{ "$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 } } NURTURING GROWTH – Creation Care Alliance https://creationcarealliance.org Wed, 15 Apr 2026 14:43:48 +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 NURTURING GROWTH – Creation Care Alliance https://creationcarealliance.org 32 32 Native Plant Propagation Volunteer Event https://creationcarealliance.org/event/native-plant-propagation-volunteer-event/ Sun, 19 Apr 2026 17:00:00 +0000 https://creationcarealliance.org/?post_type=tribe_events&p=4152 Who: Creation Care Alliance and CoOperate WNC
What: Rivercane Propagation Workday
When: 4/19, 1-5pm
Where: Cullowhee Community Garden
Project/Event Details:
We will spend the afternoon together among the rivercane, a special and endangered ecosystem which Cooperate WNC is working to help revive.
We will dig rhizomes (underground stems) from the rivercane and put them in plastic bags with potting soil. These will be delivered to nursery partners who will grow them and up into larger plants for distribution next spring. The project aims to help local nursery businesses begin to offer rivercane plants at an affordable price for local streambank and ecosystem restoration projects.
The work will include (shallow) digging, cutting rhizomes with pruners, mixing potting soil, and packing the rhizomes into bags. Drop in when you can or stay for the whole event. We will provide some snacks and drinks. All ages and abilities are welcome.
]]> Show Up for Racial and Environmental Justice https://creationcarealliance.org/nurturing-growth-show-up/ Thu, 18 Jan 2024 20:57:39 +0000 https://creationcarealliance.org/?p=2529 Suggested Practices and Examples for Implementation:
  • Attend trainings and facilitate conversations on racial and economic justice issues. Listen for how these issues are intertwined with broader creation care issues and the call to love one another. Consider your role in moving your community toward greater justice and compassion.
  • Seek out training on multifaith competency. Attend worship services of a different faith tradition, and strive to support faith leaders of other traditions in your community by getting to know them and working in partnership on relevant community events.  
  • Participate in events hosted/led by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) organizations. Listen for follow-up opportunities and ways to continue to support these organizations and the people leading them. 
  • When picking your next creation care text for a study or conversation within your congregation, choose one that includes teachings from multiple faith traditions or a faith tradition other than your own. You can also consider a text focusing on the connection between ecological degradation, race, class, and/or poverty.
  • Learn where the food pantries are in your community and about efforts to increase accessibility to locally grown and organic foods. 

General Information Related to this Strategy: 

Available Resources in Western North Carolina:

]]> Offer frequent messages centered on creation care https://creationcarealliance.org/nurturing-growth-messages-centered-on-creation-care-are-offered-frequently/ Thu, 18 Jan 2024 17:36:34 +0000 https://creationcarealliance.org/?p=2522 Suggested Practices and Examples for Implementation:
  • Offer a sermon series on creation or stewardship (4+ weeks in a row) 
  • For Christian communities, observe the Season of Creation in September with a series around care for and love of creation
  • Incorporate songs/hymns that celebrate creation more regularly in worship (at least one service per quarter) 
  • Invite your faith community to offer prayers around environmental concerns during worship experiences on a regular basis.
    • Include prayers for those suffering from climate crisis (i.e. fires, floods, etc.) as frequently as the disasters occur. 
  • For Christian communities, participate in a Lenten carbon fast. 
  • Provide opportunities for worship in outdoor spaces on a regular basis. 

