by EDOW | Jan 30, 2025
In Greek, the word for creation means fundamentally the act of bringing into existence. In Latin, the word conveys bringing forth something new. Thus, it is an active and intentional process; not random. In Genesis 1:31, God described the creation of the heavens and earth as “very good.”
Creation care is not about focusing on a singular aspect of our world. It is about recognizing how all things are connected. The challenges we face today—rising temperatures, frequent natural disasters, and environmental degradation—urge us to take action.
But the actions we take as individuals may feel insignificant. This is why community is essential. Working together, we can amplify our efforts, share our concerns, and inspire one another. We need to engage with each other in community to make a meaningful impact.
To further that collective engagement, the EDOW Creation Care Committee invites every congregation to participate in an online workshop on energy savings on Tuesday, February 11 from 7:00 – 800 p.m. With our partners at Interfaith Power and Light, this workshop will explore one important way we can all care for creation by reducing energy consumption and promoting sustainability. You can learn more about the project in this article. Use this link to register.
Many of our churches already embody creation care in inspiring ways. We come together during the Season of Creation each fall with a special liturgy of prayer, worship and song. We celebrate Saint Francis of Assisi, who taught us to love all of God’s creation. We feed the hungry, care for the sick, and protect our fragile earth by planting trees and gardens and reducing our carbon footprint. These actions reflect the wonder and beauty of God’s creation, reminding us that nature itself inspires worship and gratitude.
At its core, creation care is about love: love for God, love for one another, and love for the world entrusted to us. As creation stewards, we are called to protect and cherish the earth, ensuring that it remains “very good” for generations to come.
Join us on February 11 as we take our next faithful and practical step in caring for all of creation.
In the words of Fyodor Dostoevsky:
“Love all God’s creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.”
Teresa Hobgood
Church of the Epiphany, D.C.
Member, Creation Care Committee
by Keely Thrall | Jan 10, 2025
EDOW Creation Care Committee will host a zoom workshop on February 11 from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. about how your parish can use a free online benchmarking tool to get energy upgrade recommendations, by entering 12 months of utility bills. The Creation Care Committee, along with trained staff from Interfaith Power and Light (IPL-DMV), will assist if parishes need help entering their data. This online workshop will get you started! Contact the committee at creationcare@edow.org with questions.
Register for the workshop
Email any questions to creationcare@edow.org.
by Keely Thrall | Jan 7, 2025
For all those who connect to God in nature. An outdoor walking worship with singing, contemplative time, prayer, conversation, and communion. Bring your dog and your friends!
by EDOW | Dec 5, 2024
For nearly 20 years, General Conventions of TEC have recognized that human-caused climate change poses an immediate and serious global threat to the world, contrary to our Christian commitment to care for all God’s creation. In 2022 and 2024, the General Conventions of The Episcopal Church (TEC) encouraged dioceses and their parishes to pursue the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2030. Increasing energy efficiency in buildings is one concrete step toward achieving that goal.
Our parishes have a responsibility to ensure that the maintenance and improvement of their buildings are part of the solution to this crisis. A first step parishes can take is to participate in a no-cost, Diocesan-wide, benchmarking study of energy usage that will provide the Diocese and its parishes with personalized energy-usage profiles and energy-upgrade recommendations, leading to reduced energy usage and increased cost savings.
As Deacon Mary Sebold describes, this process is a relatively easy first step. “At St. Dunstan’s, we first replaced all light bulbs in the church with LEDs, and decided to get an energy audit after we had six months of bills with the new lighting. Taking part in this benchmarking project, rather than a full energy audit, is a great first step because it’s less expensive and time consuming, and still gives great results.”
Each participating parish will gather the 12 months of their utility bills for electricity and heating fuel for 2024, and enter them into a web-based tool for measuring facility energy consumption known as the “Better Building Efficiency Targeting Tool” (https://better.lbl.gov), offered at no cost by the U.S. Department of Energy. The more parishes participate, the more accurate these results will be. The EDOW Creation Care Committee, working with staff from Interfaith Power & Light (DC.MD.NoVA), will help parishes enter their data before summer 2025 and interpret the resulting energy-saving reports. IPL-DMV works with hundreds of congregations of all faiths across Maryland, DC, and Northern Virginia to transition to clean energy, learn to go green, speak out for environmental justice, and respond to climate change. Save the date of February 11 for a meeting by zoom to learn more about this process.
A resolution urging all EDOW parishes to participate in this benchmarking study has been submitted for consideration at the January Diocesan Convention by the EDOW Creation Care Committee, with the support of clergy and parishes from around the diocese.
The Rev. Melissa Sites
Chair, Creation Care Committee
