{ "$schema": "https://schemas.wp.org/trunk/block.json", "apiVersion": 2, "name": "google-listings-and-ads/product-date-time-field", "title": "Product date and time fields", "textdomain": "google-listings-and-ads", "attributes": { "label": { "type": "string" }, "tooltip": { "type": "string" }, "property": { "type": "string", "__experimentalRole": "content" } }, "supports": { "html": false, "inserter": false, "lock": false, "__experimentalToolbar": false } } DEEPENING ROOTS – Creation Care Alliance https://creationcarealliance.org Fri, 02 Feb 2024 22:30:16 +0000 en hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://creationcarealliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/cropped-SHN_Logo_FullColor_HiRes_trimmed-32x32.png DEEPENING ROOTS – Creation Care Alliance https://creationcarealliance.org 32 32 Stay Open and Keep Growing https://creationcarealliance.org/deepening-roots-stay-open-keep-growing/ Thu, 18 Jan 2024 20:55:03 +0000 https://creationcarealliance.org/?p=2527 Suggested Practices and Examples for Implementation:
  • Learn more about the history of environmental justice and environmental racism.
  • Continue learning about indigenous culture, forced indigenous removal/genocide, and how to be in solidarity with indigenous communities. 
  • Learn about the environmental and climate justice struggles present in your community and consider how you can take informed action.
    • For example, in Western North Carolina, climate migration is an important issue. Consider what it means to welcome migrants in your context and how your faith community might practice “climate hospitality.” 
    • Flooding is also a climate impact that affects Western North Carolina. Look for opportunities to support communities that have been affected by flooding and take part in climate resilience projects like stabilizing stream banks through live staking and other practices. 
  • Support and advocate for climate and environmental policies written/shaped by impacted communities (BIPOC and working-class communities particularly). Look to impacted community members for answers to the struggles being faced by their communities.
  • Financially support organizations working on issues related to food justice, affordable housing, immigration/refugee rights, indigenous rights, racial justice, economic justice, etc. 
  • Consider the Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing as you plan your meetings and community work. If your faith community is predominantly white, consider this document on white dominant culture.
  • Preach intersectionality. Help members of your community see how these various social and ecological issues are connected and how all these issues shape our ability to “love our neighbor.” 
  • Know that this work is lifelong. We will not “arrive.” We can and should keep learning how to be better to each other (and keep unlearning our harmful ways/the systemic biases and injustices we have been steeped in). 

General Information Related to this Strategy:

Available Resources in Western North Carolina:

]]> Make Creation Care central to your faith identity https://creationcarealliance.org/deepening-roots-creation-care-is-understood-as-central-to-ones-faith-identity/ Thu, 18 Jan 2024 17:37:40 +0000 https://creationcarealliance.org/?p=2524 Suggested Practices and Examples for Implementation:
  • Care of creation is understood and named as a vital aspect of how we love our neighbors and practice social justice.
    • Messages often connect human and non-human issues to creation care concerns.
    • Climate change is named and discussed openly as a moral dilemma requiring our attention, prayer, and courageous action. 
    • The congregation plans activities in response to the messages calling for creation care. 
  • Regularly share with your faith community the steps you are all taking to care for creation and invite new ideas.
  • Include concerns for all creation (non-human and human) each week in prayer. 
  • Engage youth and children in creation care activities habitually. 
    • Check out our page with children’s/youth activities for ideas. 

General Information Related to this Strategy:

]]> Implement long-term changes in water usage and stewardship https://creationcarealliance.org/deepening-roots-implement-long-term-changes-in-water-usage-and-stewardship/ Thu, 18 Jan 2024 17:29:18 +0000 https://creationcarealliance.org/?p=2517 Suggested Practices and Examples for Implementation:
  • Look for WaterSense-labeled products.
  • Install low-flow/high-efficiency toilets.
  • Create a comprehensive plan to address stormwater runoff on your property (EPA resource below). 
  • Purchase Energy Star washers and dryers (including dishwashers).
  • Advocate for and support clean water initiatives in your community.
    • Download the Muddy Water Watch App on your phone and report sediment pollution. 
    • Support single-use plastic reduction initiatives and microplastic monitoring. 
    • Get to know the groups protecting the water in your region. 
  • Become a water quality volunteer by taking water samples for MountainTrue! 
  • Make river, roadside, and stream clean-ups a habitual part of your creation care ministry. 
  • Continue to incorporate gratitude for clean water (and the importance of water stewardship) in your worship services and religious education. 