General Information Related to this Strategy:

Local Faith Communities Currently Utilizing this Strategy:

]]> Reduce water usage and protect water systems health https://creationcarealliance.org/nurturing-growth-reduce-water-usage-and-protect-water-systems-health/ Thu, 18 Jan 2024 17:27:55 +0000 https://creationcarealliance.org/?p=2515 Suggested Practices and Examples for Implementation:
  • Fix leaky faucets or toilets.
  • Install aerators in faucets.
  • Only run dishwashers when full.
  • When washing towels/other laundry, do full loads and use cold water.
  • Spot clean linens and clothes with a wet cloth and a little soap when the rest of the item is clean.
  • Install a rain barrel or other rain collection system for landscaping purposes (and to catch rainwater runoff from the roof).
  • Plant a rain garden to help filter pollutants from the water before it reaches the storm drain (particularly if your congregational land is heavily paved).
  • Take part in river and/or stream clean-ups.
  • Take part in a live staking workday to improve streamback stability and water quality!
  • Take part in roadside clean-ups (roadside trash that isn’t picked up ends up in waterways).
  • Observe World Water Day (March 22nd) as a congregation and incorporate gratitude for water in your worship services. 

General Information Related to this Strategy:

Available Resouces in Western North Carolina: 

]]> Sharing, Reusing, & Composting https://creationcarealliance.org/nurturing-growth-sharing-reusing-composting/ Thu, 18 Jan 2024 17:21:48 +0000 https://creationcarealliance.org/?p=2509 Suggested practices and examples for implementation:
  • Begin a clothing closet ministry.
    • Bring old coats, children’s clothes, etc. to your faith community and begin a free clothing exchange to lessen “fast fashion” waste.
  • Begin a tool-library ministry. 
    • Power tools aren’t a necessity for every home. Instead of all of us purchasing tools, we can share! Invest in tools and have a “check-out” system leading to waste reduction and community cooperation.
  • Take part in a river or roadside clean-up. If we don’t get the plastic now, it will end up in the ocean (poisoning us and God’s creatures all the way downstream). 
  • Provide compost bins in cooking and dining areas along with signs educating the community on what is compostable. 
  • Create an outdoor compost pile on the grounds of the faith community and use it for gardening–or donate the compost to a local farm!

General information related to this strategy:

Available resources in Western North Carolina:

Local faith communities currently utilizing this strategy:

]]> Learn about election-related dates, vote your values, and coordinate efforts to help community members do the same https://creationcarealliance.org/nurturing-growth-learn-about-election-related-dates-vote-your-values-and-coordinate-efforts-to-help-community-members-do-the-same/ Thu, 18 Jan 2024 17:15:06 +0000 https://creationcarealliance.org/?p=2502 Suggested Practices and Examples for Implementation:

  • Provide a study on democracy, voting rights, and electoral reform.
  • Ask your senior minister to have a worship service focused on “The Citizen on Election Day” on the Sunday before an election.
  • Invite a representative from your local Election Services office to speak to your community of faith about the registration requirements and procedures, as well as early voting dates and locations. Include any new voting requirements since the last large election.
  • Host a voter registration event at your church or gathering. Continue to provide voter registration forms, instructions, and voting location/date/time information for several weeks prior to the registration deadline.
  • Encourage members to train for and conduct voter registration drives in your local community/town/city.
  • Attend public meetings of your local Board of Elections.

General Information Related to this Strategy:

Available Resources in Western North Carolina:

]]> Encourage the use of ride-sharing, walking, biking, and electric vehicles https://creationcarealliance.org/nurturing-growth-evs-ride-sharing-walking-biking/ Thu, 18 Jan 2024 17:08:30 +0000 https://creationcarealliance.org/?p=2496 Suggested Practices and Examples for Implementation:
  • Help your congregation learn about and utilize public transportation and/or carpooling options in your area.
    • Post contact information (along with general location) of designated congregation members who are available to offer rides to events. You can also include these numbers in the bulletin or congregational newsletter! 
    • Post bus/transit routes in shared congregational spaces or on bulletin boards, etc. 
  • Host a bike, carpool, transit, or walk-to-worship event in your congregation.
    • A great activity around Earth Day (and for Christian communities, the Season of Creation in September).
  • Install bike racks near your building.
  • Organize a bike ride or walk in your community for fun and fellowship.
  • Regularly check the tire pressure on community vehicles to increase fuel efficiency
  • Invest in a charging station for electric cars near your place of worship or in your parking lot.
  • Replace old vehicles with hybrid or electric models.
    • Consider holding fundraisers for congregational vehicle upgrades.  

