Green Sanctuary Acceptance Letter
UU Ministry for Earth Committee
Nancy King Smith, Chair
21600 Shaker Blvd
Shaker Heights, OH 44122
Your
organizing committee broadly represents your congregation and includes many
very involved members. The committee has
assessed your environmental situation and developed a well rounded action
plan.
Your
environmental assessment format is well done an will serve as an example for
future applications. We are excited to
see that you have included an audit of households in addition to your audit of
the church facilities.
We like the inclusion of a
mission and vision in your action plan. We feel that this helps get the entire
congregation involved in the Green Sanctuary Program.
Your proposed projects for the
Worship and Celebration focus area are appropriate for meeting the Green
Sanctuary requirements. We are thrilled
to see that you plan to add more environmental themes to your worship on a
regular basis – through your Seventh Principal in Worship project. The Arts and Environmental Stewardship project
is something new for us to see and we are excited to see you are adding
celebration into this event.
We expect that your Low-Meat
Diet project will be successful and are exited to see that you plan to use the
Northwest Earth Institute curriculum “Menu for the Future” – many congregations
have found this helpful and it will fulfill a Green Sanctuary Program
requirement and get your congregation involved in the Congregational Study
Action Issue – Ethical Eating: Food and Environmental Justice for 2008-2012. We look forward to hearing more about your
Environmental Awareness Training project.
We hope to see a project that specifically focuses on children’s religious education – why we do
the things we do and how that relates to our faith in
addition to how we care for the Earth.
We encourage you to revise
your environmental justice projects to better provide justice for disadvantaged
or oppressed communities. More
specifically, we recommend focusing on projects that will build relationships
to create a greater impact. Your Interfaith Environmental Justice Work project
has the potential to be a wonderful environmental justice project. The Green Sanctuary review team would like to
see you actively involved in the development of the Ohio Interfaith Power and
Light organization, we encourage you to develop a plan. Additionally, your Urban Food Systems project
has potential to be a great environmental justice project, it seems to need
more planning a detail. Another option
is that you could move you could move your Wild Garden project to the
environmental justice section as it could be seen as habitat restoration for
non-human species or if you chose to plant food in the garden you could
potentially donate it to those in need.
If you want to talk more about options or alternative projects, feel
free to contact me or Rev. Katherine Jesch, Director of Environmental Ministry
at the UU Ministry for Earth. Either of
us would be happy to brainstorm ideas with you.
Your
sustainable living projects are well conceived and straight-forward. We
encourage you to monitor results and share the results with your
congregation. Additionally, we were
excited to see that you plan on developing multiple policies that will change
the way your congregation operates and ensure that you are in right-relations
with the Earth.
Overall,
your program looks diverse, well balanced, and exciting. We look forward to your continuing progress
as you work towards becoming a Green Sanctuary. Please feel free to contact me
with any questions or concerns as you move forward. Congratulations and welcome to the Green
Sanctuary Program!
Good luck on your Green
Sanctuary journey,
Robin Nelson
Robin Nelson
Program Manager,
Congregational Stewardship Services
Unitarian
Universalist Association
25 Beacon
Street
Boston,
MA 02108
phone (617)
948.4251
fax (617)
742.0321
“It’s not easy
being Green.” – Kermit the Frog