Creation Care Alliance of Western North Carolina
Spirit and World Climate- Climate Interactive Role Playing
Sign up for this free event here.
Let There Be (LED) Light
The Creation Care Alliance of WNC Helps Congregations Save Money With Climate Solutions-
Like they do on most Sundays, the Jubilee! Congregation in downtown Asheville sang sacred songs, read from scripture, and took in the sermon from their Rev. Howard Hanger on January 13. But on this day, something different happened: when the pastor repeated the beloved sacred passage “Let there Be Light,” the sanctuary filled up with beautiful LED light.
As one of the pilot congregations for the Creation Care Alliance’s LED Renewal Project, Jubilee! was celebrating the completion of their LED lighting upgrades. By replacing 160 bulbs and nine light bays in their church building with LEDS, Jubilee! will save an estimated $2,119 and reduce their estimated energy consumption by 14,250 kilowatt hours in this year alone. That’s the equivalent of 10 metric tons of carbon or offsets, and about the same as planting and growing 167 trees for ten years. Read More
“What people of faith are doing to help the environment” Hendersonville, Green Drinks
March 14, 5:30-7:00pm
Black Bear Coffee Co. 218 Main Street Hendersonville, NC
Rev. Scott Hardin-Nieri, the Director of the Creation Care Alliance of Western North Carolina and other community and faith leaders will be sharing at the monthly Green Drinks meeting in Hendersonville from 5:30 pm-7:00pm
Come enjoy a beverage, connect with other sustainability and spirituality minded people, and learn about faith communities in Western North Carolina that see “Loving neighbors” as highly interconnected with how we love our rivers, mountains, forests and air.
CCA listens and shares creation care ideas with Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians and Givens Estates
We are grateful for the work and ministry of Central United Methodist Church, First Presbyterian Church, Circle of Mercy Congregation and Givens Estates. They will include creation care in their worship and educational experiences within the next two weeks. The CCA team will share ways climate change, equity, and faith intersect as well as tangible ways that we can listen to the ongoing invitation to express our faith through creation care and justice. Our CCA toolkit and stories from other congregations will support our time together. Check out their websites and plan to join us tomorrow or next Sunday. Email or call us if you are interested in learning ways the Creation Care Alliance can support your congregational efforts.
Clergy/Faith Leader Retreat echoes
Last week about 45 faith leaders from 10 denominations gathered at Christmount Conference Center in Black Mountain to explore Sabbath as restorative resistance with Dr. Norman Wirzba, experience Story Medicine with Laura Lengnick, learn climate science from Deke Arndt and take a snow kissed walk in the forest with Bob Gale. Not only was I inspired by the speakers, spiritual directors and scientists teaching us but by the stories of people loving their communities well. So many of them are finding ways to both nurture community healing while nudging communities to have difficult conversations about faith, race, poverty, ecology and economics. We are grateful for the many volunteers, the Wake Forest University School of Divinity Food, Faith and Ecological Wellness Program, MountainTrue, the NC Council of Churches and Christmount for the collaborative support.
Webinar: From Climate Reports to Moral Imperative
A Time to Wait and a Time to Act: COP24 and the Season of Advent
My children will both go back to school today after three and a half days off for snow-related cancellations and delays. During this time there was sled run building, movie watching, hot chocolate, fort creating, reading, knitting and anticipation. You see, Christmas is just around the corner, and for practicing Christians, this is the season of Advent. It is a time of worship, practice, and intentionally slowing down as we anticipate the coming of God revealed in Jesus. It is when we look forward to the coming Light even while naming the brokenness and darkness in the world.
It is a time of waiting.
The church hymn O Come, O Come Emmanuel reveals this season well.
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
and ransom captive Israel,
that mourns in lonely exile here
until the Son of God appear.
And this year, Advent coincides with the UN Climate talks in Katowice, Poland – also known as COP24 –where close to 200 nations are trying to map out a path to implement the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015. Read More
Activists, faith leaders hold 10-day fast and prayer for climate change
Posted on by Scott Hardin-Nieri
In November Creation Care Alliance Faith leaders helped support a 10-day public prayer and fast lead by Steve Norris. It was a heart centered reaction to the latest climate reports and deepened the spiritual roots of our collective action. Brook Randle wrote an article about it in the Mountain Xpress and took the photos as well.
“You know, if we inspire one person who really wants to take this seriously and who has imagination, genius, creativity, courage and some leadership skills, who knows where that can go?” -Steve Norris
https://mountainx.com/news/activists-faith-leaders-hold-10-day-fast-and-prayer-for-climate-change/
Category: CCA in the News, Congregational Stories, Latest News, Prayers & Meditation Practices, Public Comments & Testimony Tags: 100% renewable, activism, clean energy, clergy, climate activism, climate change, Climate Fast, compassion, Creation Care, environment, faith, fasting, inspiration, justice, meditation, peace, prayer, public prayer, social justice, spirit, Spiritual fast, Spirituality