General Information Related to this Strategy:

Available Resources in Western North Carolina:

]]> Engage in regular prayer or meditation practice centered around Creation https://creationcarealliance.org/nurturing-growth-engage-a-regular-prayer-or-meditation-practice-centered-around-creation/ Thu, 18 Jan 2024 17:00:51 +0000 https://creationcarealliance.org/?p=2488 Suggested Practices and Examples for Implementation:
  • Offer prayers for Creation frequently, both during worship and in small-group settings
  • Practice Visio Divina or “divine seeing” with a group from your congregation and/or at home, and come together to share your experiences. 
  • Create sacred space in the building and/or on the land near your congregation, and write prompts for deeper thought/prayer that can be located near these spaces.
    • Invite folks into deeper communion with the land, plants, each other, etc. 
  • Host or participate in contemplative hikes.
  • Host a Creation/Ecological Prayer Stations event (similar to the Stations of the Cross in Christian communities, but focused on stewardship of Creation)

General Information Related to this Strategy:

Local Faith Communities Currently Utilizing this Strategy:

]]> Getting outside and re-wilding your theology https://creationcarealliance.org/nurturing-growth-offer-a-congregational-event/ Thu, 18 Jan 2024 16:36:51 +0000 https://creationcarealliance.org/?p=2480 Suggested practices for implementation:
  • Recruit a hike leader to lead a hike for your faith community.
  • Invite a bird or wildflower expert to lead a walk for your faith community.
    • Learn about local species and how you can extend your understanding of the concept of “loving one’s neighbor” to these non-human community members.
  • Plan a congregational picnic on the grounds or at a local park.
    • Enjoy an opportunity to be outside together. Listen to the world and be present. Before you leave, clean up any trash you see (yours or someone else’s!).
  • Schedule and promote a tour of a garden for your faith community.
    • Many of our faith traditions include stories of special gardens. What does spending time in the garden do for your faith? Does this action help you better understand your own faith tradition? 
  • Hold a sacred ritual or water blessing near a body of water (river, stream, lake, waterfall). 
    • We all depend on water, and in many of our traditions, water is a sacred aspect of our faith (think baptism in Christianity and Wudhu in Islam).  Honoring the water as a community is a beautiful way to include creation in our worship and prayer practice. 
  • Host a potluck meal at a community garden after volunteering there. 
    • Give thanks for the soil, all microbes and creatures, that allow us to eat and be nourished. 
  • Organize a litter pick-up along a river, stream, or lake.
    • These actions are vital to protect our health and the health of all God’s creation. 
  • Plan a congregational camping trip in a state park or national forest. 
  • Build an outdoor labyrinth of natural materials and invite others to walk it.
  • Include a time for solo or group prayer and meditation as a part of the hike, making clear the connection between nature and the Divine. 

General Information Related to this Strategy:

Available Resources in Western North Carolina:

Local Faith Communities Currently Utilizing this Strategy:

]]> Write or include regular environmental publications on your website or in  your newsletter https://creationcarealliance.org/nurturing-growth-write-or-include-regular-environmental-publications-on-your-website-or-in-your-newsletter/ Thu, 18 Jan 2024 16:27:39 +0000 https://creationcarealliance.org/?p=2474 Suggested Practices and Examples for Implementation:
  • Make a specific section on your website and/or newsletter for creation care or environmental stewardship.
  • Consistently highlight the work your faith community is doing around Creation care and environmental initiatives.
  • Post articles with eco-tips and action items that people can implement at work and home, and encourage them to share personal success stories as they practice these strategies.
    • Write highlight articles about these stories.
  • Find news articles about environmental initiatives in your community.
  • Create a space on your website to list relevant programs or events happening in the community and encourage people to get involved.

General Information Related to this Strategy:

Available Resources in Western North Carolina:

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