General Information Related to this Strategy:

Available Resources in Western North Carolina:

]]> Take Steps Toward Zero Waste https://creationcarealliance.org/deepening-roots-take-steps-toward-zero-waste/ Thu, 18 Jan 2024 17:23:25 +0000 https://creationcarealliance.org/?p=2511 Suggested practices and examples for implementation:
  • Organize your congregation to help your community reduce plastic and styrofoam by banning plastic bags and styrofoam food containers at the town and/or county levels. 
  • Organize your community.
    • Reach out to local businesses/organizations with support to help reduce waste.
    • Consider bulk purchasing and being a distribution center for needed community goods (learn more via Cooperate WNC). 
  • Emphasize compostable and/or reusable products on your congregational campus before turning to recyclable options. 
  • Compost at all meals and events (see the above section on composting).
  • Collect compost from congregants’ homes. Donate to a local farm (or use it in your own gardening endeavors). 
  • Volunteer to help document microplastic contamination in our waterways.
  • Make river/roadside clean-ups a habitual part of your creation care ministry.

General information related to this strategy:

Available resources in Western North Carolina:

Local faith communities currently utilizing this strategy:

]]> Join in interfaith and community efforts that support voting rights and access https://creationcarealliance.org/deepening-roots-join-in-interfaith-and-community-efforts-that-support-voting-rights-and-access/ Thu, 18 Jan 2024 17:16:27 +0000 https://creationcarealliance.org/?p=2504 Suggested Practices and Examples for Implementation:
  • Post voter ID rules in your facility, and have sample ballots available for your community of faith
  • Help community members attain the required voter ID documents
  • Offer your worship facility as a voting location (contact local Election Services)
  • Organize a group of members who will be available to drive fellow community members to the polls on election day or join a community-sponsored group to drive people to the polls
  • Organize interest groups from your community of faith to go to vote early. Follow up with a fellowship lunch or dinner
  • Advocate for the protection of voting rights. 

General Information Related to this Strategy:

Available Resources in Western North Carolina:

]]> Advocate for infill development rather than continued sprawl https://creationcarealliance.org/deepening-roots-embracing-infill-development-rather-than-continued-sprawl/ Thu, 18 Jan 2024 17:09:42 +0000 https://creationcarealliance.org/?p=2498 Suggested Practices and Examples for Implementation:
  • Advocate for more sidewalks (pedestrian infrastructure), bike lanes, and bus/transit stops in your community.
  • Embrace infill development in your community/neighborhood to reduce urban sprawl and make public transportation (as well as biking and walking) a more viable option.
  • Personally commit to carpooling, taking the bus/transit, walking, or biking at least once a week.

General Information Related to this Strategy:

Available Resources in Western North Carolina:

]]> Provide opportunities for meditation, prayer, and reflection in outdoor spaces regularly https://creationcarealliance.org/deepening-roots-provide-opportunities-for-meditation-prayer-and-reflection-in-outdoor-spaces-regularly/ Thu, 18 Jan 2024 17:02:05 +0000 https://creationcarealliance.org/?p=2490 Suggested Practices and Examples for Implementation:
  • Make contemplative hikes/outdoor experiences a habitual part of your creation care ministry. 
  • Host regular worship services/experiences outside. 
  • Include creation-centered meditations or reflections regularly in your faith community programming and worship experience. 
  • Make sure that children’s activities include time outside, lessons on care for the Earth, and prayers for the Earth. 
  • Include concerns for the health of creation in your worship/prayer requests weekly.
  • Create a labyrinth on the property for meditative walking (consider using pollinator-friendly, native plants in the design).
  • Host an Earth Day Vigil–call people into a deeper relationship with creation and offer gratitude for all the life systems that support humans and non-human animals. 
  • Engage with other congregations through shared meditation or prayer practices outdoors.
    • Build relationships with others in your community by inviting them into shared space with you. 

