Earth Day Weekend Celebration

EARTH DAY WEEKEND CELEBRATION

April 20^th and 21^st

Caring For Each Other and God's Earth

Have you prayerfully considered what role you play in the care of God's world? The first step is to appreciate what a wondrous place of magnificent complexity and delicate beauty God has given us, then to celebrate it every day and especially on Earth Day. Come join us in giving thanks on Earth Day weekend and sharing in an inspirational message from our own Patti Blackwood.

The Council of Bishops in their 2009 document, God's Renewed Creation, admonishes us to live not as though being created in God's image gives us special privilege, but instead as though our status as human beings increases our responsibility. When we sing, "I love thy kingdom, Lord," we remember that the word love is a verb that not only connotes feeling but action.

"Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present," according to the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration's Data Center. Their recent National Climate Assessment draft written by 240 scientists and business leaders called the use of fossil fuels by humans the main driver of climate change. Every time we add just a little bit more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, it makes things a little bit warmer and shifts the odds toward more extreme weather events such as Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy. While some areas are affected by too much water, others such as our own Southwest have too little and experience devastating wildfires. We need to be aware that our brothers and sisters around the world suffer as a result of our using more resources than any other country and creating so much trash, waste, and pollution.

We ask God's forgiveness and help in beginning new more mindful ways. How do we already reduce our use of fossil fuels and what more can we do? Drive less? Buy less? Eat more locally? Waste less? Do we advocate for limits on the amount of carbon industries can emit, for expansion of the use of renewable energy(e.g., our church's new solar panels), for the reduction of tropical deforestation, and for solutions to rampant population growth? In short, we ask ourselves how our lifestyles increase our carbon footprints, and as the bishops in their report said, "We love God and neighbor by changing our behavior."