creation and calls the church to the tasks of healing
and defending it.
2. Include the goodness of God's creation regularly in music, prayer,
and congregational worship, as well as during Earth Day and other
special services. Consider environmental ethics in a sermon or a
series of sermons. Hold your worship service outside occasionally
at a camp or park or on the church grounds instead of in the church
building.
3. For each person baptized, plant a tree in the church yard or
community. Suggest that church members contribute trees as a living
memorial to loved ones who have died. Appoint a committee to oversee
the selection and planting of the trees.
4. Become a congregation committed to celebrating God's Sabbath
by taking time for rest, community building, enjoying God's creation
together and giving rest to nature. Remember that the Sabbath is
for all of creation, not just for human beings.
5. Confess to God as individuals and a congregation your own involvement
in exploiting and neglecting the world that God created and called
good.
6. Create a series of banners for your church sanctuary that portrays
creation themes. Display them often as reminders of our call to
protect and heal the creation.
7. Produce an environmental awareness drama as part of a worship
service.
8. In the autumn, hold a special worship service of thanksgiving
for the harvest. Have gardeners from the congregation bring an offering
of vegetables or fruit from their gardens. Other people can contribute
canned goods. Make arrangements ahead of time with a local food
bank or soup kitchen to receive a donation of the food contributions.
(Some food banks do not have the facilities to receive fresh food,
so make sure you check ahead of time.)
The service should emphasize thanksgiving for all the bounty of
God's provision. A cornucopia of vegetables could replace the traditional
altar flowers for the service. Remind the congregation that Christians
in many parts of the developing world bring an offering each Sabbath
which includes gifts that come directly from the land. By having
a similar offering once a year, we acknowledge our dependence on
God's creation, recognize the faithfulness of these brothers and
sisters in Christ, and affirm our common call to feed the hungry.
LEARNING AND TEACHING
1. Purchase books and videos for the church library that deal with
protecting and healing God's creation.
A Resource List of Environmental Justice Materials is available
from Environmental Justice Resources. Use the lower box on the back
page of this form to order a copy.
2. Plan a church-wide vacation Bible School for all ages using
the theme of celebrating God's world. Use learning materials contained
in your denominational Christian education resources. Invite members
of the community to join with your congregation in the program.
3. Visit a neighborhood of your region where there is a high level
of contamination. Find out who lives near the contamination and
what affects it has on those who live close by. See how often these
are neighborhoods of the poor and people of color. Join in efforts
to end the contamination.
4. Hold church school classes outside whenever possible. Discover
ways that you can learn from nature.
5. Offer a workshop for gardeners on composting, organic gardening,
and indigenous plants. Teach about using alternatives to pesticides
and artificial fertilizers in the garden.
6. Take a field trip. Tour your town's garbage dump, water supply,
sewage treatment plant, recycling center, and power plant. Learn
more about what happens to the waste your community produces. Prepare
questions to ask the guides who show you around. Follow up on the
tours by writing a report for your church newsletter or your community
newspaper to share the information you have gained.
7. Choose a recent book or article to read. Study it together as
part of an adult education class. Ask people from your congregation
representing diverse points of view to form a panel that responds
to the book.
8. Sponsor a contest design for a poster, T-shirt, button, or bumper
sticker with an environmental theme.
9. Take high school students or college students on a four-day
backpacking trip. As you spend time in the wilderness together,
study the Exodus story emphasizing the Israelites' dependence on
God during their journey. Pray together the Psalms that speak of
the wonder and awe of God's creation.
LIFESTYLE
Personal Lifestyle
1. At Christmas time, give a birthday gift to Jesus by sharing
25% of your Christmas budget with the needy. Use recycled paper
for Christmas cards and gift wrap. Respect the environment in the
gifts you select. Give gifts of your time or skills instead of expensive
things.
2. Look for ways of saving energy (and money!) in your home. Turn
down the thermostat in the winter and turn it up in the summer.
Weather strip windows and doors. Insulate the walls and ceiling.
Install storm windows.
3. Use a push or electric-powered mower instead of a gas-powered
mower to cut your lawn. Or, better yet, turn part of your yard into
a meadow of indigenous wild flowers.
4. When purchasing appliances, look for low-energy, high-efficiency
models.
5. Leave your car at home whenever possible. Instead, choose public
transportation, carpooling, walking, bicycling, or staying at home.
When purchasing a new car, look for the most fuel-efficient model
you can find. You may be able to reduce carbon dioxide emissions
by over 5,000 pounds per year!
Congregational Lifestyle
1. Conduct a thorough audit of the energy use in your church buildings
and programs. Look for ways that energy can be saved.
2. Turn off lights, fans, and air conditioners when not in use.
Turn down the heat and water heaters at night and on days that the
church is not in use.
3. Study your church grounds. How many pesticides, herbicides,
and artificial fertilizers, and how much watering and mowing are
necessary to keep the church grounds attractive and healthy? Are
there indigenous strains of flowers, trees, and bushes that would
be more hardy and insect resistant? Are there areas that could be
converted to wild flower meadows to reduce the need for mowing?
Is there an area that could be used for an organic vegetable garden
to help supply healthy vegetables to a local food pantry? What compromises
would your church community be willing to make on appearances in
order to create an earth-friendly environment?
4. Make a commitment as a church to cut back on use of disposable
cups, plates, and utensils. Take an inventory of the number of paper
or styrofoam cups the church uses in a month and then look for ways
of gradually reducing the number by asking people to carry their
own coffee mugs to meetings and coffee hour. Ask people to supply
their own dishes and utensils for church dinners and then take them
home to wash them.
COMMUNITY, NATIONAL AND GLOBAL INVOLVEMENT
1. Learn about environmental racism, the disproportionate impact
of environmental contamination on communities of color. Bring practices
of racial discrimination in environmental policy to public attention
through letters to the editor of your local newspaper and through
letters to legislators and industry leaders.
2. Keep track of how your governmental leaders vote on environmental
issues. Your national denominational offices or the Eco-Justice
Working Group of the National Council of Churches can provide you
with this information. Make your congregation aware of the voting
records through a regular column in your church newsletter. Ask
people to consider this information when voting.
3. Hold an offering of letters. Choose an environmental issue that
concerns the people of your congregation. It might be an issue confronting
your town or community or a situation of national or international
significance. Plan an educational campaign through which the members
of your congregation are made aware of the issue and why it hurts
God's creation.
Ask people to write letters to your legislators about the issue.
You might wish to provide a model letter. Suggest that people describe
in the letter how their faith has led them to be concerned about
the issue.
At the next worship service, ask worshippers to place their letters
in the Offering plate. Dedicate the letters. Mail them after worship.
4. Encourage members of the congregation to write letters to the
President asking him to raise the automobile fuel economy standards.
The president is authorized to make these changes without the approval
of congress. The standards have not been raised since 1986, and
the technology for fuel efficiency has improved significantly since
then.
5. Explore ways of getting media coverage for an issue that concerns
you. Letters to the editor, paid advertisements, and public service
announcements are avenues open to everyone. Public policy makers
are far more likely to respond to an issue that has generated public
concern.
6. Do you know which agencies in your community, city, county,
or state have responsibilities for environmental issues and how
to contact them? You might consider issues such as: soil contamination,
air and water pollution and endangered species. After gathering
this information, make it available to church members. Invite officials
from these agencies to speak at your church.
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