Eco-Justice
As a subcommittee of the Social Action and Mission Board, the mission of the Rock Spring Eco-Justice Committee is to raise awareness of environmental justice issues and to promote better stewardship of earth’s resources both as individuals and as a church.
Green Lent Calendar 2010: Click Here
Upcoming Activities
Earth Sunday April 25, 2010
Join us as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day through our Sunday services and after church Earth Fair.
AFAC Garden!
Back in 2008, the Confirmation Class came up with a great idea to raise fresh vegetables for the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC), and the Eco-justice Committee continues to help with this worthwhile project. AFAC designated our garden a “Plot Against Hunger”, which has produced nearly 100 pounds of fresh produce for AFAC’s clients, annually. We’re looking for volunteers to help tend the garden, harvest the food and deliver it to AFAC. If you can help out, (one week? Split a week with a friend?) we will organize our next AFAC Garden volunteer list later this Spring. Look for announcements in the bulletin and the Rock Spring News. The Committee and Confirmands also encourage any of you home gardeners to Grow a Row in your own garden for AFAC!
Goals
Our goal is “to integrate the care and renewal of creation into the culture and operation of Rock Spring Church.” We call this the “Green Filter.”
Accomplishments:
Rock Spring Church has supported this goal through various actions, including the following:
- Selecting eco-justice and creation care as one of the church’s seven core values in its strategic plan. Education and outreach are important aspects of this.
- Purchasing compostable paper and corn-based plates, serviceware, and cups, for use at coffee hour and other church events.
- Replacing a furnace in the church as well as the entire heating and air-conditioning system for the Hunter Building with more energy-efficient ones.
- Educating all ages in earth stewardship through three Earth Sunday Fairs, an Adult Education course on “Unplugging the Christmas Machine” (Advent 2009), and a multi-generational Christian Education series using the “Green Bible” (Lent 2010).
- Engaging in advocacy efforts against mountain-top removal coal mining and the Wise County Coal Plant in Virginia.
- Joining Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light, which works with congregations of all faiths to “go green, save energy, and respond to climate change.”
Basis:
“Eco-justice arises out of the intersection of ecological and social ethics and operates out of the conviction that restoring wholeness and sanity to our relations with nature depends upon our progress in achieving the right relations among human beings.” —J. Parker
Embracing more sustainable and equitable stewardship of the earth is a demonstration of our call to worship and love God with all our being as well as through our actions, and to recognize and treat God’s creation as sacred. Caring for the earth should be an integral part of all our church’s ministries, and we accept this charge with hope, enthusiasm and joy.
Sermons:
Sermons:
April 23, 2006: From Apocalypse to Genesis by Rev. Dr. Janet L. Parker
April 22, 2007: To Tend and Keep by Rev. Dr. Janet L. Parker
September 30, 2007: The Great Work by Beth Norcross
April 20, 2008: Noah’s Promise by Rev. Dr. Janet L. Parker
September 28, 2008: Shared Treasure by Rev. Dr. Janet L. Parker
September 27, 2009: Blessed Consequences by Rev. Dr. Janet L. Parker
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