Month: April 2016

Giving Back to the Community on Earth Day 2016

Earth Day is April 22nd this year. Many different organizations are getting together with Metro Parks Officials to clean up parks in the Columbus area. This would be a great activity to get you or your entire church community involved in. It would be a great teaching tool and a great way to give back and clean up the surrounding area. For more information on how you can get involved, follow this link.

Photo Credit: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2016/04/14/1-earth-day-inspires-parks-to-organize-cleanup-efforts.html

Engaged Organizations: Jewish Climate Initiative

The Jewish Climate Initiative is an organization that strives to respond to climate change with Jewish ideals. They are focused on ethics, policy, and science. To check out all that they are doing, you can find their website here.

Photo Credit: http://hazon.org/high-tech-spirituality-and-the-environment-in-israel/

Teva Day School

Teva is a program that was founded by and supported by Hazon. Teva provides outreach to people of Jewish faith and teaches children about their faith and the environment. To read more about Teva, or find a day camp to attend, check out their website here.

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Photo Credit: http://hazon.org/teva/

Activism by Jewish Women

Judith Belasco

Photo Credit: http://jwa.org/discover/throughtheyear /january/environment

The Jewish faith is, like many other faiths, becoming more and more environmentally conscious each and every day. One of the biggest reasons for this change is because of leaders and individuals in a faith community. In the Jewish community, many women have stepped up in a number of different ways to pave a path towards sustainability. To read about these women and what they have accomplish, click here.

 

Renewal Project

Renewal Project is an excellent resource and gateway to finding new material and success stories when it comes to religion as the environment. You can easily find their homepage here, or check out a preview video on the organization below.

Video Credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXhFndUwjAI

Kentucky Nuns

The Sisters of Loretto have been involved in social movements and justice for a long time. It’s not surprising to hear that in recent history, they were involved in stopping a Kentucky pipeline. The construction of the pipeline, as well as the route it took, would have caused potentially massive amounts of pollution and damage to the earth. As stewards of the earth, they saw it as their job to protect the planet. To read more about this story, click here. Or, check out the video below.

Video Credit: https://youtu.be/UQY5NrvnLNw

Engaged Organizations: National Religious Partnership for the Environment

Photo Credit: http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/ explorations/topics/climate-change/websites-organizations

This is a network of 4 major religious coalitions. They seek to preserve the planet by providing outlets and resources for anyone and everyone. To check out this excellent resource, follow this link to their homepage.

 

The Ministerium of Ideas

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Photo Credit: http://ministeriumofideas.org/

The Ministerium of Ideas is an interfaith group of church leaders from various churches all around Columbus. They gather to discuss various ideas and intellectual thought, with a focus on religion, issues, and philosophy. To check out some of their topics of discussion, click here. If you are especially interested, they will be having a meeting on climate change on Tuesday, April 19th from Noon – 1:30 at the Newman Center.

 

Technology for the Poor

Technology for the poor is a non profit organization that seeks to provide technological advancements to all poor people throughout the world. This group has helped to develop and distribute technologies such as a bicycle with a pedal power attachment and low cost construction techniques. To see all that they have done, check out their website here. you can also take a look at some of the innovations that the group has helped to develop, promote, and supply in the video below.

Video Credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7cpVWCBi_qE

Engaged Organizations: Earth Charter Initiative

Earth Charter

Photo Credit: http://earthcharter.org/

The earth charter initiative was created to help engage communities on sustainability all around the world. This includes engaging religious communities. For an excellent resource with numerous success stories, check out their homepage here.