Creation Care Alliance of Western North Carolina
Project Drawdown Workshop-Hendersonville
This event is designed for individuals and groups who are ready to identify personal and family solutions to global warming that are within reach, and/or have an interest in working with community organizations and local governments to implement climate solutions and policies. Social and eco-justice advocates Pam and Charley Rogers will lead the workshop.
The workshop is based on the book, Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reduce Global Warming, edited by environmentalist Paul Hawken. The book features the work of more than 200 researchers and scientists who have mapped, measured and modeled the top 100 solutions to reverse global warming, concluding that we can begin a reversal of greenhouse gases by 2050 using existing technologies.
Gardner-Webb University Caring for Creation
Earth Day Vigil-“Walking the Path”
Sunday, April 28, 2019
4:15pm-5pm Walking the Labyrinth 5:30 p.m.-Vigil with Reception to follow
First Baptist Church
Sacred Garden/Labyrinth
5 Oak Street, Asheville, NC 28801
Often times, we cannot fully see the destination in our ecological, social and spiritual paths. Despite the obscurity of the destination it is important to take steps toward a healthier future. This step by step movement is what has inspired the theme of the Earth Day Vigil this year. The Labyrinth location at First Baptist Church will provide an embodied way to experience a spiritual invitation to move toward a healthier planet. While there are many ways to interact with a labyrinth there are 4 basic movements that might give us hints during this Earth Month. The movements as taught by the Veriditas School based in Grace Cathedral in San Francisco can be named Remember, Release, Receive and Return. On Sunday, April 28th the Labyrinth will be open at First Baptist at 4:15 with a vigil to follow at 5:30pm. Volunteer to help here.
The time will have Words of reflection and blessings delivered by Rev. Carol Hovis from Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, Rev. Nancy Walton of Trinity United Methodist Church, Rev. Tommy Bratton and Marian Sadler Arledge of First Baptist Church, Rev. Scott Hardin-Nieri of the Creation Care Alliance of WNC, Dr. Hun Lye, Founder and Spiritual Director of Urban Dharma, and Isa Whitaker a member of the Islamic Center of Asheville and the Community Garden Network Coordinator at Bountiful Cities. Sound and musical leadership will be offered by Jenna Lindbo from Land of the Sky United Church of Christ, Daniel Barber from the Jubilee! Community and Joe Hallock of Solar Powered Sound.
Please join people of various faith communities from across WNC as we:
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- Celebrate the beauty of creation
- Share our gratitude and appreciation for the earth
- Enjoy music, poetry, and prayer
- Grieve for the damage we are causing to creation and our neighbors
- Reflect on our responsibility to our children and future generations
- Resolve to bring our hope and faith into action
- Enjoy food and drink and connect with great people
Fossil Free Presbyterians reflect on Clergy Retreat
Farmers, faith leaders and scientists came together at the Creation Care Alliance of Western North Carolina‘s clergy retreat in January. They explored how the damage the Dust Bowl caused a climate scientist’s family farm affected his outlook, the connection between climate change and the Sabbath, stories of first understanding climate change and more.
We offer gratitude for these words from Rev. Jess Rigel
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.
Youth: Listening to those who stand to lose so much
Posted on by Scott Hardin-Nieri
I quickly told him about you and the many other people and congregations who are seeking right relationship with people, planet, and the Divine.
This Friday, youth in Western North Carolina will join a growing movement of teenagers and children who are seeking to accelerate progress on climate action. The rallies, marches and school strikes in the US represent just a fraction of the global action, with young voices being lifted in forty countries. Youth as well as adults have been inspired by 15-year-old Greta Thunberg, a Swedish student whose weekly school strikes have won a global following. Greta’s decision to skip school and bike to Stockholms’ Parliament House with a hand painted “School Strike for Climate” sign reveals a growing impatience with the current leadership and continues to inspire tangible change. Among the many powerful demands from the US students that resonate with me are the calls for “an equitable transition for marginalized communities that will be most impacted by climate change and an equitable transition for fossil-fuel reliant communities to a renewable economy.”
We know that the young people who are courageously speaking out this week are among those with the most to lose in the years and decades to come. I am standing in solidarity with them this week, and encourage young people and adult allies to attend the Asheville Climate Strike Rally in Pritchard Park on March 15 at 4:30.
We cannot do this work alone and recognize that human and ecological connections are at the root of our future. Tonight the “Hidden Life of Trees” book study at Jubilee at 6pm will give you some time with like-minded and hearted humans. If not tonight, see below for other ways to connect.
Read More
Category: Congregational Stories, Presentations & Webinars, Public Comments & Testimony Tags: 100% renewable, children, clean energy, climate activism, climate change, compassion, Creation Care, Energy Efficiency, faith, food security, justice, science, social justice, Spirituality, students, us climate strike, youth