Earth Day Sunday 2010: Sacred Spaces and an Abundant Life: Worship Spaces as Stewardship

The blessings of God are evident all around us, including in the sacred spaces that make up our houses of worship. These sacred spaces are where we come to be spiritually nurtured, enriched, and recharged. These spaces become a gathering place to meet in fellowship with our neighbors, and are the center of our mission activities. Even as we are blessed as communities of faith with gathering places for our worship and ministry, we have responsibilities to be good stewards of these sacred spaces.

Click here to dowload this resource and find out how your congregation can practice good stewarship of your sacred spaces.

Success Stories

St. Mark Presbyterian Church, Newport Beach, CA - On April 18th, St. Mark Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, CA is again celebrating Earth Day around the NCC theme, Sacred Spaces Abundant Life. It worked in well with our goals for the year of reexamining the environmental features of our campus. The choir will sing "Above the Moon Earth Rises" a hymn specially commissioned for the dedication of our new church 3 years ago. Some families have taken on planting and caring for an organic community garden at the St. Mark Community Preschool with produce being donated to a local soup kitchen. The native plants are maturing nicely and are all in bloom! Click here to read more about St. Mark's Earth Day festivities.
St. Mark United Methodist Church in Seneca, SC - Shows the movie Kilowatt Hours every year on Earth Day Sunday for the Confirmation Class. They also have a special class on the environment with tips on being good stewards of God’s Creation and encourage members to bring their own dishes and silverware when they have church meetings rather than use disposable products.
Warner Memorial Presbyterian Church, Kensington, MD - "We may be a red brick building, but we are working to be a "green" church!"
Church of Reconciliation (PCUSA), Chapel HIll, NC - Engaged in a month long celebration of God's Creation with adult education classes, environmental sabbath art projects, culminating in an out door worship service on April 25th. Click here to see their schedule of events.
First Universalist Church, Minneapolis, MN - Last year around Earth Day, six bike parking stanchions were installed in front of our church. This year, First Universalist has started a comprehensive recycling program which has reduced our trash by 65 to 75%! We've had our Green Stewards volunteers monitor the various bins during our social hour after our services. It's quite a learning curve for all the congregants, but the progress is definately visible.
The Umstead Park United Church of Christ, - Shares their LEED certified Sacred Space because , a building in use all week for different purposes is better than two different buildings that stand unused for much of the week. Click here to read a story about the congregation written by Joanne Kennedy Frazer for the North Carolina IP&L.
Forest Lake Presbyterian Church, Columbia, SC- “ALL GOD’S CREATURES, GREAT AND SMALL”.... Their Environment is our Sacred Space
Westminster Church of the Brethren, Westminster MD - Our Green Project Team has been active along with the Property Team. Yellow recycle bins were purchased for each floor of the church and baskets were put out in other areas for bulletin recycling. Each Sunday in our bulletin, we have a tip about an action the congregation can take to save energy. We also have a free energy audit. We announced the Earth Hour and an event another church has planned for 4/18, which is the showing of the Disney Earth movie. We're hoping many of our members attend. We have also informed the congregation of an event a local school is having on 4/17. Our chorister is going to be getting a list of hymns in the new Stewardship of the Bay curriculum to have us sing on the Sunday after Earth Day. One area we are still working on is a substitute for Styrofoam coffee cups. That is an action in progress!
Riverside-Salem UCC/DC, Grand Island New York - is in the process of building a straw bale building. They host the Peace Education Fund, which is sponsoring Peace on Earth Week 2010 in the WNY area, and the annual World on Your Plate food forum (see attached), which will be offering seeds during Peace on Earth Week as their spring "save the date" notice of their "harvest"/fall event.
Flagstaff Federated Community Church in Flagstaff, Arizona - the congregation's green team, "Christians for the Earth" organizes workshops and adult studies for the congregation is active in making sure that the congregation practices stewardship of their sacred space.
Ann Arbor, MI -For Earth Day 2010, Northside Presbyterian Church members worked with members of their partner church St. Aidan' s Episcopal to remove invasive garlic mustard, honeysuckle and buckthorn from their woods. They improved a path leading through to the bus stop on the road below and neighbors have been enjoying our attempts to restore this small forest.
St Paul's Episcopal Church, Brookings, South Dakota - Parishioners were greeted by the sight of a 5-ft-diameter Earth Ball hanging in the church entry while bold letters on the cover of the Sunday bulletin proclaimed EARTH DAY. A message of environmental stewardship was in sermon, song and readings. After-church socializing was in the fellowship hall where smaller earth balls hung over each table and information about conservation was available for coffee-time discussion. St Paul's Natural Cathedral Committee promoted Earth Day Sunday through the city's ministerial association and several churches and religious groups included stewardship messages on Earth Day Sunday. Thanks to Fr. Ryan Hall (Episcopal) and Pastor George Gehant (Lutheran, United Retirement Center) for their interest and action.
St Matthews United Methodist Church Bowie Maryland celebrated Earth Day with entire worship service devoted to recognizing the importance of stewardship for the Earth. Congregants attending were given a bag of handouts after each service containing a CFL, material on free home energy audits and check lists.

Learn More

Energy Efficiency

Reducing Toxic Materials and Products

Land and Water conservation

Worship Resources