Faithful aim to be good stewards
Central Texas congregations hear a godly call to protect the planet
By Eileen E. Flynn
AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Sunday, January 01, 2006

Don't hide your light under a bushel. Especially if it's a high-energy fluorescent bulb.
That's Texas Impact Executive Director Bee Morehead's biblical message — with an ecological spin — to people of faith.

Armed with religious imperatives to be good stewards of the Earth, Morehead is urging congregations to switch to green power, swap out inefficient lighting, caulk windows, install programmable thermostats and other initiatives that will help Texas meet federal air quality standards.

The state must reduce emissions by 30 percent by 2010 or risk losing federal highway funds.
Texas Impact, an interfaith nonprofit group that works on public policy issues, launched the Breath of Life campaign, which asks congregations to sign a commitment not only to adopt pollution-reducing initiatives but to report their actions to the state.

That way, Morehead said, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality can determine where emission reductions are happening.

"It's very important to the state of Texas right now that they know that you did your thing," Morehead said.
Looming deadlines for improving air quality aside, many Central Texas believers have long felt a spiritual obligation to care for God's creation.

Traci Whitney, parish administrator at St. David's Episcopal Church downtown, started the Recycling Guild, now called the Environmental Guild, at the behest of the Rev. David Boyd when he became rector in 2003.
Whitney admits that she initially had little experience — or interest — in recycling, but the project took off immediately, attracting a range of parishioners from young to elderly. They offset the $55 monthly expense of the commercial-size recycling container with bake sales.

Parish leaders then discovered ways to conserve water and energy through city incentive programs, began weekly collections of recyclable items such as reading glasses, cell phones and batteries and replaced plastic foam cups with mugs that parishioners brought from home for the coffee served on Sundays.
The guild, Whitney said, has provided "an avenue for participation and enthusiasm for parishioners to become more active in the parish and has aided our Earth at the same time."

The congregation finds its theological underpinnings on page 370 of the Book of Common Prayer, which includes the passage: "At your command all things came to be: the vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses, and this fragile earth, our island home."

Several Austin congregations have signed up for Austin Energy's Green Choice program, which supports investments in alternative energy sources, as well as other conservation methods such as installing programmable thermostats and retrofitting lights, according to Fred Yebra, director of energy efficiency programs for Austin Energy.

What makes the faithful good stewards of the Earth can also make them good stewards of the church's funds, Yebra said.

Last year, Austin Energy retrofitted lighting at 15 churches, which saved the congregations $30,000 collectively, he said.

Like St. David's, the congregation at St. Martin's Lutheran Church, a West 15th Street sanctuary built in 1960, opted to purchase green power.

The church, which also operates a school, now pays a fixed rate for utilities rather than the fluctuating fuel charges, said Anita Salmon, a St. Martin's trustee.

It has meant a roughly 6 percent increase on the bill for now, but from Salmon's perspective, it's also a "long-term hedge against fluctuating energy costs."

For older sanctuaries, which have high ceilings and drafty stained-glass windows, she added, "wild fluctuations in utilities have a big impact."

Congregation Beth Israel, another Green Choice customer and Austin's largest synagogue, has rallied around recycling and conservation efforts for the past few years, said Rabbi Steven Folberg.

The congregation keeps a large bin for paper recyclables in the parking lot, inviting people in the neighborhood to participate, and a newly forming "green team" is looking into using solar panels at the synagogue.

"I would like us to be a model congregation in that regard," Folberg said. "If we can not only do good stuff here but help to show people what can be done, I'd be very grateful and excited about that."

Folberg, who's known throughout the community for his commitment to the environment, finds inspiration in the Torah and the concept that the covenant God makes with his people "binds us to the legacy of the people who preceded us and to the future of the people who will follow us."

People of all religions can find reason to care for the planet, said Gertrude Miller, an 83-year-old environmentalist who has been known to attend events as Mother Earth.

The Beth Israel member laughs, remembering how she thought she was a pagan when she was a little girl because she loved trees.

But as she learned more about her faith, she realized Judaism cherished trees as well, noting the celebration of Tu B'Shevat, the Jewish arbor day.

"It's not only Judaism: It's all religions," Miller said. "We're all living on the same planet."

eflynn@statesman.com; 445-3812
 

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