General Information Related to this Strategy:

Available Resources in Western North Carolina:

Local Faith Communities Currently Utilizing this Strategy:

]]> Host a community nature event https://creationcarealliance.org/deepening-roots-host-a-community-event/ Thu, 18 Jan 2024 16:44:45 +0000 https://creationcarealliance.org/?p=2483 Suggested Practices and Examples for Implementation:
  • For Christian communities: host an ecumenical prayer service during the Season of Creation, September 1 – October 4.
  • Celebrate World Interfaith Harmony Week by planning a hike or picnic with multiple faith communities from your area.
    • You could also host a film or documentary showing or do community work outdoors together (like participating in a river cleanup), etc.
  • Have an interfaith Earth Day Vigil–a prayer service for all creation (human and non-human). 
  • Meet with faith leaders of different traditions to learn about the sacredness of water or land in each of your traditions; plan a community event in which you can share this learning or hold a sacred ritual together near a body of water or special forest, etc.
  • Come together with congregations in your community and consider how you can join forces to care for creation.
    • Plan a monthly river clean-up day followed by a potluck, a multifaith worship service, time to walk along the river, etc. 

General Information Related to this Strategy:

Local Faith Communities Currently Utilizing this Strategy:

]]> Share Creation Care with Your Broader Community https://creationcarealliance.org/deepening-roots-share-creation-care-with-your-broader-community/ Thu, 18 Jan 2024 16:30:34 +0000 https://creationcarealliance.org/?p=2476 Suggested Practices and Examples for Implementation:
  • Find media outlets such as podcasts, radio stations, or news channels where you can promote the work you’re doing around environmental initiatives.
  • Co-write a blog or journal article with another faith leader in your community about how your creation care journeys overlap or what you have learned from one another.
  • Form a partnership with faith leaders/creation care team members from neighboring congregations or community organizations to share the load of finding and writing articles or other communication pieces around environmental stewardship and share these resources with one another.
  • Ask local organizations if you can be a sponsor of their newsletter or other media communication, and share stories about your sustainability efforts through short excerpts or blurbs in their publications.
  • Write the editor of your local newspaper regarding the importance of caring for creation and invite others in your community to join in caring for the environment as a moral responsibility. 
  • Write an op-ed for your local newsletter on why caring for the environment is important to you/your faith with a call to a particular kind of environmental stewardship action that is relevant to your community (ex., if there is an upcoming river clean-up, it could be about that!).

General Information Related to this Strategy:

Available Resources in Western North Carolina:

]]> Encourage one another to sit on citizen committees and councils or consider running for elected positions in local government https://creationcarealliance.org/deepening-roots-encourage-one-another-to-sit-on-citizen-committees-and-councils-or-consider-running-for-elected-positions-in-local-government/ Thu, 18 Jan 2024 16:18:16 +0000 https://creationcarealliance.org/?p=2470 Suggested Practices and Examples for Implementation:
  • Contact your local government staff to find the list of advisory boards and commissions they rely on to get community input into the policy process.
  • Attend the meetings of these advisory boards and commissions – they should all be open to the public, have prepared agendas they share with the public, and have publicly accessible lists of the members of their boards and commissions so that you can connect with the members individually. If any of that isn’t publicly available, contact a local nonprofit to help you get this information.
  • Join your local political party (Republican, Democrat, etc.) and attend meetings to learn about the process of running for an elected office.
  • Think about the people in your community who you respect and who would make good representatives in your local government. Encourage them to run for office!
  • Support the campaigns for the candidates who will represent your values and priorities in office. There are lots of different ways to volunteer or donate to support political campaigns.
  • Find organizations you trust and join them in their campaigns/advocacy for environmental protection, climate action, and a more just world.
    • Local action/involvement is vital, and joining with others to effect large-scale change is also deeply important. 

General Information Related to this Strategy:

Available Resources in Western North Carolina:

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