Church of the Saviour

Becoming a church of peace and social justice....

Each year Church of the Saviour is adopting a theme. This year it is global warming as an issue of social justice. For a brief introduction to global warming and how it is an issue of social justice, click on this link.

Discipleship, and working on reducing global warming is certainly that, calls for work in three areas:

Personal/Spiritual
This is the interior work, the work on how one relates to God and God's creation. The Bible is the principal source for enduring inspiration to action that fulfills God's intent. Does it speak to global warming? In fact it does.

Carol Johnston, a faculty member at the Christian Theological Seminary, has written a small book relating Scripture from both the Old and New Testaments to questions of ecology. It is thought provoking and helps us understand what, for example, "And God found it very good" means in an ecological sense. The book is "And the Leaves of the Tree are for the Healing of the Nations" PDS #72433-06-001 (Presbyterian Distribution Services) Call 1.800.524.2612 to order or check at the CTS bookstore.

Personal/Action
The Apostle James wrote (James 2:18): "I by my works will show you my faith." We know that is not the whole story but it is a big part of it. What can we do to combat global warming on our own? F. W. Horch is a store in Brunswick ME that is very concerned with environmental issues. They have put out a free handbook suggesting actions we can take around the house. I like it because it starts with the things we can do for free and works up from there. You can see their handbook by clicking here. We will be adding more resources of this kind as we go along.

Congregational Action
This is where group action comes in. It can start very simply, for example by putting out a recycling bin at church. We've done that.

Another step that is growing in importance is using compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs). They last longer than conventional tungsten bulbs and use a fraction of the energy. They are more expensive to buy but in the long run save real money. What does buying CFLs, an individual act, have to do with congregational action? It turns out that each CFL uses mercury, a heavy metal, in its construction. When the bulb is burned out and we dispose of it, we shouldn't just put it in the trash, that perpetuates the mercury problem because sooner or later it will get into the food chain. We can't put it out in the recycling bin either because recyclers aren't equipped to handle them. We need to get them, intact, unbroken, to a hazardous waste disposal depot. That very clearly is not an individual action.

Here is a thought. Let's consider asking people to bring the burned out CFLs to church where we can collect a lot of them and cart them off to the hazardous waste depot. We would need to be careful though that they don't break. One solution to that problem is to either hang on to the original packing for the bulb and put it back in there taped shut, or put the burned out bulb in the package that the replacement bulb came in. There are other solutions too but we wouldn't want broken bulbs with mercury in them around church.

Some will remember that a number of years ago, before newspaper recycling became convenient, a few members of the congregation used to collect paper and haul it off to a recycler. The more things change the more they stay the same. We hope that the disposal of CFLs will become as convenient as paper recycling in the future.

We are just getting started with the spiritual, individual and congregational aspects of dealing with global warming. You have been thinking about these problems and we would like to hear your ideas. Bring them up at church or simply click here to send your ideas as email.